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"The pressure is on to have some place to plant them!"

Happy for your progress! We are stuck in a rainy patch again, so not much is getting done outside this week. But we desperately need the rain.

My flat of Dahlia from seed FINALLY sprouted, so they're going to the greenhouse, today. Using bins and boxes to cover things up overnight seems to be keeping the mice at bay. Jinx! The peanut butter traps will help, too. It just occurred to me that I've had PUPPIES playing and napping in there for the past six years and mice have not been a problem until THIS Spring with NO puppies, so I'm seeing a pattern, here. Duh. While the Puppies' are away, the Mice will play! I passed on 'Kelvin' this season for 'Creme de Casis:'

I found sage, French thyme, lovage & lemon verbena today - the last two aren't always easy to find. My lavender is taking off & growing like crazy, even in its little pot. Here's the gang, sitting on the potting bench in front of the garage window ... raised bed visible outside.

We bought 4 "Little Missy" boxwoods today for the front of the house. I looked them up before we bought them - great description:

When you want one of the best boxwoods, be smart! Buxus ‘Little Missy’ is one of the most popular and beautiful boxwoods. Small leaves, a rounded, dense habit, and glossy, dark green foliage make it unique. It consistently ranked high in resistance to Boxwood Blight in a 2020 USDA analysis, making it a smart choice in any landscape to create structure and style!

A couple walking nearby heard me talking to mom about them - they piped up & said they had the Little Missy boxwoods & loved them, gave us some feedback from their actual experience, so we feel good about our purchase. Now I just have to plant them .... my back hurts just looking at them. I figure one a day or every other day will be the best I can do - they have to be planted & mulched by May 2nd when mom has 2 carloads of friends coming to visit (7-9 ladies). I get to do all the cooking for that event, too. :-)

In the meanwhile, I have 5 raised beds to fill ....

I managed to haul a load of mulch at the last minute today. The Farm Bureau closes at 6 & it was 5:15 when I left the house. I wanted another tarp to cover the mulch & the only one left was on the ground in the barn lean-to that I had my last pile of mulch on until I used it up last fall.

I grabbed the tarp edge & lifted it up to pull it out - something was sort of hanging so I grabbed it & pulled it off (bare-handed- dumb move) - felt ‘webby’ as in spider web webby. Then I saw her a couple of inches away - a black widow spider ... yikes! I dropped the tarp but flipped it so the underside & madam spider were visible, then crushed her with my shoe. At that point, it was forget the tarp - will have to pull it out carefully & with leather gloves when I have time to de-spider it.

I drove home at 30 mph to blow as little mulch as possible out of the trailer - drove the PU truck & line of cars behind that crazy, I’m sure. The truck roared past when I turned off at my driveway.

I got a Creme de Cassis & a 4-pack of Jalafuego jalapeños, plus a new sprayer at Walmart a little while ago.

Very hot unless in the shade today & all my work sites are sunny, unless I plant another boxwood (no energy for that). I think I figured out the raised bed configuration, but won’t know for sure until the 2 cedar beds are in place.