Red Poppies, Nicotiana, Herbs and Crafts

78*, feels like 80*, 30.06" and steady barometer, 60% humidity, S 6 mph wind, partly cloudy

The first of the annual poppies are blooming! Red ones, which is fine by me. I love red in the garden (just not on me, wearing red makes me look like a tomato as my skin tends to reflect the red...). Annual poppies are so carefree and happy. They reseed for you effortlessly and in fact I find myself weeding and thinning them out a lot in the garden as they tend to get everywhere. but don't fear all the reseeding of themselves, they are easier to pull up then most weeds. Deadhead them ruthlessly because if you let them make seed heads they will stop blooming and die. They don't last very long if you don't deadhead but even then they won't make it all summer long before the plants start dying.

The nicotina seedlings I started inside this year are happy in the garden....happily taking over the garden with their big leaves! At least they should shade out any weeds for me. they are just starting to bloom for me but I'm not smelling any of the scent that they are famous for.

A friend at work was talking about a recipe that uses fresh mint as a garnish and I mentioned that I have plenty of mint and was planning on selling little pots of mint at the community garage sale along with some other herb plants. She said she would pay me for some but I like her a lot and I take care of my friends so today I am bringing her garlic chives (which I divided today, they needed it bad!), peppermint, and lemon balm so that she could start a small potted herb garden for herself. The garlic chive plant itself needed dividing but last year must of been a bumper crop of seeds for every plant in my garden...either that or the conditions this spring were just right for lots of seeds to sprout. So not only do I have baby garlic chives everywhere in the garden it seems, but also baby lemon balm (which I've never before in all the years I've had it had a problem with it spreading itself around wildly if at all). No problem, I'll transplant them into little pots too and sell them. My parsley (the Italian flat leaved kind) is so pretty in the garden with bright green mounds full of leaves. The plants are doing very well. They like where they are planted. It's time to start harvesting and drying the leaves. Before I had planted my willow, that area would of been a soggy mess all the time, with no way to keep it alive and thriving there. But the Arctic dwarf blue willow is doing what it's supposed to be doing and sapping up the excess water very well! There is a HUGE difference in growing capability now. Working with the land you have is much easier then trying to completely change it! In fact, I think I'm going to take cuttings and root them for the sale also.

Lately I've been in a crafting room. I think that's because I now have a craft room where I don't have to pick up and hide away my projects in work. Seeing them keeps me motivated. I found some really cute freebie patterns on the web for different crafts, including a cute sewn stuffed rooster that looks like it would be really fun to make. I'll be heading to the craft store this weekend for sure!