This morning delivered the first peony bloom of the summer. The bloom is on the plant that came with the house, and there are a dozen or so more buds to look forward to. While the transplanted peonies seem to have survived, they are unlikely to bloom this year. My grandmother claims that peonies are hard to kill, which is heartening. I’m willing to wait a couple of years for them to start blooming; I’m hopeful that they’ll fill out into a nice drift against the fence.

In other garden news, weeding continues apace. Every single week I am newly amazed by how long it takes to clear each small patch of ground. This weekend a friend came over and helped us clear some stumps and liriope out from under the large holly tree. Once I get the remaining roots up, I’ll boost the soil and then transplant the lilies of the valley from around the yard into that area. That whole process should only take, oh, about 15 or so person hours of labor. After which we’ll start on the beds along the other fence. Each week, we are reminded of how hard the town public works staff labors, as they take away huge piles of roots and weeds and vines and branches each time we put in an hour of work on our yard. I really need to take them over some tasty baked goods one of these days.

Since it’s been raining, I put some indoor time toward creating an index of the plants currently in the yard, as part of my effort to track the progress on our house. Unfortunately my camera was out for repair when the spring flowers were blooming, so photos of those will have to wait until next year.