Turning Corners

Another heat advisory has been issued for today. I'm off from work. The plan is to stay inside and finish the trim in the kitchen and get another project underway, painting the hallway. A few hours work and it will all be done except for the countertops. Robert is coming Tuesday to help build the forms. This morning, I picked 4 squash from the potager.

Laying in bed, looking out the window, I noticed how full the Rose Garden in the backyard had gotten. Agastache, Four O'clocks, Coreopsis Full Moon, and other plants have really filled in this year. The miscanthus will be moved this fall to the meadow garden. I have a grass plan.



Near the street, the Monarda citriodora is huge again. I've got several of these plants scattered along the driveway. The bees love them. Their flowers remind me of henbit, if henbit grew to 4' tall.





I plant close. I pack the plants in when they're small. They compete for space and light. Some flop, others stand tall. I like when the combinations work. My goal is to have blooms. I think I succeeded.



Daisy flavored blooms with pink and purple bee balm.



Echinacea grows into the agastache.



It's 77 degrees. The high today will be in the upper 90s. No rain in the forecast.

The Birds and the Bees.

The Goldfinches have arrived. I've seen a couple pairs hovering around the birdfeeder the past few days. They aren't content with the seed I've given them. They're ripping apart the rudbeckia blooms too. Notice the petals on the ground.



They attacked the poppy seed pods near the mailbox. I pulled those plants yesterday to collect about a 1/4 cup of poppy seeds. Not all are ripe, but I should have enough to make a nice display next spring. They will be sown in the fall.



The bees are downright dizzy. The purple blooming veronica by the front walk is always a favorite.



The dusty miller I planted last fall attracts all sorts.



They call it bee balm for a reason.



It must be June. Suicide is painless. Keep eating those Four O'clocks.



The butterflies will be here soon. We're ready.



It's 64 degrees. The high today will be in the low to mid 90s. No chance of rain.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

After those weeks of no rain in early May, I was wondering if we would ever break the cycle. Now, we've entered a new loop. The humidity from the previous day's rainfall forms new storm clouds which dump more rain the next day. As temperatures rise into the low 90s later this week, the chance of rain increases every day. There's no real end in sight with the next 5 days showing at least 20% chance, with 40% being the norm. Yesterday, another 1/2" of rain fell. Storms predicted this afternoon. The high will reach the mid 80s. It's 72 degrees, clear, and muggy.

My only blooming hydrangea seems happy. It's planted on the North side of the house and receives no direct sunlight.



Fragrant lilies purchased after Easter last year are blooming.



A new variety of cosmos is blooming. I'll be saving and scattering seeds to fill in the blank spots all summer.



Pink bee balm by the street is blooming. Carla's red bee balm, dug from my yard, is just starting to open. Mine is waiting.



The recent rains have sent the brugmansia into overdrive. All three returning yellow/orange plants from last year are about 2' tall. The leaves are getting large, just like last year.



There's a dehumidifier in the basement. I've got it running on a three hour cycle. The water is drying, slowly. Today, I'll be picking up the vinyl tile for the kitchen. I just finished some work for my former boss, giving me a little extra spending money. The white paint is sitting out waiting for me to get home from work this evening. I've already masked the edges of the small room off the kitchen. The plan is to have that much finished by the weekend.

The woman is bi-polar

Mother Nature is at it again. 87 on Friday, 66 on Sunday? No wonder my sinuses are going crazy.



I woke up this morning with a burning desire to spend more time outside. There's a heavy dew coating everything. At first I thought it had rained. I could hear the steady drip drip drip in the downspout outside my bedroom window. The roof was coated with moisture. It's 54 according to my thermometer. The sun is bright. The sky is cloudless.

Helianthus



Datura



Rudbeckia



I'll spend this afternoon in the kitchen finishing the beadboard, I hope. But this morning, I plan to spend some time in the yard moving a few perennials, cleaning up a couple areas in the perennial bed, and taking a few minutes to stand still watching the last of the hummingbirds before they head off for warmer climates.

12:42pm - I cleaned out more of the perennial bed. It's seed swapping time and I need to know just how much real estate I have left or else I might overdo it this winter. Ok, I'll overdo it anyway, but at least I'll know by how much.

I chopped back all the coreopsis and bee balm. That bee balm is a spreader. From each plant, I have runners spreading out 18" or more from the original planting. Next year it should put on a wonderful show.







I cleared out some more melampodium too. Lots of it had powdery mildew. I've already collected seeds and scattered some throughout the summer. It'll be popping up everywhere next spring.



I pulled out the sweet potato vines at the top of the stairs. The green tuber weights almost 5lbs. The black one was 3lbs. I know there were others in the dirt, but I would have had to dig out Purple Queen to get to them. They might resprout next year if they don't get too wet this winter. Below the rocks, I planted 7 of Jim's pinks.



I know I should be in the kitchen right now, but it's a nice day outside. It's 66 and sunny. I'm going to move some dirt from this year's potager. The meadow area is solid clay and very hard. I had hoped this wouldn't be necessary, but I'm going to need at least a 1/2" of soil in some areas for the seeds to grow into. I expect an hour or two of work, then, maybe, I'll come inside.

5:58pm - I spent the whole day outside. It was wonderful. After lunch I went to work on the backyard. I wasn't content with just moving some soil around for the meadow garden. I decided to remove a few stumps that will be in the way of my future patio. One, I set on fire. The other, at the bottom of the picture, I decided to remove the hard way.



It only took me an hour. I used a lot of words I wouldn't say in front of my mother.



After all that, I've changed my mind about the patio location. The ground here is really unstable and sloped. I'd need to dig down about 18" or build an 18" retaining wall, or some combination of the two. So I'll use this space as my potager again next year. I should get two beds here, each 4' wide x 16' long. Just down the hill, I'll have another bed 4' wide x 8' long. I could probably stretch it to 12', but I'd have to build up too much to do it, I think. Still, that's plenty of space to grow tomatoes, squash, okra, and beans. Right? I laid the first bed out with landscape timbers. These were purchased weeks ago.



I had a visitor over for supper that I can't identify.



And my hairy balls (Gomphocarpus) are getting larger. This one is bigger than a golf ball. They're hollow and very thin skinned. I was surprised. I hope to collect seeds before frost. Several Monarchs paid a visit today too, but I was too busy cursing to get their photos.



Back to work tomorrow. We got up to 72 degrees today. Perfect.

Propagation - softwood, hardwood, and seeds

Hardwood cuttings are taken in the winter from deciduous plants. This past February, I stuck cuttings of figs, mock orange, forsythia, and a few others. The mock orange was decimated by tent caterpillars after it rooted and has died. The forsythia and figs need to be potted soon. I might do that today before I go to work.

The method is simple. Take cuttings from dormant plants, dust the bottom end with rooting hormone, stick in a well draining soil (1/2 sand, 1/2 Lowe's cheap topsoil), and wait.





Softwood cuttings can be done in April and June here in NC. These were stuck 3 weeks ago. All of the hydrangea cuttings rooted. Only a few of the others have rooted, including a beefsteak sucker. They were potted this morning. I'll keep them in the basement under my lights for another couple of weeks. It's too hot and dry to put them outside just yet. I need more roots.

I used the cloner for these, although you can use the baggie method or container method I've used to root gardenias and roses.







The easiest way to propagate many plants is through seed collection. Wintersowing the seeds is simple. There's a link on the sidebar.

Melampodium seed. I didn't collect these, just tossed them back into the garden where I want more. This works best in areas with no mulch.





Forget Me Nots. Again, tossed back into the garden. In another week or so, I'll pull the plants out and shake them along the edges of the beds.





Salvia subrotunda. I will be collecting these seeds. This salvia is over 5' tall and has shown no problems with wilt, unlike the salvia splendens (Yvonne's salvia, which I will also collect later).





Coreopsis "Mahogany Midget". Seeds collected last week are laying in a coffee filter to dry. This time of year, I have seeds all over the house.





Other seeds I'm waiting for are being noted below.

Rudbeckia. Seeds were collected from Autumn Colors and wintersown this January.


Monarda didyma.



Blue agastache.



Monarda didyma.



Yvonne's salvia. Over 4' tall and still growing.



Zinnias



Esther's sunflower.



Monarda citriodora 'Lambada'



Coreopsis "Full Moon"



It goes without saying there are others I'm waiting for, like datura inoxia.

12:01pm - the figs and forsythia are potted. The figs had only a few roots, but hopefully enough to make it on their own. The soil was bone dry and yet they were still alive. The forsythia had lots of roots. I expect them to make it. I'll plant the forsythia in the new shrub border this fall. The figs may or may not be planted. If they aren't, they'll be traded for other rooted cuttings this winter.