Been doing weeding lately, lots of it as the garden got very neglected last year. I got a little pick and a big tiller/cultivator/trencher tool which is a blade on one end and three tines on the other side.

Both are very useful, I've found that the pick is great for buttercups, just stick the point under the buttercups' crowns and you get most of the roots out with one motion. In weeding out buttercups, a long and tedious process; I have made a discovery, it is much more difficult to weed them out from similiar plants than from different ones. Those around my iris are easy to get to, while the much smaller patch of lady's mantle was a real bear because her growth pattern was so similiar it interwove with the buttercups.

The big critter I use mostly with particularly tough big weeds like red elder and the larger thimbleberries. First I stir the dirt a bit with my garden fork, then get the tines under the root crown and yank it over, the top provides an arc to pull against and you have the magic of simple machines working for you. I did a couple of small areas with its little brother last year, and they're mostly staying clear of the bushes, so I'm hopeful these areas will too.

I make piles of weed branches, then spread the green weeds on top of them to dry them out, everything seems to die pretty promptly. I poked one of last year's piles, and it's not quite ready to be compost yet. Close though.

I swear, one of these days I'm going to screw up my courage and actually eat some of these nettles too. I have far, far too many for comfort. And they pop up in the grass of the pathways and stay small, but still sting through the seat of my jeans when I sit to weed. Revenge is tasty, and best served as soup perhaps?

I planted a Bears' Breeches last year, and don't see it returning yet. I've heard they're tough plants so I remain hopeful. My pretty little silver lace hellebore is a goner though. The only hellebore I've lost, and I've even transplanted a couple two or three years in a row. I also planted a foetidus not four feet away from the silver lace at the same time, and it's thriving. My witch hazel didn't bloom this year, after doing beautifully last spring. I'm wondering if it was because it had some huge suckers come up from the rootstalk. Or perhaps it's one of those plants that blooms every other year.

On the cheerful side of things, my abeliophyllum bloomed for the first time this spring, very lovely, I hope this means it's going to grow a bit faster now; it's been slow to take off, this is its third spring with me. And the Magnolia wilsonii that I unpotted last year survived the experience, nice healthy live branches with buds on them. I gave it a new primrose under it for a present, I do love the double primroses. My granny's bonnet and dawn ansell bloom at the same time and I plan to divide their clumps and intermix them for more loveliness next spring. Right now they're amoung a couple other pinker and purplier primroses that bloom right at the end of their season. It would look lovely if they all bloomed at the same time, but they just don't follow my instructions very well. The daffodils are going gangbusters, I just wish I had more kinds as they're so forgiving and such nice cut flowers. I had one once that had a nice fragrance, not like paperwhites, which I find unpleasant. We moved and it was part of a mixed bag so I don't know the variety, it was very split and doubled, reminded me of scrambled eggs as far as looks went. Oh, and my little camelia has a bud, I'm very excited; I got it as a tiny thing, with maybe twelve leaves and now it has branches, and a bud! I forget the name, but it's a dark pink with a poof in the center. The bigger camellia has settled in well, and has lots of buds on it, one is blooming now, yay! And the peonies are all sprouting, the two new ones with lots of little pink bud things.

Oh, and the plants that are even lovelier in sprouting than in bloom are at their most appealing now. For me they are my Lady's Mantle, the lupins, and my Elin rue. The first two really aren't much later, but Elin stays beautiful, sea-green and sunset lavender shading into each other. She's starting to get big enough to make a real statement. I got a new rose this spring that's supposed to be purple, and planted it nearby; I'm hoping they'll be good for each other. I've also divided my yellow alpine strawberry and placed clumps under the rose, I've never heard of planting roses and strawberries together, but I don't see why they wouldn't get along. I'll find out I guess.