Meet the Iris of the Vegetable Patch

A year or more ago I snatched this clump of iris from oblivion from the jaws of the snowplough near the village library. There was no ready ground in which to plunk them right then, so until I had time to set them properly somewhere they have enjoyed living in a sunny vegetable bed communing with winter squash, potatoes, and tomatoes. Ah, yes, you may have noticed the large rose bush behind the iris clump? That is a 'mother hedge' of Rosa Rugosa who block our view from the street. And annoys me by sending underground runners through the veg. bed. But those runners become transplants to other hedging and rose plantings on the property. The progeny is grown for rose petal jam and syrups.

Now, here I have allowed another year to pass and have still not moved the iris family-- they have bloomed happily on. The cats' catnip bed is next to them and I dare not touch the felines' sacred ground until September when the iris who love to get new homes and enriched soil can be moved out.

Announcing...
The sighting the first strawberry of the season... not entirely ripe. Not sure who will get to it first, me or those who dwell in the garden.... grr.
And the wrens are busy, busy feeding babies in that new wren house. Photo perhaps. I can get the house but they are really sneaky about entering across the back of the roof through the bittersweet vine and slipping into the front hole.