Weeds

This is my last 6-day week of the year. Starting next week I can start to try to get my garden in shape- I do have two different people who help me weed but things are still out of hand. Hopefully, I can take advantage of the long weekend we are going to have by trying to get my blueberries, currants, gooseberries in shape and also start to weed everything else. Witch grass is my worst weed although I also have one patch of chrysanthemum weed and a big patch of goutweed(which I call evilweed). Deer are also becoming a problem as the Dana's two remaining dogs are now quite ole and are no longer doing their thing.

Honeyberries

Lonicera aerulea var. edulis is very hardy and they taste pretty good. They look sort of like elongated blueberries- when they turn blue you need to wait a few days till you eat them- otherwise they have an unpleasant bitterness. The shrub itself is neat, dense and compact- my tallest one is now six feet tall. Apparently you need two different cultivars to cross pollinate to get fruit. Birds love them as they are my first fruit so this year is the first year I netted them and the first year I got lots of fruit. They are so loaded with berries that the blue is noticable.

Lilac Tea Over

I still haven't completely recovered from our "Lilac Tea"--it went very well and now that it's over, the orange poppies are now in bloom every where in my gardens : the purple of the lilacs goes well with the orange. My Iris is at its peak now-- all my old fashioned varieties which I have been saving for the last 20 years. I have most of my vegetables planted-- all I need to do now is mow (the grass is growing very fast this year) and weed (the weeds, as always, are doing very well.

Lilac Tea

Our annual Lilac Tea is coming right up- it's this Sunday at 4:00. Right now I'm concentrating my gardening efforts on cutting down all dead lilacs and cutting out all the dead twigs. Also, I have to mow everything again before Sunday: tonight and tomorrow night. I have to do some more cooking- I'm planning to make gooseberry squares tonight and tomorrow night and make ice tea and cook the rhubarb for our rhubarb punch. We have the music lined up- Sue Cole playing Irish tunes on the flute and at 5:00, we're having a demonstration of Scottish Country Dancing. The lilacs look like they will be at their peak this weekend.

Garden Party Over

Our annual Daffodil garden party was this past Sunday: it was cold, rainy and about a dozen varieties of daffodils were blooming. However, the Galathus was still in bloom in spots, Chionodoxa and Scilla were in full bloom and some conventional Hyacinths were blooming. The Forsythia were starting to bloom and the Merrill Magnolias also. More people took hot tea than ice tea. Now we're gearing up for the "Lilac Tea"

Garden Open Tomorrow

My annual daffodil walk is tomorrow at 4:00 pm no matter how bad it is. I do have 8 varieties in blossom (barely): Unsurpassable, Gigantic Star, telemonius 'Plena' or Van Sion, Serola, February Gold, Peeping Tom and Rapture and 1 other but I don't remember which. My three varieties of Galanthus are still in bloom, if a little tired. Scilla and Chionodoxa and bloodroot are going strong. The 'Merrill' magnolias and Forsythia are just coming into bloom (I wish they were in full bloom: at their peak but you can't have everything.

Daffodil Walk

I finally have one daffodil blooming- it's one of the cyclamineus group- either 'Peeping Tom' or 'February Gold'- these are the daffodils which look like they are in wind tunnel with the perianth segments pointing backwards. Hopefully more will soon be in bloom. It is too late to change the date or cancel the event. I hope it is successful.