catnip and coffee

I have hens and chicks, or at least the hens! I hope to have the chicks late summer or next year.

No, I’m not a farmer, and they’re not animals. They’re plants, and they survived the winter! Yay!

This is a hen:

isn’t it pretty!? The chicks are the offspring they’ll have as they start to spread. If the hens bloom this year, and I hope so, the main plant may die off but the babies will bloom sometime in the next few years. After they’re established I should get some blooms every year. I just planted these last spring, out of my mother’s garden.

It was an experiment in this spot - that’s why I’m excited they survived the winter. I put the hen and chicks along with some stonecrop and 2 kinds of sedum (all succulents) down by the mailbox. If the rest of my property feels like a rainforest, the area near the road feels like a desert. Lots of sun, no shade, and tons of sand from the winter storms have built up to create an inhospitable environment. So I put in desert plants of course! I was afraid they didn’t make it, but on Saturday I raked away a couple inches of leaves from last fall (left there to protect them) and at least an inch or more of new sand from this winter, and there they were! Now I can invest in some more succulents knowing I’m not wasting my money.

I spent a couple hours yesterday transplanting the lilies that were hidden behind the forsythia. Finally! I moved those to the treeline near the road as well. They’ll get the sun they want but shouldn’t get burned up being near the trees. They never bloomed when they were in the back woods - of course they never got any sun - so I have no idea what color they’ll be. I have many different daylilies here, mostly variegated orange/maroon and some yellow. I don’t think I’ve seen a plain orange one yet. I’m very curious and I’ll be sure to post pictures as soon as they bloom. Cause you’re just dying to find out too, right, right? hello?

Anyway.

This is my rock wall:

This is my rock wall sliding down a hill. <sigh>

These are very heavy rocks. I tried to lift one and well, I’m a strong woman, but forget it.

My choices are to convince dh to rebuild it for me, uh huh, or to use what’s there as the base and get more rocks to build up. I think I’m gonna have to go with option 2.

Oh, see the little bit of green in the photo. That’s not moss. That’s the rest of my daylilies! I love them here amongst the rocks!