Here’s another bulletin from the South Common Historic District about the cultivated and wild things on my property.–PM

Today’s picture is a small garden tower delivered by my brother Richard, my oldest brother, who is good at finding unusual items along the way. Arriving home one afternoon recently, I saw this A-frame wooden mini-tower topped by a faux bird house parked on the side of the driveway. It seemed to have possibilities, so I set it up in the middle of the main garden and put two small plants on the bottom two shelves and a rock with sparkly white and gold markings on the top shelf. This will do, I thought. The new addition fit right in behind the beach rose (rosa rugosa) and in front of a crowd of purple-topped clover and another flower with spidery stems whose name I don’t know but which yields scores of small yellow blossoms.

The zinnias from Sykes the Florist turned out their first flowers this past week: yellow, deep pink, red. The zinnias-from-seed ordered from famous Johnny’s in Maine are mostly not there except for about 20 coming up slowly (out of 200 seed specks that went right into the ground). The San Marzano tomato plants (six) have made it to the first rung on the tomato cages and look robust. Lilies are budding. My only stand of echinacea or purple coneflowers has one blossom—wish I had a lot more of these. Some super-sized daisies are ready to bloom. One bunch of black-eyes susans (rudbeckia hirta) in the side garden will pop in another week.

The sunny days make watering after supper essential. We missed a day, and the next afternoon had to rush out with a hose to revive the sagging green garden club members.