Gardens - Mom's Vegetable

I got a place weeded for mom's vegetable garden; well really, it is for her peppers and tomatoes. I know that I won't have the energy to weed the garden and mom is going to be busy weeding her front garden, so I put down weed mat and bark mulch. And no, I didn't make mom pay for the mulch cause I know she didn't want it to be there. I can't weed it, Teresa won't weed it, Jeff isn't going to come out in the summer and weed it, no one else has offered to weed it, so mulch it is. Besides, I think it looks so much better than the overgrown weed look that I usually have going on.

I think it looks pretty good.

My tomatoes and peppers aren't planted yet so I think it looks terrific. Much more terrific than my vegetable garden.

I used most of my tomato cages (6 of them) to protect my new weeping willow from the alpaca so I only have two tomato cages left. Since I have more tomatoes than that to plant (three I think) I need all my cages and then some. Home Depot and D&B have the most glorious tomato cages. They come in red, purple, orange, blue, yellow and green. Someone makes the square folding ones in the same gorgeous colors but I haven't found out who stocks them out here. But don't you think mom needs purple ones for her tomatoes? We can take a vote; in the comment section vote for the color you think mom should use.

Most of the irises are done but some new ones are blooming today. Today by the way is much much colder than Monday. Today's high is going to be in the mid 50's. I am trying to get stuff down and personally, I think it is too cold for me to be out there working. Of course I thought that Monday was too hot for me to be out there working. Yesterday however, was just perfect for me to be out gardening. It was up in the low 70's and overcast but not raining. Cool but not cold.

I read on the internet that you can use the very very dark dark purple iris to dye wool purple. I don't remember which site I saw that on but I think it said you use the flower. So I put in a picture of mom's very dark purple iris. Maybe next spring mom will let us dye something with her purple flowers and we can see if it works. We will have to figure out which mordant to use because that can totally change the color. Ah, since Teresa is the smartest about dyeing and the internet, it can be her job to figure out what we need.

I was taking pictures of the surprise that I am making for mother and I won't tell you what it is cause you will probably tell her, but I took a picture of some of the new iris blooms. Yes there are still a few irises that are just now blooming. And I took a picture of the wisteria hiding behind these iris. I didn't take a picture of the wisteria that is on the other side of those blue steps, so you can just imagine a pale lavender wisteria that is as tall as the top step. The little guy on this side got planted just before I left for Seattle while it was still very cold. We covered it with leaves to keep it from the frosts. It didn't die but it could have been happier. It seems quite happy now but I think I will fertilize it with fish fertilizer (unless someone knows that I shouldn't - I don't have a clue).
Just this week mom's pear tree has shot up almost two feet and the apple has grown over a foot. The crab apple is busy crabbing or appling and not growing.