On my hands and knees

I did some weeding today in the perennial bed. It felt good to get my hands in dirt, even if I was wearing gloves. The soil is extremely wet. I lost a few things over the winter. The guara, for one, just doesn't tolerate wet feet. The soil hasn't dried out since the fall.

I collected a wheelbarrow of weeds and a few leaves with them.



That was just from the border along the edge of the street. I dumped it into the compost bin twice.



The most exciting thing that happened to me all day was finding the first crocus bloom. Spring really is coming, but not before a cold rainy weekend passes through.



Anise hyssop "Golden Jubilee" is coming back. This is a self sown plant that popped up last year.



Lots of rudbeckias are hanging around.







Coreopsis "Full Moon" is doing great. I planted 12 of my divisions in the backyard today.



Coreopsis "Moonbeam" has new growth too. I didn't see any along the retaining wall. I paid a whole dollar for those 15 plants last year. They'd better come back.



I saw new growth on a few clearance rack mums too. Ditch lilies are ready for spring, like me.



Montauk Daisy



Purple columbine



Rose campion. These were wintersown last year. I thought they were lambs ear for a few months. I was wrong.



Dianthus Pinks are holding their own. These are clumps I rooted from a bag full that Jim at Frogview Cottage sent me.



All over the yard, daffodils are popping up. I even saw the tip of one on the front slope where I planted 200 back in December. As usual, those around the oak tree in the front yard will be the first to bloom.



It's 45 degrees. The rain will be here soon. Plenty of wood has been hauled into the basement. Lunch has been eaten. It's time for that nap. The rest of the weeds can wait.

4:42pm - No nap yet. I just had to check on the hoophouse. The seedlings survived the cold nights last week just fine. Not much growth, but plenty of sprouts. They know what they're doing.

Rudbeckia hirta. I think I may have overdone it with these. I have 125 of these little cups and every seed sprouted.



Like little soldiers. Dianthus and several others have already sprouted. In another month, it should be a sea of green in there.



Behind the hoophouse, the sedums I rooted this summer are coming back. The variegated sedum was shy. Here's the red.

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.

Camellias, seeds, and cutting back.

It's a beautiful day. At 81 degrees, there's a nice breeze that keeps it from being too hot. The humidity has dropped significantly too. This morning, it was 58 when I left for work at 5:45am. I was actually chilly for a brief moment.

In the garden, I chopped back some of the coreopsis Full Moon. I hope to divide them again next spring. I turned one plant into 12 this past year. I now know they need full sun to remain upright and not flop. Lots of new growth around the base.



When I bought the house, this camellia was over 20' tall. You can see the big mass of green in this photo on the left. Yes, that was the backyard when I first saw the house.



Last year I tried to kill it completely. This year, I've let it regrow. Here it is today. It has pink single blooms all winter. I should have been more kind in my pruning.



Another butchered camellia is beneath the oak tree near the perennial bed. I first noticed this variation on one stem a few weeks ago. It's grown a little since then, and now I'm sure it's a variegation and not just from lack of water or disease. I'm hoping it blooms this winter. I'll be setting my sights on propagating this sport sometime in the near future. Imagine, a variegated camellia. In my yard. Heaven.





One of the three clumps of orange cosmos I've collected so far. Every day for the past week I've been gathering seeds from the rose garden plants. I'll be using these in my "meadow" garden next spring.



Another meadow candidate, salvia subrotunda. There are lots of tiny seeds still inside their shells. If I knew the proper terminology, I still wouldn't remember it.



Mauney's, a feed mill across from the high school on 52N, sold me 5lbs of crimson clover seeds. They've been inoculated against something so they're bright pink. That pen sticking out of them is used for scale. It's a hefty bag. Once the tree is removed from the back yard, I'll break up what soil I can and toss these out. They should put down some nice roots this winter and give me some organic matter to sow my seeds on in the spring.



Time to spend a few more hours in the kitchen. I hope to get the sanding done and install some beadboard. I hate plaster.

5:51pm - I was wrong about the variegation. Thanks Nell.

The most common fungal disease of camellia is known as virus variegation. The leaves have yellow or light green streaks. There is no cure, and the plant can live with the virus.

Gray Skies.

Much like my mood the past few days, the skies here are gray and overcast.



There won't be any rain in them. We couldn't be so lucky. In the past month, we've had three showers. Prior to that, we went a full four weeks with no rain. I'm surprised things haven't dried to a crisp. I've stopped watering established plants. They can live or die by their own root systems. Newly planted items get a little water from time to time. There's a new large pile of things at the end of the driveway. It's easier to water them there than all over the yard.

It's 70 degrees.

12:22pm - Spent a couple hours in the yard. Planted the coreopsis Moonbeam amongst the daylilies at the base of the driveway retaining wall. Planted two purple coneflowers in the new bed by the crape myrtle out back. Also planted two Icicle Speedwell in that bed, 4 dayliles from Miss Sarah, and divided a clump of my own echinacea into two plants. My seedlings will be planted out here this fall, but I have to get something in there for organic material. It's just stone, clay, and roots at the moment. I mulched the plants with shredded leaves my nephew collected two weekends ago. I tossed out some cosmo seeds too. Even if they don't bloom this year, their roots will become organic stuff and help break up the clay as they decompose this winter.

Waiting on 3pm now to head to work. Need to rest a bit. It's 72 and partly sunny.

Introductions.

Presenting, Lord Baltimore. That's perilla behind him.



Three Elymus arenarius 'Blue Dune' grasses for the front slope. This matches my artemesia and should work well with the lavender.



Speaking of color matching, how about those coleus?



And the coreopsis Moonbeam I got for $1 each to give me blooms along the daylily border all summer. There'll be something else added next year, but I'd rather it not be yellow.



High of 87 today. I'm sunburned from the antibiotics and the late summer sun. No rain, so some things got a drink of water from the hose. In the morning, the sprinkler will be put on the cabbage patch again. Received seeds from a customer today, a solid white hibiscus (mine has a red center) and some milkweeds. She brought me one that's blue. It's gorgeous. Maybe I'll use it instead of forget-me-nots in sunny spots.

Another Sunday

The hardest decision I had to make today was whether to lay there when the alarm went off, or get up, shower, coffee, and head to work. I really didn't want to get up this morning. It's already 89 degrees. The forecast is for 96 today. Hottest day of the year, if we reach that.

The perennial bed is starting to look ragged and very overgrown. I just can't bring myself to pull plants yet even though I know some really ought to come out. I'm waiting for the seed, yeah, that's the ticket.



The white hibiscus has a red center and did not come true.



The Coreopsis "Full Moon" will continue until frost if I keep it deadheaded. In full sun, several plants are trying to set seed. This one in the shade is hanging on.



My poor brugmansias. The show is nearly over. They wilt like this every day until the sun passes over the house. Around 3pm, they're back in the shade and perk up quickly.



Watering is on the agenda this evening when I get home from work. I need to spend some time constructively staring (and swatting mosquitoes) in the white bed. I'm not happy with it at all. Not even the daturas are blooming well with the little rain we've gotten since June.