I doubt my poppies will equal last year’s display. Oodles of weeds went to seed out there last fall when I was working too hard on the book to tend the gardens. I have not been able to catch up on the weeding this spring, so the gardens will be what they are this year.
Every year I look forward to an explosion of poppies. I do have some rubifragrum poppies with buds, which makes me smile. The Shirley poppies are still way too small to be doing such a thing.
Some irises are blooming for the first time, so I get to discover what color they are. My neighbor had a large box of them she had no time to plant so she gave them to me. No one knows what colors were included, so I guess we will find out this year. These first ones are a deep purple.
I have done a lot this year, but I have so much more I want to do. The weather turned too hot too soon as we have been having temperatures in the eighties, which has been making my newly transplanted tomatoes wilt more than usual. It should be cooler tomorrow, which will help them adjust more easily.
The first task this spring was to clean out the hoop house. Every year when I remove the dead plant debris the hoop house looks like it barfed a giant dead plant hairball.
I then mulched the interior of the hoop house. You can see the plastic wall in the right corner, which is where the 8’ x 16’ insulated and heated section sits in the hoop house. I start all my seedlings in there, particularly the tomatoes.
Once the tomatoes are in hand, I begin dreaming of poppies in earnest. I usually have thousands of Shirley poppies. Last year people were driving here just to see the poppies in bloom, including many complete strangers. I hope to have a good bloom this year, but it will be a bit different.
This last photo shows what I hope to see again this year. As with the other photos you can click on it for a larger image.
Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2007. All Rights Reserved.
