I go on a 9 day vacation and come back to a barely recognizable garden! I feel like the mother who is forced to go away for a long period of time to come back and find that her children have gone from little kids to teenagers while she was away. So, yes, while the Caribbean was amazing (friend me on Facebook to see pics), I am really feeling the days away from the garden.
I forgot to take “before” pictures, but here are a couple of “afters”:
The “red, white and blue” iris bed April 9, 2013.
Daffodil and a bulb I don’t remember planting making quite a show.
What I did but didn’t get around to documenting before I left: watered them all with alfalfa tea and worm castings (that’s worm poop for the uninitiated). The alfalfa was somewhat disastrous because it was absolute catnip for the deer. Luckily, they seem to have found other snack foods while I was snorkeling. I also put down Schreiners Iris fertilizer and Aerify Plus. The Aerify Plus looked a little foamy and alarming when it went down, but the plants seem to be doing just fine. It remains to be seen if all this coddling is helping, hurting, or just spending my money needlessly.
Today I gave them a little drink. Tonight, my first night back, I’ll sit and with a nice glass of wine and admire them by the solar lamplight. (That and work on the edit of my book I’m supposed to have to my editor by Sunday. Yikes). Tomorrow I have my post-vacation recovery day at home, and I’ll definitely get my hands in the dirt.
Also, while I was away I got an email about setting up an iris garden for the town. Really exciting! More details as they develop.
In sum: delighted spring is here in full force and a little shocked at how my flowers grow so fast without me!
