A BUSY AND HOT TIME IN THE GARDEN

Sorry I've been blogging so intermittently lately; things are busier than I would like and I have been working on this week's window box post for a really long time!

Anyway, allow me to catch you up on what's happening.

First off, the most exciting thing to happen in my garden perhaps ever.

Do you see that? That's the temperature of my compost pile and one that I'm pretty sure it has never reached before. After months of just piling stuff in there but paying no other attention to it, last week I spent about an hour getting that thing in shape. I peeled off the whole top layer and put as much as I could fit in a wheelbarrow. Then I took the rest of it and put the left side on top of the right side and then shifted it all back and threw the wheelbarrow stuff back on, watering in between every layer. Five days later I was flirting with 140 degrees! That hot will discourage worms but for now I'll take the heat because I think I have a few weed seeds in there. I'm noticing that some of the places where I put compost last year seem to have new garlic mustard weed plants and I think the compost was the culprit.

Last weekend was not great for us weather-wise (would you believe we are still having frost warnings?) but I did get a fair amount done in the garden. I've been slowly making my way around the garden edging, weeding and mulching, and the areas that are finished look so good I can hardly take my eyes off them. Even parts of the garden that are pretty bare either because perennials there didn't come back or because they are waiting for annuals look fantastic.

I planted an Aralia 'Silver Umbrella' over the weekend. I've been looking for this plant for a long time and finally ordered it from Broken Arrow Nursery. I hope it will be a stunner.

The portable greenhouse is utterly behind capacity. I need the weather to warm up so that I can move some things out.

I'm way behind on the vegetable garden and really need to carve out some time for that. So far all I have planted is peas, which have germinated poorly, and parsley grown from seed this winter.

'Thundercloud' sedum

I spent Monday helping move plants from a wholesale nursery near the Wisconsin-Illinois border for our master gardener plant sale. Mr. Much More Patient built a couple of elevated trays so I could almost double the capacity in my car. We fit about 130 gallon-sized perennials in there! I also picked up a few plants I was planning to buy, including some 'Thundercloud' sedums which are supposed to stay in this lovely ball shape and appeal to my bizarre love of meatball plants.

Me and Ted, the creator behind this Katie's Krops garden.

I spent Thurdsday at the grand opening of a Katie's Krops garden in Wisconsin as part of my partnership with Troy-Bilt. I can't wait to tell you all about the great kid who is behind this garden and my day there.

This coming weekend is our master gardener plant sale. We've gone totally nuts this year and we'll be selling 15,000 plants in THREE hours. If you're in southeastern Wisconsin, please come and shop until you drop! The plant sale tends to take up all my time between now and then, so my own garden will have to continue waiting for awhile. We've got a bit of a weather delay anyway. Have a wonderful weekend!