Nick's Lilac

 Another absolutely gorgeous day! I watered the plants in the greenhouse, carried the salad mix flat (germination already!!) out to the greenhouse, and then Gryph and I did something we've been wanting to do for the longest time, planted Nick's Lilac in the front yard. 

It was originally a start from his grandmother's lilac bush. He and Cody brought it to me in a darling little hand-painted clay pot, and we transplanted it from pot to pot over the years. Some years it bloomed, some years it got caught by late frosts. This winter it was nearly dead from drought while I was pretty sick. We got it to come back with judicious amounts of water and energy work. It was already opening leaves when the polar vortex hit and I really thought it was a goner then, but I see that nothing keeps that lilac down! It's already breaking buds again, tiny green showing against the gray. I'm hoping so much that it will root deeply into the front yard and give us that glorious fragrance every spring. We mulched it with shredded junk mail and bills.

And now I have an empty pot for the beginning of my summer garden! Going to line them up along the wheelchair ramp and fill them to overflowing, using the railing as a trellis. There are two more pots in the back yard waiting to be emptied into the compost bin, and I'm seriously considering also repurposing the two in the greenhouse plus one more in the front yard.

Over the years, these large pots have gone from $8 apiece to $20 apiece, which is why I decided to repurpose the ones I have. I can start easily enough with four of them along the ramp, and fill in with smaller pots (which I had intended to do anyway). The two in the greenhouse are filled with peas and I'm thinking I'd like to let that crop grow and produce before we move the pots. Hot southern exposure on the driveway will be way better for squash and peppers than for peas! It'll be quite interesting to see how long the plants will produce in the greenhouse since the green fibers in the cover act as shadecloth. I may have to buy some actual shadecloth to keep the sun from frying my cool season veggies next month. Always interesting the first season of a new garden tool or technique, and I think the greenhouse counts as both.

I'm sorry to say we wore ourselves out and nothing else has been done in the garden today. I do need to get the morning glories into cups or pots this evening since they've been soaking quite a while. Hoping I can get that taken care of soon.