Checked under the tarps and it's almost planting time. Talk about a relief! The grass is really easy to remove at this point. I have 5 beds that are still tarped and two others that have had the tarps swapped for weed barrier and mulch. Today I walked around with my garden wagon and gathered all the larger footprint plants- every potted rose, peony, clematis, astilbe, hibiscus and any perennials that I bought rather than grew from seed. I skipped the irises for now as a lot of them are going into raised beds and I skipped the remains of what I started from seed as they are mostly smaller and will fit around other things. I also didn't place the mums yet- I'm waiting to see what bed ends up the highest and dryest and that's where they will go.
I got all those larger footprint plants divided out into the 7 new beds and played around with layouts and what colors go where. I may still swap a couple things around, but, all the roses, peonies, clematis, astilbe, hibiscus and other larger perennials have a designated spot- even if they may end up swapping with another one. The two beds that are ready to plant now, I have the plants sitting where they go.
Obviously, that wasn't fast as the pots were in several locations around my yard.. lol Additionally, I'm an accountant and we're doing the whole monthly close procedure at work- so it was a long, hard day. My brain felt like absolute glop by the time I shut my laptop down for the day. On the bright side, I squeaked by all my deadlines, so I just have to hurry up and wait in case there's a last minute emergency with something someone else did.
Best part of all is that I had just enough daylight to start planting a bed, got 10 plants in the ground before the mosquitoes started biting and it was too dark.
My Sutton order came in with more iris than I was expecting, I brought myself a wagon of dirt to pot them up first thing in the morning along with my Black Ridge order that came in the day before. I was completely out of plant tags- so I stalled a day because my plant tags were coming in today.
So yeah, I got everything but irises and mums moved within 10 feet of where it's getting planted AND managed to plant half of a bed on a day I worked overtime. I bet I can plant the remaining 1.5 ready beds tomorrow evening. If I do manage to do that, then Friday I should be able to start replacing the tarps with weed barrier and mulch.
I hate to say it, but I waste a LOT of time in the garden trying to decide what to do next. Sometimes I just get stuck for days at a time unable to decide what is the biggest priority and I just stay stuck until something finally clicks into place.
On a less optimistic note, I found rot in one of the irises I planted in the ground this year. I'm a little concerned because I bought so many irises this year as irises have always done well in my yard with minimal intervention from me. I thought it was borer, but, nope, just basic rot. Now, I do think the weed barrier was touching the rhizome. Unfortunately, this wasn't the fabric barrier I usually use but was instead a plastic based barrier. The rot spots correspond to where it looks like rhizome touched weed barrier. I did scrape it clean and replant. There is still a decent size mother rhizome unaffected, but, two of the ones that would have bloomed next year have rot. It's not the hugest deal as it's Edith Wolford and I did get another as a freebie with another order. BUT, I am concerned, if the weed barrier caused the rot, that's easy enough to avoid. I'll just make sure to use the fabric one I usually use instead. But, if that didn't cause the rot, am I going to get to suffer through the experience of watching a bunch of iris rot? Like, are all my other happy iris just a bunch of beginner's luck?
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