June 12-13

 Mid-June already. I finished getting my pots planted over last week. We went over to the Home Depot garden center where I picked up two hydrangeas, two sunpatiens (a hybrid of New Guinea impatiens), a fascia and two more petunias. All of the fence top pots are now planted. I got three nice pots of chives when I cleaned out the 3-tier pot tower at the end of May. They all are almost finished with their first round of flowering. I will dead-head them soon. The tower is all petunias which are blooming and spreading nicely. They are making a fine show already. The two Lewisia I bought on our first trip to Home Depot about a month ago have settled in and are blooming. They are small but very pretty. Also they are drought and heat tolerant, and sun loving. Perfect for the fence top. I put the new petunias and three superbelles (another small but pretty plant). The last plant I put on the fence top is my Greek oregano.

The hydrangeas are, of course, in my largest round pots. I hope they are hardy enough for our winters. The tag on the shelf said they were hardy to -40F but the plant tags say the hardiness "varies." (I just looked up both varieties and the sources say they are hardy for zone 5 so that should be good. I will give them some winter protection for good measure.) The new Asiatic Lillies are almost done with their blooming. The one that survived the winter hasn't bloomed yet and is much shorter than the new ones. I may move them to the areas along the fence that get full sun earliest when I rearrange things during the fall clean up.

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Saw reports over the weekend that ballyhooed an agreement by the bi-partisan committee produced that has been described as the most significant gun legislation "in decades." Cynical me raised an eyebrow and said "because it's the ONLY such legislation in decades, perhaps." Well, cynical me was right. First, the account of the agreement lists the minimum the politicos could do and have a shred of claim to be doing something that is just a sliver above nothing. Second, the agreement is merely a "blueprint" for legislation that hasn't been written yet. How often have we seen such "blueprint" agreements blow up when the ink is on the paper? I am absolutely outraged by the assholes who insist that the mass shootings we experience is the price we MUST pay for our "free society." Obviously, those idiots aren't channeling Franklin Roosevelt whose wartime "four freedoms" don't include guns but does list "freedom from fear."