mottman

I've got early spring flowers like golden ragwort and salvia, and later summer flowers like asters and black eyed susans. Bee balm should bloom in a month or so. But I'm looking around my yard and there aren't many blooms right now. Any recommendations to fill the gap and keep the blooms going? Flowers that bloom in early June? Looking mostly for perennials to fill space in the mulch beds, but open to shrubs and ground covers as well.

The dumbass former owner of our home put those popular, steampunkesque iron pipe shelf brackets in a bathroom with a shower. They never used that shower, so we never noticed they didn't put any sort of rust prevention coating on the brackets. Well we had some guests and now the bathroom is nicely rusted. I know how to clean it off, but I need to protect it in the future. What's your best recommendation for a coating for this environment. Just want to slow it down as long as possible while we redo other areas of our home. I have no illusions that anything will be rust proof.