Here comes the br...what is THAT?!?!?

Back in the winter months, when everything was theoretical and the gardens were lush in my head, I had the brilliant idea that I would grow all my own flowers for our upcoming wedding. I pored over the catalogues, circled and re-circled, planned arrangements in my head, sorted out colour schemes, and finally placed my order for a whole bunch of bulbs that are supposed to bloom in late June-July-early August. When they came in the mail, I felt as though I was holding a fait accompli in my hands - all I had to do was plant them, and miraculously a beautiful wedding bouquet would result! Easy!

What I'm discovering now in the tempestuous middle of June is that it's not so easy, and I may just end up going to the grocery store for $5 bouquets and re-arranging them. My bulbs are less than miraculous at this point, and they've only got a month and a half to turn themselves around and get themselves some blooms. I planted at least 20 ranunculus corms, and right now they look like straggly half-dead parsley. A couple of my lilies seem to have birth defects, and I discovered that nicotiana blooms last approximately 3 minutes after being cut before turning into drooping messes. Hey, this is all new to me. If anyone has any suggestions on how to give ranunculus some first-aid please let me know. I'll spray them with anything at this point.

My new idea is to let things grow at their own pace, then wake up on July 29th (the day before), breezily survey the yard to see what's in bloom, and use whatever is available on that day. It's a little more spontaneous than I'm really comfortable with (I am a relentless planner and nobody who knows me would describe me as 'breezy'), and may result in a free-form bouquet of weeds, but at least I'll have something in my hands.

My ideal bouquet was to consist of any combination of the following (I wanted to have plenty of choice):
- white spider lilies
- deep purple ranunculus
- abyssinian gladiolus
- lime green nicotiana
- Queen Anne's Lace (for filler)
- maybe ferns or something ferny
- Nigella (these specific ones)
- stocks (night-scented)

Realistically, it will probably consist of:
- one white spider lily - maybe
- abyssinian gladiolus (after a long wait, they're finally up!)
- Queen Anne's Lace
- ferns
- dandelions
- quack grass
- a leg bone
- maybe some stocks - but they're an inch high right now

OK OK I'm kidding about the quack grass.

Sometimes you really have to learn how to throw caution to the wind and just release, see what happens, and hope for the best.

In other news, the recent torrential rain didn't completely flatten my garden, although the sedum and the hostas sorta look like they're trying to make a break for it. However, it seems the sky rained quack grass seeds into my veggie garden, because it is completely covered in shoots. I don't know what to do. I think I have to buy some straw and try to mulch the whole thing - the veggie seedlings are big enough now that I think they could handle that and not get lost. It quickly became a jungle in there, though, funny what a good soaking will do. There are lots of suckers on the tomatoes but no blooms just yet. One of them seemed to have been attacked by a cut worm or something because it was knocked over, but I mounded the dirt up around it, and hopefully it'll grow some new roots.

So, on my to-do list for the weekend: find some straw, weed the veggie garden, buy some organic fertilizer of some sort and hit the ranunculus bed with it, plant my banana plant into the ground, and maybe buy a couple flats of annuals to fill the gaps here and there. I also wanna take more pictures of the garden, because my last roll, with my new magnifying lenses, turned out beautifully. I will try to post pictures down the road but right now I'm too lazy. Someday this site will be silly with pictures.