cutting back the petunias

It is still quite humid out today, but I got a little bit of garden work done this morning. I started out by getting out the string trimmer and cutting back the grass in the front part of the back yard. I need to do the whole yard, but it is hard with the trimmer, so this will have to do for now. I also rearranged the vegetables and flowers up in that part of the yard, finally dumped a pot of pansies and repotted a small pot of petunias into a larger pot. I tried cutting back parts of my large pot of Big Daddy petunias, so we will see if that works or not. Currently that pot is only looking so-so, and if cutting back doesn't help, I may dump them and plant something else for August.



I noticed that I have 1 red bell pepper (which of course has a bad spot) and at least 1 Roma tomato that are starting to ripen. I also have an eggplant that is getting larger, don't know when it will be ready to harvest.

We are clearly in the part of the summer when it is impossible to get the watering right. I thought I had watered all my inground impatiens and coleus yesterday, but they were all looking wilty today. I gave them all a good watering and hopefully they will bounce back. I have a branch on my Debutante camellia that is not looking good and another part of Margaret Davis. I am hoping I get these camellias through the summer. And, as I haven't gotten a good answer on what is causing this die-back problem, I don't know what to do to fix it.

After working outside, I took a few minutes before lunch to install a new smoke detector outside my mom's room. We've had them ever since a co-worker gave them to me as a housewarming gift, but I've just never gotten around to installing them. I've had a smoke alarm outside my room, but I don't think it is functional. After installing the alarm, it was lunch time and lunch today was pesto pizza, as I finally got around to making pesto with all the basil I've been cutting last night. Yum! I am going to have to buy some good containers for the freezer and freeze up some pesto for the winter as I go, I will be in pesto withdrawl!