The rain keeps me out of the garden, but not out of the library gardening books. According to the BBC gardening by the month book, now is the time to do cuttings. There's a hedge nearby that has a golden fuzz on it. I've seen it in catalogs...I wonder if they'd let me get some cuttings off it. I'll have to wait until littlest is a bit more cold-hardy though. He's been coughing all week. Sigh.

It's also time to collect seeds along the sidewalks. I got some seeds off the local school's bushes last Fall, and they're flowering in pots this year in my garden--a blue flower bush.

I've been adding on to the sprinklers for my side garden. I've been sod-killing all summer, so hopefully I can plant next year. Some areas need more amendment though--it's all Geneva slag and sand.

I want to add roses to the back corner where foot traffic likes to come through, but it needs some nourishing and turning over. It's sandy and under some pines, and probably has slag buried below as well, and even if I borrow my neighbor's pickax again, I don't really want to hack through slag. I'll work on building it up.

And then there's the flower bed I'm starting in front of the pine trees where the grass always dies in the heat of the summer. I'm putting all my sod from around the hedges and the paths there, but it still isn't shapely enough or deep enough yet. I did put sprinklers in already there though, so it's a matter of depth, not of water. I'll put that flowering bush there once I get it healthy enough, soil-wise.

And I have to redesign the sprinkling system for the vegetable garden.

So I guess it's okay that it's been raining all week. With a list that long, it's nice to have a break.