That sickening, sweet smell.

That's how the customer from Maryland described the odor he and his wife were smelling "on the back roads around here." The culprit is Chinese privet. It's an invasive species that grows wild everywhere, including my own backyard. At the corner, just beyond the red dogwood tree, there's a huge specimen.



Down the street, the butcher with the BushHog took out native Sweetshrub and Mock Orange, but left the privet.



And the honeysuckle.



In my own yard, Ligustrum howardii is about to bloom. The fragrance and flowers are very similar. I'll deadhead my plants once they've bloomed to keep them from reseeding.



The colors in the garden this time of year tend to be more pastel and muted. Pink, blue, and white dominate.



I didn't really plan much of this. It was more an effort of plunking and running with wintersown containers and the scattering of seeds.



Nigella has bloomed in many parts of the perennial bed. Dianthus Pinks Maiden join the chorus.



The cool colors are welcome at 79 degrees. It's not even 10am yet.



In the background, the freshly mowed path produces its own fragrance.



It's sunny and humid. The high today should reach 84. Dragging hoses and moving the sprinkler will take up the rest of the 2 hours I have before work. Still no rain in near forecast.

More planting out.

Pineapple sage
Rudbeckia Prairie Sun
Achillea Summer Pastels
Culver's root
Pink Obedient plant
Four kinds of sunflowers
Monarda - annual and perennial
Sage
Milkweeds

and plenty more. From this



To this



Maybe 200 holes dug this morning going through 2 full charges on the cordless drill. The remainders are either too small or their locations aren't decided. I'll get around to them.

A bicolor California poppy has opened near the street.



The Mountain Bluet is going to seed. I scattered five seed heads around the backyard in beds that need early blooms.



Red hot poker.



Dianthus. It just glows in the garden on cloudy days.



A single white gerber daisy survived the winter.



Today's been just about perfect for working in the yard. It's 79 degrees. Mostly it's been overcast with a breeze. There is some humidity in the air, but it's tolerable. The first mosquito bites are itching.

From Sunday afternoon.

I took a quick stroll around the yard when I returned home Sunday. My nap lasted until morning.

Foxglove. The yellow turned purple.



Dianthus planted in the window boxes last fall, planted in the garden in late February.



Confederate Jasmine on the chimney trellis.



Wintersown in 2008, Blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium montanum) is blooming this year.



Clearance plants. I started a new bed. Castor beans have been sown behind. Euphorbia "Blackbird", Yucca "Yellow Stripe", and eventually a few sedums will be used here. These are drought tolerant plants for an area that stays dry most of the year. It's hot and sunny all afternoon.



Self-sown Pineapple sage. I checked a leaf for the fragrance. Three of my plants from last year have returned nearby at the end of the driveway.



It's 73 degrees and humid. There's rain in the forecast today after 8am. Scattered thunderstorms are possible. I'm hoping it rains all day.

Returning.

The perennial bed was my main focus last spring. Most of the wintersown plants went into this bed. I also grew a great number of annuals like melampodium, zinnias, petunias, salvias, and cleome. Already, after a few days in the low 90s, there are blooms in the perennial bed. Many more will be coming along shortly.



Red Valerian, or Jupiter's Beard, is about to bloom. One comment I read about this plant says it's best suited where chaos is desirable. Let chaos rule.



Clearance dianthus are blooming. These were purchased for a song last fall and used in the window boxes until Thanksgiving. I planted them out in the garden along with pansies and violas.







The purple columbine is heavily budded. I've waited a whole year to see these bloom.



Small white bell-shaped flowers stand atop these plants. I don't know the name. I moved some from a neighbor's yard in mid winter this year.



The canna found in the lawn last summer has returned. Must be a cold hardy type. I hope it blooms.



The ferns transplanted last week are growing.



Perilla seedlings. I made a huge mistake.



In the backyard, a dark leafed weigela is budding. The other three I have are a little behind this one. It gets more sun.



Spirea. This was the first plant I moved to the shrub island I built in June 2009. I took cuttings this spring. None seem to have survived. I'll take more later.



More hosta have popped in the North Bed. I was planning to reorganize these before they grew too large. I don't want to disturb them now. Maybe I'll do it next year. I have lots of wintersown babies up in three containers in the driveway.



It's 39 degrees. I moved my tomato seedlings indoors last night before dark. I set out the water sprinkler in the perennial bed, just in case of frost. There seems to be none with the relative humidity so low. The sky is starting to turn. There's a thin sliver of the crescent moon through the trees in the backyard. The high today will reach the mid 70s. It's going to be chilly for a bit this morning.

The circle bed.

It's part of the perennial bed along the driveway. I finished the path a month or more ago giving me a view from all sides.



It was my intention this morning to head out and completely revamp this bed. I've got some perennials that I want to divide and move, but once in the yard, it was impossible to decide what to keep and what to toss.

There are wintersown Columbine that haven't bloomed yet.



Self-sown Mountain Bluet and diathus that are blooming again after being wintersown in December.



Seedlings of larkspur are popping up all over. I scattered a lot of these back in October from a package sent to me by Janie, the obsessive/compulsive plant collector.



Tiny cleome are also popping up. Will they survive the winter? I'm not sure.



Wintersown sea hollies are putting out new basal growth too. One plant bloomed, but it wasn't in this bed.



Wintersown irises and daylilies probably wouldn't survive the move at this point either.



The July blooming foxglove seems happy where it is in partial shade.



A mum, bloody dock, red spider lilies, and Golden Jubilee seedlings. Could I really move these with winter coming soon? I can't take the chance.



There's also tons of spring bulbs in this bed. Daffodils, hyacinths, muscari, and irises would probably be destroyed in the process. I've got Stargazer lilies in there, too. I would be heartbroken to dig one of those up. Crimson clover has germinated and should create a sea of red blooms in the spring. And who can blame me for not redoing this bed today? It's starting to drizzle and the bees are still asleep.



Instead, I potted a couple of really cheap clearance plants into the coleus container from the front porch. I amended the soil, removed all the summer plants, and brought it inside.



It's not what I had planned to do this morning, but I'll survive. More importantly, so will my plants. I'm still going to head out and divide a clump of Full Moon Coreopsis and Dame's rocket for the circle bed. It's 55 degrees, dark, dreary, and trying to rain.

Potting up, planting out, and things that bloom.

It's Sunday. Another month and I can create the full year of pictures. The circle bed feels very empty without the Thundercloud Plum.



Oh, what to plant here?



Some pictures were taken yesterday. Like the dianthus pinks maiden that are blooming again.



The "orange" rose.



Mountain bluet



And a camellia. I thought this was C. japonica, but it's got to be sasanqua, right? Where's Nell?



I planted a few plugs of Little Bluestem in the meadow garden. I hope it does take over.



7 lantana cuttings got potted this morning.



Two white, 5 Miss Huff. I'm starting to think the seeds I got were mislabeled. Miss Huff is supposed to be sterile. So maybe this isn't Miss Huff after all, but another lantana. That's fine. I like the flowers.



I've spread some broken bags of mulch on the rear bed where I pulled out ivy yesterday, half price and all. I'll spend most of the day today raking leaves in Larry's yard and shredding them. I'll be mulching the north beds where hosta, ferns, and cherry laurels live. I'll scatter a little here and there around the house too. I think I may just use the lawnmower to collect them into rows. There's a LOT of leaves out there in his yard.

It's 48 degrees with a high of 78 in the forecast. A bagel and coffee before heading out.

1:13pm - I've collected and bagged 3 sacks of leaves from Larry's yard. The sack is a queen sized bed sheet folded in half and sewn together. I put one against the stone wall on the north side of the house. The other two were spread in the back yard behind the upper potager and over the mulch I spread this morning. I just think it's more consistent looking.



While cutting the grass (mulching leaves), I noticed that I have defined edges. I like edges.





The high has been raised to 84 degrees. It's 72 and sunny.