'Olfactory heaven'

An Iowa Garden

... In the garden itself, clouds of crabapple blooms, and grape-heavy clusters of lilacs add to the sensory delight (lilac 'Sensation' is pictured above). I am in olfactory heaven. As the garden year progresses, I could tell you the week by sniffing, for mid-May brings the deciduous azaleas, then come the roses and the trumpet lilies, then the Orienpets, and finally, in sultry late summer, the glory of the giant Oriental lilies; their musky perfume flows downhill in the still air, and lies in sweet blankets in the low spots in the garden

The IowaGarden blog has delightful writing about what must be a delightful garden!

Directions to Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Venture Away from Rivermantic for a Few Hours

Directions to Tower Hill Botanic Garden: "GARDEN ADMISSION

$8.00 Adults,
$5.00 Seniors aged 65 and Youth aged 6-18

Free to members
and children under 6

Open Wednesday evenings
5-8pm, May through August

Garden tour every Sunday at 2pm from May through mid October

Twigs Cafe: Open 11am-3pm
Shop: Open 10am-5pm
Library: Open 10am-5pm,
Tues., Thur. and Sat"

CT DEP: Gift Giving

CT Wildlife books

The DEP offers two booklets suggested for giving as gifts; but I think I want them for myself!

Enhancing Your Backyard for Wildlife

This 28-page booklet, with 19 outstanding color photographs, discusses methods of assessing wildlife habitat on your property and provides information on how to attract wildlife to your backyard. To order, send a check or money order for $3 (payable to the DEP Urban Wildlife program) to: Urban Wildlife Program, P.O. Box 1550, Burlington, CT 06103-1550.

Discover Wildlife in Connecticut’s Backyard

This 40-page guide for making backyards more attractive to wildlife is an unusual value. Containing information on landscaping and nest boxes, as well as recommendations fro winter foods and feeding strategies for many backyard wildlife species, the guide is a companion piece to a colorful poster entitled, 'Winter Picnics are for the Birds.' This set, which also includes a checklist of Connecticut’s 429 wildlife species, is available for only $5.00. Order by sending a check or money order (payable to CT DEP Nonharvested Wildlife Fund) to: Discover Connecticut’s Wildlife, P.O. Box 1550, Burlington, CT 06013-1550.

Rain

It's been raining every day for 10 days or so (I dont keep as close a watch on the weather as I ought, for a would-be gardener). Reports indicate that there is flooding everywhere - but not here.

I'm still in the "we really need it" mode. Last summer it was very dry; water seemed to disappear soon after it touched the powdery earth. And, being new here and somewhat strapped for cash, I didnt have enough mulch to hold in the little we had. I am busily creating leaf mould to use as compost or mulch. There has been very little green to add to my compost piles until this rain hit. Now, of course, it's too wet to mow. Although it hasn't been raining constantly, it has not dried up at all between rainfalls.

A map at the Accu Weather Community Weather Blog shows that my part of Connecticut had 3-5 inches of rain last week. That's a lot of rain for one week. In the Boston and southeastern corner of New Hamshire, they had up to 12 inches!

I usually rely on the federal NOAA reports for my weekly weather forecasts, as they can be localized quite well -- just type in your zip code. But they do not provide one thing I've been looking for: a nice, easy to read series of charts showing rainfall and temperature history.

Well one good thing about this rain: my peas have finally begun to grow. For some time, they just sat there in the ground, occasionally rising up out of it to look around. It's nearly time to place a support for them -- but it's raining to much! Hm, may have to work put there in the rain! (copied from my garden blog)