Viewing Terry's Garden Diary: 2006 Diary

Monday, October 30, 2006 Well, you can tell when I've not been as focused on my own garden as I'd like to be - there's definitely a "gap" in my postings. Today's a wonderfully warm fall day - perfect for hauling leaves from the yard to the compost heap and cleaning out the fish ponds. I hauled [who knows how many????] loads of leaves to the compost heap. The pond was a bit cool, but not bad with my muck boots. (My hands were colder than my feet! Got it mucked out, and the big pump's filter cleaned out, which I"ll leave running for another few weeks and then switch to the air stone bubbler for the rest of the winter. I started putting some bird netting over the pond, but ran out of time and material - will try tomorrow or later in the week. Sunday, October 29, 2006 Tony put down 100 lbs. of CGM on the front and back yards - should be great timing: the cool season grass has sprouted and it's supposed to rain on Tuesday. Monday, August 28, 2006 Rain! We got two good showers today - second one was a deluge that dropped a good inch in about half an hour. Sunday, August 27, 2006 Planted seeds of Chioggia beets, Ruby chard, Bloomsdale spinach, Kohlrabi, Flowering Broccoli and Purple Top/White Globe turnips, and watered them in, along with a deep watering of the other veggies. Saturday, August 26, 2006 Hot - again. Muggy, still. Staked up several of the dahlias that were leaning and listing from the weight of their stems and flowers. Watered the beds near the back walk and around the GH - will water the veggie garden tomorrow if we don't get any rain. Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Divided the pulmonaria seedlings I started this spring and have kept in the holding bed - they should be good-sized in time for next spring's plant sale! Off to pick more okra and do a little handweeding in the cutting bed. Tuesday, August 22, 2006 Rain this morning, *slightly* cooler temperatures today afterwards. Picked okra and weeded some of the vegetable garden. Saturday, August 19, 2006 Another day of heat and humidity. Dragged the sprinkler around and watered the heucheras and hostas along the back sidewalk and bed around the little pond, plus the new grass next to the driveway and the shade garden. Hoping for some rain - and soon! Friday, August 18, 2006 Hot and muggy is still the name of the game. Staked up the tomato plants (again) and came in a sweaty, smelly chartreuse-green mess - ewwww! Thursday, August 17, 2006 Picked tomatoes and okra, and put up 11 pints of salsa, and two pints of pickled okra (more okra is on its way, so hopefully more pickles to follow!) A few green tomatoes got acidentally picked, so they became fried green 'maters along with sweet corn from the garden. One small step for farmers, one gigantic leap for me to actually serve corn (usually the racoons didn't get to it first!) Friday, August 11, 2006 Cooler today - high in the upper 80s, but very muggy. Rained last night and early this morning, so that meant some seirous weeding got done today. The loose soil is so much easier to work in, versus that hot, dry parched earth. Cleared the sprouts from the Bradford pear stump, plus all the morning vine and "creeping cucumber" (Melothria) - I hadn't realized any of this plant was still in my yard (thought I pulled up the only and only vine a couple years ago...) I then worked my way through the big borders, yanking out everything that wasn't supposed to be in there. I can see where I need to use the Roundup on the borders of the borders (*smile*) again, and plan on another yard or so of mulch before winter arrives. Thursday, August 10, 2006 Hot again (what else is new???) Trimmed the germander (Teucrium) around the front fountain,and watered the containers on the front porch. By mid-afternon, I watered the veggie garden, especially the "eleventh hour" plants I started a few days ago. A thunderstorm came in late around sundown and gave us a nice sprinkling. Monday, August 7, 2006 My fingers are on fire!!!! Not literally, but they sure do feel like it. I chopped up some jalapenos and other hot peppers without benefit of latex gloves today....not a smart thing to do. But the good news is I now have 6 quarts and 3 pints of "Rotel" tomatoes for this winter (and my contact lenses are out, and can stay out until tomorrow!) My limas and green beans are peeking up, as is the new beds of corn. One hill of squash has germinated...I'm anxiously waiting for the others to follow suit. In my flats, the Roquette lettuce is up...I hope the others germinate! In other garden news, the okra is blooming, the tomatoes are still putting out, and we *might* (crossing fingers and toes) actually get sweet corn this year - several ears are just about ripe and ready to pick. Friday, August 4, 2006 Rain today - all afternoon, really. A nice big downpour, followed by a couple hours of steady drizzle. It was just what we needed. I picked tomatoes just before the clouds rolled in, and canned a dozen pints of salsa to the sound of raindrops hitting the roof. I also placed several pansy & viola seeds in the fridge - need to tie a string around my finger to remind me to take them out in a couple weeks. Thursday, August 3, 2006 Mission accomplished! The Roundup (over 2 gallons of mixed-up solution) was applied to the paths between the raised beds. By the time I went out to water the new plantings, I could see the grass already starting to pale and turn tan. I'll most likely have to re-treat the paths in another 5-10 days (once I can start to see stubborn green areas), and of course, the trick will be to keep it spot-treated throughout the fall months. Wednesday, August 2, 2006 I'm nursing a wasp sting from earlier today. (Haven't been stung in YEARS, except by sweat bees....yowsers, did that hurt. If the neighbors WEREN'T awake by the time I got stung, they were as soon as it happened. ;o) The Benadryl I slammed down (I keep it in the kitchen to stave off hive and asthma attacks) is taking effect, which means I'll be a little sluggish for several hours. Oh well! It took two days and a few gallons of sweat, but my vegetable garden is reasonably weed-free, as is the adjacent cut-flower border (except for stray bits of my neighbor's bermudagrass that comes under the fence and into the bed and I can't always get enough force to rip it all the way out.) Now to spray roundup on the paths between my vegetable beds and apply new mulch! Tuesday, August 1, 2006 Ripped out the rest of the weeds from the long beds today, then planted squash and pumpkins, corn, beans (lima and stringless green bush beans), yellow squash and cucumbers. Monday, July 31, 2006 WHY oh WHY did I let those weeds take over some of my vegetable garden? But if I want fall veggies (and some 11th hour plantings of short-season corn and beans), it's now or never - order must be restored out there. Direct-seeding today: Squash & Pumpkins - Cushaw, Jarrahdale, Bush Delicata and a Stokes punkin' variety. Plus late crops of lima beans, green beans. The Chioggia beets and ruby chard, parsnips and turnips may go in by the end of the week, or I may hold off another few weeks on them. Sowing seeds in flats for setting out later: About a dozen different varieties of lettuce, spinach, and leeks. As soon as the gardening is done, then it'll be salsa time. The 'maters are ripening fast and furious, so I predict by the week's end, the canning supplies will be down from the attic, and my will be kitchen steaming and boiling. Saturday, July 29, 2006 RAIN!!!!!! Finally - the greatest sound you can hear is that low grumble of thunder as a gentle rain falls on this poor dry, parched earth. Thursday, July 27, 2006 Potted up the final (???) group of co-op plants I purchased. I'll hold them all in pots until mid-September, when they can be settled in their new homes with plenty of time to grow before winter arrives. The pond was down a good 4-6" so I ran water for half an hour to refill it at least part-ways. Saturday, July 22, 2006 A break from the heat - finally! Intermittent showers throughout the night (strong winds, but who's complaining???) were a welcome sound. Today's temperatures are a good 10-15 degrees cooler than the last week's average. highs. Got the daylily bed "groomed" again - about 90% of the spent scapes are gone (the rest need to dry or I'll relent and take the pruners to them. Up next: the hostas along the front walk - time to get those blooms trimmed off! Thursday, July 20, 2006 It is hot - again. And no chance of rain today, it doesn't appear. My second Gilbert Wild order arrived yesterday, so I braved the heat this morning to tuck them into their spots. Sunday, July 16, 2006 Planted five new daylilies, three new pulmonarias, a japanese fern, and potted up two heucheras to set out later. Watered all the containers and the new plantings. Friday, July 14, 2006 Returned home to a pretty well maintained garden ;o) Also had several new plants awaiting my attention upon my return. Will plant them out ASAP this weekend. Friday, July 14, 2006 Returned home to a pretty well maintained garden ;o) Also had several new plants awaiting my attention upon my return. Will plant them out ASAP this weekend. Wednesday, July 5, 2006 Rain....lots of rain. Started sometime early this morning, and continued on and off most of the day. We got an inch or more, judging by the pond's "before and after" depth. We sure needed it, so I won't complain about losing a day of weeding. Tuesday, July 4, 2006 Hot and pretty humid. We worked to get the carport cleaned up (yay!) and then we put down the corn gluten meal in the front and back yards. $8 worth of fertilizer did all of the front and east side yards, and about half the back yard. Will get more in September and do a fall treatment, then again next March. Monday, July 3, 2006 Hot again today - watered the grass seed and the newly-planted/transplanted items. Tomorrow, I need to hit the veggie garden early and hard to get it weeded and under control before I leave it for a week. Saturday, July 1, 2006 A hard-working Saturday! We got the landscape edging moved and shaped around the new sidewalk, re-planted some of the Liriope, then scattered grass seed on the bare soil areas. I also seized the opportunity to clear the huge Salvia forskaaholi from the small pond area - they were crowding the already-narrow path, and just aren't well suited for this rather shady area. I have plenty of Heucheras and Tiarellas to replace them and fill in the area to create a tapestry of various foliage colors and patterns. We then finished the paved seating pad area near the big pond. It looks great - only took us four years to do! Once that was completed, the guys leveled the curved bench around the tree (It had sunk and tilted forward gradually over the past few years.) We then removed the reel and "innards" from the old hose reel cart, and used the shell to hide the self-winding hose reel - it fits perfectly, and looks much nicer than having the hose setting out there. I dug up one of the big original hostas in the shady garden, and replaced it with a silvery, upright hosta which should complement the Brunnera's foliage, and not crowd the pulmonarias (several new ones are going to replace the 'Oriental Limelight' artemisia. Planted the Tatting Fern from Park's, moved several hostas, and pulled out most of the japanese anemones (they were crowding the walkway, and were too big for the area.) Also cut back the foliage on the bleeding hearts, leaving some for photosynthesis and nutrients to the roots, but it really tidied up the bed, and will give the Japanese Painted Ferns and hostas more "breathing room." Friday, June 30, 2006 Hot, hot, hot. Ugh. Did the final cleanup on the DL bed (at least for now - more moving and tidying will happen when the rest of the clumps are done blooming.) Also cleaned out the big pond's pumps and bog filter, then planted the XPardancanda in the space between the Dahlias and the cutting garden. Thursday, June 29, 2006 Very warm today. Finished work on the daylily bed (a few more to do once they finish blooming, but all the Gilbert Wild DL's are planted, along with 'Orange Crush' and 'Vols', and the bulk of the rearranging is done. Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Started the "rearranging" effort on the daylily bed to redistribute some of the existing DL's so they aren't grouped together, and introduce more named varieties into the bed. 'Therese Bugnet' is finally breaking dormancy (I was really starting to wonder!!!!!) Saturday, June 24, 2006 Rainy today - showers started around 7 this morning, and continued for an hour or longer, then drizzled on and off all day. Between yesterday afternoon and today, we've gotten a good 1-2" of rain, judging by the ponds' overflowing status ;o) Took advantage of the saturated soil to pull bermudagrass out of the rose bed (thankfully there wasn't much) and some stragglers out of the blueberry bed. The roundup we put down Thursdsay evening is taking an obvious toll on the garden paths - yay! Will plan on getting mulch early next week. Thursday, June 22, 2006 Hotter and muggier than yesterday - ewwwww! Spent a couple hours weeding the asparagus and blueberries; I think I lost a few quarts of sweat in the process. We may get rain late tonight or tomorrow (good chance tomorrow) so will try to get gardening stuff done as early as possible. Wednesday, June 21, 2006 Hot AND muggy - ugh. Got some more first-blooms on the hems, this morning while it was still *relatively* cool; got the Azaleas fertilized and watered in late afternoon. Tuesday, June 20, 2006 Straightened out more of the Hem bed (at least on paper) and got more of them ID'd (matched them up to the named varieties I planted); and more of them are now catalogued with photos. Planted the new (replacement) 'Girard's Crimson' Azalea this afternoon. Hot today, but a t'storm moved in around 5:30 so we got some rain (which unfortunately added to the humidity...sigh. Sunday, June 18, 2006 Rain - finally! A good rain, too - just what we needed. (I figured we'd get it as long as I spent all weekend watering, which I did....lol.) Saturday, June 17, 2006 Very warm again today. Watered the daylily bed and the annuals planted in beds around the GH, then did a quick watering of the tomato plants then weeded the tomato beds. Instead of trying to weed the paths, I'm going to use Roundup as soon as I'm sure it'll stay dry, then top them with fresh mulch. (early next week, I hope!) Ordered some add'l shrubs and plants from Parks - I don't know how many of them are actually available: 1 Weigela Midnight Wine ($3.89) 1 Carolina Allspice ($4.99) 1 Flowering Quince Crimson and Gold ($1.99 - wow!) 1 Coral Bells Dolce Key Lime Pie ($3.18; thought I ordered this last time, but it never showed up...) 1 Tatting Fern Frizelliae ($3.89) 3 Pink Lily-of-the-Valley ($4.17) Friday, June 16, 2006 Long week, and not as much gardening as I would have liked, but VBS and first swim meet of the season took priority. I did get some watering and weeding done today. Despite my efforts to kill off all the poor ferns and native plants in my woodland garden, it seems some of them are more stubborn than I, and are persevering. So I pulled out gobs of nasty creeping charlie from around them, and will get the rest out as soon as we get a rain. It's actually kind of exciting to think these beds might be maturing into something worth taking care of. Poor things - they've survived a couple years of mostly benign neglect, they probably won't know what to do if I start actually tending them. Wednesday, June 14, 2006 Cleaned the pond filters (again), and it might be wishful thinking, but I think the ponds are actually starting to clear up. Tuesday, June 13, 2006 Put in my new Corylus avellana 'Contorta' (yep, a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick - woohoo!) and 'Blanc Double de Coubert' rose, both from Park's Wholesale, looked very healthy when they arrived. Saturday, June 10, 2006 Hot, hot, hot. And muggy. Watered the beds along the backside of the house and the east-facing bed, plus all containers. Hopefully we'll get a day of rain next week, or else I'll be doing the same thing again. Friday, June 9, 2006 Look what I found! Awwwwww.....this is the first little guy or gal to hatch, out of the five eggs the bluebird mama laid. Click to view Friday, June 9, 2006 "Deep-cleaned" the pond and filters, which means (of course) now it's murky again for a while. The sludge buildup in the bog filter (just since 5/31!) was amazingly nasty - when I stopped the pump and let the water drain, the sludge on top of the pea gravel was an inch or two thick - like picking up jello. Yuck. I'll need to closely watch both pumps in this pond, and clean them every other day for a week or so, until I can get this under control. Also mixed up some of the "Crystal pond" barley stuff, and added it to the pond (another reason to keep a close eye on it.) Fertilized the pond plants, but I'm now out of fertilizer tabs, so I need to get some more ASAP. Thursday, June 8, 2006 What an exhausitng day, and yet very little was accomplished or so it seemed ;o) I broke up the dirt on the "front" side of the greenhouse (the side visible to anyone pulling up in our driveway) and raked it smooth(er) - a good rain should take care of any remaining chunks. Now to do the same to the backside and the other sidewall. Sigh.... Since we didn't get any rain last night, I watered the entire veggie garden and roses with the tractor sprinkler. Then I pulled weeds in three of the six tomato beds. Only four more to go, plus the peppers, plus the berries, plus the asparagus....ugh. I then put a small sprinkler on the new grass patches and gave each area a thorough soaking. The grass is doing VERY well - no sense in stressing it. I also got the big pond area completely decluttered - the old landscape edging is tucked in my GH for now; the extra pond liner is put away, as is the now-extra waterfall. Planted the siberian irises and put away all the buckets and shovels lying around - looks much better! Now to get the pond plants fertilized, the pump filters cleaned, and the veggie garden under control so I can turn my attention to the "woodland" garden - which currently resembles a weedpatch more than anything else. Wednesday, June 7, 2006 Warm - not unbearably humid though. High in the mid 80s, I think. Got a few to-do's knocked out - deadheaded the heucheras and hostas (around the small pond), got the shade cloth on the GH (finally); potted up 25 new plants from co-ops, and put the Crinums in an urn, and the variegated Kalimeris where the Crinums have sulked for four years. (What was I thinking? North side of the house - too much shade, too little protection in the winter - never bloomed. Probably won't bloom for another year, but at least now they *should* be a little happier in a full-sun home, and being moved to the GH for protection in the cold months.) For tomorrow: pond cleanup and fertilizing; deadheading and weeding front beds. Tuesday, June 6, 2006 Another warm day - high in the mid 80s. Sprayed the roses with "Serenade" brand Bacillus subtilis for the blackspot. In another week, I'll follow up with either baking soda/hort oil or a stronger fungicide (such as daconil), just depending on how the plants looks. Planted my two anaheim peppers and deadheaded the salvia; moved the 'Sunspot' Tiarella from next to the sidewalk to the bed around the small pond, where it'll get more shade (it was melting in the too-sunny area I planted it in.. Just before dark, I hurried and planted the rest of the vinca, purple bedding sage and dusty miller along the back of the greenhouse. (Good chance of rain tomorrow.) Monday, June 5, 2006 Warm today (but not too hot.) Planted 60 'Kathleen' Caladiums beneath the three maples in the front yard, and in the front bed around the "welcome" sign. Also went through the rose bed and deadheaded the spent blooms, then carefully removed all the dead leaves from the mulch, and did some light pruning; also added a sprinkling of alfalfa and epsom salts and lightly scratched it in around each plant. The blackspot has already reared its ugly head and nearly defoliated 'Reine des Violettes', so it's time to get some heavy-duty fungicide to beat it back, then switch to baking soda/oil/water to try to keep it at bay. Ordered a 'Blanc Double de Coubert' (rugosa rose) to take the place of one of the "wild pink" roses in the bed (those spread like weeds, and I've still got one going strong, so it'll be easy enough to get some rooted cuttings when I expand the bed. Sunday, June 4, 2006 Added a few remaining plant markers to the dahlias and my new (again) 'Therese Bugnet' rose, which has some leaf buds swelling - yea!!! A sudden thundershower came up late in the evening, which stopped my final hour of gardening time dead in its tracks. Ah well, the week's forecast looks pretty decent. I did notice several tomatoes need to be staked - definitely a to-do for this week. Saturday, June 3, 2006 Weeding - ugh. I got about half the encroaching bermudagrass pulled out of one of my big shrub borders - will finish the rest ASAP next week (then repeat the process on the two other beds.) Also time to start the alfalfa tea brewing cycle. I need to document the beds and set up a schedule for my roving tub o'brew. Friday, June 2, 2006 Rain - finally! Barely got the front yard mowed before a good thundershower moved in. I only wish I had moved my backside sooner this morning to get the rest of the dirt around the GH raked down while it was still dry (well, sort of dry anyway.) Ahhh well...we were starting to need a good rain, especially the new fescue areas of the lawn. And a break in the temps is nice, too. Thursday, June 1, 2006 Building a holding bed This is something I've wanted for a very long time, and I finally got it done. Here's how the bed looked after we cleared out the dirt down to a depth of about 8" (making it level with the grade, so drainage won't be an issue.) Click to view Thursday, June 1, 2006 Next step was to put down heavy-duty landscape fabric. It will allow water to pass through, but should help keep weeds out of the area. Click to view Thursday, June 1, 2006 I rolled under the edges of the landscape fabric, flush with the top of the bed, then stapled them in place. Click to view Thursday, June 1, 2006 The next step was adding soil conditioner to fill it up loosely. (But not too full, as I discovered when I started adding plants, which displaced a lot of the soil conditioner....) Click to view Thursday, June 1, 2006 And finally - the plants are tucked in up to their rims. They look a little wilty at the moment, but a quick shower and a few days of getting settled in will have them perked right up. Most of these will stay in this bed until next spring, when they'll be put out for sale. Click to view Thursday, June 1, 2006 Hot again but the rain finally came late in the day, breaking the heat but only raining for a few minutes. Before that happened, I managed to get the holding bed in and plants settled into it, then the first planting of corn and green beans in, along with the okra and luffa sponges. I had expanded the LA iris bed by about 6" all around, so I filled in the void with shredded magnolia leaves, topped with potting soil, fertilizer, and soil conditioner spread over all. The end result is good - the bed is closer to the size it needs to be; the plants have room to expand, and it looks better. (Need to get the seed pods trimmed off tomorrow, though.) Wednesday, May 31, 2006 Another VERY hot day. We removed the excess dirt from the pond area, and shoveled out the dirt from about two-thirds of the back side of the GH bed. This will be my new holding bed - I'll take some pictures as I put it in. Transplanted the 'Tout a Toi' dahlias (three) to the cutting garden/dahlia bed area, and watered them in well. Let's hope the heat breaks tomorrow, so they have slightly cooler temps to settle in by. Picked up two six packs each of two colors of vinca, some dark purple salvia and dusty miller to fill in the beds around the GH (at least the side facing the drivway, and the backside.) Planted most of them in today, but will need to do the backside tomorrow (if we don't get a bunch of rain overnight.) My 'Therese Bugnet' rose arrived today, so it went in as well. Planting corn, beans and okra tomorrow. Tuesday, May 30, 2006 Dahlias were planted under threat of rain (the sky turned dark, the thunder grumbled, and the wind blew - but it held off, thank goodness!) While I was planting the dahlias, I happened to turn and catch a nice angle of the cutting garden from the other end. Now that the shasta daisies are blooming, it's a good time to get a photo from this end. Click to view Monday, May 29, 2006 A really hot Memorial Day weekend - highs in the 90s. We re-did the bog filter Friday and Saturday (See notes and before/after shots here: http://davesgarden.com/journal/ed/index.php?tabid=3265 ) I added about 6 oz. of clarifier to the pond today - I'll add some sludge "eater" later in the week. We got the lawn mowed, and used landscape timbers to edge beds around the greenhouse, and to extend the cutting garden bed along the fence. Now to get the dahlias planted, and the greenhouse beds filled with something! Sunday, May 21, 2006 Good thing I got done what I did yesterday - we got a deluge overnight, and another one mid-morning. The ground is now totally saturated - no bed edging going in today. But the wet soil made it easy to pull up the weeds between the cutting bed and the veggie garden, so I did that and put down another couple bags of soil conditioner around the plants in this bed. Here's one photo of the bed (overcast days are at least good for pictures!) The tilled area beyond this bed is the new bed, just waiting for edging and dahlias. Click to view Sunday, May 21, 2006 Second shot of the bed, a little closer. The cynoglossum is such a pretty blue, I'm happy it re-seeds so well. Click to view Saturday, May 20, 2006 Spread seven bags of soil conditioner around the daylily plants in a 1/2" to 1" thick layer. Then we spread pine straw mulch around the rest of the plants in the front bed - looks much nicer now! Picked up a Lithodora 'Grace Ward', a 'Lady in Red' hydrangea and a 'Viridis' Japanese Maple from Home Depot today, and planted them in. Friday, May 19, 2006 Today the daylily bed got some much-needed TLC. All the leaves and twigs were removed, the mole tunnels tamped down, and alfalfa pellets (an experiment) applied around each plant. I also used up most of my plant markers to permanently mark each clump so I can keep better records this year of bloom color, time and height for the unknowns. Thursday, May 18, 2006 I was happy (ecstatically happy) that my 'Mona Lavender' Plectranthus actually survived the winter in my GH with almost no water, and the freezing temps when the heaters went out. This is especially good news because the source were I purchased it last year is not carrying it this year. I'll take MUCH better care of it this time around, and plan to start several cuttings off it in the fall. I removed a lot of thyme from around the sundial, and potted it up. Ditto for all the garlic chives that were spreading too far. The plan is to take some of each to Hohenwald on Saturday for the plant swap, if MIL is still up to going. Saturday, May 13, 2006 Got the vegetable garden planted (or at least the tomatoes and peppers.) Bed 1 is the bed closest to the main path and new squash beds, Bed 2 is to the west of it, Bed 3 is closest to the lawn, Bed 4 is the second "row", nearest the main path. Bed 1 - Jet Star - 6 plants Bed 2 - Carolina Gold - 5 plants Bed 3 - Rutgers - 5 plants Bed 4 - Mountain Spring - 5 plants Bed 5 - 1 ea. Mountain Spring, Carolina Gold, Rutgers, Bonny Best (2) Bed 6 - 1 ea. Granny Smith, German Pink, Cherokee Purple, Grape, Health Kick Peppers - 1 Chocolate Bell, 2 Red Bells, 1 Bullnose (hot) and 2 Anaheims. Tony built two big squash beds for me out of old deck boards, and we got them settled in. Now to get some mulch for the paths, and the seeds planted. Friday, May 12, 2006 Weeded the rest of the vegetable garden beds - whew! Saturday, May 6, 2006 Busy day! Mortared the spaces in the new back sidewalk with a handy-dandy grout bag. That really made a HUGE difference in the appearance of the sidewalk now it looks finished!) Tony cleaned out the gutters (ewwwww!) and we spread grass seed and straw on the lawn behind the driveway turnaround stub (it was bare from the heap o' dirt, then bags of leaves that were piled on it since last fall. Now all that's left is to stain the deck and rails - just as soon as we have some dry weather. Then I can plant the rail planters and a few more deck pots. Friday, May 5, 2006 Inspiration - finally! The steps leading up to the back deck needed "something" but I was struggling to come up with just what that "something" was. I rounded up two matching galvanized pails I've used for annuals in various areas, and put purple Oxalis regnelii in one, and chartreuse-leaved Talinum "weedlings" in another. (I love the Talinum, but it's so delicate it doesn't really work as a massed bedding plant. However, where I planted it a few years ago, it just keeps sprouting up. This took care of the stray sprouts AND puts them in a place where they can be admired up close!) As these two containers fill out (should be pretty fast, from past experience) the purple and chartreuse will make a great color combination - just what the steps needed! Also took advantage of a break in showers to plant the front containers with variegated double impatiens ('Fiesta Rose') and helichrysums. I need to pick up some additional impatiens and helichrysums at WM to do the hay-rack planter on the front window. Thursday, May 4, 2006 Today I re-painted the hanging wire baskets (the green chains were fading, even though the vinyl-coated baskets were in good shape. They're now black, which ties in better anyway. New coir liners ($3 at WalMart) and two good-sized pots of Petunia 'Supertunia Mini Strawberry Pink Veined' finished them off. I also took advantage of the sunny morning (before more clouds head in) to label all the Heucheras, Heucherellas and Hostas in the new beds, and amended the soil around a few of the plants that had sunk a bit. By early evening, we had a break in showers, so I planted my backdoor "herb garden" pots with thymes, lemon verbena, rosemary, oregano, basil, and seeds of black cumin, coriander, and nasturtiums. Wednesday, March 1, 2006 Spring! (maybe ;o) It was sooo nice outside today (mid 70s), so I had no excuses to not get out there and dig in the dirt. I spent about 4 hours cleaning the beds next to the carport (hauled off five wheelbarrow-loads of leaves and trimmings.) I also scooped out the worst of the mess from the small pond and started the fountain - the overnight low is supposed to be 55 degrees, so as long as the weather holds out, I'll keep it running, and shut it off if we get another cold snap (hope not!) I've got a long ways to go to get all the pruning and deadheading done (why do I always put this stuff off until March? Ugh.... Tomorrow - the rest of the bed (in front of the deck, and around in the new hydrangeas area if I can get that far! Sunday, January 29, 2006 Warm again today. We had some decent rain overnight (don't know how much), and the high today is in the 60s. What a very strange and warm winter we've had. The corsican hellebores are blooming already, and the daffodils are poking up their leaf nubs. Some of the daylilies are also greening up (I don't know if it ever got cold enough for them to go truly dormant.) We finally got my automatic vent opener installed on one of the GH vents (the one facing the house, so I can glance out and make sure it's opened or closed properly, as the weather dictates.) This coming week I'll get started on seedlings - the weather seems to be warm enough to warrant doing everything in the GH instead of trying to start seeds indoors this year. (Of course, next week could bring colder weather and a change in plans.) Sunday, January 1, 2005 Happy New Year! New year, new diary. This time I think I'll keep everything in one diary, instead of creating separate ones for each month. I'll get my journal up and going once my seed starting efforts are underway.

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