Cymbidium Orchid In Bloom

The plants themselves are rather wild and not all that attractive.  The flowers?  Sublime.  I repotted my yellow and pink orchids last summer and didn't expect to see any flowers this Spring.  The spike is very short but the flowers are wonderful.   These two plants were a gift from a library patron who brought his best pot of orchids in to the library each March.  I tended the orchids while they were with us.  And admired them.  I was delighted to be given two smaller ones several years ago.  And they have grown.

I had the two big tubs of orchid foliage and wood chips in my bathtub all winter (not upstairs in the bathtub there, like I have done in other years, forgetting to water them).  In a big plastic storage container full of water (when the pots were getting watered) and then without water when they were  just sitting around.  There's a nice South facing window above the tub so they got some daily sunshine. These orchids like partial sun.  Now they are on the sunporch.  When it's warm enough they will be going out onto the front porch.  The yellow orchid has one spike as well.  But it's a few weeks from blooming.  These flowers will last that long.

The weather here in Maine is "one day warm and then one day cold".  Today there was a bit of sun. I worked on my job of raking the acorns out of the back lawn.  It's hard work.  Those little suckers are embedded in the turf.  The first few buckets of debris were mostly dead grass and acorns so I added them to the compost with two large bags of Starbucks coffee grounds.  Like 40 pounds in each bag. I'm going to hope the pile heats up.  Later I worked on digging grass out of the peony bed.

Then I tried to open the bottle of chelated iron for my Meyer Lemon which is looking sad.  It had spider mites this winter.  I also sprayed it for mites and gave it a good dose of iron (after G opened the bottle).  Between mite treatments the little plant has put out a bunch of flowers.  I like to think it is showing it's gratitude.

G has been working very hard on building me two pergolas in the vegetable garden.  I want to grow beans and cucumbers on them this summer.  Perhaps a few scarlet runner beans.  They have gorgeous red flowers.  I will snap some pictures when the sun is out.  He even built a little shelf for me to hang my garden hose on.  He did leave the gate open one night and deer have been in my carrot beds.  Big footprints.  My rhubarb is coming up.

Too many leaves in the beds.  Oops. (remember the guy bringing me maple leaves?)  Next time I will add less. Even a Master Gardener makes mistakes.  I tell everyone--more is not better and then I do it, myself. I know that my regular oak leaves take forever to crumble into dirt--but I was hoping the more tender maple leaves would compost during the winter.  Now I'll think of it as "leaf mulch".

I hope you are all getting ready for Spring.  I need to start a few pots of tomato seeds.  I managed to get a flat of Arkansas Traveler at work.  My favorite tomato.  Now I need something that ripens early--like a Patio or Early Girl.  And a purple tomato.  Everyone raves about the taste of purple tomatoes.  So I need to try one.  Cherokee Purple.  I'll try not to have more that a dozen plants.  But That never works.