Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Yardening Spring 2013, 1 by speediebean

speediebean wrote:
It's really strange, huh? Neither one of them (the baby at work, or the bigger one at my house) looked chewed-on or anything, (like, maybe a cat had gotten it), ... if a cat did it, I don't think it would leave the critter right outside its front door..?? We have a few 'roaming cats' in my neighborhood, and one that lives at work, so that's a common denominator, but they way/where they were found is just so odd, and they both were deader'n a door-nail. Oh well, I was just wondering if there was something going on around here that I should be on the look-out for, chemical-wise or.. who knows what! Thank you Sally, for clarifying for me what the heck that thing was! =)

Meanwhile, since it is Spring and all, I got to play outside in the dirt all day yesterday until the rain chased me back into the house again. Got about a hundred little bedding plants installed, and ooooodles of Irises. On Friday, this lovely couple came in to the nursery for trees... as it turns out, the trees were intended to replace a BUNCH of Irises, which they intended to just yank out and toss into the woods. YIKES! Before my brain could engage, I'd blurted out, "Oh, I'll take 'em, give 'em to me!!". What in the WORLD was I thinking!?!? Sure enough, the next morning that Darling Husband showed up at work with about a zillion Iris plants, filled about half the bed of my truck. Well, now they fill quite a bit of space along the back of both of my beds, on either side of the porch. Wheeeeee!!!!!! Was that a SUPER NICE thing that they did or what?!!? Now, I'm new to Iris growing, so I've posted about them in the "Iris" forum (in case anyone has any helpful hints or tips for me). =) All I know about these ones is that the blooms are yellow, I have no idea what variety they are. I've got 'em in a mostly-sunny spot, under an over-hang. Roots are covered, rhizomes are mostly NOT covered. No mulch. I've been told by one of our loving members that they would probably benefit from a hair-cut, so I'll get out there and do that when it's not raining buckets. (I've already watched several youtube videos on how to do it). ;)

So, I moved a couple Mums to a new spot yesterday, installed all the Begonias and Tulips, filled that water pump planter with Petunias and Verbena, installed all the Irises, and now I can't wait to see how everything fills out! =)

Meanwhile, all the stuff in the containers out back are flourishing like crazy, and one Hosta is really going to need to be divided into 2 containers, it's HUGE... for its pot. The Columbines have pretty little faces, and the Clematis(es?) are crawling all over their little trellises.