Weekend watering....I had a good time and saw the Herb Garden

I watered last Sunday and barely had to lift a hose; we were still getting rain every other day and the temperatures were hanging in the 70's F. This week I got paybacks. The rain stopped Thursday so the moisture lasted through yesterday afternoon; then everything dried out. It was fun though. As usual, the Herb Garden was incredible. The new roses are coming into their own and so long as they can survive the competition of their "companion plantings" they'll be okay. The larkspur seems to have ebbed a bit but any vacancies have been filled by white Lychnis (Silene?) coronaria or the ubiquitous orange poppies. I'm always blown away by this garden that refuses to admit that it's operating with less than ideal staffing numbers. It looks like there are 3 or 4 full time skilled gardeners keeping it up.

I had a little bonus fun thanks to the vending machine that dispenses food for the Koi being out of order. Normally the Koi get their food via visitors that purchase it from the machine. Because the machine was down I had to feed the fish. I took the pre-measured bucket of food to the pool about 10:30 and, no surprise, a dozen children were drawn in by the fish swarming around the food. I only had to do two handfuls and before the recruits swarmed the bucket. A good time was had by all and the fish were amply fed. When their consumption slowed, we stopped feeding them. I came back again a couple hours later and, using the same ploy, disposed of most of the rest of the food.