The season of waiting...

Ladybug nestled amid the Gold-and-Silver Chrysanthemum

This time of year becomes a season of waiting in the garden. I wait to see what seeds germinate, and then wait to try to figure out what I had planted there (I've got a souple of spots where I just don't remember what I put down last fall). I wait to see if any of the foxglove seed sprouts.

I wait to see if the transplanted things settle in, and if those expensive bare-root geraniums make it out of the ground. I wait for others to bloom in hopes of classifying them. I wonder if the carolina geraniums (which are native geraniums, and therefore considered a weed) can cross pollenate with my non-native beauties...

I wait for things to flower: the weigelas, the azaleas, and the irises.

There's little work to be done out there now that the front yard project is finished. I'll plant some forced tulips and amaryllises, perhaps do a bit of weeding (which is hard when I'm not sure if I planted something there.)

But mostly I wait, walking around the damp garden looking for signs of progress, signs of life. I'll water on occasion. But for the next few weeks, it's a waiting game, and I have no choice but to play it.