And away we go :) Picture day!

This morning we got the sand trap filter installed on the well pump- hopefully this will fix our gritty water problem. My love flushed the water heater after, and he said the sediment wasn't too much, a relief.

Since it was all rainy, I was getting worried about the luffas drowning, so I pulled them into the solarium and set them on the ponds edge to drip out a bit. All six pots have nice little plants growing in them, I don't want to risk losing any of them. A couple of them are starting to wind and climb their stakes which thrills me- looks like we might actually be on for the first run of the hops stringing- so long as I keep those luffas alive.
Yesterday I decided my garden wasn't shiny sparkley enough, so I stuck some huge plastic crystals on skewers, and every pot got one. I wanted to get pics of it, but that's when I discovered my camera was dead, so meh, for another day.

Today I dealt with the potted irises. I had picked up several bags on clearance last year when I picked up the clearance hyacinths and tulips. I knew they wouldn't be anything for the wedding, but I did pot them up at the same time because they needed to get going. At the time I only marked the pots with their cards, and they didn't stay attached very well- tape don't stick to the green pots as well as it does to the other pots. I had kind of crammed them all into 4 pots. Well, I was pleased to see that I was getting blades out of three of the pots, so it was time to re-pot them individually. Why re-pot and not into the ground? Since I mixed up the pots, I have no idea whats in them, so I need to grow them out to their first bloom so I know where to put them. Now, they are starting out small enough that I'm not sure that's going to be this year or not. So safely they will stay in pots for now. Originally there were 14 rhizomes, currently there are 8 with blades, and two that were just living roots- the other 4 I tossed back together in a pot though none of them showed signs of life because, hey, you never can tell sometimes.
1 Going My Way
2 Firebreather
4 Devil's Riot
4 Rock Star
3 Fall Fiesta
We shall see what actually blooms out of those :)

Otherwise just a wet day... since the camera is recharged, some pics :)

 This is what kale looks like before drying...

 and after drying.

 This is what it looks like all bagged up :)

 This is what the setup looked like before I started digging tulip border and hauling aged manure around. The buckets are in their preliminary order which of course changed, and I wrote the plant names on the buckets with a sharpie so I wouldn't forget what I planted. The cans and bags are the makings for the tulip border- yes, I glued glass pebbles of different colors to the tops of some of the cans to serve as markers to remind me of what I planted where.

 A bunch of the plants hardening off on the porch. The clear tubs are recycled spinach containers filled with toilet paper rolls holding marigolds. The blue pots are recycled mushroom containers filled with all sorts of veggies and herbs. The metal trays are filled with homemade paper pots, soup cans filled with herbs next to them. In the back left is my tray of Top Crop beans.

 This is what the herb garden was supposed to look like when we had guests. Ah well.

 The first of the containers are set up! The ropes along the top are what I strung on eyehooks to experiment with drop ceiling- the luffas will grow up the side and across the top this year, and perhaps hops will be growing elsewhere on the same premise. 

The printed fruit spikes working nicely with a couple orange halves stuck onto them

This is one of the jelly jars I made the other day. The birds sometimes use the perches, sometimes land on the branch and dip down into the pot.