My Monday Record is a day late because I have been so busy with all the weeding, trimming, pruning and planting. There is so much left to do that it seems I am not making progress, but I am! The roses are making progress too. This is a rose bush given to me by the Purington family on Woodslawn Farm in Colrain. The flowers are small, about one and a half inches across, but intensely fragrant – and more come into bloom every day. Just beautiful. This Purington Pink, with spiny foliage, much like Harrison’s Yellow, is my Rose of the Day.

I have three other Woodslawn roses, all hardy and trouble free. It is hard to know how long they have been growing on the Farm which has been tended by Puringtons for seven generations.

The whole of the fenced vegetable garden (above)  is planted, as is one half of The Potager, the unfenced part of the vegetable garden.  I call it The Potager because it has berries and flowers as well as vegetables.  The mulched garlic has not sent up scapes yet, and the sugar snaps, zucchini, carrots and beets were just planted this weekend, so no shoots yet. However, I did see a cottontail bunny hopping away when I walked down early this morning. Grrrrrrrr.

The Cutting Garden section of The Potager has zinnia, China aster and gomphrena seedlings, as well as Colrain Red beebalm which is loving its new bed.  Paths all around the gardens being refreshed with more cardboard and more mulch.

Our daughter Betsy was here briefly over the weekend and before she left she raked all the lawn. She also told Henry how to mow more efficiently so the clippings were more concentrated, quoting the training she had received at Greenfield Community College when her work-study job was with the ground crew. They really knew how to mow! I sent her home with lots of plants –  coral bells, Joan Elliot campanula, chives, golden marjoram, thyme and garlic chives.  I think that is most of it. Last year I helped her put in some ornamental plantings, and this year she has her first vegetable garden, an 8 x 10′ raised bed. She said she thought she ought to start small. She doesn’t get that kind of wisdom from me I’ll tell you.

Betsy is also a water expert, and while I was busy with other things she and Henry not only got the sump pump set up in our old dug well so that we don’t have to use the household water supply for garden watering, they are also cooking up a siphon system that won’t require a pump. I’ll report on the success of that project soon I hope.