A new leaf

When you see me next, please congratulate me. For the first time in over a year, my driveway is clear of mulch! I did it! I moved all the mulch - all 22 loads of it - to my planting beds that have been growing weedy. It was such a wonderful day today, slightly overcast, cool breezes, not all that humid, that I needed to do something. My choices were either to paint my bedroom or clear the mulch. I figured the mulch was the correct option with the water shortage since it will help keep the ground moist and my plants healthy. Besides, my mother's friend Pat came to visit and said she never stops when she passes the house because of the lack of parking space. That's pretty bad since we have only one car and have a three car circular drive. Well, it'd done now, and no more excuses!!

The rain this week was very welcome. I have a 55 gallon rainbarrel on the patio, right under the gutter and have been using the water from it to water all my potted plants. It was down to less than a third full before the rain, and it was soon overflowing! The weather reports say that we got only about an inch of water, but the barrel collected all of the water from the back end of the house. It gives me another resource for watering on those restricted days.

I was out digging in the garden this week to get something to bring to the meeting this Sunday. I decided on gingers since they have become prolific in the past two weeks. I will have different ones to choose from, so if you are looking for gingers, bring something good to the raffle! So far, I have potted up some white butterfly ginger (hedychium coronarium), yellow butterfly ginger (hedychium flavium), and some shell ginger - okay I don't know the latin name for this variety.

What's blooming this week? My confederate jasmine is fully engulfed in its star shaped flowers, and the night-blooming jasmine is ready to burst in another night or so. I also see lots of buds on the big trumpet, so photos will be coming in the next week or so to share all these gifts of nature. - Bryan