Rainy days and gardening...

 Grandma Van's deep maroon heirloom peonies--my favorite peony of all!

Carl just told me this morning, "Never complain about the weather," so I won't.  It could be worse, that much is true.  When it's not raining, at least the cool temperatures are easy to work in, though I could do without soggy knees from kneeling to weed and damp clothes all day long.  (Getting close to complaining...better stop!)

To say we have gotten a whole lot accomplished would be a lie, though I finally have most of the annuals in.  Every single bed still needs some sort of attention, from finishing weeding to edging to mulch, but we're getting a little closer.

Thursday I putzed with whatever I could do depending on if it was drizzling or not.  Friday was a complete wash---we received another 1 1/4" of rain and it came down HARD at times.  I hauled all the potted plants back into the garage again, at least I can control the amount of moisture they are getting.  I am rather pleased to say the annuals aren't doing too badly yet, the rain seems to be keeping them going, though I am noticing some yellowing of the 'Avalanche' petunias.  I transplanted dozens of 'Indian Summer' rudbeckias that had come up from seed all over the garden to the Pachyberm and the East berm; they normally wilt immediately after transplanting, but most of them look really good now, I guess the rain is like an IV, giving them a constant supply of moisture.

Saturday wasn't too rainy, at least not all the time, so we decided to try to finish one project at least.  We need to work on two major overhaul projects:  the lawn by the Pachyberm, but since that's a swamp right now, the only place that is dry enough left to work on is by the shop up in the driveway where we sawed down the big spruce trees.

 We had to finish removing the hostas that were planted in this area--many of them were infested with 'Snow on the Mountain' or 'Bishop's Weed'--I could look online for the proper botanical name (we call it the #*&% weed!) of this so-called groundcover, but it's the tall, pale green variegated leafy plant that loves to travel around the yard. I was given a hosta years and years ago that had a small piece of Bishop's Weed in it, but I thought, oh, just pull it out and all will be fine.  Wrong.  At our last hosta meeting in April, our guest speaker said, "Sometimes the most expensive plants are the free ones someone else gives you".  He's right; whenever someone offers to give you a plant with the following statement: "You couldn't kill this one if you tried!" take heed, they mean it and unless you love the plant, you will be spending the rest of your gardening life trying to kill it!!

It is not raining right now, and I have a bridal shower to attend at noon, so I'm going to get some work done and post more later.