Sometimes procrastination pays

I've been feeling rather guilty lately because (as usual) I've been really slow about getting the garden in. I got the broccoli and cauliflower plants transplanted along with half a dozen or so tomato plants and that was it before the rains hit. I should have known -- this happens every year. We'll have a stretch of nice weather, we get the garden tilled and ready to plant, I procrastinate, and then the skies open. Day after day goes by with conditions being too wet and muddy for me to feel like crawling around in the dirt planting beans.

Well, yesterday the rains finally tapered off. I started thinking about setting the rest of the tomato plants and getting this year's experimental sweet potatoes into the ground. Then I noticed the little red triangle for the weather app on the computer -- there was a frost advisory. So I decided to procrastinate for one more day.

So what's the current outdoor temp here at the Retirement Bunker? 31 and dropping. Will there be actual frost this morning? I don't know yet, but I am really happy now I didn't plant any beans a week ago. If I had, they probably would have sprouted by now -- and they'd all be dead.

As for the sweet potatoes, I have no idea how they're going to do this far north. They are definitely a warm weather crop, and it appears summer is off to a relatively cool start. Whether or not they'll survive, let alone produce anything, is anyone's guess.

And, speaking of gardening, I'm starting to get psyched about doing a native plants flower bed at the museum. Other projects at the museum are finally getting to the point where I can coast and do fun stuff like gardening. I've got the flower bed more or less mentally laid out. Now all I need to do is get the S.O. to help me put some treated timbers in place for borders and I can start moving stuff like lupines, goldenrod, and daisies into it. I need to find some wild blue berries to dig up and transplant, too. The trickiest part might be figuring out for sure what's a native plant (e.g.,Joe Pye weed) and what's an invasive wild flower (e.g., Queen Ann's Lace, aka wild carrot, which is not native to the Americas). I want the flower bed to be strictly stuff that's native to Michigan -- no invasives no matter how common they now are. It would be nice if it's also all perennials so once it's in, it's in.