I hate fireworks

I have been a bit slack about keeping up with the blog lately, as not much has been going on other than the almost constant watering. I've been getting some nice tomato harvests lately, but I'm still waiting for enough ripe romas to try to make a tomato cream sauce. I don't want to sauce the big heirlooms, as they are supposed to be for fresh eating and saucing the cherries would be too much work. We had the roasted cherry tomato pasta dish again and it was very good again. We will probably have it next week as well. Last night fore dinner we ate two of the eggplants. I do want to try and make an eggplant and tomato dish that we had last year that I really liked. I found the recipe again, so maybe later this week.

Today I got a really late start on the day, but did give the yard a good watering. It was in the mid-90s today and I got hot and tired just from that little bit of outside work. I did repot the 'Blushing Bride' and 'Merritt's Surpreme' baby hydrangeas I'm growing into trade gallon pots. They can grow out in those until next spring. I am also working on getting the 'Double Pink' rooted cutting to start living outside. The last time I left it outside all day it almost died, so I'm trying a much slower approach this time. In other hydrangea news, I potted up the 3 cutting Mrs Phillips gave me from her purple hydrangea. They had been in water for 3 weeks and grew roots a ways up their stems. I actually had to cut leaves off one cutting, as the roots extended past the leaves. They will try a few hours outside tomorrow as well.


Hydrangea 'Penny Mac'

I'm tired and would like to go to bed, but there are constant fireworks. There have been fireworks for the last two nights and I'm sure it will continue for several more nights. These aren't even the pretty ones, just the ones that make a little explosion and the awful whistling ones. Times like this I wish they were illegal.

The really ugly house across the street from us had been on the market, but it never sold. Then they put up a for rent sign ($690/month- wow...) and it was rented in about a week. We saw the U-Haul for the new residents and have seen a van there, but we still haven't seen them.


Dahlia 'Lavender Perfection'

always more watering

Yesterday I was not feeling well, so I didn't go to yoga. Instead, I did a bit of work in the yard after work. I mixed up some aluminum sulfate water, using 2 tbsp this time and warm water as directed on one web site and watered all the Endless Summers in the back yard, Gentian Dome, the Penny Macs and the potted Together. I'm hoping if any of them put out a late bloom this will help them have a nice blue color.

Today and yesterday I did some more work on the endless task of tying up the tomatoes. It has been so hot and dry lately that I'm not getting much fruit set. I hope this trend doesn't continue, becuase while I'll get 5+ tomatoes off each plant if it does, I'm hoping for a bigger harvest.

Daylilies are blooming, but I think they are getting close to the end. I've noticed that particularly on the ones in the front yard, some of the buds are drying up without ever opening. I think this super hot, dry weather has been very hard on all the plants. I did get some good daylily pictures today.



Route 66


Pushmataha


Smokey Mountain Autumn


Unloosed Joy

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.

rain this evening

The weather report was again calling for rain all day, so I made no garden plans. Bobbie and I went up to NC this morning to work with the dogs, then hit Cracker Barrel for brunch and went to Bloomfields to see if they had anything we wanted. No luck there, and we also made a fruitless chase out to the Ingles in Travelers Rest to see if they had the Forever and Ever hydrangeas (looking for a 'Together' for Mrs Phillips) like the site claimed, but no luck there.

After I got home, my mom and I went out and I got a new terra cotta pot for the rosemary on the front porch that has outgrown its pot and also got a ceramic pot for 'Blue Mouse Ears'. On the way home it finally started raining, but then stopped fairly quickly. I used the break in the rain to pot up 'Blue Mouse Ears' and finally water the potted hydrangeas with aluminum sulfate (2 tbsp per 2 gallons) and then water them well with plain water. I also pulled up some more plantain weeds.

hydrangea 'Together'

hydrangea 'Together'
Originally uploaded by iechris

Hydrangea 'Together' is looking great. I am still wondering if it will rebloom as claimed and I am also wondering about how winter hardy it will really be. For the time being, it looks great!

Spring Fest at the Farmer's Market

Went today on day 2 of the Spring flower and plant sale at the Farmer's Market. There was a lot of so-so, seen it everywhere stuff, but I did find some treasures!

I was looking for a new rosemary to put in the pot with the sage and thyme and after talking to the lady who was selling lots of neat herbs, she recommended I get an oregano for the pot, so I ended up getting a variegated oregano. While there, I thought about Golden Rain rosemary and a pineapple sage, but didn't get either at the time. I also got a phlox 'David' for the perennial bed, where I had planned to plant an 'Autumn Joy' sedum. I already have a sedum on that side of the bed and all the 'Autumn Joys' I've been finding have been in HUGE pots, so I went with the phlox instead. Later in the day, we went back to the Farmer's Market and I got the Golden Rain rosemary, but they were out of the pineapple sage. I can't believe she sold that many that quickly, but the place was a ZOO!!

On the return trip, I also picked up a 'Dolce Creme Brulee' huechera to complete one of the porch pots. Right now its color is on the green side, but I'm hoping once it is in the sun and starting growing out some its color will improve. After the first trip to the Farmer's Market, we went up to Country Boys, were I got a few other annuals to round out the porch plants. We also went to K-Mart where I got a really big hanging basket of purple double impatiens. We stoppped at Lowes to see if they had any cheap hanging baskets that I could repot for the front of the house and I found some annual dianthus. It looks nice and I hope it will keep blooming all summer.

While at Lowes, I found that they had finally gotten in the Forever and Ever 'Together' hydrangeas. All the plants they had were already blooming, but I was able to find one that looked like a decent plant and didn't have all its buds open already. This one is supposed to stay 2 X 2, so I'm planning on keeping it in a pot. I'll need to hit it with aluminum sulfate to keep the blue color though. I also took another look at their 'Peppermint' hydrangeas and I'm really starting to wonder if the tag was switched in the plant I bought and it was just a regular plant with the 'Peppermint' tag in it, as so far the blooms do not look right. ARGHHHH....

My big expense at the Farmer's Market was on Japanese Maples. I've been thinking about getting one for a while and a farm called Mystic Farm was there and had really nice maples at a good price. They had these giant Tamukeyamas that were just incredible and were $300. If they had taken credit cards and I knew where I wanted to put it... They also had it in a really nice $60 plant that I REALLY thought about, but I ended up getting a smaller $30 'Tamukeyama' that we all thought had a nice growth habit. While I was trying to decide, someone I know came by and he turns out to have a bunch of Japanese Maples and said that cultivator I was picking was a good one and that the plant I had picked out was nice too. I also saw this little tiny $15 plant called 'Butterfly'. 'Butterfly' has more maple shaped leaves and they are variegated.

While I was paying I happened to mention that I didn't have much room for maples as all my room is taken up with hydrangeas. Susan (one of the owners) said they had hydrangeas too but didn't bring them because they weren't blooming. I asked if they had '...Paul Doumer' and she said no but that they did have 'Nightengale'. I said I had cuttings, but they had died and that I was looking to replace mine and said I'd email them in a few weeks. Well, on our return trip to the Farmer's Market, I decided I just HAD to get one of the $10 'Bloodgood' seedlings they had. These are seed grown, not grafted, so they might not be exactly true, but he said they are super hardy and I could just toss this small plant in a hole tonight. I also made arrangements for them to bring a 'Nightengale' hydrangea to the show tomorrow and I can pick it up on the way to work.

Once I was home I had a ton of work to do! I planted the phlox 'David' and lambs ears in the perennial bed, added the oregano and a parsley to their respective containers, potted up the rosemary and potted up the Endless Summer hydrangea I had grown from a cutting last year. I also ended up repotting the 'Butterfly' Japanese Maple into a small ceramic pot, using pretty much solid composted pine bark with just a sprinkling of soil on the top like Chip said. It was semi-traumatic for me, as it was hard to get it out of the pot and then the potting soil part started to fall apart, but I'm hoping it was NOT traumatic for 'Butterfly'. The other two were placed inside pots on top of some mulch, still in their nursery pots. 'Bloodgood' is living behind the daylilies and 'Tamukeyama' is living over on the corner of the house where the water heater hut is.

so dry already, plus planted hydrangea and viburnum

For the last two days, when I've been outside in the evening, it has been SO dry. The tomatoes have all needed to be watered and today I saw 'Teller Red' hydrangea being wilty. I have watered portions of my yard both nights. The weather report had called for rain today, but it never showed up. Currently the forcast is for rain all weekend and right now that would be very welcome. I feel like I am back in last July already, with the heat and the drought and everything needing to be watered all the time.

The baby tomato plants continue their outside time and that seems to be going well. Right now they aren't putting out much in the way of new growth, but they also aren't getting a lot of sun. This weekend I'm going to try to leave them out in the sun longer, if we have any sun. Last night, I started another cup of the 'Ananas Noir' tomato seeds as I have yet to get a sprout. I'm not sure if they were quite ready to be started outside, so I brought those trays in a few days ago. I'm either going to have very few or a bumper crop as I've started almost 20 seeds.

Last night after yoga I came home and finally planted the viburnum. Last fall we set in in the spot where the yew had died and it has lived there ever since. I could never figure out where I was going with it and my mom said that it belonged on that corner and it does look good, so I've sacrificed matching for flowers on one side. I hope it will do well. The rootball was a little on the dry side when I planted it, so I tried to really soak the rootball while watering yesterday and today. The actual digging in was really easy as the yew had been there, so I didn't dig a very big hole, in part due to the lilies and heucheras planted around it. The soil seems to be great, so I'm hoping the roots will grow well. It was very root bound as well, so I was pretty aggressive about loosening up the roots. I'll keep my fingers crossed...


This evening, with no rain, I decided to finally plant the Forever and Ever Double Pink hydrangea I had bought at Lowes. The original ideas was to plant it in the front side yard where I ended up planting another Endless Summer. I decided against that plan, as I don't know how this plant will perform and I figured ES was a sure thing. After that decision was made, I waffled for a while on where to put the plant, then finally decided I would plant it between the 'Flying Dragon' and the Rose of Sharon, next to the annual bed. 'Masja' is in pretty much the same position on the other side of the annual bed and Rose of Sharon, so I figured this would balance well and my neighbor's chestnut tree should provide enough shade. The space I planted it in isn't big, but this plant is not supposed to get that big either, so I'm hoping it will work.

Another great ranunculus shot:


'Delta Fire' pansies still blooming:

more planting- ES and clematis

I worked tonight so I had some time to do some work in the yard this AM. I dug in an area under the tree on the front part of the side yard to plant the new 'Endless Summer'. After a few hours of work, I got ES planted and also got the Clematis I had bought planted. I hope that there will be enough room for the clematis' roots to grow and that I will be able to get it to grow up the tree.

planting and transplanting for 4/18

Planted out today in the perennial border:
Euphorbia
Wallflower
Blue Hill salvia
alyssum Easter Bonnet
lantana Bandana Cherry
Stargazer lily bulbs
Bearded Iris rhizomes
dahlia Lavender Perfection
hollyhock

Planted out:
Teller Red hydrangea
Night Before Christmas hosta
perilla
marigolds

Transplanted to the perennial border:
ginger lilies
Joe Pye weed moved from one side to the other
coneflowers moved from one side to the other


licorice plant icicles moved from the pot to the border

perennial bed and so much more

Today was one of those super productive days that you can only think of when it is cold or rainy. We are expecting rain over the weekend, so I'm glad I had today off to get a lot done.

I started at 8:30 AM by raking the mulch and pine needles from the left half of the perennial bed. I also moved all the plants that had been plopped down in and on the bed except the variegated iris, that has come up so well. Once I had all the mulch off, I realized I wanted to put the mulch somewhere, so that led to a brief time out while I weeded and pulled all the grass from around the daylilies and spread the mulch/pine needles there. Then it was back to digging in the bed. It actually went better than expected and I only ran into the rocks really in one area near where the viburnum is. I added almost a whole bag of Clay Buster and raked it into the loose dirt.



Then it was time to start planting the bed. First order of business was to dig up the ginger lilies, which I think planted on the outside back corner of the left and right side of the bed. In order to plant on the right hand side, I first had to dig up the 1 Joe Pye Weed, which I then moved the the left side. While I was digging in the bed, I discovered that the two dahlias that had bloomed last year appeared to have overwintered, plus I had a glad coming up, so I decided to leave them as the back row planting and get another bag of dahlias. Once I had the ginger lilies and joe pye weed in, I put the blue sage back in and dug two clumps of coneflower from the right side. I think dug the wallflower out of the herb barrel and planted it on the left side. The wood spurge (euphorbia) went on the right side where a coneflower had been and the licorice plant finally got out of a pot and into the right side of the perennial bed.

With all that done, it was time to tackle the next project... planting the 'Teller Red' hydrangea. Since there was already a hole in place it wasn't that bad. I also decided that I will plant a hosta near it between it and the astilbe. After that it was on the the next task, fertilizing the camellias. I raked back all the old mulch, then fertilized them and watered them in. I also fertilized my azaleas, which apparently was a mistake, as it will stimulate growth and cause the flowers to fall off. So, maybe the azalea show will be brief this year. I also fertilized the yew and the loropetulam.

It was about 2 PM at that point and I went off to Country Boys to pick up a few things. I got a flat of alyssum, a perilla, a hollyhock and a pack of coleus. I stopped off at Home Depot and got 2 packs of marigolds and a new water wand that I hope will be more gentle. I planted the alyssum along the entire front of the perennial bed, the hollyhock in the inner back corner of the right side of the perennial bed and the perilla in the center of the camellia bed. Hosta 'Night Before Christmas' finally got a home between the far left 'Miss Biloxi' and 'Debutante'. I'm going to put the new 'Christmas Tree' hosta on the other side of 'Debutante' when it comes. I planted up three small pots of marigolds and planted one marigold in each corner of the big pot the roma tomato is in.

At that point, after the watering, it was time to call it a day. I am still debating where I'm going to plant the double pink hydrangea.

Euphorbia in bloom: