Geranium Pay-Back

Just some garden photos today, since that's where I spent most of the morning yesterday. This is one of the geraniums that I wrestle with over winter, dragging it in and out of the house as the temperature demands. It does reward us with some beautiful little flowers, doesn't it?

Here's another geranium. I suppose I could simply bring them indoors and leave them in all winter, but I tend to think they do better outside, except when temperatures dip below freezing.

Speaking of which, Dave scared me to death yesterday by reading an article that said our temps were supposed to fall below freezing next week. "The coldest May in 25 years," he said. I was inwardly screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" But I'm not sure what he was reading, because our forecasts don't predict anything colder than high 40's (F) at night, which is chilly but not that crazy. He was probably seeing an article about UK weather in general, which means the coldest temperatures are up in northern Scotland or in the mountains.

Anyway, yes, I spent the morning in the garden. I took out a ton of creeping buttercup, which seems to have taken over following our weed-permissive summer last year. I also removed dock, an equally pernicious weed, and cut out the persistent blackberry vines that tend to sprout in places we don't want them. We're going to be wildlife- and insect-friendly again this year, but with a bit more control.

I also mowed the lawn. You might remember that last year we did "No-Mow May," in which we didn't mow for a month. But I think this year we'll keep mowing. We have enough wild areas in our garden to foster wildlife and I found that the grass suffered in areas we didn't mow last year. (Granted, that was in places we didn't mow all summer -- not just in May.) I mowed around a few clumps of forget-me-nots and daisies, so we have some flowers in the lawn.

In summary, the garden theme this year is loose control, as opposed to no control.

Here's something I'm leaving wherever I find it -- the humble dandelion. They are terrific for bees, particularly early in the season when other flowers are not yet blooming.

Besides, I like them. I try to think of them as just another ornamental garden plant.

I noticed that some of the dahlias are finally sending up tiny sprouts.

And the honesty is still blooming away, and already forming its telltale windowpane seed pods. Honestly (see what I did there?) this may be one of my favorite plants.

It sounds like the new comment format is working better for everyone. What a relief! I'm glad we were able to work around Blogger's temperamental changes. By the way, as some of you suggested, I looked in my comment spam folder and I found dozens of perfectly worthwhile comments dating back to January! Clearly there have been gremlins in the machine for a while. So I've published those as well.