16 mosquito bites and gardening

Oh why did I think it would be a good idea to start gardening at dusk? I even put some Burt's Bees repellant on. No good. The mosquitos will find the places where I didn't rub it in, and they will bite there. Aggressive little buggers. Oh I wish I wasn't allergic to their sting. I'll take chiggers any day. Before I could no longer stand it, I managed to plant some radish seeds, carrot seeds, garden bean seeds, and bell pepper seeds.

Last Monday (Memorial Day) I planted two heirloom tomato plants (Cherokee Purple and Arkansas Traveler). I also planted a Roma Tomato plant with oregano, dill, parsley, chives and basil (which, of course, we ate all the basil before it was even in the ground). Luckily, I also planted an entire packet of basil seeds around the edges.

I also transferred the rosemary, lavender, and apple mint to bigger pots. Our apple mint almost got killed by the full sunlight - it needs partial shade - but I think we saved it in the nick of time. Amazing what some dead-heading will do.

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Also in our garden are two beautiful Rhododendron bushes - a native plant to WNC - which Jeff amazingly dug through the hardened clay soil and planted. He also planted some azaleas, and some decorative grasses.

I successfully killed our first two hanging ferns, and replaced them with some $4.99 sale ferns from Bi-Lo. Let's see how they do.