Two Big Ol' Holes

 

Here's Big Hole #1! Bob did a marvelous job of excavating a huge privet bush that was at the rear of my Blue Garden. He sledged and dredged and maddoxed and dug for several days... a little at a time. Out it came and now we have a giant hole. 

Here's Robin the Good exploring said hole. I think she was contemplating burying one of her many treasures (odd bits of stick, ends of rawhide chews etc) but we have other plans. The idea is to move this Abelia mosanensis into the hole:

(Sorry about the lousy picture but the shrub is just a bunch of twigs right about now! And no, that is not a skull in the lower right; it's an entirely desiccated remains of a squash.) We're endlessly having to move things initially planted in the wrong spot- the plight of the gardener! The privet did act as a screen and hid us from view of our neighbors, but it wasn't a lovely specimen and it sent up baby privets all through my Blue Garden. Good riddance! The Abelia is covered in lovely white flowers in spring and it smells nice too boot. Plus it will quickly become every bit as large as that privet was. It will move all fifteen feet into it's new home (hole) after the full moon wanes a little.
 

And here's a find! This is not a hole per se, but what was once inside one of our horse's mouths now be a big hole! Yes, that's an equine tooth and most probably from our senior citizen horse Maggie. She doesn't have many teeth left to begin with (we feed her almost entirely pre-soaked foods) but there it was lying on the ground, right next to her grain dish. I'm not sure exactly what to do with it but maybe I can fashion a lovely bolo tie clasp out of it!

Unexpected Tradgi-Versity 31 1/2

There was a frost a few nights ago and it killed the basil... you know what that means! Happy Non-Anniversary to Bob and me! Okay, so the fact that our non-anniversary typically lands towards the end of September or beginning of October means nothing when you get a bizarre and unexpected frost that obliterates your only-just-planted basil but every other tender annual you tenderly started from seed... Oh the horror! The horror!
I lost two full flats of zinnia linearis (from my own saved seed!) which are impossible to buy at nurseries nowadays. A full flat of heliotrope (that I started from seed) and a number of individual "premium" annuals that I'd secured for filling containers succumbed, too. I was pretty much devastated but then Bob and I decided to celebrate 31 1/2 years...
So I had to re-purchase the plants that I could (tomatoes, peppers, basil etc) and simply mourn the ones I couldn't (whole flats of odd ball annuals). I lucked onto a slew of calendulas (in the same color range as the zinnias I'd planted) and bought enough to fill the bed that empty. It will look fine by mid-summer but I really LIKE those zinnias I lost!
Here's the replacement calendulas... all things considered, they'll look pretty good quite soon.

There's Maggie in the background. Hello Maggie! (She likes to watch Robin and I plant.)
So other things going on...

Be still my heart! We all know I am crazy for Delphinium; oooooh! This is a long running love affair. And wouldn't you know, I go to Stop and Shop for something and I see- across the parking lot, despite my face mask fogging my sunglasses- a truck unloading flowers at the other door. I make a bee line, but am told they have to unload the truck before they can sell the flowers. (Yeah, it's eight feet up on a huge rack.) So I procure whatever food was I needed, put it in our car (shout out to Trusty!) and immediately reapproach the plant people who have now offloaded. Sold!! I have to go all the way back in to the store, but this Delphinium is coming home with me, baby!

In a heavy mist today, I got a lot done in all parts of the garden, including the Shade Border which looks quite okay despite my sort of ignoring it while I plant many other things. Here's a close up of the Kerria Japonica:

Nice! Single orange blooms, impeccable variegation... this is a winner. Lots of nice things erupting here, suitable for my next post.
And I know you can't smell it from there, but the Abelia is amazing! Loaded with blooms- top to bottomus- and just great:

Also, the lilac that Mommy gave me a million years ago is blooming. I'm so happy about this. This particular offspring is from a white lilac that Mommy had- in Durham!- like fifty years ago is now residing and flowering in my Lilac Border. that made me happy (and a bit sad). But it smells so nice...