Well, Memorial Day has come and went, and the gardening weather apparently has followed it. There was a hard frost on the 28th of May and thankfully, my bedding plants were safe in the garage. It dried out for a day or two and I managed to till and plant both gardens. Then the rains came. I have always wanted to own some waterfront property, but this is not exactly what I had in mind. My gardens both have miniature lakes in them, although the bedding plants seem to be OK. I do not know how the various seeds we planted will hold up, but if it dries out again for a few days, they may be ok. The flowers seem to love the cold, damp weather and I am going to try and put a few pictures in this blog. The strawberries in the raised beds have set fruit nicely and should have a bumper crop. Also the summer bearing raspberries are ready to blossom, although a day or two of warm weather would speed things up.
I went out between showers and sprinkled micronized sulfur on the roses, hollyhocks, rhubarb, and delphiniums. I am not sure the delphiniums need it, but I had some left over so they got it. There is a huge variety of fungus type stuff you can buy for a huge variety of prices. Back when I was writing a garden column I mentioned some expensive stuff I had bought to treat some plants. An elderly reader wrote to me and suggested the sulfur, which is not expensive and seems to work as well as any commercial product. It makes me feel like smacking myself in the head for not realizing the obvious. Often enough, the old-fashioned cures are as effective as anything new. The sulfur prevents the rust-type plant diseases but nothing will cure them once they get started. Prevention is the best cure. The sulfur should be applied just before it rains, oddly enough, so that it gets into the soil beneath the plants. It works for me.
On the political front, the town and
