Memorial Day Weekend

I trust everyone enjoyed the weekend.  We had two nice days and a wet conclusion.  A few garden pics from the past couple of weeks.

The Ajuga I bought last year like the rock garden...gotta watch 'em...don't want them to like it too much...

 Best year ever for my rhododendron in the front yard

 A new acquisition - an azelea

Here's the bed I wrestled from the rain forest last year.  The spirea I transplanted from the "dog" yard.  Love it when a plan comes together...

I contacted the coach of the Thunder Mountain High School football team an hope to have 8 tons or so of gravel delivered next week and some strong backs to haul it!

What a Week - Sunny and Warm

A great gardening week.  Bought several flats of annuals - yellow and pink snapdragons, three flavors of dianthus and two of trailing lobelia.  Planted almost all of them.  Also an assortment of stuff for the bait barrels out front.  I'm also hardening-off my home grown perennial seedlings.  I planted the seedling dahlias yesterday and the primroses and columbine will be put to ground tomorrow or Tuesday. 

I've also potted-up the English Daisies I started from seed.  And a half dozen hibiscus.  The hibiscus will winter over in pots.  I move stuff from my upstairs closet seedling room to the garage to begin the hardening-off process.  I have learned the hard way that hardening-off ain't a cakewalk.  Wind kills.  Sun kills.  And rain kills.  Gotta crawl before you walk!

My dahlias are doing OK on the deck.  I did not put them under the eaves when we had our last storm and I'm afraid they suffered from the wind and rain.  I tied them up today and gave 'em some fertilizer - they should be happy for that.

Here are a few pics.

Bait buckets planted.

Bought a yellow azalea for the new bed. 

Nothing says Spring more than Leopard's Bane and a bleeding heart.

Apple blossom time...Juneau style.

Pink ones too.

 Now if I can only keep the porcupines at bay...

 

  Ain't they pretty?

My final hardening-off exercise will be for the double impatiens my mom kept over the winter.  She puts stems in water and they enthusiastically root.  I've had 'em in peat pots for a month or so now and they are ready to roll... 

 

On to the General Election

All the polling indicates that Donald Trump really will, after tomorrow's Indiana primary, become the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee.  Secretary Clinton has already achieved that status. 

So...the general election will be between one of the most credentialed candidates in recent history and perhaps the least qualified of all time. The odds strongly favor Secretary Clinton; but it is a peculiar year. 

I stood for Bernie in my caucus and sent him money.  And although I never expected him to win the nomination, I did expect him to make Secretary Clinton at least more responsive to a truly progressive agenda.  The jury is still out on that one.

By the same token I did NOT expect The Donald's shelf life to last beyond the first primaries.  I assumed we'd get some retread like Jebb or proto-retread like Marco.

The Donald should not be underestimated. 

On the positive side, Secretary Clinton has been scrutinized for thirty years.  Her skeletons are old enough to be in a museum (that's a strange statement; but somehow it works).

Also on the positive side, Trump's skeletons are still moldering....and many have not been unearthed.

And...also on the positive side Secretary Clinton can make a convincing case in most any policy area where The Donald simply has no policy and is unlikely to propose one.

Because the downside is that The Donald's whole general election campaign will be exactly the same as his primary campaign.  LET'S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It will be a campaign based on his charisma and personality.  Period.

So....we'll see...