Some movement and a few slithery visitors

What glorious weather for gardening! And we’ve been busy catching up on the seasonal tasks and tending to the daily ones. I’ve been sprouting lots of veggie seeds at home, reasoning that a transplant needs slightly less attention than a seed (and my attention has been pretty thin lately!). So perhaps in two or three weeks the garden will look significantly fuller. This, assuming I can thwart dampening off, a long-standing issue of mine with seed starting.

But a few things will look new the next time you’re there: we’re beginning to plant some of Robin’s aloe babies as borders; the fig tree is finally in the ground; the butterfly bush has been trimmed and relocated next to the om sculpture; the clary sage and canna have been relocated to help create a border near the west edge of the bottle wall; and finally, the little bed that we so often forget at the east side of the garden next to the camellia is finally being delineated and planted! Apparently our neglect was appreciated by at least one little garden friend, this gray rat snake:



We also were paid a visit by a cutie pie skink:



And here are a few new residents, baby calendulas sprouted from the seeds that did so well for us last year:



Teresa’s still doing the weekend watering, Patty has Mondays, and Lydia Wednesdays – anyone want to jump into a weeding slot? Or care to water as needed on Fridays?