DELIGHTFUL!

This is the 5th Double Delight I've planted over the years...but who's counting! My new garden wouldn't be complete without it! Did I mention that I love fragrant roses? Yeah, if it doesn't "smell" I usually don't go for it. That's true for most flowers, but especially roses.
The only downside is that I know that FRAGRANCE is a recessive gene is roses...so if you get smell you also get a plant less resistant to fungal diseases like Black Spot. Bummer. All you can do is try for good air circulation and keep things well groomed to lessen the impact of the annoying condition that makes the leave go all wonky with yellow and black blotches.
But as Scarlett (O'Hara) said, "Ah won't think about that today...I'll go crazy if ah do...I'll think about that tomarrah!"
Meanwhile I wish you could have a whiff of this beauty in first flush!

ROCKY DAY

I recently bought some Cactus Mix for potting up some succulents...I thought it would be great for them. And it was....but it was not so good for a certain Terrier named Chase who evidently found it irresistible.
Mainly the mix is pumice, little rocks, perlite, sand & worm castings (worm poop). See scoop below.
So while I was busy watering and generally messing about in the garden one morning, the dog was out helping himself to this stuff..
Later in the day he started acting funny and during the night he barfed up something. I of course stepped in it with bare feet the next morning, on my way to the kitchen for the first cuppa coffee. Lovely, I thought but sorta weird and sharp on the foot. What?
I took care of it, I thought, with a paper towel and had coffee. Then Chase barfed up some more, this time you could see the little rocks. I must have cleaned up about a teaspoon of them off the carpet. He was clearly very uncomfortable and a trip outside to the lawn yielded several results...all with little rocks in them.

What have we learned from this?
Dogs will eat anything (I once had a hound that ate batteries and lived)
A dog who eats rocks is gonna have a problem with both ends
I vacuumed up another bunch of rocks so I guess he must have eaten at least a tablespoon of the stuff...maybe two!
Worm poop is even better than cat poop as far as Chase is concerned but has much more dire results.

GOING GREENS

 I picked the last of the spring spinach and chard...a full basket yields enough for 2 people as a side dish, sauted with a bit o bacon and olive oil.

Served with an oil & vinegar plus a bit of sweetener and some hard cooked egg on the top makes a good lunch

RADIATOR TONIC?

This is my liquid seaweed fertilizer. It makes me feel good to give the transplants a drink when they are newly planted. Can't hurt and maybe it's a nice tonic.
However, maybe not as good for cars!
Mr. A clutched up one of my watering cans the other day and headed out before I saw what he was doing. I found him adding "water" to the Subaru Brat's radiator. Luckily it didn't need much! Oops!
What he didn't realize is that I keep my watering cans loaded with a fertilizer blend and not just plain water.
So if the Brat gets bigger or sprouts an extra fender, we'll know that Maxicrop really works!

THONG UP!

TOO CUTE! 
A showy cluster of silver beads adorn a silver metallic strap with a padded suede footbed by Aerosoles. Spotted these cuties at TJ Maxx the other day and had to have 'em! Just the thing for apres dance evening when your tootsies are too swollen to fit into your regular shoes...and budget friendly at only $19.99.
I knew the weather was gonna warm up enough to wear 'em this weekend!
 I give these a "10" for fun and hot weather comfort!

GOT TARPS?

This is what you have to do when you plant warm weather crops before the warm weather! You must have plenty of blankets and tarps to keep things toasty when nighttime temps are in the low 40's or lower. Being at 1900' also makes the forecast low temp for the valley too high for the foothills...I have to subtract 3-4 degrees off the predicted low this time of year, so when the weather guesser says, "A low of 40 tonite," that means mid 30's up here in the hills. So we must get through the next week during the full moon when it's the coldest and then we'll be okay.

SPIGOTY SPIGOTY DOO!

Gardens need water and gardeners need a convenient place to get the water. Seems simple enough but these days plumbers refuse to extend household water lines out into the yard due to their overriding concern for "freeze protection." "Oh no, we can't be doing that 'cause it will freeze up!" they say. So it was up to my undergardener to figure out a hose spigot actually somewhere IN the garden. Without hideous trenching and crawling under the house, he just used a 50' hose from a house spigot out to the corner of the garden. He attached the hose to a pipe using a coupling and a quick disconnect so we could disconnect the hose and drain the pipe in the winter. The pipe is attached to a raised bed and has a nice valve at the top. Works well and now I don't have to haul watering cans from the house to the garden! That's why I keep him around... and besides, he does a mean tango!