Planting time

I'm definitely ready to get my hands back in the garden. I miss the grounding of checking plants, cleaning up beds, and sowing seeds after a couple of weeks of having my attention required elsewhere.

This perennial border appreciated Tropical Storm Fay's moisture a few weeks ago.
Three flats of native perennials are waiting to be planted. They're from a family-owned local native plant nursery (Carolina Wild) and are destined for the pollinator garden next to the Nature Center and in the front meadow at home. The nursery proprietors, both young and knowledgeable, grow an excellent selection of plants from locally-collected seeds and cuttings, most of which are difficult (if not impossible) to find unless you grow them yourself. I had pre-ordered a selection before her Garden program on Friday, but couldn't resist adding quite a few more.

I also have lettuce, chard, mustard, kale, and other greens to sow in the main vegetable garden (not to mention cleaning up the remnants of beans, squash, and cucumbers). It may be a bit late for some of them, but maybe frost will come late this year. And there are beds to prepare for the garlic and onion sets to plant towards the end of the month.

In the meantime, there are tomatoes, peppers, lagenaria and tromboncino squash to harvest, all pretty remarkable given how dry it is (and I had forgotten to leave watering instructions for my gardening companion while I was away).

We saw a hummingbird visiting the Mexican bush sage in early evening, monarchs nectaring on the butterfly bush, and the Japanese persimmons on the small tree that we transplanted from our first house have turned orange.