fence posts in

It took pretty much all day, but the posts for the driveway gate are finally in and the gate is sort of hanging out in them right now. The concrete still has to cure for a day or two before the gate will be usable, but at least we are making serious progress now. I might look into getting one more end post sunk in and putting chain link in that whole area. But, considering how long it took to get these two posts in... I might make due with what I have today.

I sent my mom off to the farmers market today to get some more herbs, and she got me 4 more mints (peppermint, spearmint and 2 chocolate mints). I also got a chocolate mint from Susie at work (mom had forgotten Susie was giving me a mint). She also got me 2 sweet basils, a purple basil, another pennyroyal, 2 creeping Jenny (one is going in a container) and possibly something else I've forgotten. I also found a 1 quart dead nettle at Home Depot today (only one they had) for $4.43, so I got that for the shade garden.

All this would have been wonderful if I had been able to do any planting today. However, I was stuck at work until 8 PM. I would have had to be about an hour late to work and I could have had my own car (mom had taken my car to get the gate and met me for lunch but my car was 6" too narrow for the gate to fit in, plus we didn't know she would have to take Tom home after he put in the posts). So, I cooled my heels reading magazines at work while my mom waited for Tom and Bobbie to finish up with the fence posts, then took Tom home and finally came and got me. So, no planting tonight. And I still have a bunch of lirope to plant as well.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, the really bad news is the weather report. We are less than 2 weeks away from our frost free date. So, what are we getting this weekend? Lows in the low 30s and even a prediction of 28 one night. It is currently 71 F right now at 10:36. So, I have coleus already in ground, tons of herbs in terra cotta pots and even more stuff to be planted.

The plan right now is not to plant any of the small pots that are going in containers until after the cold snap. They should be able to survive a few days in their little pots and they will be easier to bring indoors. The front porch things can move into the living room for a few nights. I think I will try to cluster all the herb pots together beside the side door in the little alcove there and cover them with a sheet or a bunch of newspaper or something. I'm getting newspaper to cover all the coleus in the ground and all the hostas.

I had thought I'd plant Margaret (the camellia) tomorrow and maybe even try to plant the flying dragon. But, I have decided I will work on getting some of the smaller perennials in the ground. The ground will give them more protection against the bad weather, I can cover them with pine needles and it will be less stuff to try to bring indoors. I think I will be very busy protecting everything on Thursday night as that is the first day it is supposed to turn cold. I hope the weather report is wrong at we don't get the super cold weather, but at least I am planning ahead and am pretty prepapred.