the temptations of lovely spring weather

Yesterday, Patty and I went to Home Depot. She wanted to 'look' at plants and I needed some potting soil and hummus. You will note that I did NOT say I was going to even 'look' at plants. I suspect you already know what happened. Yeah, the same thing that always happens when Patty and I go shopping - I bought my potting soil and hummus and 9 plants! Patty did about the same. I know that it's too early for summer annuals. We may still have a frost. Early May is safe, but April is always iffy. I even took a greater chance and put those plants into pots on my front steps and on the deck in the back. If frost is predicted, I will have to bring them all inside or cover them with newspapers. Luckily for me, the lows for the next 5 days are all in the 40s or higher. Still, I will check the weather each evening, just to be sure. I seem to be in a red and purple mood these days - at least I was yesterday. I bought red petunias, red geraniums, red begonias, and two shades of purple petunias. My newly planted pots look very cheerful.

Since I was in gardening mode, I also cleaned up some sticks, leaves, etc. that were littering the back yard and dug up some plants in the front that Patty wanted. She gave me some that she was getting rid of, too. A couple of years ago, I transplanted some Queen Anne's Lace from a vacant lot. This was probably a mistake. I am finding that wild flowers are very strong and aggressive, probably because they have to be to survive on their own. However, this means that they reproduce prolifically and are very hard to keep under control. I dug up about 10 of the QAL and still have some left. Somehow they ended up in the front of the flower bed, which is the wrong place for plants that grow to be 4 foot tall! I probably should move the remaining plants to the back of the border, but since that space is pretty well filled with lilies, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Ah, the joys of gardening!

I have to leave for church in a few minutes, as our interfaith library is having it's semi-annual book sale. We ask people to donate books and then we sell them to back to some of the same people! Actually, it isn't quite that bad. Our small Methodist/Presbyterian congregations shares space in an Interfaith Center with a huge Catholic congregation and an Hispanic Catholic congregation. Most of our donated books come from our congregation, but people from the other congregations buy a lot of the books. S0, we get some money to buy new books, people get cheap books to read and everybody is happy. Anyway, we are putting books out on tables this morning, starting at 8:30, so I have to leave now.