Well I don’t need any help identifying the snake I heard and then saw this morning while I was weeding! Yes as I was bent over in one of my daylily fields this morning getting rid of some weeds, I heard a rattle. I looked over and sure enough there was a snake curled up under one of the weeds about 2 feet away from me. Besides jumping backward and having my heart beat skyrocket, I am sure that I let out a big yelp. At this point I heard Marty calling me – of course I thought what an attentive husband coming out to see what was the matter. Instead he just came out to tell me I had a phone call, but I then told him I had a little “project” for him. After the phone call, we found the rattlesnake and promptly killed it. My son told us that rattlesnakes are nice since they warn you before they bite you – I don’t know if I would go so far as saying they are nice, but I do appreciate the warning!
Now on to more cheerful subjects. Last week we started planting our sunflowers. This year I am planting 4 different kinds. Sunrich Lemon which is 4 – 5 foot tall and a great cutting plant, Florenza which has red and yellow blooms and another great cutting flower. Additionally, I am planting some small Sundance Kids and Sunbright sunflowers which are more bedding and garden type sunflowers. We also started planting some zinnias, cosmos, and rudebekias (black eyed susans) as both plants and for cutting flowers for the Pearl Farmer’s Market. The Sunrich Lemon sunflowers have already started to germinate and I am looking forward to their sunny faces as summer approaches. My cosmos and my rudebekias have also started to germiante. My herbs (basil, thyme, chamomile, oregano, cilantro), scabiosas, lavenders, coreopsis, and dahlias have also started to germinate and are growing nicely.
On the daylily and bearded iris front I am getting more blooms, and I am seeing scapes really starting to pop up. It helped getting a 4/10ths of an inch of rain yesterday. Now if the rain will keep coming every couple of days, I’ll be very happy. Well time for me to go and prepare myself for some more weeding tomorrow – yes, I’ll be listening.