Sunday, May 27, 2007

new azalea, tomatoes and LOTS more



I started out this morning at Lowes, with a major disaster. I got my bag of potting soil, but it was faded and the plastic ripped terribly getting it into the car. On top of that, the soil turned out to be very wet. I discovered that I do not need to repot the Roma tomato, as it is already in a 14" pot. This AM I potted up the Better Bush tomato, all my little Summerlong Basil seedlings and also the two rooted sweet basil cuttings. The sweet basil cuttings were not looking good, so I pulled them back out and stuck them in little 3" pots and put them in the windowsill. We'll see if they revive. I have been trying to move the golden oregano I rooted outside, but it was 93 today and everything was starting to look worse for the wear, so I moved those back inside for the day. The Chinese Lantern in the blue pot I accidentally kicked off the porch last night did not survive, so I put another plant in the potter. I got the remaining Chinese Lanterns moved into 8" plastic pots. I also gave a plant to Norman's wife when she came over to see if she could borrow some potting soil. I lost one of the tarragon seedlings. It just pretty much burned up I think and I have another that is only so-so looking right now. I will have to make sure the seedling tray is out of direct sunlight during the afternoon tomorrow. I think it might move it out to the porch.

Repotting the two yellow bell peppers was not nearly as bad as I thought it could be and I didn't even lose any peppers off the plants. I did notice that the big bell pepper on the one plant has either been eaten by an animal or it has a disease. I will have to figure out its problem tomorrow if I can.

I went to Wal-Mart to look for a new water wand and to get some more potting soil. I got a Bush Goliath tomato, as I now have a spare 14" pot, and some sweet basil seeds to seed around it (Month by Month Gardening in the Carolinas recommends seeding a late crop of basil in July?!?!). On the way back to the car, I saw some Encore Azaleas. There were just a few and they were marked down 50% off (they weren't looking 100%) so I got an Autumn Amethyst for $6.50.

Back home it was planting time. First step was to start doing something about the box of dirt. I shoveled some into the wheelbarrow and added some compost and used this dirt to add more dirt around the azaleas, rhodie, salvia and small beautyberry. The heat of the day was not good to the 6 pack of coleus my mom had gotten me yesterday, so then it was into the ground with it. Hope it all survives. From there, it was time to plant the double impatiens and Bridal Veil astilbe down by the azaleas. That went well and then I cleared a bigger space on the other side of the ginger lilies and mixed up all the rest of the left over dirt in the box and compost and planted the Encore azalea on top of the ground and made a little soil volcano for it to grow into. Now I will need to get some mulch to mulch in the area. I think I will go to Lowes for that, even though I don't like their mulch as well, they are a lot closer to Wal-Mart and I already have Lowes mulch in the area. I did get about 1 1/2 bags of the good Wal-Mart mulch down over my perennial bed. Hopefully that will help keep everything moist and happy. My goal of having the box of dirt gone has been met! Its space is now being taken by a potted Bush Goliath tomato.

Planted today:
- Bridal Veil astilbe
- Autumn Amethyst Encore azalea
- Bush Goliath tomato
- Better Bush tomato

Repotted:
- 5 Chinese Laterns
- 2 yellow bell peppers

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