digging in the perennial bed

Today I finally had the time and the dry weather to dig in 1/2 of the planned perennial bed along the back of the house. I added 1 bag of Black Cow and 1 bag of cheap compost with cow manure. Right now the only things in the bed are the 3 native Joe Pye Weeds I bought from Carolina Wild, 7 bareroot hollyhocks that I had bought back Wal-Mart long time ago (don't know if any of them will take) and a few glad bulbs I planted today. I also planted that dahlia tubers and some more glads in the 2nd half of the planned bed, which currently is just serving as storage space.

I also spred more grass seed along the side of the house that borders Curtis. This time I have decided that I will have to break down and water the area daily to see if I can actually get grass to grow. I have worked over the past week to weed it and try to get rid of as many tree seedlings and roots as I can. Today I set up the cheap sprinkler I got for the first time and it has quite a reach. Unfortunately, the only way I could be sure that water was reaching some areas was to stand there and see if I got wet. So, I got kind of soaked, but I did finally get the sprinkler up and running. I am hoping that if this works well and grass starts to go, I can try the same process again in another part of the yard. I also spread a little seed in areas around containers I water often figuring I will at least get this seed damp every day. My big problem is that I got grass seed in a few of the containers. I will have to try to remove it or I will have grass in with my basil.

On the herb front, I got another sweet basil today to replace the purple basil that died. I have also started two pots of sweet marjoram out on the porch, as the seedings I started indoors have not been doing too well. I lost most of those when they accidentally got left out in full sun all day. They have now been spending part of their time each day on the shady part of my porch. I've also moved the chamomiles to bigger pots and they are going outside as well. The nastursiams are up in the whiskey barrel and I think some of the parsley is as well. I do now have a few dill seedings, but i still only see one thing that might be a chive and nothing in the borage area. The basils are coming up well and some of the purple basils that were damaged in the heavy rain seem to be regrowing leaves.

The zinnias are getting bigger and are now looking crowded. I would like to try to move some of the seedings out of the one pot and into another pot. I also need to pull out the pansies and put in some of the other flowers I have purchased. The potted plants all look pretty good. I am trying to water every day and the rain is helping some of the plants.

My shrubs are all putting out new growth and looking pretty good. I bought some fertilizer today with the plan that I will fertilize and water on Wednesday. I do need to get back to weeding the one part of the camellia bed, but as that area is in shade part of the day, that is one job I can do when it is really hot.

I am going to go to the Farmer's Market this week and see what perennials they have. If I find what I am looking for, I might buy a few and then that bed is probably finished until the fall or until someone has a really good sale!

I do not think all the Elegens hostas I have are actually Elegens, as they do not all look alike as they are leafing out. Some have a little whitish edge to them. That is pretty, just wish I knew what they were. I have cleared room under the tree for 2 more hostas. I am planning to go to JFS on Friday to see what they have and if I don't find something there, I can always go to the Lily Lady on Sunday. I saw some beautiful tall foxgloves at Underwoods yesterday, but due to the poisonous issue, they can't go in the perennial border and I don't really have room for them on the other side of th fence so... no big beautiful foxgloves right now. I checked out my bleeding hearts. My regular bleeding heart is growing and actually growing over one of the hostas. I've thought about doing a cutting to see if I can root it. Don't know that I need another bleeding heart, but I could always give it away. The regular bleeding heart seems to be done blooming, but the native fernleaf bleeding heart is still blooming. It is supposed to keep blooming straight through fall. I am really liking this plant so far!

The mints are going crazy, growing like mad. I took some spearmint cuttings today to try to root up some more plants. I am going to cut a bunch of herbs on Tuesday and take them to yoga with me, figuring someone there might want some fresh herbs to cook with or something.