trying to keep up with the watering

verbena_52107
Originally uploaded by iechris.

After the mishap with the hanging baskets last week, I have been doing well keeping up with the watering so far. Operation Grow Grass appears to finally being seeing some success as well, as I have seen grass sprouts over in that area. I will keep up the 20 min every AM watering schedule for at least a few more weeks. The weather has been very dry and in the mid 80s and some of my existing grass isn't looking so hot. I watered some of it in the back yard for about 20 minutes this AM and I guess I will have to start watering some of it off and on as well. I have a few other areas where I have spread some grass seed but haven't seen any success yet. These areas get watered by the hose when I am watering my plants, so they don't get as much water. I am planning on covering them with some straw and see if that helps.

Last night I discovered some flowers on my one coleus, so I cut back the offending sections. I also took a cutting to try to root, just in case the plant decides to give up the ghost.

I am working at rooting some mints to take with me when I go to KY for my friend Carol. Several of my mint plants seem to not have any areas left where there are leave with two additional little leaves, so I am not sure about cutting them anymore or what to do. I'm going to stop by the farmer's market on the way home from work and I will ask them.

I think I might have powdery mildew on my tom tomato and maybe some sort of mold on my one wave petunia. I am going to make up a baking soda spray and try to treat them. May try the cinnamon thing as well.

Planted today:

- purple coneflowers from Susie

-lambs ears from Susie

- Autumn Joy sedum

- 2nd mallow

- bellflower from Ingles

more container planting

Last night I tried to get a bunch of work done, knowing I would be out of town all day today. I got some additional grass seed put down by the water heater, then covered all the grass seed with straw, which hopefully will cut down on the mud, but was not great for my allergies. Then, I FINALLY planted up the final hanging basket for the front of the house. Right now it doesn't look like that much, as I had to buy 2 new small sweet potato vines and the one trailing coleus is just a tiny cutting I had rooted, but I figure the sweet potato vine will start filling in soon and the big trailing colues should also start growing pretty quickly, if their relatives on the porch are any indication.

When I went to Country Boys to get the tomato and red bell pepper, I found a hollyhock that I got for my mom and a delphenium for myself. I planted those in the perennial bed and put in stakes for them last night, but I didn't attach them to the stakes yet. They are currently short enought that they don't need to be staked yet.

Then, it was time to plant the veggies. I had purchased 4 sweet basils to put around the roma tomato and was planning to put the whole thing in a 14" plastic pot I had bought. I did pot this all up, but trimmed off a bit of the basil to let more light in for the tomato. Hopefully the pot is not too crowded and I'm figured the tomato will start growing up soon. I also potted up the red bell pepper in its own pot. Both the new tomato and the red bell pepper will be living by the herb barrel.

This evening when I got home I had a little time to work and finally pulled some more pansies out of a pot and potted up my purple striped petunias. I also moved the one cell back big daddy petunia into a larger pot and put the remaining cell pack of the purple striped petunia into the little pot the big daddy had been in. The single big daddy is actually looking good enough to go on the porch right now, so I might even though the green pot it is in is not all that exciting (just a plastic hanging basket pot Bobbie gave me).

The newly planted hyrdangea is looking great today with more blooms coming and the color deepening on them. The old Endless Summer is not doing nearly as well. Its one leaf it did have now seems to be dried up and it felt really dry around it, even though it was just watered. So, I watered it tonight and guess I will have to give it some extra water. All the other shrubs seem to have survived being fertilized. My new watering schedule seems to be working pretty well, so hopefully things will continue to thrive. I potted up all the lemon balm cuttings I had made today and they should be ready to go to new homes soon.

I also learned a valuable lesson today: don't mess with leaning plants. I was looking at my snapdragons and one of the biggest was leaning over quite a bit. I was messing around with it, moving it back up to vertical and trying to think about how I might stake it (don't have an extra stake right now) and the vast majority of the stem snapped off at the soil line. So, I went from having a big beautiful blooming but quite leaning plant to have just one single stem left and a hole in my little bed. ARGHHHHH.

new hydrangea

Wednesday morning was spent dealing with a bunch of disasters. Major disaster struck my hanging baskets at the front of the house when I realized that I hadn't watered them since Sunday. They look half dead, but seem to have revived since being watered regularly and kept out of direct sun for a day. The lantana and verbena are both out of bloom right now though. I also discovered that the double impatiens inside the gazebo were looking horrid from lack of water, but they too seem to have revived.

Then I looked at my sweet basil and realized that it was trying to bolt, so I chopped off the tops and it is pesto time. Hopefully the basils will continue to survive and make more leaves so I can make more pesto later.

I have now lost one whole pot of basil seedlings. I am not sure what killed them, but I am hoping that some of the other small pots will survive and that I will get some viable seedlings in the oak barrel. I have something up in all part of the oak barrel except the borage. I did see borage at the farmer's market, so if worst comes to worst I can also drop in a transplant. The chives also aren't really coming up. And, I'm seeing lots of little flies around it, I am wondering if they are white flies and might be part of what killed my basil.

I also have lost one of the coleus that I planted along the side of the house. I think Flo may have laid down on it or something.

Friday was cooler than it had been and I was off all day so I had a productive day. Thursday night I succumbed to temptation and bought a new Endless Summer hydrangea, which I got planted in the shade border in the space I had reserved for it. I also got the little dead nettle I had rooted up planted nearby. I also found some impatiens in the right color to finish up the little impatien border back by the camellias, I planted them in the leftover dirt from the hydrangea hole. I had a few extra impatiens, so I added those to various places in the shade border.

I then finished up weeding out the camellia bed and added 4 bags of pine mulch. I got this mulch at Lowes, which is where I got the other bags of pine mulch, but these stuff didn't look the same, it was reddish, and I don't like it as well. I need to add some more mulch to this area, but I think I will try Home Depot or Wal-Mart and see if I like what they have better. I also added a bag of cyprus mulch to the front bed with the ajuga. Hopefully the ajuga die-back I had going on earlier has resolved itself and those two plants will start spreading soon. The other 3 are looking great.

I have decided that I need a few more basil plants and I also think I will try a roma tomato and a red bell pepper. I'm going to stop for these on the way home from work tonight. I will be out of town most of the day tomorrow, so I am probably done for the weekend.

I have been continuing to water the grass seed, don't see any grass sprouting so far. I need to check the bag for how long it is going to take. I want to get some more grass seed and some wheat straw as there is an area that is getting watered every day that I didn't seed, and it is getting VERY muddy now, so I need to fix that situation. I also have the potted plant watering, front and back, down to a science now I think and it takes about 20 minutes total. So far, I am able to get it down before work easily as long as I keep moving in the AM.

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.

Achoo

It was at least 89 today and the air quality is terrible. I have been battling horrid allergies for the past week or more and haven't done much in the yard as a result. I have a new prescription for allergy meds that seem to be helping.

Recently I have replaced the pastel pansies in the green pot with peach million bells, taken the two dusty millers out of the pot with the English daisies (I replanted one in a new pot with a variagated verbena and a mystery plant that sort of looks like bacopa and planted the other in the ground by the snapdragons) and added the one foliage plant I got to the pot. My other pot with English daisies had gotten really dried out, so I tried to really hydrate it and I'm hoping it will bounce back.

The pansies are still pretty much hanging in there, though the tiger eye pansies in the yard looked flat the other day. I have decided that the striped petunias will replace them when it is time. The big news is that the bulb foliage is finally starting to look really yellow. I am hoping that this weekend I will maybe be able to mow it down around the tree. I also moved the two pots with the dying paperwhite foliage over by the gate where they will get full sun (I'm hoping this will speed the demise of the foliage). As soon as all the foliage is gone, I will pull out the pansies and replant all those pots.

I looked at Tom tomato today and was surprised to see at least 8 baby tomatoes! Wow, I would think it is too early. I have also seen buds on some of the hot peppers, so I might be seeing baby hot peppers soon too. I hope I get a decent harvest of hot peppers. I haversted some more herbs for my mom's one co-worker this weekend and she was really happy. The basils look like they might be ready for a mini harvest and I still want to get another sweet basil to replace the purple basil I had to pull. The herb barrel so far has some sprouts of the two basils, but nothing else so far. I did finally get the nasturtiums planted the other day. I also sprinkled some marigold seeds by the herb garden and around the area where the clematis is, which is either coming up or I have a weed in that area, I will wait and see. The potted zinnia seeds continue to get bigger now that they are no longer getting dumped over by Flo. The snapdragons are also blooming and the licorice plant is putting out new growth and starting to look better. I may move it to another pot.

Pink Ruffles azalea didn't look so good today. It had some yellow leaves and seemed very dry. I watered both azaleas and the rhododendron. We are supposed to have 4 days of off and on rain, so hopefully they wil recover. I am going to get some more mulch and add some soil to their hills, then mulch heavily for the summer.

new porch plantings, seedling update and more

I haven't posted in a while, and am still trying to get some decent pictures. Earlier this week I got three of the four hanging baskets up. Two are baskets from Home Depot that I just repotted into my own hanging baskets, a two colored double impatien and some pinky lantanas. Both look really nice. The other basket I made myself and has two lemon yellow million bells (from Ingles) and two purple verbenas (from Country Boys). It is on the far end post and is just a little bit hard to water, but it does look good.

I also got a purple fountain grass, which I potted up into one of the bronze Marth Stewart plastic pots. Yesterday at Country Boys we saw a really neat basket with coleus and Blackie sweet potato vine. I had two blackies at home as I was waiting to match the one trailing coleus (not going well so far...) and make the final hanging basket. But, in the meantime, we got this other coleus and I made an upright planter with the new coleus and the sweet potato vine. I can always get more sweet potato vine when I find another trailing colues.

Wednesday morning I had a fairly productive planting day. I planted 5 little coleus along the side of the house where the flag irises are, planted the primrose (??) from Mrs Phillips in front of the mallow, planted the lilies of the valley (also from Mrs Phillips) by the side steps and planted the perilla in the shade bed near two hostas. I also planted a new hosta up against the large tree on the side of the house. Hopefully everything will get enough water and will look good. All the bare root hostas I planted are still looking not so hot. Guacamole does not seem to want to open its leaves and several of stillettos leaves looked kind of fried (too much sun??) so I cut them off. The unknown hosta looks fantasic, as do the hostas in other people's yards. Maybe I shouldn't water mine during the winter?

Two of my coleus pieces seem to be taking root, one in water and the other in a little pot, so I may have some additional colues. I also now have 3 mints for Bobbie. I have discovered I can break off little pieces of my pennyroyal on the edges and they have roots. I am working on rooting some mint julip for my co-workers right now. The Chinese lantern seedlings are living outside full time now, but their stems still seem really weak and are kind of bent over at the soil level. But, other than that, they all seem to be doing okay, though I am not currently seeing a lot of growth. The sweet basil seedlings are also outside pretty much full time trying to get lots of sun. They are just starting to maybe put out a second set of leaves. I am thinking about trying to transplant the marjoram and tarragon seedlings into bigger pots and start moving them outside part time as well. My zinnas have sprouted again and Flo has dumped their pot again. I rescued the seedlings and replanted them and am hoping for the best. Don't know why she dumped the pot as it isn't even in an area she goes.

Yesterday I got some peach colored million bells and moved those into the green pot with the sedge and coral bells. The peach colored pansies are in a small pot now to live out the rest of their lives. I bought some more annuals to replace the pansies in my pots, but the pansies live on, as does the bulb foliage. Right now I am keeping the pansies as they are leggy, but they stick up out and above the bulb foliage that is in no hurry to die. Two things I must do though are totally clean out the pot that got infested with ants and move the dusty miller out of the small brown pot, which it is totally taking over. I did dump out the violas last night as Flo had dumped them earlier and they were looking pretty rough.

Yesterday also saw some work in the vegetable garden. I repotted the eggplant into a 12" pot and put a new Thai pepper in the eggplant's old pot. I also added a chocolate bell peper, which is in a 10" pot. They all went along the side fence, though I might move a hot pepper over by the big herb barrel. So far as of this AM, there were no sprouts in the big whiskey barrel. I kind of thought the basil might be up by now, but I did cover it with a thin layer of soil, so that might have slowed it down a little. I did have two major traumas in the herb department this AM. First looking at my purple basil that is by the whiskey barrel, I saw that the stems looked moldy. Straight out of the pot and into the garbage for that one. Don't know what its issue was, but the plant had already had two stems die and had tried to flower. Then, I looked at my other purple basil and it was starting to flower. I pulled the flowers back and I am going to cut it way back when I get home tonight. But, there is a chance it might up and die down like the other one did. No idea what their problem is. After that, I glanced over at my bronze fennel and there sat a BIG catepillar. I ran and got the scissors and snipped off the piece of fennel it was on and deposited the whole thing in the trash. I tried to identify the catepillar today at work but had no luck. I did get the new shepherd's crook driven in the ground for my Tumbling Tom tomato. The crook bent down more than I was expecting when I hung up Tom, so I hope it holds.

I am hoping that the catepillar does not mark the beginning of a major pest invasion. At least I am checking out my plants each day so I hope I can stay on top of any problems as they develop.

planting with Jordan

Today I spent the morning running around still trying to figure out what I am doing. I did finally get a whiskey barrel at K-Mart, but they were out of the string trimmer I wanted. I did get some grass shears and ended up using them quite a bit this evening (I probably have a raking job in my future). The little Chinese lantern seedings spent the day outside. A bunch of them are still really weak and floppy. I am hoping that moving outside pretty much will give them more light and they will survive.

This morning I did a little cutting on the small beautyberry, trying to get rid of a few of the small branches that cross each other, and I did hit green wood. So, the plant is still alive, which is great news. I just hope it starts to leaf out again soon. The rose of Sharon is already leafing out again. I cut the frost damage off the camellias and the small pieris. I also removed all the dead flowers from the azaleas. They were really stuck to the leaves, especially pink ruffles, and I accidentally pulled off some leaves while trying to get the dead flowers off.

I found my pot of zinna seeds dumped over this afternoon, but as I was scooping soil back in, I found some sprouted seeds and basically replanted them. This evening while we were eating dinner in the gazebo (finally!) I saw that the pot had been dumped again. I am going to move it to a different location and get another pack of seeds and start over. The basil, marjoram, chamomile and tarragon seeds I planted have all sprouted now, a few days ago in fact. I think I might make up a few more pots of basil and just keep them outside and only move them in if it rains.

I did get my big terra cotta herb pot potted up today. I had seen golden oregano at the farmer's market earlier this week and thought it would be perfect with lemon thyme and lemon sage, plus the curly parsley. I was pretty shocked that when I went to the farmer's market today they actually had all three herbs I was looking for (my luck is that there is always ONE item I am looking for that the store is out of). We also went to Garden Treasury today where I got 2 coleus and a perilla. I got a third coleus, that we have liked in the past, at the farmers market as well and the three coleus went into a plastic pot from K-Mart today. I also got a smaller matching pot that I moved the begonia into . This let me add the creeping Jenny in where the begonia had been living, and that pot looks a lot better now. The saleslady at Garden Treasury said to pinch back the big coleus, and we even examined where, so I did that when I got home and stuck pieces into potting soil hoping they will root. I also got another 6 pack of colues and when I was taking that out of the car, I broke the top clean off one. So, the actually little plant went in water to try to re-root and the roots went into a slightly bigger pot to see if they will grow a new plant. I still have 5 more anyway.

Jordan kept wanting to help me pot stuff up, but he also wanted to smash the potting soil down. I told him he could have 3 impatiens and the two old coleus left in a 6 pack that weathered the freeze inside, plus all the left over daylilies. His mom didn't believe him that I was giving them to him, so I had to tell her myself, but she never came out to see us. We got the daylilies planted up by the road and the impatiens and coleus on the side of their house near a hosta. There were actually lots of little daylily pieces left and they seemed to be in good shape. I hope both our daylilies make it, as that will be quite pretty along the road.

I finished out the day hand cutting the tall fescue patches. The yard looks much better, but I think I will need to rake it tomorrow. We still haven't gotten the brackets for the hanging baskets installed, maybe tomorrow or Sunday. I am also going to try out the drill on the whiskey barrel. My plan is to try to get it planted on Sunday.

I also decided to finally take a chance on planting the million bells I have been trying to root. I'm not sure they are rooting, but they were making new leaves and blooming in the water, so I planted both of them today. I really don't know if they had roots, so I am not too hopeful that they will survive. Meanwhile, the parent plant was looking dried out it its rootball area today in its pot, so I tried to give it some intensive water and may have managed to break off a piece of it by accident. ARGHHH... pretty but apparently very fragile. At least it seems to really like being cut back and repsonds with a bunch of little branches. When I was getting the one million bell piece out, I saw the chocolate mint leaves my mom had stuck in there (I had actually left them for her coffee, she thought I wanted them rooted). The big leaf had turned a bit black on the edge, so I decided to chuck it. Well, when I pulled it out of the water, it had MAJOR roots. So, into a pot it went and hopefully I will have some new growth soon and then I will have a plant to give away to someone. I was so emboldend by this that I went out and took cuttings of Mint Julip and Spearmint and stuck them in water. If they root I will give them to Bobbie.

impatiens planting, stressed peppers

I started two more little 3" pots of the summerlong basil this AM before work. I was going to use the Jiffy seed starter again, but the pellets I bought are too big to fit in the holes.

Last night it got down to about 37 and was very windy. I brought in all the basil in small pots and the tansy that doesn't seem to like wind. When I went out to the yard this AM, all the peppers, the eggplant and the basil in a mixed pot all looked awful and I thought maybe I'd lost them. But, this evening when I got home from work they had all perked up and were looking good. With the wind chill tonight it is supposed to be around 37 (actual temp is going to be 42), so I think I will bring them all in so they aren't stressed any more and move the big pot to a protected position.

When I pulled into the drive this evening, I could see that my big pot of petunias had been knocked over. I figured it was either the wind or the dogs, but as it was the only pot knocked over, I'm voting for the dogs. The petunias themselves had actually been buried in dirt when the pot fell, so I added more potting soil to the pot and repotted them. They actually don't look that much worse for the wear.

I spent the rest of the evening weeding down in the camellia bed. I had also noticed that my impatiens waiting to be planted were looking dry, so I decided that I really need to get as many of them planted as possible. I planted 6 around the front of the dragon, figuring the dogs would leave them alone and three over in the shade bed by the carex. I had planned to use them to replace the pansies in several of the porch pots, but the pansies are still looking good. So... I think maybe I'll buy two cheap hanging baskets at K-Mart, take off the hanging part and pot the impatiens up in them for inside the gazebo.

While pulling some weeds, I noticed a bunch of strange little plants growing in the relative shade around the laundry post. At first I thought maybe it was mondo grass, but they actually remind me most of the daylilies out front, except in miniature. I tried to weed around them really well. I am thinking they might be some sort of bulb. The dirt in this area is basically black, so I think the area must have been used for some sort of garden at some point. I finished the day by pulling onions out of the ground. The two days of rain had made the ground somewhat soft and I was able to pull a bunch of onions straight out of the ground.

flowers for the back yard

It was raining this AM, then very cold and windy for the rest of the day, so I really didn't do much in the yard at all today. I potted up the other pennyroyal and set it by the front porch, to keep the bugs away. I also started the peppermint twist zinnia seeds in a plastic pot. The idea is that the pot will go by the one gate post for decoration and maybe I can even cut a few zinnias for decoration in the house. I also potted up the 6 salmon colored petunias I got yesterday, 5 in one big pot that will add color to the yard and help protect the tea olive and one in the pot the lilys came in as I don't currently know what to do with it.

I am planning on getting a tumbling tom tomato for one of my co-workers and it sounded so cute I decided to get one for myself. Today I bought a bronze plastic hanging basket that I hope will work for it. If not, it will be great for flowers on the side of the gazebo, but I'm really thinking it will work for the tomato.

We went over to storage today and got the brackets and the hanging baskets, but the bad weather did not make either of us really want to climb a ladder, so maybe we will get them installed on Wednesday.

camellia finally planted

I started the day today by starting some seeds. I have 3 tarragon, 3 sweet marjoram and 6 chamomile started in a Jiffy pack, then 3 pots of summerlong basil started in 3" pots. I am trying to decide if I want to start more basil, which I think I will try to do in the 3" pots. It is supposed to germinate in 7-10 days. Flo managed to tip over one of the little pots of Chinese lantern seedlings, and we couldn't find the seedling anywhere, so that one is a goner. I did try to transplant an extra seeding I had in another pot into the now empty pot. We will see how that goes. Also when I was looking at my containers this AM, I noticed that the long flowering branch of my coral million bells was looking SUPER wilty. Sure enough, the dogs had broken it most of the way off. I pulled it the rest of the way off and stuck it in a bottle of water on the window. It did perk right up, we will see if it can root itself.

After my seed starting, I did a bunch of weeding in the grass in the front yard. They were calling for rain today and tomorrow so I wanted to try AGAIN to seed the lawn when there would be some rainy weather to help me out. Got the front yard seeded and then did a bunch of seeding in the back as well, though I haven't done as much weeding back there. Maybe this time I will get grass. I tried a different seed this time, Sta-Green, some mix formulated for the south.

This morning I FINALLY planted the Margaret Davis camellia. She is done blooming for the year. Before I planted her, I weeded the whole area between the existing Toms and the hydrangea, then planted Margaret. The plan is to cover the bare ground with newspaper, then top it with mulch. This should keep down the weeds and make the soil really nice if I later decide to plant something around the camellias. I did get some more bricks and have now bricked the whole camellia area along the back fence. I still need to weed up the patch of ground between the hydrangea and the Miss Biloxis. Then, I also am really going to have to move the brick, push back the mulch and do something about trying to eradicate all the grass that is around the Miss Biloxis.

We went to the farmers market this afternoon and I got some more plants to make containers for the porch with. I still need to find some place to move my big begonia, then I can put the creeping Jenny into the pot with the coleus and rose form impatiens. When we got home the rain had not yet arrived, so I potted up most of the plants for display on the porch. I have added a pink lily, by itself in a brown pot; a big blue pot with the coral million bells, a lantana; an annual dianthus and some trailing plant with white flowers and a fiberglass terra cotta looking pot with 1 purple petunia, 1 blue bacopia, 1 white phlox and 1 white penta (I think). They all look good and hopefully should keep blooming all summer. I also have some pinky coral petunias that I will plant maybe in a green plastic pot for the back yard, not sure yet.

I moved a sage into the pot with the thyme and rosemary, where the coral million bells had been. The wave petunia in a basket is on the gazebo right now, but I don't think it looks great, so I'm going to move it and get something else for the gazebo.

The one group at the farmers market that I have been buying from had the tumbling Tom tomatoes I want to get for my co-worker (they are supposed to grow in a hanging basket), but they were out of them, so I will have to go back during the week.

The weather report called for rain starting at 4, and I kept waiting for the rain, but as long it it stayed dry, I kept working. I planted 6 impatiens down in front of the Margaret camellia, just inside the brick border. I think they will look nice once the grow in some more. With the rain still holding off, I was also able to get the firewitch dianthus planted in front of the tea olive. I think it looks great.

Jordan and Dante came over to visit today. Sometimes Jordan wears me out a little bit and today was one of those days. He always wants to help, but he kept wanting to mess with my big basket of million bells and kept trying to pull of the formed buds, thinking they were dead. YIKES!

Tomorrow we are supposed to have rain for part of the day but it will be dry between 10 and 4, so I am hoping to get to Wal-Mart in the early AM to get some mulch, then work on mulching in the camellia bed area some more. I would like to find a cheap pot to put the petunias in. We also need to get over to storage and get the hanging baskets and try to get them installed if the weather holds tomorrow. I did get all the stuff for a semi-shade basket today at the farmers market, I think it will look really nice.

back outside

The weather was warmer today (high in the mid 50s, low in the low 50s) so I decided to move all the plants outside today. A few of the plants are on the porch for the day as we are having rain all day and I thought they might be happier there. I also potted up almost all of the plants we bought at right before the cold snap.

Today I potted up:
2 yellow bell peppers
1 eggplant
1 spearmint
1 peppermint
1 chocolate mint
1 sweet basil
1 stevia

I now need to get some more potting soil. I may or may not have enough pots, but if I do give some herbs to the neighbors, I'll need to get another 12" pot for them. I am going to put the purple basil and one sweet basil in the same container, hopefully they won't influence each other's flavor too much or crowd each other out or anything. I have decided I need to go back to the plant sale tomorrow at lunch and get a pack of rosemary and a pack of oregano. Still debating the habenero peppers.

The daylilies I planted last night look good. The expensive ones from the lily lady are looking pretty wilted. Not sure what their problem is. Maybe the rain and then warm sunny weather tomorrow will perk them up.

surveying the damage, plus daylilies

I left the house super early this morning to get to the plant sale up by work. I got a flat of mixed color impatiens, a really nice wave petunia in a hanging basket and a 4 pack of sage, two of which I am giving to a co-worker. I thought about getting some more rosemaries, they had 4 packs of them as well, but then wasn't sure. I still want to do a sage, rosemary and thyme pot and put a parsley pot next to it. I am maybe going to try to grow some curly leaf parsley from seed, so that part might wait. I will buy the thyme and probably buy the rosemary as well, maybe a bigger plant.

I walked the yard today uncovering hostas and surveying the damage. First off, I seem to have misplaced one of the elegens. If it is doing well, I guess it should be able to push up through an extra layer of pine needles... Maybe I'll locate it this weekend, or maybe I just miscounted or something. I read on one site about frost damage that you should wait a week then prune off the dead parts. I will have a BUNCH of pruning to do next weekend. The big beautyberry seems to have benefited from being a bit behind, as its leaves had not started to open before the frost, so they mostly seem to have survived and are now starting to open. The small beautyberry's leave were open and they all look pretty dead now. The tea olive still does have a decent amount of exisiting leaves, so I'm hoping it will be okay, its new growth is gone though, same with both pieris. I think everything should recover. We are expecting rain all day tomorrow so that should be good for everything.

My co-worker brought me a big bag of daylilies, which I worked on planting along the road edge of the ditch. I got them planted all the way from the driveway to the walkway and about 2/3 of the way from the walkway to the area where they scraped my yard so badly picking up yard waste. Some of the daylilies split into fairly tiny pieces. I did plant 3 of the little pieces along the property line with Curtis. I still have some more little pieces I will try to plant up and I'm going to ask Beverly for a few more big clumps to try to finish out the part along the road. I think these will look great as they fill in. I actually did see orange daylilies listed as an invasive species today. Hum... they sure look a lot better than kudzu and you can dig them out.

We do have fewer plants indoors today. Most of the plants went outside today for some sun. It was still too cold to put them out this AM before I left for work (under 40) so I didn't want to put everything out at 6:30 PM after being inside all day and then leave it out all night, especially with rain coming tomorrow. I am going to take everything out to the porch tomorrow and work on getting as many of the small plants repotted as possible. Then I'll leave everything covered on the porch all day tomorrow and all night and they should be ready to go back into their normal positions on Thursday, when it is supposed to be in the high 70s, low 80s.

I also moved the last of the Chinese latern seedlings to larger pots. Many of them are a bit on the tall and floppy side, as they need more light. I was working on moving them outside part time when the freeze came. Hopefully starting Thursday they will be able to spend part of the day outside and they will be in the window in my house every day.

This weekend I am planning on starting some more seeds, probably in small pots, but I think with the warmer weather, I will leave the pots outside to get the sun and only bring them in at night.

dealing with the cold, plus hanging the gate

We are still having cold nights and fairly cold days. Even though I covered my azaleas, when I went out to uncover them this AM, the frost had gotten the blooms. The frost has also gotten new growth leaves on most of my camellias, the hydrangea, tea olive, both pierises and the small beautyberry. I am most worried about the tea olive and the small beautyberry. The beautyberry was just starting to leaf out and all those leaves are now dead. Hopefully it will be able to grow some new leaves. Also, the tea olive seemed to have dropped most of its old leaves and have gotten in almost entirely new leaves. Those are now pretty much done for. We will have to wait and see. The little pieris looks so sad with its little dead new leaves. I am depressed and worried about my little plants. Bobbie suggested not messing with those "little things" (all my 1 gallon shrubs) and just putting in some hollies that would get to be 6" tall after a while. Of course, the tea olive will also get to be that tall, and bloom and smell good and the pieris is just cool looking and will get bigger too. The dogs have managed to break off one of the stems of the tea olive, so I had to prune that off today. I am planning on getting two whiskey barrels to put in the border to protect the shrubs some more. I had wanted to plant flowers in that area and due to the dogs running, I could see that inground flowers would not work. So, guess I'll have some more containers.

I spent a decent part of the day today weeding the grass. Lots and lots of weeds. Once the weather warms up, I will AGAIN try to get some grass to fill in on the bare patches. I am about to give up. I had seen sod for sale at Lowes a few weeks ago and thought I might get some to try and establish some more grass around the forsythia, as the other grass clumps I had moved there this fall and winter seem to be doing well.

Finally, we worked on the gate today. We now have a working gate, but it ground stake doesn't have anything to fit in currently, so we have the gate wired shut so that the dogs can't get out. I think it will be SO useful once it is done. Now all I need is a lawnmower and I will really be in business.

I guess all my herbs are surviving indoors. They all got watered today and the try of little pots went outside in the afternoon for a little sun. When I brought them back in, I had purple basil 911. It was looking very wilty and it felt quite dry, so it got watered right away. I think it was looking a lot better tonight.

Tuesday it finally warms up at night again. Tuesday is also the first day of the plant sale at the school near work. I am going to buy a flat of impatiens to plant in my shady areas, as well as a hanging basket of petunias and some sage. Then, when I get home from work I will have some major potting to do. I will probably end up sending my mom out for some more pots while I get to work on what I have. I still need to find two more really pretty glazed pots, as I want to redo one of the big blue pots, the one I just kind of shoved things in before I went out of town. Right now I think the begonia is making it look crowded and you can't see the petunia at all. The begonia is going to get its own 12" pot and I am currently thinking I will put the petunia in with a verbena and maybe either a million bells or a nemetisia. I would like to get something in a blue and something in a white to contrast with the purple and white petunia.

plants tucked in

The remaining 4 silver scrolls coral bells were planted this evening, and the ones that I planted last night are already looking perkier. When I arrived home, I was very happy to see the Dragon still standing, hope it likes its new home in the shrub border (probably a tad shadier than ideal but I'm not exactly trying for a bumper crop of bitter oranges). Either the trashmen or the recycling took away all the big cardboard boxes, so the yard is looking much improved.

Got all the plants tucked in for the frost. The hostas and coleus that are in the ground were covered with pine needles, as were the daylilies. Everything else was brought inside. I have plants all over my kitchen and laundry room and some in the living room and my bedroom. Some I will put outside each day, others I'll just leave inside for the duration.

I guess I let the herbs go a bit too long without water (I guess it has been so hot the rain the other did did basically nothing). When I came home the oregano was not looking too hot and even the thyme was looking sulky. The pennyroyal looked really bad, and when I watered it, it looked totally pulped. I thought it might very well be a total goner, but now a few hours post watering, it is looking a lot happier, so I think it will make it.

Speaking of goners, I checked the big beautyberry and some of its leaves are even starting to unfold. I will have some pruning to do once everything leafs out, but for now both beautyberries are looking good and I don't think I will have any major dead branches.

I am not looking forward to 4 more nights of having to run around and bring everything in each night. Hope we don't get any freak frosts after our frost free date.

frantic planting

Cold night temps are on the way starting tomorrow, so today I worked frantically to get things in the ground. This AM before work (had to leave for work at 1 PM) I was able to get the dead nettle planted in the shade garden near where the possible one surviving bareroot bleeding heart is. It looks great and really does light up a kind of dark area.

After that it was off to the front yard side of the fence. I put the two potted bleeding hearts into the shade border along separated by a hosta. I also noticed that Jordan's family had cleared the weeds out of their little flowerbeds and had planted what looks like a few salvia and gerbena daisies. Good for them! While I planted the bleeding hearts, I also tried to do a little weeding, as the "grass" around the forsythia is basically weeds.

Next up, it was sun border time and in went the 3 stonecrops along the side of the house. First I pulled out all the weeds so the area looked a lot better. The dirt there was really nice and practically no tree roots so the whole thing went very quickly. I also worked to weed around the creeping phlox. Two of the native phloxes are almost touching. There is a little area between the stonecrop and the phlox where I have decided I will sow some of of the four o-clock seeds in a few weeks.

Once all that was done, it was pretty much time to get ready for work.

Since I didn't get to do anything yesterday due to the mess with the cars and all, I decided that maybe I would try to work in the yard tonight. I went to Target on my lunch hour and bought a battery operated lantern (also good for eating in the gazebo after dark) and some batteries.

WhenI got home from work, I decided to plant even though it was a bit colder than I had hoped (55 as I type this). I started by planting the flying dragon, because I think it is now too top heavy for its pot and I'm sick of always have to stand it back up and afraid it is going to get hurt. The whole for the dragon didn't take too long to dig (but apparently longer than I realized). While the water was sinking in from the part-way through watering, I looked over at the coral bells and noticed that the two that keep looking bad were looking bad again. So, I decided to plant these two coral bells while I was waiting for water to sink into the dragon. The main time consuming part here was just clearing the surface of the dirt in the area I wanted to plant. I had originally intended to try to plant all 6 coral bells tonight, but due to the dragon having fallen over again, it took priority. When I finally got done filling the dragon hole and had mom water it again, and got the two coral bells planted and came inside, it was 11:30 PM. YIKES!!

Tomorrow I should be okay with coming home from work and planting the remaining 4 coral bells. This will really reduce the number of little pots I have to move around. Once the coral bells are in, then it will be a matter of working on getting stuff covered with pine needles and moved into the house.

Today I planted:
1 dead nettle
1 old fashioned bleeding heart
1 native bleeding heart
3 stone crop
1 flying dragon hardy orange
2 Silver Scrolls coral bells

fence posts in

It took pretty much all day, but the posts for the driveway gate are finally in and the gate is sort of hanging out in them right now. The concrete still has to cure for a day or two before the gate will be usable, but at least we are making serious progress now. I might look into getting one more end post sunk in and putting chain link in that whole area. But, considering how long it took to get these two posts in... I might make due with what I have today.

I sent my mom off to the farmers market today to get some more herbs, and she got me 4 more mints (peppermint, spearmint and 2 chocolate mints). I also got a chocolate mint from Susie at work (mom had forgotten Susie was giving me a mint). She also got me 2 sweet basils, a purple basil, another pennyroyal, 2 creeping Jenny (one is going in a container) and possibly something else I've forgotten. I also found a 1 quart dead nettle at Home Depot today (only one they had) for $4.43, so I got that for the shade garden.

All this would have been wonderful if I had been able to do any planting today. However, I was stuck at work until 8 PM. I would have had to be about an hour late to work and I could have had my own car (mom had taken my car to get the gate and met me for lunch but my car was 6" too narrow for the gate to fit in, plus we didn't know she would have to take Tom home after he put in the posts). So, I cooled my heels reading magazines at work while my mom waited for Tom and Bobbie to finish up with the fence posts, then took Tom home and finally came and got me. So, no planting tonight. And I still have a bunch of lirope to plant as well.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, the really bad news is the weather report. We are less than 2 weeks away from our frost free date. So, what are we getting this weekend? Lows in the low 30s and even a prediction of 28 one night. It is currently 71 F right now at 10:36. So, I have coleus already in ground, tons of herbs in terra cotta pots and even more stuff to be planted.

The plan right now is not to plant any of the small pots that are going in containers until after the cold snap. They should be able to survive a few days in their little pots and they will be easier to bring indoors. The front porch things can move into the living room for a few nights. I think I will try to cluster all the herb pots together beside the side door in the little alcove there and cover them with a sheet or a bunch of newspaper or something. I'm getting newspaper to cover all the coleus in the ground and all the hostas.

I had thought I'd plant Margaret (the camellia) tomorrow and maybe even try to plant the flying dragon. But, I have decided I will work on getting some of the smaller perennials in the ground. The ground will give them more protection against the bad weather, I can cover them with pine needles and it will be less stuff to try to bring indoors. I think I will be very busy protecting everything on Thursday night as that is the first day it is supposed to turn cold. I hope the weather report is wrong at we don't get the super cold weather, but at least I am planning ahead and am pretty prepapred.

lirope planting

I did not go to yoga after work as planned and around 7 PM Bobbie brought over a bunch of lirope she had dug out from along her back fence. We worked on getting the big clump separated into smaller parts for transplanting and then she went home. I managed to get lirope planted clear across the front of my left hand foundation bed. I only went a tiny bit around the corner, as I plan to add another plant between the holly and nandina at some point and that will effect where the edge of the bed should be. I did add one lirope basically under the large holly to sort of turn the corner.

There also is a spot sort of behind the nandina that I had been looking for a ground cover for this weekend. But, as I had some lirope left, it is free and the area may eventually be hidden by another plant, I decided to go ahead and pop in the lirope. I then added a bunch of mulch in that area. By the time I was adding mulch, it was completely dark outside and I basically was working from my porch light. I really need to get a battery operated lantern.

Before Bobbie came over, I decided to plant out the two remaining snapdragon plants I had, which have been in their little for pack for oh, I don't know, maybe 2 months?? I had thought all 4 were dead, but closer inspection showed some new growth on 2, so I planted those two and threw the other two out. Realizing that it had taken me this long to plant the snapdragons got me thinking about the coleus pack I had purchased this weekend. So, BAD IDEA, I decided to go plant it in my shade border in the dark. I got three plants in the ground around stilletto hosta (hope they don't grow too tall and obscue stilletto), then managed to pretty much break the stem of another one, then did away with almost all its roots trying to get it out of the pack. I stuck that one in the ground and propped a lot of pine needles up around it. We'll see, don't think that one has a really good chance though. I finally came to my senses and decided to leave the remaining two in their packs at least until it was light.

I went out and looked at my daylilies this morning and some of their foliage was yellowing a bit, which did not make me happy. The ground around them seemed really dry (this is FULL SUN along the road) so I watered them.

I still have some lirope left, so I tossed it all the box of dirt and covered the roots with dirt. With the bare root plants I keep getting, the box of dirt is really coming in handy.
The only problem is that the box of dirt is in full sun and it is really just too heavy for me to keep moving. I think tomorrow night I will just plant the rest of the lirope somewhere. Maybe along the other side of the house, maybe along the drive, maybe who knows where...

This morning I realized that i still had one bareroot elegens hosta that I had never planted. I got it out of the bag and its roots seemed a little dry but some seemed okay. I never could figure out where in the yard to put it. Now that I have a bunch of terra cotta pots I decided to just stick it in a pot and see if it makes it. If not, I have plenty of elegens (I hope) and if so I can always give it away in its $.88 pot. In additonal potting news, after it was dark this evening, I decided that the tansy and lemon balm were looking crowded in their pot they were sharing, so I moved the lemon balm to its own 10" pot and recentered the tansy it its pot. This also took care of the even number of herb pots problem. Tomorrow I will send my mom to the farmers market for 2 more mints for me and a stevia for Jane.

planting continues

I was out of town for most of the week, so mom took care of the watering while I was gone. My big surprise was that I came back to find that both Miss Biloxis had a bloom. Unfortunately one of them fell off today, but the other one is still attached to its plant. I think this will basically be the end of my camellia season.

I went to the farmers market and picked up some more herbs yesterday and made several more herb pots, which I then ended up repotting today in slightly larger pots. I have now added a tricolor sage and a bronze fennel to the pot with the silver thyme (this pot is SO pretty). I also made an Italian culinary pot with purple basil, oregano and Italian parsley. Finally I made a medicinal pot which originally had tansy, lemon balm and pennyroyal in it. The pennyroyal was actually pretty big and the man selling the herbs said if I put the pennyroyal in its own smaller pot it would grow all over the top and down all the sides and basically make a green ball. So, I transferred it to an 8" pot and will get a rue to add to the medicinal pot. I also got a larger pot to put a couple of sweet basils in and maybe add another common culinary herb as well. I also planted a jalepeno pepper and a cayenne pepper today that I had bought yesterday. I did go to Twin Bridge yesterday to see if they had in their Thai pepper plants, but they don't have them yet, I will check back.

Yesterday I also went to the Lily Lady (Daylily andHostas Gardens) on her first day open. I bought 2 Mattie Mae Maxwell daylilys (the hostas I liked were all more than I wanted to spend). When I moved the Matties at home, they turned into 4 Matties. I still had two clumps that looked like they could be split further, so I divided one again and ended up with 5 Matties. I planted those along the inner edge of the ditch over near the driveway. I am supposed to be getting some orange daylilys from a co-worker and will plant those along the outer edge of the ditch and hopefully kind of hide the ditch.

I also got a scotch moss, which I planted in the hole in the cement cover in the backyard. It definitely beats weeds! Maybe it will spread.

I went to the native plant sale yesterday morning and it was actually pretty expensive and not too exciting. I will wait until Carolina Wild comes back to the Farmers Market to get anything else. Did end up buying a fringed bleeding heart. It will go in the shade border on the front yard side of the fence due to being poisonous.

I planted the balloon flowers in the shade garden near the side fence and they look good and I figured they would look ever better with some sort of edging. There is a decent amount of sun in that area, so first I thought impatiens, but there might be too much sun, then I thought petunias, but all the white ones I saw looked yucky. So, the area is just pine needles so far.

Today I started out my morning watering and weeding. They were calling for rain today, but the last time they said rain, we didn't really get much, just a few sprinkles and I knew my plants needed water. So, I watered and weeded. I got a lot of weeding done over by the creeping phlox, which is larger every time I look at it. I also worked on weeding out the area in front of my mulch bed, where I plan to put the lirope I will get from Bobbie.

After all that, it was time for lunch and then as it was looking like rain, I decided to run to Underwoods (as I had gotten an email saying they had all their spring plants in). I got a regular bleeding heart (mom sort of poo-pooed the one from the native plant sale) and three sedums to plant along the side of the house in the sunnier part. Just as I was leaving, the rain started. I went off to Old Time Pottery and got some more pots for the herbs (which I repotted into later in the day). Then it was raining WAY too much to go dig lirope at Bobbie's, work in the yard or much of anything else. So, after looking at plants at K-Mart (they look 3/4 dead) but they did have whiskey barrels stamped Jack Daniels. I need to get one and then figure out how to get some holes drilled in it so I can plant the Burpee herb garden.

Finally this afternoon I was able to get out and repot the herbs once the rain had stopped. Then, while dinner was cooling, I transplanted most of the Chinese Lantern seedlings into their own containers. They sat outside for about 1/2 hour and are now in for the night. I still have 3 seedlings with only 2 leaves so they stay in the starting tray for a bit longer to get a little bigger. The others will begin the hardening off process and will probably live on my front porch, where they will be protected from the dogs.

The biggest news of the day though is that the big beatyberry lives! After the little beautyberry began leafing out last week and the big guy was still totally dormant both mom and I thought he was done for. Then while I was gone, mom pruned him some more and didn't find any live wood. Today while I was watering, I did a bit more pruning and was getting dead looking wood. Then, I was looking at one branch closely and actually saw little leaf buds and saw a speck of green! I did a bit more pruning, pruning out a few smaller branches that were crossing each other and actually cut a green branch (oh well, maybe it will grow 2 branches from that spot). I am so excited!! I do still think I will have some dead wood to prune out, but that will be a task for May or something.

planting, yoga, gazebo, shopping, planting

Today I wanted to go to yoga at 10:45 AM, but that doesn't put me back home until 12:30 pM, getting close to the hottest part of the day. And, I really wanted to get the other yew planted. So, I headed out to plant it around 9 AM. Amazingly, there were no tree roots in the planting hole, just some rocks, so it was a lot faster and I had the yew in the ground before 10 AM.

Mom was going to go out and get some more terra cotta pots and do a few other errands and wasn't home yet when I got home from yoga. I decided that I wanted to eat lunch in the gazebo and set about putting it together. It was that hard to put together, just a bit tricky getting the right angle some times and definately not a one person job. Iwas glad mom got back when she did to help me out. Unfortunately, just as we were fininshing securing the canvas top, the step ladder mom was standing on collapsed and she took a really bad fall. It was in the 80s today and at this point I was pretty well overheated. So, we took a break and went to get ice cream and look at plants.

I had some coleus that I had bought at the farmer's market yesterday and I wanted to find something else to plant with them, plus I wanted to get a few more herbs to put in terra cotta pots that I am going to use to protect the area where I have the salvias planted. I ended up not totally doing what I had planned. I did get a thyme to put in one of the pots, also an impatien with rose shaped flowers, a begonia, a pretty purple and white petunia hybrid and a variegated sedge for the shade garden. Of course, this basically gives me some half filled pots. I wanted but did not get cross-wire vine, tri-color sage and tri-color sweet potato vine. I will get these later. Also stopped by Lowes and Home Depot but didn't find anything at either store.

When I got home, it was back to planting. I got all the coral bells planted around the water heater side yew. That area is looking pretty good. Then I got the sedge planted in the shade garden. After that it was container time. I planted the mint I got yesterday in its own pot. Then, I had the problem with the thyme, which really takes only part of a pot right now. I will get it some friends when I get back from NC. I was then going to pot up some more plants, but I ran out of potting soil! I was able to get the 6-pack of coleus and one of the 4" pots planted together in one of my blue ceramic pots I added one of the little coleus to my green pot with the sedge, pansies and coral bells for later, when the pansies have to go. I also removed the vinca that wasn't looking great and replaced with some more English Daisies that I had purchased yesterday. Currently the petunia, begonia and impatiens are all waiting for more potting soil. One coleus is waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. Plus, I have the other 6 coral bells for the other side of the perennial bed. All of these are in little pots, but mom should be watering them daily while I am out of town and the day I get back I will have some major planting to do. The weather is supposed to cool off over the next week, so that should help things out some. My yard is starting to come together. I will still need to sometime get that camellia planted and finally decide what to do with my flying dragon.

My Rose of Sharon has taken a beating from the dogs and I wasn't sure if it was still with us, but today I noticed little leaf buds on it. Also saw little leaf buds on the small beautyberry. The big beautyberry does not appear to have any little buds at all, so I am back to worrying that it just didn't make it. Time will tell.

big planting day

Today I got A LOT planted!

I started out by watering everything and doing a little weeding. I also rearranged the porch plants slightly, putting the two pots that STILL have paperwhite foilage with pansies peeking through down in the foundation bed on the ajuga side. Then I switched to doing some more weeding in the camellia bed. I am ready to add more mulch, but I want to put down a layer of newspaper first and I don't have enough newspaper. I'm planning on buying the Sunday paper tomorrow!

At that point, I decided it was finally time to tackle the yews. I spent quite a while with mom helping me measure out where exactly I wanted them to be on the corner of the bed. It took quite a while to get the hole for the yew dug, due in part to A LOT of tree roots. Of course, the whole perennial bed thing only came about because of how disturbed the soil was from me cutting down the two little trees and trying to pull all their roots out. After all the work planting the yew, I was quite hot (it was 82 today) and tired and it was definately lunch time. I did take the 6 coral bells I had and set them around the yew. The original plan was that I would use three on each side, but to really get the look I wanted, 6 is what is really took to go the distance. While mom was making lunch, I went ahead and potted up the marigolds in one of my blue pots I bought on sale last fall. I also finally planted the clematis, planting it deep in a hole near the fence. We shall see if it even comes up. I did have some leftover dirt from that and thought maybe I could find a few plants to plant right up along the fence.

After lunch, we decided it was too hot to work in the yard for a while and took a break and went shopping. I got some terra cotta pots for very cheap at Old Tyme Pottery. Then we went to Underwoods to see what they had and ask about a fatsia japonica. They were out of fatsias, but did say that they grew well (and we finally saw one in person as they have one growing along their fenceline). They didn't have very many spring things in yet, so we left without buying anything.

After that it was off to the farmer's market. I was very excited as they had a 6 back of colues! I also found two other large pots of coleus that I had to buy as well. I found some coral bells that I really liked, which were $3 or 12 for 30. Since I needed 6 at that point I decided that I just had to get 12 perennials. I had quite a hard time deciding what else to buy. I ended up getting a mallow to go in the little piece of the border that is right up against the water heater (hope there is enough sun when everything leafs out), 2 salvia to plant by the clematis and 3 balloon flowers to plant somewhere!

When I got back home, I got straight back to work. First up I planted the 2 salvia by the clematis, then I decided to finally plant the large Dale's Strain coral bell I had gotten a while ago. I planted it in the shade border, kind of in front and between two hostas. Finally I planted the mallow, but not before digging out A LOT of tree roots, including a big knot of a tree stump about the size of a baseball that I had figured I'd never get dug out. After planting the mallow, I realized the next step would be to plant the coral bells around the area, as that was all that was left to be done in that area. But, the area where some of the coral bells are to go was basically I wild onion field. So, I spent the rest of the daylight digging out wild onions and more tree roots. I got the area done just as the light was fading and then tossed some mushroom compost on top and mixed it in, then covered the whole lot with pine needles. I still need to do a little plant removal on the other side of the yew and then I can plant the coral bells and be done with that corner!

Today I planted:

1 Yew
clematis
Dale's Strain coral bells
2 Salvia (in the corner)
mallow

seedlings!

Yesterday I went to check on the Chinese lantern seeds I had started, convinced it would be a total failure and instead was in for quite a surprise when I saw that I have little seedings. So far, 9 of the 12 little pot things has at least one seedling in it. I know I need to let them grow a little more and then thin to one seedling per little pod. And to think I just too the "Success with Seeds" book back to the library because I was feeling that I most definately was not having success with seeds! At least this has made me somewhat hopeful that I will be able to get my seed-based herb garden up and running in about a month (we are just less than a month from our frost free date).

My irises are already beginning to fade, but a couple of the late bloomers are still blooming. The crocuses are still going, though I probably only got less than 50% of the bulbs I planted coming up. The garbage men also put the garbage can down on some of the crocuses this morning...

My ornamental pear or whatever tree is also currently blooming.

My yoga teachers want to have a house-warming satsang at my house, which would be great if the carpet wasn't a mess, between my dogs and all the stuff that came up later. I will have to have the carpets cleaned the AM of the satsang!!

I am switching what I am planning to do in the front foundation bed. Instead of edging with mondo grass, which I am afraid will grow into the lawn, I'm going to edge with lirope. Bobbie has some lirope I can dig up.

new brick borders

I still need to plant the 2 yews, but just didn't feel up to it today, hopefully this weekend. I am rapidly heading into a time when I will need to mow my yard though, so I decided to try to do something about the mulch that is getting everywhere.

So, today I worked on reworking the border to the woodland garden (I was having to step over part of the border to get to my tool shed) and making brick borders around my camellia beds. That went pretty well, and I used some more of the bricks from beside the shack. I did unearth a few yucky bugs while doing that. After I raked the mulch back into the general area and added the bricks, I realized I definately have a little weeding to do.

Despite my best efforts at seeding, I can't get grass to grow where it is not currently growing. The grass does seem to grow very well back in the area where the camellia beds are. So, I tried to eliminate some of that grass and dig out any wild onions. I got part of the one bed weeded out, the other one (with the three Toms) isn't a weedy. I also chopped out some more of the junk privet. I will put down newspaper along the fence line and then extend the mulch all the way back there. I think I'm going to go to Wal-Mart and pick up a few more bags of mulch for that whole area.

burr.... and weeding

After spring weather all week (in the 70s) we had a sudden cold snap just in time for the weekend, with lows in the low 30s and highs only in the 50s. Today it was also pretty windy. So, last night I went out and covered all the other hostas with fresh pine needles, and brought in the little potted Elegens hosta, the hanging basket of million bells, the fern and the pot with the licorice plant (since it was finally starting to look better after being crumped by the snow back in January).

It was pretty windy and felt pretty cold today, but I did spend about 4 hours this afternoon weeding my foundation beds. Especially the side with the ajuga REALLY needed some help as I was getting tons of clover. I also went around and cut down all the wild onions I could find growing in my lawn. My lawn doesn't quite need to be mowed yet and since I don't have a lawnmower or a gate into my backyard... I figured this would neater it up a little bit and put off any need to mow for at least a while longer. Plus, it helps the irises and crocuses show up better. I have more crocuses blooming now, including more purples and even a white now.

When I was weeding the foundation bed, I found foilage that I think must be the chinadoxa that I planted starting to come up. So, I may have some more blooms in that bed sometime. I am wondering if the mystery tulip in that bed will bloom.

I am hoping to possibly get the yews planted tomorrow. We will see...

More blooms!

Today as I was leaving for the vet, my mom pointed out that I had purple things by the mailbox. My irises, which have been coming up for a bit are now blooming. I kind of expected that their stalks would be longer, but who knows, maybe I planted the bulbs too deep or maybe that is just how they look. I also have a few more crocus up as well.

The panies are just going to town right now. I can't believe how many are opening. And, I might have tulips soon. I have two tulip buds in one pot and I think they will probably open soon. The apparent tulip in the foundation bed is still growing, as are the mystery bulbs in the foundation bed and yard. I also have one muscari that is just starting to open in another pot (that must be where the black tulips are). I also think I have some hyacinths coming up in another pot. Hopefully I have more spring bulbs to come!

I finally got some pictures of my yard this morning. Due to the vet visit, I didn't get any work done. Three of the Julie Mross hostas I planted and the one Elegens I planted in a pot have all started to green up. One of the Elegens in the ground also has a little green on it. Unfortunately, one Elegens that did have a little green on it now has totally wilted down and all the others look like there are no signs of life. I will just have to wait and see, but I am starting to think I will not get a great result from the bare root hostas. Don't know what the problem was, if they were planted too high up, had already started to grow too much in the package, got planted too early and were damaged by the cold. Don't know.

A quick tour of the yard before I left for work revealed some additional plants now in bloom. My small Pieris (Valley Rose) is just starting to bloom. It is also blooming white, though I had thought it would bloom pink. Oh well, it still is pretty and different from my other Pieris, as it has a more weeping shape. The scilla I planted by the side of the house in mostly shade have also begun to bloom. And, a big surprise is that one of the ajuga in the foundation bed has just started to bloom and the others appear to have buds. The one plant that it seems SHOULD be blooming that isn't is my hellabore and I didn't even see anything that looks like buds on it. On a bad note, the chickweed is also bloom, as are dandelions and a few other weeds.

in bloom

I was in for a real surprise when I went and looked at my big Pieris today... it is blooming!! Currently I have 4 shrubs that are blooming: the Margaret Davis camellia, the middle Tom Knudsen camellia, the forsythia and now the Mountain Fire Pieris.

I spent most of my yard work time today working on weeding the rest of the shade border, this time the part that is on the front yard side of the fence. It went fairly quickly and Jordan came over a helped me a little bit. I also planted 2 Elegens hostas in there. One didn't look too great, but the other one looked good. I now only have 1 Elegens left. I'm planning on planting it in a pot for later use in one of the shade beds.

I also found a hosta nursery in Spartanburg by following a link on the Clemson extension site. It looks like they have a lot of nice hostas and good prices. So, I will need to check the lily lady, JFS and now this place in Spartanburg if I need any more hostas. I still want to get the Penny Mac hydrangea to put in the shade border and then I would like to add a few ferns and astillbes.

I am planning on waiting on the fern front until the Native Plant sale (which I might miss due to being a collie nationals, but I can send my mom). I do want a cinnamon fern and at least one Japanese painted fern. I saw some pictures of lady ferns that made them look pretty nice too, so we will see. I did buy a big Boston Fern for the porch the other night. I think it looks good and I will place two pots by it with coleus or something once it gets warmer.

The other day I did finish up planting hostas, including the 3 Julie Mross on the back yard part of the shade border. I also planted the last few lillies of the valley, I really am not sure any of these are going to take. Then I went to plant the bleeding hearts. Two in the package looked moldy, so I tossed those. The other 3 looked okay, but I couldn't figure out which side was the root. I finally planted the big woody part into the ground, figuring that was the root as I've ready bleeding hearts basically disappear during the summer. The package was NO HELP as far as which side was up, and I tried to call Clemson Extension, but they were closed for the day. We shall see if I guessed right. I am kind of doubtful that these will come up...

Overall, I'm not sure how well I did with the bare root perennials. They are definately a lot cheaper than buying already growing plants in a pot, but I just don't know really if ANY of them will actually take. Now, only time will tell. I will just have to be patient and keep watering everything.

spending more money on the yard

Yesterday we decided that the only way we would be able to get some of the things we needed for the yard was to rent a U-Haul van to transport them home.

Today was the day to go get our things. We fell in love with the gazebo at Garden Ridge and for what it is, it is a great price. We do think we will use it and after spending the money, we had better use it!!

Yesterday I had spent most of the day agonizing about whether to get the long handled tool shed, the wheelbarrow and the drive gate now or wait until later. I finally decided that I really needed the tool shed and the only way I'd be able to get one home would be to rent a truck or pay for delivery, so there is no need to do that twice. I also decided to get the wheel barrow while I had the van and it would be easy to transport it, rather than wrestling it into my car (or not being able to) later on. I did decide to get the smaller 4 gallon wheelbarrow, with the idea that it would be easier to use. I did finally decide to hold off on getting the gate for now because I think I might be able to get it into my car and if not I can always rent a truck at Home Depot or maybe even get Bobbie to help me with her van.

We also swung by Underwoods and finally claimed our Flying Dragon, which is actually now taller than I remembered. I still don't know where I'm going to put it, but as it has survived this long in the pot I figure it can make it a few more weeks. I also ended up buying 2 Yews that will go at the back corners of my house flanking the perennial bed. So, now I have 4 shrubs to plant...

Luckily when we got home George was in his driveway and came over to help me move the big boxes the gazebo and shed were in over into my yard. We were able to get the boxes over the fence without damaging it by placing the boxes on the garbage can. The gazebo is still in its box and leaning up against the side of the house in the back yard. I loaded the shed in its box onto the wheelbarrow and wheeled it down behind the shack, which is where it will live for now. Mom and I were able to get the shed assembled (it just snapped togehter) and it is now ready for the tools as soon as I get them down there (maybe even after work tonight).

We are expecting rain this weekend, so the gazebo will stay in the box for now and the furniture will stay in storage. I am pretty much done spending money on the yard now (I hope) other than 3 remaining big ticket items: 1) fence gate, 2) lawn mower and 3) having the shack torn down.

I also noticed as we were leaving this morning that someone has taken away some of the old wire fencing that has been in my front yard. Now if only they will come back and get the rest and take away that drum as well, I'd be estatic. I also now have 3 crocuses that are up, 2 yellow and one purple. I will try to get pictures this weekend.

Weeding

The plan for this weekend had been to finish weeding all the chickweed out of my shade border area and to actually but in all the ammendments for my perennial bed.

Pulling all the chickweed by hand is quite time consuming, but I did make pretty good progress over the weekend. Unfortunately, on Saturday it was VERY windy which made it cold and hard to work outside, so I only worked in the AM and in the afternoon we went out to look at nurseries. I got a germander plant and two million bells at Garden Treasury, which is a nursery I haven't visited before, but I did like it a lot. I was also looking at and pricing hydrangeas. I want to get a big oak leaf hydrangea to plant in the far back right hand corner of the yard. They had a pink flowered for at Garden Treasury that definately tempted me. Don't know what I'm doing there.

I did cut down a lot of the little weed tree saplings, which has opened up the shade border more. I did discover that I now have a space that looks big enough to put in a hydrangea in the shade border, which would be great. I am considering a Penny Mac, as I saw some that were pretty large but not too expensive.

I also did not work the full day in the yard on Sunday, as it was only in the low 50s and I was pretty much frozen by lunch time. In the afternoon, we went out to do some errands and found a great garden furniture set at Big Lots and they were also have a 20% off sale. The furniture set is two chairs that rock a little bit and swivel and a little coffee table. They also had some little dining tables that were only $35, so we got one of those two as the chairs were the right height and that will allow us to eat outside if we want.

Earlier in the week, we had gone to Garden Ridge and found a great gazebo there for only $150. The main problem is that the box is 10 feet long and will not fit in my car. I finally realized that what I should do is rent a Uhaul van and get the gazebo at Garden Ridge and finally pick up my flying dragon at Underwoods (if they even still have it...). The plan right now is to do that on Friday.

I feel like I am falling behind on all I need to do as I still need to prepare the perennial bed, finish weeding the shade bed and planting hostas, lillies of the valley and bleeding hearts. Plus, I still haven't planted the Margaret Davis camellia (was going to wait until she was done blooming but now I'm worried about giving her enough time to get settled before it gets hot).

Plus, I really still need to paint the trim on the laundry room and finish painting the trim in MY room, plus redoing the crown molding in my mom's room...

And, I am hoping to have enough money and find someone to tear down the shack before it gets hot. I am worried about it harboring mosquitos and Jordan (neighbor kid) said there used to be bees in the shack. I am trying to get in touch with the scrap metal people to get them to take away the old fencing and will see if they are still interested in tearing down the shed and what they will charge. Otherwise, I will have to get a price quote for 1-800 Got Junk, but I think they will be more expensive.