End-of-Season Sales, Mulching a Path, Bluestone Perennials, Caterpillars

Blossom's Garden Center is having their end-of-the season sale Thursday - tomorrow. Go grab some bargains to complete your garden.

As the beds in the back yard have grown and the shrubs have expanded, it was becoming a challenge to get in between things. Three weeks ago my garden column was on covering a patch of weeds with newspaper and then topping it with mulch. The photo on the left is the end result. One less slice of the back yard has to be mowed.






Bluestone Perennials website has an easy to use online catalog where you can browse their half-off everything sale.



The front of the bed in the photo is lined with Nepeta Walker's Low from Bluestone.This year I ordered several dozen plants from Bluestone - for my garden and for a few friends. One type of plant arrived looking less than desirable and they replaced it. Everything from them has taken root and thrived so far. So, I'm impressed.

Here's the progress report on the tiny Spicebush Butterfly Caterpillar found on what else? the Spicebush. In the first photo I put up he was brown, tiny. Now, look at it. Six more leaves have chew lines and are folded over. Inside each damaged leaf there is a pencil line of a tiny, brown caterpillar.



If the rains stops and we get some sun, the tomatoes and blackberries will have a chance to ripen. In the meantime, the snow pea vines are producing a month later than usual - a great bonus for the rainy weather.

Spicebush Butterfly Caterpillar

The daylily pictured came with us when we moved from the west coast to Oklahoma and has bloomed reliably every year no matter what weather Mother Nature provides.

This little guy or gal spicebush swallowtail butterfly caterpillar was on a spice bush I just bought in order to attract spicebush butterflies.

You have to be amazed by their finding the plant within a few weeks after its arrival. And, by the way, what a strange looking little thing with the eye markings. Double click to see more detail.

We had almost an inch of rain, thankfully. All those seedlings for the garden tour sale are getting the right stuff for June 9th. The lavender flower is a pole bean I bought from an Italian seed company. I'm not impressed by their germination rate - about 50% in our garden. We shall see how they produce. In the meantime the flowers are very pretty moving up the trellis.

The poppies are already making their seed heads for next year, the blackberries continue to make hundreds of flowers a day, new flowers bloom every day.

I planted several bulbs from Old House Gardens that were new to me and one or two have bloomed proving that adding new plants is a good thing for renewing one's interest in gardening.

Also, have to confess to buying arum from the Brent and Becky's Bulb's 50% off sale today. Some things are too good a deal to pass up.

Hope your gardens are bursting with excitement, too.