Bountiful Hosta
This huge heavy cement goose will forever bring my departed friend, Doreen, into my mind when I garden. Her and I found this at a nursery near Rochester. How we managed to get it into her van will forever be a mystery.
It may have been a late spring by all measures. It does show up in the farming schedules. For my acreage it seemed to have turned out just fine. Yes, we had more rain than we needed. No, it didn’t seen to hurt the Hosta. In fact they are huge and looking very good. I spent two days with the Mantis tiller working up the soil in between the Hosta plants. Some were too full to take a ram into them and break off stems. It could use one more day with the tiller, but life does seem to get in the way. To be honest, it was the bugs. Within those two days, I was totally chewed up from gnats and small flies. I made sure to wear a long sleeve shirt but it was the neck, ears and hairline that really got it.
When I left New Ulm on Tuesday I stopped in to show Kevin my new used car and came home with a wonderful treat. Kersten had found in Fairfax a product called Bug Soother. This morning, I needed to clear off the patios and driveway from Maple airplane seeds, and the gnats got behind my glasses and I almost tripped trying to rid them. I got the Bug Soother and Dennis sprayed my arms and neck and I stayed outside for most of the morning. It has Lemon grass oil, 
Castor oil and a few other natural ingredients. It smells wonderful and it did the trick. Kevin thought it would have to be reapplied every 4-5 hours, but I had all the time I needed to get done what I needed to before settling in with some things in the house. Yes, summer is here along with all the less than desirable flying insects.
I do need to find a perennial that would vine up the iron works that Calvin has made for me. Our next door neighbors have put up a new storage building and it was the perfect back-drop to move the iron works to. The Dr. Seuss birdhouse found a new home after the back garden was tilled up. When we decided to downsize the flower gardens, it was amazing how everything fell into place. I have plenty to keep me busy and I need not worry about contending with unwanted weeds and a garden that stood under water more times than I can count.