I've been like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers. It's the end of the school year for my kids, and all that entails. The Diva just graduated from high school yesterday. There's been prom, and a whole host of writing projects. Plus, I've been toiling in the garden of delight. Everything about late May is delightful from the buzzing insects to the warmer weather. I never thought I'd be so glad to see the blazing sun, but it was a very cold spring with little rain. Both were ended this week with rain and then sunnier skies just in time for Baccalaureate and graduation. Tomorrow, I go with my daughter for her orientation at university. She asked me to go, and I'm surprised and gladdened. She isn't quite ready to let me go yet, and I'm grateful, because if she did so soon, I'm afraid I'd fall....

Our morning temps have not been the norm in Oklahoma recently. At 45F for the last couple of weeks, it's been chilly, but still a good time to transplant shrubs, perennials and most annuals. Still, the variegated tapioca I placed in a container and another in the ground are very unhappy campers. They may not survive. The lesson in this? Wait to put some tender tropical offerings in the ground until mid-May at least. You never know what Oklahoma weather has in store for us. As for the vegetable garden, everything is performing well. The cabbages are heading up. I've sat on the edge of the beds and eaten lettuces with no accompaniment except sunshine. Spinach planted in the fall overwintered, and I harvested it early spring before it bolted. Never making it to the kitchen, strawberries taste like nectar. Plus, I've eaten snowpeas and sweet podded peas straight off...

Zinnia angustifolia x elegans 'Profusion Apricot.' In this photo, the weather has cooled a bit and given the zinnia its pinker color. I haven't done a ten easiest in awhile, so I thought I'd update us all with flowers instead of veggies. I get a lot of searches from folks who want to know how to garden in our very tough conditions, and I'm here to help. Some of these flowers may not work in every situation, and in some states may even be aggressive or invasive. Not so here. It is a testament to our tough growing conditions that there isn't a large invasive plant list in Oklahoma. Pink garden phlox with black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia) Rudbeckias in all their forms. The easiest one to grow is R. fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm.' It was selected as the Perennial Plant of the Year in 1999 and with good reason. It is...

I wasn't going to write this post because I believe you'd rather not hear me whine. However, Non-gardening, best friend (NGBF), Aimee, convinced me you might need to hear when I'm feeling a bit blue too. She planted tomatoes and herbs yesterday by the way, and they are in beautiful colored pots. Go Aimee! Beyond the norm, I've been sprucing up because several Master Gardeners are coming to visit on their way to Bustani Plant Farm next Wednesday. Bustani is about forty-five minutes from here. What I see in the back garden makes me very unhappy. With the crapemyrtles now Mini-Me sized, and several of the roses removed because of rose rosette, and others only eighteen inches tall from the extremely cold winter we had, the garden looks, well . . . very young. There are naked arbors everywhere. I may be forced to remove 'Cl. Pinkie' who has only...