I've spent the past couple of weeks in the warmer weather periodically working the butterfly garden. I figure I should work in it as much as possible before our attention gets diverted by crop gardening once the veggie plot is tilled. So far I've pulled out or cut back a good percentage of the dead plants, focusing more on the area in the upper left (facing out from the deck) where we will plant the coneflower patch. I marked off the exact borders for the coneflowers and tilled the soil, pulling out the larger clumps of clay and rocks. Today I bought 80 lbs. each of manure and peat humus, and a 2.2 cu. foot bag of sphagnum peat at Lowe's. Sometime this week I'll give the plot one more good turning, then add the amendments (2 part manure, 2 part humus, 1 part peat), then plant the seed heads at the surface and throw more peat over top. I'll trim up the edges with a mulch border once we get some.

The irises and hostas have begun to grow anew. It looks like all of them took, except maybe one iris clump (but it may just be later than the rest). I should also mention if I haven't yet that at the start of winter I trimmed back the russian sage bush to about a foot from the ground. I think it was the first time it had been pruned. We'll see soon whether it grows back or not, but I haven't noticed much new growth yet.

Jim says he sowed the tomato and pepper seeds. They should be ready for transplanting by around May 15th.