Flowers everywhere

Happy Monday!

The sun is shining, the humidity is moderate, and the flowers are blooming. I’ve weeded, moved a dozen plants or so, trimmed some lilacs and boxwoods, and I didn’t have to water because it rained yesterday.

The Azaleas are almost done, the Peonies are doing great, and the Knockout roses are just starting.

I wanted to plant carrots again this year for the Mounted Patrol horses, and I ran across a post by the Laidback Gardener that had instructions on how to pre-sprout the carrot seeds. I gave it a try, and it worked! The only thing I did differently was to use a spray bottle instead of pouring the hot water over the seeds which kept them from being washed off the paper towel. Once they sprouted, I planted them in two grow bags as well as in between my tomato plants. They are up and growing.

Did you know Pollinator Week is June 17-23?

Well, it is, so tomorrow I’m working at our new MG butterfly garden which is still holding its own since three groundhogs were relocated. I left two plants uncovered, and if they are still standing tomorrow, I’ll take the covers off everything.

Last Saturday, I finished the insect hotel my husband and I put together for the pollinator garden from scrap wood from the recycling center. Repurpose, reuse, recycle – it’s a good thing.

It’s an eclectic all natural piece that includes a stump and four branches that I pulled off the trash pile. My husband drilled a variety of holes varying from 3/8 – 5/8″ in the branches, I added some bamboo and pine cones. We had an old piece of tin that we put on as a roof with a flair and voilà solitary bees can now find a resting spot.

If you have ever thought about creating your own insect hotel, here’s a good link for further information.

Remember when I was bemoaning the loss of the WordPress spellchecker, and a wonderful blogging friend suggested Grammarly? I installed it, and I loved it. It was perfect. Well, almost perfect until I started having major computer issues of all types last week. After hours of researching and trying everything I could come up with, I took myself off to the home-town computer store where they ran diagnostics and couldn’t find anything wrong with the computer. After more problems and more research, I decided to disable Grammarly and see if there was any difference. The good news was the computer was working at its former speed with no errors or locking me out of programs, the bad news was I lost my spell and grammar check again. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to do a little more proofreading.

Now, I’m off to start a small sewing project. The projects that look small usually end up taking the most time.

I also think I need to whip up some sugar cookies. Which first – sugar cookies or sewing? Sugar cookies win out every time. 🙂

Happy mid June to all of you.

Here’s a bouquet of flowers from me to you, and I’m hoping life is treating you well.