All On A Spring Day

   Spring weather has hit, and I have been working outside all weekend. We had lots of rain in the forcast, but so far all we got was during the night. Today was a beautiful sunny day, with a light breeze. Perfect for hard labor. Yesterday, my husband and I built the arbor over the entrance. Today I stained the whole thing (fence and arbor). Well actually my 21 yo daughter  stained the arbor, and helped me with the fence. She is a little taller than I am. My 4 yo grand daughter helped me with the fence using a small paint brush. You know how it is working with a 4 yo and paint. Actually she did pretty good, she didnt have any paint on her except where I got it on her. Now my daughter and I were a different story,lol. I bought 1 gallon of Cabot solid stain in Cordova Brown. It is a real  rich, dark chocolate color. I will get more pics posted  in a bit. The potager is looking fantastic.
   I placed several Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds inside a damp paper towel and placed in a baggy on top of my fridge. in 2 days these all germinated, huge plump roots on them. So I went ahead and tilled a 2.5 foot deep bed along the length of the front of the potager for flowers.I also hauled many buckets of manure to fill about 2-3" on top of the tilled dirt. I am going to plant the morning glories to grow over the arbor. I love the blue of these. I have seen many lovely pics of this MG on arbors. And now will be my first time growing this one. I also bought seeds for a low growing sunflower called Peach Passion. Unfortunately they dont produce seed, so I wont be able to save them for next yr. I am planning on putting these out in the bed in the front of the potager.
    I also bought a May Night Salvia from Home Depot on Thursday. I had never seen this plant in person before that day. I love the dark bluish flower spikes. It was placed right in front of my birdhouse.My daughter also spent several hours weeding my long terraced bed, and hauling more horse manure in to top dress it. I love the dark,rich brown color against the plants.We have about 2/3 of the bed weeded. I am trying to amend soil and plant some of the seedlings out as I go. That huge trailer of manure is now down by half.
                                                                 My Gardening Team

They were caught sitting on the upper tier of the retaining wall, taking a short break together. As I got ready to snap the picture my daughter was in view, then suddenly moved behind the shrub, almost as if she sensed I had the camera ready.  As memorable, magical  moments do, they flit past in a second,a brief glimpse then gone. 

Here is a quick pic of the freshly stained fence of the potager. The dark areas in the front are the newly tilled flower beds with a thick layer of aged horse manure on top. Better than pine mulch!

Salvia May Night, however this one is small and not much to look at ....yet.