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I made lots of work for myself today!

The young landscaper that’s being mentored by the retiring landscaper had their Fall plant sale today. No pre-orders, and limited quantities of several native perennials. Lowest prices in town. I was warned to show up before the gates open, or I might miss out! I arrived about 15 minutes before the gates opened, and there was already a LONG LINE to get in. Probably about 40 people in front of me!

Lucky me, though. I walked away with 16 one-gallon plants, and 4 three-gallon shrubs! I have picked out spots for each of them already, and have them placed. I will be trying to get some planted tomorrow, more on Sunday, but there are a few that I want the landscaper to advise if my placement plan looks good.

It’s hard to turn down a $10 perennial that’s native and hard to find. If I have to pay the boys to help us get them all planted, I’ll do that. The water feature will be started sometime next week. I hope they start Monday, but I don’t really know what their schedule is.

Anyway, the plant sale was so much fun! Gardening people are some of the nicest people, and generally helpful and happy. I attribute that to a love of “earthing” or “grounding”.

These are the things I came home with:
1. ‘Double Play Candy Corn’ Spirea
2. ‘Iron Butterfly’ Threadleaf Ironweed
3. ‘Berry Poppins’ Winterberry
4. ‘Mr. Poppins’ Winterberry
5. ‘Midnight Sun’ dwarf Weigela
6. ‘Blue Fortune’ Agastache
7. ‘Little Pye’ Joe-Pye Weed
8. Woodland Stonecrop Sedum ternatum
9. Christmas Fern and
10. ‘Anna’s Pink’ native Verbena - which is the one thing I was really hoping to find. The write up here mentions my landscaper! https://www.usperennials.com/verbena-canadensis-annas-pink-glandularia-canadensis-rose-vervein-annas-pink-zone-5-hardy/

On the Monarch front, things are going smoothly. I have 4 butterflies that emerged yesterday to greet me this morning. The first took off as soon as I unzipped the habitat. “Let me outta here!”. Then I left it open but got back to work, and placed the new plants in their new locations in the meditation garden.

When I got back a new one had emerged and was hanging in to its chrysalis. But then, surprise! The three that were practicing flying kindly waited inside the open habitat for me to return, and one after another started their journeys, nearly hitting me as they escaped. That was pretty cool!

So, to recap, 25 have emerged, and 24 have successfully flown away. There are 8 chrysalises left, and a couple look suspect, but I think I may have 5 or 6 of those develop properly. This next batch will probably be one at a time at this point. I expect in another week or so, the habitat will be empty and I’ll be on to another project.

Crazy weather radar today. Our “local TV station (about 30 miles away) shows us in the middle of heavy rain ... & in actuality, it might be drizzling off & on. Radar from our old local station 2.5 hours away shows us right on the edge of light rain .... go figure!

Spent the morning in the kitchen baking bacon, getting Chef John Green Beans in the crockpot & the Crack Corn Salad is put together & in the fridge. The green beans will be done 7-8 pm & I will reheat them tomorrow morning & they will go back in the crockpot on warm. Big doings at church tomorrow ... organ & new sign dedication, live music (in addition to the organ) & a massive potluck after church (thus my cooking this morning). I still have to clean the kitchen ... taking a brief ‘sit down’ before I tackle it.

We have a final headcount for the senior luncheon Wednesday: 6. Yay! Totally manageable ... won’t have to double any recipes. Our table seats 6 comfortably, & while we have chairs for 8, it’s a little tight. We have more than enough room for a card table, so the seating will work out nicely.

It’s going to be a cool day Wednesday so I think I’m going to make a hot drink, a nonalcoholic mulled ‘wine’ sort of drink. We’ll put on our fireplace ‘fires’ & it should be a cozy scenario. :-)