How can it be the end of May? That means it is time to wrap up the GardenComm’s Garden Blogger’s Challenge for the month of May.
Now, where were we? About a week ago, give or take a day or two, I posted about several prompts thru May 22, so let’s just dig in with…
May 23 What garden chores do you love/hate? Oh, I love to mow the lawn. Aside from that, I like to go around looking for little violas popping up in unexpected places in the garden. As for what do I hate to do? That’s an easy one. I hate cutting back the seedheads of the Amsonia. Such sticky, gluey sap! But I have to do it so it doesn’t self-sow all over. I swear those seeds grow roots at least a foot long before the stem end even breaks through the ground.
May 24 Who influenced you to garden? One assumes there was an influence versus gardening being a desire one was born with? I will say my dad influenced me to garden and influenced how I garden too.
May 25 What are your favorite garden scents? I love the scent of the greenhouse up the road on that first warm late winter-early spring day when I walk in and see the violas just beginning to bloom. There are other scents I love in the garden, but I think that’s my favorite.
May 26 National Senior Health – how do you plan to continue garden as you age? Well, I’m old enough to already know how I plan to garden as I age, which is to just keep doing gardening. Sure, I’ll have to adjust expectations on what I can do, think a bit about how much things weigh, etc., but I’m willing to hire help if needed. I may be a bit slower, but I don’t see myself ever not gardening.
May 27 What weed is your worst enemy? Having grubbed out more evening primrose from the flower beds around The Vegetable Garden Cathedral, I’m going to consider that my worst enemy for the moment. Until some other horrible weed shows up.
May 28 Which houseplants make the best housewarming gifts? I do think people like houseplants that are flowering, like kalanchoe, but other than that, consider one with a story. “Here’s a start of my aloe that I was told has been handed down from my great-grandmother, to my grandmother, to an aunt to me.” Or, “I bought this houseplant at the farmer’s market and it reminded me…” If you attach a story to any plant gift, it will make it a more memorable gift.
May 29 My favorite garden tool is: Well, having claimed to have the largest hoe collection in the world, I feel highly qualified to answer this question. I think my favorite right now is the Cobrahead mini weeder.
May 30 National Water a Flower Day – share your watering tips. Well, isn’t this an interesting national day? Water a flower? Here’s my tip. Use those lightweight fabric hoses. They weigh almost nothing and thus are so much nicer to use than those heavy rubber hoses.
May 31 Other garden blogs I love to read include… I’ll send you over to Red Dirt Ramblings, the co-host with me of The Gardenangelists podcast. Digging by Pam Penick is also a lovely blog to read. Lately, I’ve also enjoyed a variety of blogs/newsletters that are posted over on Substack, like Pam’s English Garden in PA by Pamela Hubbard.
That concludes my contributions to GardenComm’s Garden Blogger’s Challenge for May. Just in time, apparently, because there are indications that the garden fairies are anxious to contribute a blog post fairly soon. It seems they have updates on the garden to share!
Happy Gardening!
(A bit of housekeeping. The email subscriber list for these blog posts grew too large, too quickly, and I suspected some spamming activity occurred in May. So I did some housekeeping and cleaned up the list. It was a very thorough cleaning! Scrubbed it good! Made the list smaller. Shinier. Happier for me!
So if you got this in your email, thank you for being a highly rated subscriber who generally opens these emails and interacts with them. I appreciate you!
To all the rest, well, they aren’t getting these posts in their emails anymore so I can do nothing but wish them well, whether they were real or not. )
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