Getting there

Here it is, nearly 1AM again and so much for my getting to bed earlier.  Today was a busy one again, with bath and haircuts for the dogs, which took two hours, and then laundry which should have been done on Monday, but since I washed last week on Thursday, I decided I could wait one more day.  It's nice to have it dry and back in the house.

Handsome Teddy with one of his toys

Hard to see her here, but there's pretty Pudding all curled up on the pillow---just like the Princess and the Pea.

Around one o'clock, Mom arrived and helped me deadhead the hostas.  We started on the east side of the yard..

I figured just stick with one garden until it's done instead of my usual GADing here and there.d

Ann came out after work and hauled and placed mulch again on the areas we missed the first time around, and helped me deadhead and weed just before dark.  There are so many weeds are out there, it's probably due to the rain.  I didn't apply Preen to all of the areas either, which is an oversight on my part, seeing as how I found two buckets of it in the garage.  I will put some down now and see if it helps.

It is truly amazing how many flower stalks some of the hostas have.....doing a random count, most have around 25 to deal with but one plant had 63!  I wore gloves today, as always, and resorted to simply using my hands to break the stems down low and remove them. I knew my hand was getting sore, but didn't realize til I came in for supper tonight that I had a blister which had burst on the middle finger of my right hand over an inch long from deadheading.  Oops.  We didn't get in until 9:45PM, and none of us could believe it was that late already.

I still have about half of the hostas in front of the house to deadhead yet, but tomorrow morning, I will use a pruning shears.

Mom left around six pm to go take her laundry off of the line and to be in time for 'Wheel of Fortune'.    We had a visitor tonight, Ann's sister, Eileen stopped in and even pitched in with the deadheading for me.  How very, very nice of her! 

                           Joel mowed the lawn for me tonight, which always adds so much to the look of the beds.  I think my favorite time in the garden is around dusk, for everything takes on a golden hue.  After mowing, Joel sprayed for the mosquitoes for me which I am so grateful for...I wasn't sure how to handle this chore, and gladly helped him haul the hoses around.  I sure hope the spray works eventually, for there are so many of them!

The echinaceas are blooming beautifully, too, this is, I think 'Double Decker' and something 'Meringue'. 

My good friend, Julie, often brings home plants from her church that parishioners discard after Easter or other holidays...this was a discard from our church several years ago that never fails to bloom.

 Well, time to get some sleep...tomorrow morning will come all too early and I hope I can get half of what needs doing done.  If I don't, well, the tourees are all gardeners, so they will cut me some slack!

Karen