Bzzzzzzzzz

Peonies 

These days it is all a hum in the gardens.  The cotoneasters are full of bumblebees, wasps and flies of all shapes sizes and colours right now.  You don't realize there are any flowers on the cotoneasters until you walk by and hear the bzzzzzzzzz and look a little closer.  Not too many flowers blooming in the gardens yet.  The peonies buds are starting to show colour and swelling, so we will be cutting next week.  The peony plants have grown larger this year than they have ever been and produced the most flower buds from previous years.  The florists mentioned to us that peonies are very popular this year for weddings, so should be able to meet the demand with this years crop.

Peony buds swelling and showing colour.

A storm passed through our area Wednesday evening which brought rain, strong winds and a small amount of hail.  It provided moisture to the newly transplanted plants, but did not cause any damage.  This week was a week of transplanting, transplanting, and more transplanting.  The dahlias, zinnias, crocosmias, tomatoes squash, amaranthus and others are planted.  The rain has stopped us for now, so we will continue next week once it has dried off.

Crocosmias newly planted.

The valley by one of the gardens is once again home to a mama deer , and assuming her baby (have not seen the fawn yet).  I was spending a fair bit of time in this garden transplanting this week and a couple of times mama deer would be in the valley looking up at me and snorting.  I believe she felt I was getting a little too close to baby, wherever it was in the tall grass, so was trying to get my attention and lure me away from the area.
The birds are very plentiful and busy.  The robins, bluebirds and sparrows are feeding young ones, while the tree swallows are still sitting on their eggs and the barn swallows are just building their nests.  There are a couple of pairs of Cedar Waxwings in the garden close to the house, so we are enjoying watching them this year.  They were here last year too, but were not real comfortable with us, so would dart away whenever we came near.  We also noticed a lot of our Trembling Aspens bluffs are being defoliated in the area.  Have not taken the time to identify the worm, but am assuming there will be plenty of moths for the birds to feed their young in a few weeks.
Today is harvest day for market, so Pat is busy picking onions, lettuce, spinach and maybe a few bunches of radishes again.  The radishes are crisp, tangy and full of moisture this year.  Our best crop since we have lived out here.  The lettuce is excellent this year, crisp and full of flavour.  We have a new variety this year called Jester which has flecks of burgundy throughout the leaves.  The picture is one of the lettuce patches.
The perennials will be plentiful again this weekend along with a few varieties of annual flowers.  Also available are the tomato, pepper, zucchini, and cucumber plants.
The perennial plant special this week is a Columbine called Miss M.I. Huish.  It produces double, spurless purple blooms, about 24" tall.  Tolerates part sun and is a prolific bloomer.  The annual plant special is the Foxy Foxglove, in a mix of pinks and off whites, which also does well in part to full sun.