The Can-I-Propagate-It game has grown strong. I took a segment of basil from a grocery store culinary cutting – the sort folded into a small plastic clamshell box – and I removed any side stems as well as all but the top three leaves. I sat it in a shotglass of water for about a week or two and….

Behold! Roots!

I am rather chuffed with how successful this method has become, and I very much hope that transplanting this little dude to a nursery pot of dirt will help support further growth.

As highly anticipated, the Tiger Irises (planted as bulbs last fall) are finally flowering. First it was just one early bloomer.

A couple days later, the rest of the pack followed suit, bringing additional color.

In an attempt to aid the health of the recently adopted unhappy fern, I gave Bernard the haircut of a lifetime.

Fighting my fear-based instinct to hold back, I tried to remove all superfluous and browned foliage, clearing the way for new growth to flourish.

In a more deliberately aggressive move, I cut down what I had previously thought to be a massive dandelion, but turned out to be a Sonchus asper, also known as a Prickly Sowthistle. And prickly indeed it was. I expect it will grow back, since I did not get to the roots, but my new hori hori knife made quick work of chopping off the chonky stem.