A Personal Note this Week

and a winner, too!

Distant Drums blooming in the Orchard

Dear friends! I hope you are doing well and are enjoying some beautiful late-spring weather. And I hope you are all safe from the storms and tornadoes of the last few weeks. Gracious!

Congratulations!

It has taken much longer than we planned, but

Kate Bradbury

and I finally have the winners of our giveaway! Congratulations to Laura and Hannah! They each won a copy of Kate’s book, One Garden Against the World! Check out my interview with Kate and more here.

This weekend I got my tomato plants into their bed with ollas filled and ready to go. If you're curious about how I grow tomatoes, here's a video peek into my tomato bed set up at the end of last summer:

The dahlias are planted out. The peonies are about to pop! And some of the roses have started to bloom which feels very early, but they seem quite happy.

And one of my rhubarb plants bloomed!

The Wildlife Garden has been weeded vigorously. This is something I do about once per month through the growing months, and the first big weeding session is always the hardest. I will tell you, though, it gets easier and easier! As these plants grow in and the planting is dense, they are shading out the weeds. It's honestly pretty delightful! Did I still fill several trash cans with weeds last week? Yes. Were they all from the Wildlife Garden. NO! So as my plant populations fill in, my weed problem gets a little bit smaller every year. Will I ever be weed-free? No. But compared to where we were 8 years ago it is night and day!! Let's celebrate those small victories!

Today’s View

This is the view from my office window as I write today:

I wanted to block the view of the street and to attract bees, birds, and other creatures to distract me while I am writing. So far, so good!

It's a "garden level" room which means my windows are at ground level (highly recommend!). I did a major revamp of this bed last fall (more on that soon), but I'm starting to see the fruits of my labors. Loving it!

Currently blooming:

• Allium 'Purple Sensation'

• Aquilegia coerulea (Rocky Mountain Columbine, our state flower)

• Iberis sempervirens (Candytuft)

Blooming soon:

• Rose 'Tchaikovsky'

• Penstemon strictus (Rocky Mountain Penstemon)

• Achillea millefolium 'Colorado'

I planted these Geums — Tangerine Dream — two years ago. They did nothing last year, but this year they are blooming!! Hooray!

Thank YOU!

I want to thank you all! Several hundred of you have joined in the last month including many paid subscribers – thank you for supporting my work! Thank you for joining this community!

I know that not everyone can afford to support all of the writers they are reading on a regular basis. But several of you have asked how you can support my work in other ways. I am working on that, and step one is that I am adding a Buy Me a Plant button. If you read something you LOVE, you can buy me a plant, and make a contribution in any amount. Just click the button and contribute! And thanks in advance for your generous spirits.

On a personal note the next week or so is one of my scheduled vacations from writing. It's the end of school here, and I need to be present for all that that season means. It always seems a little unfair that the end of school happens as we are working hard in the gardens! It's a constant pull between school activities and weed-pulling – at least for me. But c'est la vie!

Ok. Off to pull a few weeds before the day gets too hectic.

Happy Gardening!
Angela

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A version of this piece has been published on WildRevivalGardening.com. Republished with permission.