My First Fresh Raspberries of the Year

I never take for granted the fact that my dear husband does the grocery shopping. He does a great job and I am so grateful that I don't have to worry about that chore. If I want something I just write it on the list that we keep on the kitchen desk. He's very good at checking the sale ads and he knows more than I do when something is a good price.

Today he found fresh raspberries on sale. I decided to make a baby spinach, raspberry, and pecan salad for dinner. I shook together raspberry vinegar, oil, and 2 tablespoons of mixed berry ice cream topping to make a slightly sweet tangy dressing.

What a pretty salad and it was good, too. The only thing it was missing was a few thin rings of red onion.

We got a little thunderstorm about 5:30 p.m. today. I stuck my camera out of the window in my computer room to show you.

It's hard to get a good picture of rain. Have you ever noticed that?

Earlier this morning, I was out digging up more of the sedum 'coral carpet'.
I removed three wheelbarrow loads from this area. Tomorrow I will do the other side. I already did it last year, but somehow tons of it came back.

This is one area that I hit with Roundup yesterday. I was very happy to see it all dying down like this!

I went around and gave everything a second dose, which still will not kill it all. Those fleshy leaves are so tough to get rid of. If anyone ever wants to give you this stuff, RUN in the other direction. It is even worse than the creeping bellflower I battled a couple of years ago.

Bishop's Weed, Goutweed, Snow-on-the-Mountain, Aegopodium

Whatever you call it, it's a tough one to remove if you decide you no longer want it.

Last fall I spent a good deal of sweat labor digging this out. I thought it was gone, but no such luck. It's coming up all over again this year. The only way I know of to kill it is with Roundup. Even Roundup takes two or three applications before it's all dead.
I can't call this plant a thug, because even though I don't want it here, I do have some places that I think bishop's weed is the perfect groundcover--at least for the time being. Like in this very shady spot as an underplanting for daylilies. I do have to keep edging it to keep it from growing in the grass, and I try to remove all the flowers before they go to seed.

I received a new Chadwicks catalog and did a little shopping. I bought this blue lightweight sweater twinset (no,unfortunately, this is not me)
I already own it in black. It's a good fit, washes/dries nicely,does not pill, and has 4-season wearability. When I find something tried and true like this, I like to order more than one color. I can mix and match them.



After work today I had a dentist appointment. Just a block from the dentist is a nice nursery, so I went there and bought some more planting material. Since I am tracking costs, here they are:

3 Herbs - Purple Ruffles basil, Italian basil and parsley just $1 each- $3.00 total


4 ipomoea @ $2.00 each - $8.00 total. As I stated in a post below, I can't count on mine coming back from the tubers I saved last year, so I bought a few for insurance.
A flat of mixed flowers: Amaranthus, 'Early Splendor', Celosia 'Century Red', Ageratum 'Blue Horizon', and Nierembergia 'White Robe'. $12.00
A flat of marigolds - $12.00

So I have already spent in the $90.00 range and I have only just begun. It's not looking good for saving much money unless I drastically reduce the number of containers I plant. I've planted three and I usually do at least 60.

Creeping Bellflower

Isn't she beautiful? Delicate little bells swaying in the wind.

That is what I thought when my MIL offerred me a few plants. Within three years, those few plants turned into hundreds and I spent most of last season attempting to eradicate this obnoxious weed from my rock wall garden where it was running rampant.
I began by digging out the roots (see below), but soon realized that it would take the remainder of my life to get them all. I finally had to resort to using RoundUp, which was quite effective. There are still a few popping up this year, but I hit them with RoundUp as I find them. I still have this pest in my other gardens, where it has intertwined itself among many other plants and * will have to decide whether to risk losing most of the other plants by spraying the RoundUp or letting it go another year.

All I can say is DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER PLANT CREEPING BELLFLOWER!!!! IT WILL HAUNT YOU FOR LIFE!