June 4, 2008 (Wednesday)
It is 60 degrees and rainy this morning (8:00 AM).
I see a bumble bee asleep on a lilac flower. The bees and other sting things never used to sleep in my flowers until the majority of the bees started disappearing around here.
That reminds me... yesterday, something was bent on stinging me. It took me a moment to realize that it was more than just passively interested in what I was wearing. I stepped quickly as soon as I realized it was intent on something less friendly. It turned out to be one of those things that used to home in on open soda cans when I was growing up. Scary. I don't like them. It seems to live in the rock wall by the Clems.
'Mary Frances' Iris is open today. I think a couple of others would probably open if it weren't so grey and rainy. Maybe later.
June 5, 2008 (Thursday)
It is 60 degrees, grey, and wet, but not rainy (8:15 AM). It seemed to rain quite a bit yesterday. I think it's time to put my rain gauges out for the summer.
'Lightshine' and 'Laced Cotton' Irises are open, as is the Sage. I saw a bud on one of the Purple Coneflower plants. That seems like really odd timing. Some of the iris flower stalks have fallen over from the rain, along with most of the Shasta Daisy 'Alaska'. The Blue Sea Holly is beginning to form flowers and the nth gen 'Jackpot' Tanacetum has had a zillion buds for many days now and some of them are finally open. The lilac smells so good even though it, too, is bending under the weight of the raindrops caught in its petals. The Heliotrope has a new flower bud. The lavender has a lot of flower buds (at least compared to last year). The Teasel (Dipsacus) is getting very tall and the joints where the leaves meet the stems are now cups of rainwater.
Water in the Teasel
Teasel
Speaking of joints, I spent yesterday dealing with a painful and annoying spasm in my neck and shoulder that repeatedly caused my shoulder to raise up of its own accord and my head to bend down to nearly meet my shoulder. It wasn't until dinner, just as I was about to ask my husband what we had done last weekend that might be causing that, that I realized it was what I had done on Tuesday that was the problem... all that raking. Wow. Well, no spasms so far this morning, so that's a relief.
~~~~~~~~
I keep forgetting to mention that the English Bluebells are in bloom, but only have a couple of flowers. Maybe they are overcrowded.
I potted up the big batch of pumpkins, plus two types of biggies, the muskmelons, and the Sons of Gigantor. I had extras of the last two, so I put them directly in the veggie beds. I also transplanted some of the lettuce. For future reference, the cabbage is hogging space and I couldn't fit in all of the lettuce sprouts. Actually, I could have, but I want to plant rounds of lettuce and not all lettuce all at once. That all took a very long time. I am so glad it is not hot outside.
Rhododendron |
June 6, 2008 (Friday)
It is 59 degrees, grey, and drippy (8:30 AM). It rained a bit overnight and into the morning, but it seems to have stopped now.
The dahlias in the window boxes are getting big and leafy. I hope they put on a nice show this year. I think the Hockley's Maroon is down for the count. That is too bad, but the Barbarossa will make a nice replacement if it comes up, even though it isn't an heirloom.
A few of the Ranunculus have come up, but I still don't see any of the Crocosmia. Maybe this 90 degree weekend will draw something out.
'Swazi Princess' Iris is open today, but her flower stalk is so short this year that if she weren't living right on the edge of the iris patch, I probably wouldn't have even noticed her.
~~~~~~~~
Ah, and so now it is raining again. It has been cold enough the last couple of days that the heater has come on in the mornings. I've been drinking hot tea like it's the last drink on Earth. I opened the bag of Black Cherry tea this morning. It's obvious that it's my favorite of the current lot since the bag hadn't been opened before now. I never want to waste the best of anything.
~~~~~~~~
Raining, raining, raining, so I am entertaining myself at:
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/
More things for my wish list: some Endless Summer Hydrangeas, 'Miniature Snowflake' Mock Orange... more blue Delphiniums... Phlox paniculata, Sweet William, more Johnny Jump-Ups... I wonder what happened to all of my JJU? I've only seen one plant and usually they are all over the place. Which reminds me, I need to work on getting them to grow in the crevice of my front porch again. ... Coral Bells for the hummingbird garden. Maybe I should move my Panorama Red Shades to the hummingbird garden this year. The birds would like it and the plant might be happier. It's getting lost among the Rudbeckia. ... Wild Ginger (Asarum) for the shade garden.
~~~~~~~~
I transplanted the eggplant (2nd row: left - Swallow, right - Fengyuan Purple; 4th row: left - Apple Green, right - Round Mauve), peppers (1st row: Romanian Rainbow; 5th row: left - two unknown peppers, right - Purple Beauty), Marigold 'Crackerjack' (carrots rounds 1 and 2, 2nd row of cabbage family bed, and along 'Black Valentine' and 'Yin Yang' Beans). I also transplanted the Galahad Delphiniums (in allium bed, iris bed, and Senior Prom Rose). I was glad to have found those delphs finally. I transplanted the lavender (along north edge of new edging along driveway and in the new bed area between the Sr Prom Rose and what used to be a patch of six Rudbeckias (it is now a patch of countless numbers of them).
June 7, 2008 (Saturday)
It is 67 degrees this morning and sunny, but hazy (8:30 AM).
The old peony by the rock wall and a couple of the bright pink modern peonies are open today.
Last night when I went to tuck in the chickens, I saw that the shepherd's hook that holds the fuchsia basket had popped one leg out of the ground and had leaned all the way over until the basket reached the ground. I need to do something about that today.
~~~~~~~~
I went into town last night and on the way back home I noticed a very short, but very beautiful white azalea in someone's front yard. It was whiter than snow. Something like that might be nice on the roadside side of the house. It would definitely stand out down there. Everyone's Rhododendrons look so nice this year, too. I wish ours had had a good life and was as full and bushy as everyone else's. My goal is to treat the little one on the north end in such a way that it grows up to look like everyone else's. I had whacked it back many years ago, with the point being to remove it because it was such a horrid specimen, but no one ever dug it up and this year it has a handful of buds on it. It needs some shaping, but maybe one day it could look nice. As for the one in front of the house... *sigh* I'd like to replace it with a better one or something else entirely.
~~~~~~~~
I have started the Painted Hills Sweet Corn, Wachichu Flint Flour Corn, Candy Roaster Winter Squash, and round 2 of the cabbage and broccoli. I don't know what happened to those last two. I was supposed to have started them a week ago, but I found the packets lying on the floor in the plant room and couldn't find any trays labelled indicating that I had actually sown them. Ugh. Anyway, all of those things have been moved outside to bask in the heat wave. It's 10:17 AM and it's already 83 degrees. UGH!
I moved the dahlia boxes, Chilean Jasmine, Heliotrope, and Brugmansia away from the dog room and into the yard. They would have baked alive if I'd left them where they were. The dahlias were already drooping.
Oh, so naturally I now find the broc and cabbage that I started a week ago, already germinated in their little trays. Oh, well, can anyone really ever have too much cabbage? I'm sure there can always be too much broc, but at least it is pretty.
~~~~~~~~
I've started the Sorghum, Scarlet Runner Beans, and Galeux d'Eysines. The only thing left for today is round 3 of carrots, round 2 of lettuce, and Mignonette. |
June 8, 2008 (Sunday)
It is 74 degrees and sunny (7:15 AM).
'John Kearney', 'Edith Wolford', and 'Play with Fire' Irises are open today. I kind of think that maybe those last two were open yesterday and I just didn't give it much thought.
I am thinking that I might not close the popholes on the coop for the next couple of nights. That way the chickens can let themselves out in the morning before it starts to get very warm in there, plus they will have a nice cross-draft in there during the night. It is already 70 degrees in there this morning.
Before the rains and hot weather kicked in, I thought the gardens looked pretty nice. But when I had to transplant the Galahad Delphiniums the other day and could barely find anywhere to step in the garden, I started to think that maybe things were getting out of hand. Looking around today, it all looks so overgrown, almost weedy. The plants have run amok. The Purple Coneflower is everywhere. The Rudbeckia is everywhere. It's insane. On top of that, my mower is still in the shop. My husband mowed another part of the yard yesterday, but the whole thing needs to be done, including what he did last week or whenever it was. The area by the mailbox and the daffodil lawn haven't even been mowed this year.
~~~~~~~~
Ick. On my second round of filling up the watering can using the rain pool, I saw the dead mouse floating in the pool. I just love having my hands down in the water when I see things like that. Oh, well, I don't think anything will ever top the time my friend and I were up to our waists in a river when we found something odd floating a few feet away from us. We went to check it out, poked it with a stick, and it turned out to be a drowned, skinned cat with its head cut halfway off.
On a better note, the Canterbury Bells have buds. From the looks of them, it seems like maybe the flowers will all be white. Not what I had in mind, but at least they won't clash with the house. I saw little hints of pink on the Kazanlik Rose buds. The purple Clematis has three flowers on it. That was a nice surprise to find when I went to fill the bird feeder. I trimmed the heads off the last of the tulips, or at least of what I could find. I think some are lost among the jungle of garden foliage. All three of the Filipendula came up. One was a bit droopy, so I watered them all, but I think I just did that a couple of days ago, too. It is the bake zone out there. Four of the six dinnerplate dahlias are up, too... some of everything... Yay!
We went to get the materials to make a screen door for the front door. That's my husband's project. Should be interesting.
Shasta Daisy 'Alaska'
'Swazi Princess' Iris
'Lady Friend' Iris
Weed in the Lilies |
June 9, 2008 (Monday)
It is 87 degrees (9 AM). Miserably hot and humid. I need to see if I can use the old screens and open some windows around here.
I think that 'Warrior King' Iris was open yesterday. ??? I am getting so confused. This happens every year. I have got to get those things labelled. I have to pick up metal plant tags this weekend. Simple as that. Today I see 'Sweet Musette' Iris.
I saw a very pretty butterfly, black with yellow spots, by the fern bed. I have killed so many lily beetles lately... so many yesterday or the day before that I switched to smushing them on the driveway instead of the front porch step. Today I was back to smushing them on the step for convenience, but one escaped. I just want to be done with them.
~~~~~~~~
Huh. I didn't know that 'Goldsturm' was an old flower. iCanGarden.com says it was introduced in Germany in the 1930s by Karl Foerster. I just bought seeds for it by chance in 2004. Once again, it just goes to show that I couldn't have avoided buying this place even if I had tried.
~~~~~~~~
I went out to take another photo of the old peony by the rock wall and decided to water the veggie beds first. I saw my first California Poppy flower of the season. Woohoo! I watered the hanging basket by the coop path. After I turned off the water, I saw the first Forget-Me-Not of the season. Sitting here now, I realize that I forgot to take a picture of the peony, and that was really the only reason I had gone out there. Ugh! It's too hot. I don't want to go back out there again right now. What I saw of the peony from afar looked a lot lighter than ALL of those other pics (long story... was trying to hunt it down online), so now I don't know what to think. Too hot to go see, and I am dying of curiosity.
~~~~~~~~
More possible wish list items: 'Buckeye Belle' Peony, 'Rubra Plena' Peony, 'Red Charm' Peony... I have no red flowers this year. Is that right? What an oversight. I only had Standing Cypress last year. Why is there just never any red in my gardens? 'Gold Dust' Tulips... Oh, there is the 'Panorama Red Shades' Monarda for reds, but I'm going to move that, maybe. I keep watering it, so we'll see what it does this year. Maybe it would like some cow pooh, or chicken pooh this winter. Maybe I could just move it to the downspout instead of the hummingbird garden. Course that won't be of any help if I keep the rain pool there.
~~~~~~~~
I need seed therapy. I'm looking at seeds online (too hot to do anything outside) and I'm afraid I could easily rebuild my seed stash to right where it used to be, or worse. What is my problem?! ........ Seriously, what is wrong with me? I've bookmarked 99 items so far and I haven't even made it to the vegetable seeds. I haven't even finished looking over the annuals, for that matter. ........ Okay, I'm going to pretend it's not my fault. Maybe one of the ghosts just really, really wants something and I haven't been able to produce it for them yet. LOL.
I have neglected to mention that the leeks that overwintered have scapes on them. How exciting is that?! I didn't even mulch them over the winter.
Well, I've gone through the whole site finally and managed to add only another 46 types of seed to my bookmarks. Now for the fun part of figuring out what I really want/need. Maybe I should work backwards, starting with the veggies.
~~~~~~~~
Not too bad. I've narrowed it down to 64 things I'd like to get sooner rather than later. Now to make the really hard decisions...
~~~~~~~~
Ta-dah! I got it down to 19 things. I'll think about ordering tomorrow. That would give me time to decide if I want to ditch anything else. |
June 10, 2008 (Tuesday)
It is 88 degrees and very humid (9 AM). There is dew on the grass and the air smells of clover.
'Aphrodisiac' Iris is open this morning. The big news of the day is that the first Kazanlik Rose blossom is open. It is way down low and back behind the rose, so between that and the thorns all over the place, it was really hard to get a whiff of it, but it reminded me of rose-scented body powder. Mmmmm. The shocking discovery of the day was that some of the Evening Stock is in bloom now. HOORAY!! Now I cannot wait for nightfall. I had no idea so much of it had come up in that one spot.
'Aphrodisiac' and 'Sweet Musette' Irises
Old Peony
I forgot to mention that some of my Swiss Chard died over the last couple of days. Too hot I guess. I need to get out there this morning and put some straw on the beds.
~~~~~~~~
Major panic attack. I finally figured out which seeds I wanted to order... got my list down to 9 types of seeds, if you can believe that... and had to get my purse out because I haven't memorized my new cc number yet. I could not find my purse to save my life. My son and I looked everywhere. I've had a very bad habit lately of putting my purse on top of my husband's car - either before or after going somewhere - so that I can go check the chickens to make sure they are doing okay on water. One day, I left my purse on the sidewalk and wouldn't have even remembered that except that I happened to go in through that door at the end of the day. Thank goodness we almost never have visitors up here. So anyway, I called my husband to see if he'd seen my purse in his car, but I got waylaid by a voicemail message that I couldn't really listen to because I was so distraught, only to finally call my husband and have him not answer the phone. All I could picture was my purse lying beside the road somewhere and a major case of identity theft on the way. So yet another hunt through the house with my son, frantically looking everywhere, practically throwing things out of my way to look underneath everything, and finally found it... practically in plain view on my husband's chess table. I almost collapsed from relief. Let me tell you, all the joy was gone when I finally sat back down to enter my cc number to order those seeds. I thought I was going to have some sort of stroke from the high heat - 94 degrees outside, 80 degrees inside - my arms and legs dead weights from the fear, stress, and waning adrenalin rush.
UGH. But I ordered my seeds. *grin* I settled for the following: Fenbow Nutmeg Clove (Dianthus caryophyllus), Ten Week Stocks (Matthiola incana), Night Phlox (Zaluzianskya capensis), Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana), Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata), Flowering Kale (Crambe cordifolia), Black Tuscany Kale (aka Palm Cabbage or Nero di Toscana), Kalibos Cabbage (a purple heirloom), and Lemon Grass. That order also comes with free packs of Agastache anisata and Milk Chocolate Digitalis, plus some unspecified free packet of seeds. As far as the perennials go, I'm going to be pushing my zone with some of them, but that should still be fun.
|
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 05:39 am: |   |
Wow, from 99 to 19?!! That is pretty good in my book :)
whoa!
...honestly? no!!! lol
does your son ever look at you sort of funny when you get a little crazy like this?! lol, j/k....ugh, I hate that feeling you get when you think you have lost something. I couldn't even begin to know the panic feeling of identity theft. I am glad you found your purse! |
LOL. Actually, it was down from 145... the 99 I'd already found, then the other 46 I found when finishing the annuals and browsing the vegetables. 
Yeah, me neither. LOL!
Thankfully, he is very understanding. He ran around hunting like a nut case, too, because he knew it was important, probably from the look on my face and tone of my voice. LOL. Ugh. That was awful. Remember that joke about the woman carrying the TV remote in her purse? Well, something similar had crossed my mind... keeping the cordless phone in my purse so that I could just hit the pager feature and hunt my purse down by following the beeping noise. LOL. I thought of those clapper keys, too, or whatever they're called. The ones that make noise so that you can find them when they're lost. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 08:44 am: | |
Awh, what a sweetie. I bet he was very happy once mom was done panicking ;-)
I can see you doing that, but you would have everything hooked up to the clapper & then everything would be going off at once. You would need one with a different chime for everything! *snort*, lol  |
| Stormdancer Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 09:45 am: | |
Hey DJ...I was reading in Flowerfreak's journal you are looking at ferns...I'd be happy to send you a few of the wild varieties that grow in my yard...I've pulled a few and sent them through the mail before and they did ok. Let me know if you think you are interested...
Glad to know I'm not the only one who needs a thingy on my keys so I can locate them!! Usually know where my keys are, its now become my cellphone that I have to call to locate!! Of course if it can't get a signal, it won't ring and in my house, it never seems to get a signal...such is life...hahaha |
That idea paints a better picture than tying a string from each of my fingers to each thing I'm apt to lose. LOL!!
LOL! I'd need a control panel with one switch for each item equipped with a chime. The place would look like a cockpit. LOL!
LOL. That's exactly why I specified the cordless phone instead of the cell phone. My cordless phone works all the way out to the chicken coop, but the cell phone coverage is hit or miss, even inside the house. LOL.
Dur. I'm glad you mentioned that because I hadn't even thought of digging up some of the ferns from our woods, or even out of the yard since my husband is forever mowing them down. Thanks for the offer, though. LOL.  |
| Stormdancer Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 11:58 am: | |
You are very welcome DJ...the ferns here are trying to take over and don't seem to mind being mown over...lol...they just come back that much thicker the next time!
Have fun traipsing around collecting your wild fern...hope they do well as "domesticated" ferns for you...lol |
Thanks. Me, too. I'm thinking I might have better luck with them than with those bushy Boston Ferns I'm forever buying. And killing. LOL! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 01:32 pm: | |
LOL |
June 11, 2008 (Wednesday)
It is 72 degrees and sunny this morning (8 AM).
It rained last night and it feels so cool outside. What a nice change. The veggie beds look a little wet from the rain, but aside from that and where I watered the flowerbeds just before I came in for the night, it looks very dry out there. That seems odd since it sounded like a lot of rain and the thunder and lightning was really something.
It was so hot upstairs last night that as soon as I went up there to go to bed, I got a huge headache. I decided to sleep downstairs on the living room floor instead and my headache disappeared as soon as I reached the far end of the living room. It was a little creepy in the living room at first because I couldn't see any flashes of lightning, but I could hear the thunder through the chimney. I didn't know that's what it was at first, though. It sounded more like the footsteps of T Rex in the scene from Jurassic Park when the water (or was it coffee?) in the cup on the door of the Jeep began to ripple from the pounding footsteps. Just a low, slow booooooooooom. Creepy.
~~~~~~~~
'Cajun Rhythm' Iris is open today.
~~~~~~~~
For comparison with previous days, it is 81 degrees (9:30 AM).
~~~~~~~~
Mother Nature is funny. She has a way of doing things that I would never think of, like plopping this Rhododendron blossom right in the middle of a variegated hosta. It looks like some exotic plant from a tropical rainforest.
Mother Nature's Artistry
The breeze is blowing today, so I have the front door open because the bugs won't come in with the breeze going. I can hear the trees rustling. It sounds so nice and relaxing, sort of like the fan going in the living room. The view out the front door is very pretty from my desk, but the camera has an odd way of making the forest look much closer than the few hundred feet away that it really is.
Through the Front Door
~~~~~~~~
I spread some new straw on the veggie beds, watered them, and weeded as I went along. All in all, the weeding of the raised veggie beds is really simple. Not much to do, even when I've put it off for awhile. After that, I was taking pictures of the flowerbeds when I saw a really pretty flower. I was so shocked to see something red in the garden until I realized it was probably a Tassel Flower that had come up. Wrong. Shockingly, it was the Maltese Cross (Lychnis). To think that all of this time I had been thinking it was a weed that I might pull once I decided whether or not it had pretty enough flowers to warrant keeping it. Can't believe I could have accidentally pulled my Lychnis if I'd been impatient. I only had one Lychnis flower last year, I think, but this year it is so bushy that I just assumed it was a weed. HAHAHA!
Veggie Beds
Maltese Cross
I'm not sure that the camera caught its true color. It seemed more red when I was out there.
~~~~~~~~
Whew. I finally put some of the old storm window screens in some of the windows. I started in the attic. The sweat was pouring off me while I worked on the first window. It is so hot up there, even though it's only 85 degrees outside today. When I got to the second window and opened it, the breeze coming in from that shady north side of the house felt sooooo good. By the time I got out of the attic, I was so hot and miserable that even the temperature on the second floor felt nice and cool to me for once. What an oven the attic is. Whew. Next I hung some of the draperies and sheers back up on the second floor to help keep the sun out. Then I put two screens up in our bedroom. What a difference that is making already. Then I moved the light-blocking draperies that I'd just hung into my son's bedroom because it's really hot in there, due to being on the west side of the house. I think that once we get a night of cool breezes going through the attic and the second floor, things might not be so bad upstairs during the day. That is my hope anyway. Not to mention that I might be able to sleep in my own bed tonight. Now it's just a matter of whether or not I ought to put up one more screen and put the giant fan in the same window to suck the heat out of the upstairs each evening before bedtime.
The neighbors probably think the heat has baked my brain. Just before I started the screen project, I went out to the chicken coop with an oversized coffee mug. It's what I fill with cold water to pour into Roo's bowl. HAHA. |
June 12, 2008 (Thursday)
It is 70 degrees and sunny (8 AM).
I have one 'Black Prince' Snapdragon blossom open this morning. It smells sweet. It is so fantastic that they overwintered. ... I have two more Kazanlik Rose blossoms this morning, with loads more on the way. I had collected the first blossom yesterday. The petals just fell off in my hand. I gave them to my son and he thought they smelled so good. He saved them in a little metal box and gave Daddy a smell when he got home. I wasn't sure that my husband was going to take his nose back out of the box. ... I saw several buds on the American Beauty Rose and a few on Moonstone. This is going to be a nice year for roses, I think. ... The Perennial Peas are forming buds, so I can't wait to see that, and it looks like I will have lots of Canterbury Bell flowers. I can't wait for that, either. ... The lilac beside the office window is just about finished blooming. I can barely smell it now, which is sad, but it gives me a chance to smell the irises without stuffing my nose inside them.
Kazanlik Rose
~~~~~~~~
I fed and watered the veggies. The organic soymilk had expired, so I gave them that, too. Then I spread the last bale of straw on the paths to help keep the weeds down.
~~~~~~~~
Most of the lavender and the calendula that wasn't planted in the veggie beds have been eaten by something. That is annoying. ... Except for two plants, the extras of my squash and zucchini seedlings that didn't fit in the veggie beds have also been eaten. ... I noticed a self-sown Foxglove getting ready to bloom. I seem to have done a pretty good job of keeping them from spreading all over. I've only seen a couple of plants this year.
~~~~~~~~
The Kazanlik Rose has popped open. That was a surprise. The flowers aren't particularly spectacular to look at, but they sure smell good.
Kazanlik Rose this Afternoon
Closer Shot
At any rate, the Veronica opened a few days ago. The recently planted Filipendula has had alternating days of droopiness. I should spread some more mulch out there. One of the slacker dinnerplate dahlias finally came up. I have moved my dahlia boxes over to the rain pool. They were getting a bit of shade in the afternoon and I really want them to bloom sooner rather than later. They seem to really like being in the window boxes. I think that will be the wave of the future around here. So much easier and much more expedient. I have removed some items from my list of things to plant, mainly in the veggie department. With the weather being the way it is already, I figure I'd rather sacrifice up front by not planting any more seeds rather than sacrificing living plants later. I want it to be next spring already. I want a do-over. I just don't know how I'm going to get from here to there. I don't feel like I can survive another winter in this place. I have more pumpkin seeds to start and I don't even want to do that, but I have to. I need a break from this place and this way of life. A long, extended break.
~~~~~~~~
My Oriental Lilies are already forming buds, including the Stargazers by the front walk. They don't usually bloom until the end of July and into August. This seems really early for buds. ... I was shocked to see an open Canterbury Bell. Hooray! My first ever. It's a white one. ... I have two Firecracker Flowers in bloom. I think I've only ever seen one bloom around here before.
Generic Purple Clematis
A Nice Photo of 'Swazi Princess' Iris
|
| Flowerfreak Posted on Friday, June 13, 2008 - 12:37 pm: | |
huh, that is weird, but it does look pretty :)
Your pictures are pretty. The orange on the house keeps growing on me more & more. Your place is looking so good!
Wow! Your raised beds are doing so good too. It makes me wish I would have done the raised beds like I was going to do to begin with. I might of actually had something grow if I did them instead, lol.
So is the Generic Purple Clematis growing up the rock wall to where you view it from the road, or your house...or neither?
You have dahlias in window boxes?
I know what you mean. My bedroom is on the 3rd floor and it is an oven too. When I get home from work every day, I normally change out of my work clothes & have to get clothes out of my walk in closets, and those are even hotter, not having any ventilation at all. I always dread opening the doors to them b/c I'm instantly hit with a heat wave. Speaking of sleeping in your own bed, I usually end up sleeping in the spare bedroom on the 2nd floor. What a difference 1 story makes in regards to temperature.
Aww, that is cute.
I have never heard of Kazanlik Rose. That is very pretty. How tall does that get? |
LOL. Neither. It is at the head of the driveway, over by the new feeder. I tend to only notice it when I look at the feeder, on my way back from the chicken coop. If the three clems there start to put on a better show each year, it should be obvious to anyone coming up the driveway. That was my original plan, anyway. LOL.
I call them window boxes because that is the general shape, but they are way too big for putting on the house. I'll post a pic after a bit.
That is so funny. That is just like the other day when I put the screens in the windows. It made a huge difference in cooling off the bedroom, but when I opened up my dresser drawer that evening to get something clean out to wear, everything in the drawer was all warm. Yuck.
Ugh. I'm surprised ours aren't like that. Yay, something good around here for once! LOL.
It says 3 to 5 ft, but it has a tendency to shoot up and then curve over and down, so the canes seem rather long without the plant being particularly tall. At its high point, mine comes up to my chest. |
June 13, 2008 (Friday)
It is 62 degrees and sunny (8:45 AM). This temperature feels much better.
I watered the pumpkin trays, the seedling stand, some roses and miscellaneous flowers, and the dahlia boxes. More Canterbury Bells are open this morning (white). A couple more Maltese Cross flowers have opened. They really stand out in the garden.
~~~~~~~~
My husband did some weed whacking. I reset the shepherd's hook for the Fuchsia basket and pulled some weeds. The American Beauty Rose is going to have several roses this year, with any luck. The Rose of Sharon is blocking my view of chicken land from the office. I suppose it should be added to my list of things to move.
~~~~~~~~
My seeds came today, so I direct sowed some Black Tuscany Kale, Kalibos Cabbage, Pink Surprise Calendula (freebie), Sweet Cicely, Ten Week Stock, Fenbow Nutmeg Clove Dianthus, and Night Phlox. I also started some seeds in baggies: Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia), Agastache (freebie), Lemon Grass, and Flowering Kale. That just leaves the 'Milk Chocolate' Foxgloves, but that was a freebie, so I think I'll save that for next spring.
~~~~~~~~
I labelled some of my irises, temporarily. I need more plant tags. Hopefully I'll be able to go out tomorrow and buy some. I think I'll divide the irises next year rather than this year. I think they have enough space to handle one more year where they are.
~~~~~~~~
The chickens escaped. ALL of them. I have no idea how that happened. I think Hawk probably sneaked past his indoor pen and bashed open the main door with his big body, then the girls must have followed, with Roo most likely climbing the pen gate. Roo and Hawk were duking it out in front of the coop, four of the ladies were at the near end of the coop path standing lookout, teeny tiny Noodle was lost among the cabbages, and the Easter Egger - the one who is always the escapee - was minding her own business inside of the girls' pen. What a mess. Some of my peppers were completely trashed, which figures since I had just planted the Sweet Cicely beside them because the pepper plants made nice markers. Some poopla-people!
June 14, 2008 (Saturday)
It is 69 degrees and partly cloudy (8 AM).
I meant to mention yesterday that some of my Crocosmia has finally started poking up. Unfortunately, all but one of my Ranunculus has been eaten in the same spot. I only have two lavender seedlings left. All of the other ones I started and transplanted have been eaten. My heirloom Winsome Dahlia is forming a bud. WOOHOO!! Another Canterbury Bell has buds on it and it looks like it's going to be pink. Ick. Hopefully that won't look too girlie.
I watered some of the veggies, the seedling stand, the potted plants, the Clematis, and some of the things around the rhubarb patch. The generic purple Clem has reached a new record: 8 flowers at once. What a nice change. The Butterfly Bush has several stalks that have come up from the base. They are at least a foot high now. I hope they get flowers this year. I hope they aren't pink. Something has been eating the Galahad Delphinium seedlings that I planted. Aren't those poisonous? If so, I hope it's the chipmunks. I see their holes everywhere in the yard and gardens. I am going to look for things to kill 'munks while I am at the tractor store today. I've had enough of them.
~~~~~~~~
I picked up some liquid fertilizer and fed my pumpkin seedlings. I potted up two types of pumpkins and the Candy Roaster Squash. Then I transplanted the Scarlet Runner Beans. I put some around the trellis by the old rhubarb patch and the others around the shepherd's hook by the chicken coop path. I fully expect everything to be devoured by chipmunks and mice. Which reminds me... I forgot to pick up any chipmunk deterrents at the tractor store. I am having trouble identifying some of my pumpkin seedlings. The labels disappeared. I know one batch is one of the biggies, but I don't know which batch, and I have no clue what the other two batches are. Did I plant two batches of something? Are some of these just extras of what I potted up last time and have only just now sprouted? What were they? Only one of my hardshell gourds sprouted. I think I may be short some pumpkins somehow. I am going to have to count my pumpkins and start some extras by at least Monday.
I almost forgot to mention the exciting news of the day. I have my first pea flowers. Hooray! They are the Wando Peas. I can't wait for fresh snacks!
~~~~~~~~
I have my first two American Beauty Rose blossoms this evening. WOOHOO! This is its first year blooming. Even though they are pink, they are a very bright and cheerful pink. They have a nice shape and smell so good, like a bag of tea leaves.
American Beauty Rose
California Poppy
June 15, 2008 (Sunday)
It is 64 degrees, grey, and sort of misty this morning (8:15 AM). It rained a bit last night. I only checked one rain gauge this morning and it said 0.1" of rain. I'll have to check the other one. The one I checked might have been a bit crooked.
I think almost all of the American Beauty Rose buds are open today. That is several flowers. They don't smell quite as good as they did in the sunshine yesterday evening. One of the biggest flowers was snapped at the neck, so I brought it in. I'd like to know what happened to it. I hope nothing was scoping out the chicken coop last night.
~~~~~~~~
I checked the other rain gauge and it also says 0.1" of rain. On my way back, I examined the runner beans by the shepherd's hook and sure enough, something has lopped off most of the sprouts. Not what I expected, but still the same end result. |
June 16, 2008 (Monday)
It is 60 degrees and grey (7:15 AM).
We were out driving yesterday and the Mountain Laurel is in full swing around here. I saw tons of it growing at the edges of woods. Several people have some very nice dogwoods in bloom still, too. I'd like to add some of those to the yard. Not so much the Mountain Laurel, unless I can get a bigger one next time that can survive its first winter here.
~~~~~~~~
I weeded the bed to the left of the coop path, then edged it all around with some of the rocks from the path, reset the rocks that were standing upright beside the path, and spread cedar mulch on the bed. I found a few more Papaver atlanticum while I was weeding in there, plus noticed that the biggest one actually has a bud on it. That is exciting. I didn't think they would bloom in the first year.
~~~~~~~~
I have a couple of tomato flowers. Finally. My spinach looks like it's getting ready to form flower buds. That's not what I had planned. I have my first Perennial Pea flower of the year. I bought two red 'Royal Mix' Gerbera Daisies and a 'Red Spread' Lantana. I bought more mulch and finished mulching the bed to the left of the coop path, then mulched around the dinnerplate dahlias on the right side of the path. I went to check the Filipendula and one had been snipped to the ground. Figures. So I built cages for the three of them, watered them, and covered the dahlias beside the coop path with some deer net. I did buy the chipmunk deterrent today and set four of them around the place. We shall see if it works. The peaches are big enough that I don't have to squint to see them among the leaves, so now it's a race between them and the plight of the chipmunks. The Lamb's Ears have flowers, the first Moonstone Rose is open, and the white Canterbury Bell is going crazy. That's very pretty. I'd like to find a seed pack of just white Canterbury Bells.
'Red Spread' Lantana and 'Royal Mix' Gerbera Daisies
'Royal Mix' Gerbera Daisies
'Red Spread' Lantana
Maltese Cross
Canterbury Bells
'Jackpot' Tanacetum, Blue Flax, and Moonstone Rose
American Beauty Rose |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 08:26 am: | |
As always, thanks for sharing your pretty pictures with us |
