The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and plant mania will soon begin.

I decided to remove the chicken wire from the iris bed in the garden, assuming (hoping) that at this point the squirrels won’t be interested in digging up bulbs that have already sprouted. Time will tell.

I pulled the weeds that were growing with the irises, made easy by the spring rains starting up. I’d like to plant some ground cover between the well-spaced iris stems, to keep the soil moist and held together. Erosion is no joking matter. It might be time to try creeping thyme again (she says with glee and terror).

With numbed horror, I was compelled to enact an emergency repot of the second, surviving rosette of Casesar Jr, after coming home and getting a whiff of that sweet graham cracker harbinger scent of decay. Either I hadn’t sufficiently removed the rotted roots during the first repot, or the plant had contracted the disease from its pot buddy that had to be yeeted the week before. Either way, the bottom of the rhizome was squishy. I rather savagely scraped away any mush, spritzed it with diluted alcohol, left it out to dry for a day, and plopped it into a fresh pot of dirt closer to the sun.

To end on a note that is NOT another entry about my fight with snake plant rot, please enjoy this photo of a snail shell in the iris bed. Hopefully it is a sign of healthy biodiversity in the garden, although I will be monitoring for any ill effects upon the foliage.