planting camellia and so much more

This AM I went out and did things with Bobbie, so no work in the yard beyond watering. After a quick lunch, we went out to plant the camellia. The digging went fairly quickly and I was able to get the camellia positioned in well. I also decided that I was going to plant the two Stella D'Oro daylilies I had bought on either side of the camellia. I think they help give the whole area a more finished off look.

While I was out working on the camellia, some boys from a house up the street came by to see if I needed my grass cut. After barginning with them just a bit, we settled on $15 (what I had paid the guy who cut my phlox) and they came and got it done in about 1/2 the time he had. I told them not to worry about trying to edge it, as I could do that myself. The whole yard looks so much better with short grass. Also, I had done some more weeding this morning and spread some of the seed soil, then seeded in some grass. The grass being cut almost but a little mulch over those areas, so hopefully that will help conserve water a bit. After the grass was cut, I could see a big section in the center of the yard that was just bare dirt. So, I spread some of the seed soil, trying to spread it a bit heavier than I did in the shade area as the underlying dirt in this area is awful, then seeded in some of the grass seed I bought that is for sun areas. This area is going to be much harder to keep moist, it will require at least 2x per day watering, but again it is a relatively small area and should be doable by hand watering.

After the grass work, we went over to Bobbie's to have supper and get some lirope. I am not good with a mattock and Bobbie ended up whacking it out for me. I also stopped by Lowes, where cyprus mulch was $1.69 instead of the usual $2.00, so I got 8 bags.

I got home about 7:15 PM and needed to get the lirope planted around the edge of the newly extended foundation bed and also around the Bradford Pear and then spread the mulch. The lirope planted went really quickly because the dirt had all been worked before. I had enough to finish out the foundation bed and then some small pieces that I used to start planting under the Bradford Pear. Spreading the mulch around the newly planted lirope was a bit time consuming to try to get it to look good, but the rest went quickly and 8 bags were just enough to do the job.

I am quite exhausted after a very busy but productive weekend. I didn't get to the poison ivy though...

preparing the area for the camellia

This morning was a watering morning and it took me about an hour to water the whole yard thoroughly. Once everything was watered, I got out and got some decent pictures taken, but of course first I had to come back in and delete some photos from my full memory card.

I worked a little bit on doing away with some of the pansy pots. I transplanted one bush bean seedling into its own small pot, moved the leatherleaf sedge into its own terra cotta pot and set it by the 'Limelight' hydrangea and finally potted up the one 'Ponderosa' tomato seedling in the big green plastic pot. I hope the seedling will make it out there in full sun. That variety has not been my strongest grower from seed. I also put my two now rooted hydrangea cuttings outside in pots for the first time today. As of this afternoon, they seemed to be doing well.

During the heat of the day, we went out and did errands, then ate dinner. After dinner, I went out to start to tackle the project of getting the camellia planted in the foundation bed. I used a garden hose to lay out how I wanted to extend the bed, then used the mattock that Bobbie gave me to try to cut the path of the bed into the grass. That was actually a bit harder that it seemed it would be. After that, it was one long project to dig out all the grass in the area. I finally finished just as the sun was setting. Now, I have a nice area of bare dirt to get started tomorrow morning digging the hole for the camellia and getting it planted. Then, I will really need more mulch!

planted limelight

I got off work early yesterday and my three day holiday weekend started today. I had not been feeling well earlier this week and I ended up sleeping in until 10 AM. This was not entirely in the plan. Before we could go anywhere, I had watering 911 as my front hanging basket was badly wilted and I wanted to get the veggies off to a good start for the day.

Yesterday we got a sasanqua camellia to put in the foundation bed and while looking at other things, I realized at Limelight hydrangea might be the perfect thing to go between the small beautyberry and the pieris. So, it was off to a few stores today, as well as Sams Club for 2 bags of potting soil.

When we got back home, I spent some more time on the neverending project of pulling plantain weeds. I was working near where I planned to plant Limelight, then weeded out the area between the two plants. I was pretty hot while I was digging and it really took a lot out of me today, but I got the hole dug and Limelight put in. I think it looks great! I may put something small on either side of it to sort of finish out the bed a bit more.



My dog did a number on my Double Pink hydrangea, knocking a whole branch off. I cut the end and am going to try to root it in watering. In rooted cutting news, I potted up the Blushing Bride and Merritt's Supreme cuttings and will start transitioning them to the outside world. My one biggish Ponderosa tomato seedling finally seems to be growing and it may make it after all. I am going to start moving it out to full sun with no roof overhead. The other tomato seedlings seem to be coming along very slowly.

I still need to do something about the poison ivy. When we were running errands today, I forgot that I wanted to get a big box to use as a screen in some of the areas I am going to have to spray.