hydrangea rescue!

It is still too hot to do much, though I did get up early and spend about 2 hours in the yard this morning watering and doing a bit of weeding and other chores. I think my impatiens might make it if the weather continues to cool down like it is supposed to (only supposed to be in the mid 80s next weekend).

I met Bobbie for breakfast at Staxs and after that went out to do some errands. I headed over to Lowes to see if they had any pots on sale or any good plants. I found two little 1 gallon variegated hydrangeas that looked a bit worse for the wear. I decided that I couldn't leave them to their fate (they felt quite dry) so I decided to get both of them and see if I can nurse them back to health. When I was checking out I asked if I could get a discout (they were marked $6.98) since they looked so bad and they marked them down to $3 each. So, I got two for less than one would normally cost.

They have now been very thorougly watered and have been placed in my "nursery" next to the side steps, where they will be in almost total shade. I have hoping with some TLC and lots of water they will be ready to go in the ground in a few weeks.

The patients:


Close-up of the leaves. Apparently the variegated hydrangeas aren't the biggest bloomers and are grown mostly for their leaves. The tag claims these plants can grow to 6' X 6', and even a decent sized shrub with the pretty variegated leaves would be neat looking in the border.

over 100 degrees

It has been over 100 degrees here each day for the past 3 days and they are predicting 104 today. I am watering many of my plants twice daily and my impatiens look about 1/2 dead. On top of that, I am losing another camellia: Debutante started down the same path as the one Tom and is pretty much dead now. I tried watering it daily, but that did not reverse the decline. I really do believe that it might have been frost damage and I have been worried about it for awhile as its leaves did not look like my other camellias' leaves. I will have to check them out in the stores this fall and see how they look. I love what the flowers are supposed to look like, but if they are all like the one that just died, no way. I think I may have just gotten a weak plant, especially since it never even budded up this winter.

Right now I am planning on planting my camellias in October and will buy them in either September or October, whenever Underwoods gets in a big shipment. I am going to check Home Depot and see if they get in any Tom Knudsens. I'd love to find a 3 gallon one there. I have decided that I am going to buy 3 gallon camellias from now on if possible. I need to replace Debutante, then buy two additional camellias to finish out the border for now (I had originally planned to just buy these two camellias until I had two die). I am hoping to catch another sale at Underwoods, if I remember they had one in September last year.

I think our lack of insulation is hurting us this summer. In the late afternoons it is 89 degrees in the house with the AC having run full blast all day. Last night we actually turned on the ceiling fan in the dining room and that seemed to help some.

Fuji Waterfall hydrangea

I started work before 9 AM today and now, just before 1 PM my Fuji Waterfall hydrangea is planted. I still have some work to do back there, including building the dam around it to keep the water in when I water. I also want to mulch in the area around it and work on my brick border to extend it. I need to see what the dogs are going to do, as it is at the very tail end of the fence line they run with Norman's dogs. I am quite hot and thirsty and sweaty. Just out of curiosity, I stepped on the scale and I was two pounds lighter than I was this AM before breakfast. Guess that shows how much I sweated out there in the yard!

I did get watering in the front done this morning and did a little grass trimming with the grass shears. I REALLY need to mow the yard, so I might see if I can borrow Bobbie's lawn mower again. If not, I guess I'll go at it with the string trimmer on Sunday.

After lunch I was able to get the dam built around the hydrangea and extend the brick border. I still need to get to Wal-Mart for some mulch, but that is another task maybe for Sunday. There are too many mosquitos in that area for me to work down there in the evening. I cut a small growing tip that I am trying to root in water right now. I got the Endless Summer to root, so maybe I can work my magic twice! I also pruned some on my tomatos, especially the roma, removing diseased limbs and leaves. Tom continues his comeback, looking good. The soil in his basket was actually sort of dry today, so maybe I have finally gotten a handle on his moisture level.

96 today

We got a little bit of rain over the weekend, which was good as I had company and no time to work in the yard. I really need to do something about cutting the grass. We are also having a major heat wave, it was 96 today at 5 PM. YIKES. I had to water some of my inground impatiens two times today. I harvested some basil yesterday and also some more of my Thai hot peppers. Today I harvested some roma tomatos and several of the bush goliath tomatoes. Mom will take one to work tomorrow and tell me how it tastes. Right now I think I will grow them next year, but probably not the Better Bush. I have two better bush that are ripening, but I think my total yield off that plant is going to be 3 tomatos. I am hoping that I will having enough romas to try making a tomato sauce soon. My tumbling tom tomato continues to put out new growth and even has a few flowers, so it looks like I might have a second batch of cherry tomatos. We used the last of the toms tonight in a pasta dish.

After work today I went to Underwoods and picked up my hydrangea, which is actually a Fuji Waterfall, which explains why I couldn't find anything about a "Japanese Veil" hydrangea. Fuji Waterfall still isn't in the book I have at home, but I'm going to do some web searching. The plan is to plant the hydrangea tomorrow morning before it gets too hot. It is so hot in the afternoon that I probably won't be able to do any outside work at all. It doesn't cool off that much in the evening, it is still 88 tonight at 9:40 PM. The mosquitos are TERRIBLE, I can barely set foot outside in the evening without being eaten alive. The backyard spray I bought is supposed to be used when it is below 75, maybe my mom can do that Saturday or Sunday morning.

In herbal news, my English Thyme that I divided the other week seems to be doing well so far. I have not seen that the sage has grown any, but the rosemary is putting out growth. This morning I also noticed sprouts in my cilantro pot, which is good as I think it is time to dump the other pot of cilantro. It has totally flowered, I didn't bother to collect the seeds as coriander and now I think it is dying. Something ate almost all my dill in the herb barrel. The stalks are still standing. I found an impailed catepillar on the dill and think that might be the culprit. Today the catepillar corpse was gone.

I'd like to get back to my window project, maybe I can at least work on the front windows tomorrow where I will be shaded by the porch. I hope the heat lets up some soon, this is miserable.

repotting, replanting

I believe that I have figured out what is wrong with my camellias and unfortunately, I am entirely to blame. I decided today to dig out the Tom that is doing so poorly, thinking I would pot it up for a while and see if he recovered. When I dug him up, I noticed that the soil around his roots was not at all boggy and his roots looked very good. I also remembered that I had seen some exposed roots around some of my camellias and had added some dirt around some of them, after Bobbie had told me I should replant my one foundation holly that has exposed roots. I dug down around the top of this Tom, and sure enough, I had actually buried part of the stem as well as the exposed roots. I replanted him in the same hole, adding some new dirt to replace some of what I kicked out, the watered well trying to wash more dirt away from the stem. The worst it can do is kill him and he was headed that way fast anyway. There is a small chance it might save him and I've learned a valuable lesson... I also discovered that the branch of Margaret that was dying (I cut it off) was currently attached to the main stem beneath the soil line. I also tried to wash some dirt back from Margaret. I pushed back the mulch and a little dirt from around all my camellias and hopefully they will do better now.

After messing with the camellias, it was time to pot some plants. I repotted my small Endless Summer cutting into an 8" pot so it can grow up. I also moved my Carolina Jessamine into a pot that is really only deeper, but not wider than the pot it was in. I moved the spider plant into my remaining green hanging basket. It had HUGE thick fleshy white roots. No wonder it roots so easily. I also dumped the last of the pansies, added some fresh dirt and sowed my cilantro seeds. They are supposed to sprout in 7-10 days, so we shall see. My rosemary, sage and English thyme pot has needed help for a long time, especially since the sage has basically not grown since it was planted in April... When I went to unpot it, it was COMPLETELY pot bound. I was able to dig out first the sage, then the rosemary. Most of the roots were the English thyme. I then made the radical move of attempting to divide my English thyme. I could see that there were two major areas rooted in, that both had lots of roots. So, I cut through the branches that connected them and tried to tease the roots apart. The smaller part when into a 14" pot with the rosemary and sage and the larger piece went into its own pot. I figure in a week or so I'll either have 2 English thymes or NO English thymes. At the very least, it really needed to be repotted.

After the repotting, I harvested the last of the Tom tomatoes, as they were starting to get soft and didn't seem to be ripening any. I had figured I'd throw Tom away, but he surprised me by having some nice new green growth. So, I pruned off the dead looking parts and hung him back on his hook. Don't know if I will get any new tomatoe, but I'll watch the new growth and see what happens. I also harvested my first Better Bush tomato yesterday. It didn't look all that great around the top, but my mom was taking it to work to have with dinner, so I'll find out if it was edible or not. I have more peppers ripening, but they are still getting the weird light spots on them that someone said was slug damage. I just don't think slugs are getting in my containers and I'm wondering if it some sort of nutrient deficency.

decorating

Yesterday when we were over in storage I went through a bunch of boxes and found some neat things to decorate the house. A few were things I was looking for, including a photograph my mom took when she was in college (she was a photography major) that I had thought was an Ansel Adams print. We also found a really neat wooden tray that was carved by my great-grandfather. After seeing it, I do remember it hanging in the dining room when I was a child. I have now hung it in the corner in our dining room.

Today I finally got to Hobby Lobby again to look at their frames and see about their mat prices. Their mat prices are MUCH cheaper than anywhere else and bring it into the realm of affordable, so hopefully I will be getting some things matted soon. I had also recently rediscovered a poster I had bought on ebay back when we first bought the house. I had intended it to go in the dining room and it was my attempt to find something that was similar to the vintage looking prints you see for sale for big bucks on the Craftsman sites. I think the frame I found was just perfect and I am very happy about how it looks. I'll get it matted at a later point in time.

I am hoping that maybe soon I will be able to get Azali's Domain matted and on the wall. I also need to find some of the beautiful old ads I have and see what size I would need to mat and frame them as well. I had almost forgotten that I had planned to someday have them framed and use them to decorate my room.

Also made vegan brownies with tofu this evening. I was hoping they would be more fudgy than the last recipe I made and they are. I would like to know why Mori Nu vacumn packed tofu has suddenly become an item that is VERY hard to find.

camellia problems

I went out and watered this morning and I am having camellia problems again. One of my Tom Knudsen's is all wilted, but the ground around it feels moist. I looked in the Southern Living Garden Problem Solver, but couldn't find anything that looked like what is wrong with my camellia, and I can't see any bugs. I also have wilting branches on my Margaret and Debutante. I'm actually afraid I'm going to end up losing all three camellias. I am going to post on You Grow Girl and see if they have any good ideas. I'm hoping at least Margaret and Debutante will survive. I guess if worst comes to worst I can always replant another Tom this fall and add LOTS of compost.

grow it, eat it- peppers & eggplant

Tonight for dinner we made Tofu with Eggplant, which used my homegrown eggplant, along with my chocolate bell pepper and several jalapenos and Thai hot peppers. I have done no work on the house today, in part because I did not stop at Home Depot on the way home for another knob for my closet. I am off all day tomorrow, so hopefully I will finally be able to get done with the window painting and add the other knob to my closet door.

I think I am going to buy some of the Cutter Bug Free Backyard spray, as I got bitten by more mosquitos today just opening the door for the dogs to come in from the yard.

working on the living room outlet

I have been planning to replace the wall outlet in the living room for some time. The actual electrial box was loose because the wallboard around the outlet was kind of crumbled away. I also bought a brown outlet, that I thought would go with the decor better.

The plan was to remove the old outlet and box, replace the old metal box with a blue plastic box that would grip the wall and replace the old white outlet with the brown outlet. Sounds easy, but as always, there were complications. First up was the blue box itself, which was very hard to get the wires in. Once the wires were in the box, it held them pretty securely so there was very little play. As the wires are old, they were quite stiff, so that was not a good combination. I also had a surprise when I found that there were not two sets of wires, but THREE sets of wires, with two wires connected to one set of screws. Having two sets of wires, stiff wires and the blue box proved to be a combination that was pretty much unworkable. The final straw for the blue box came when I realized that the current hole in the wall was too small and that I was going to need to chip a larger hole. I don't think so...

So, out with the blue box and back in with the metal box (of course I had to disconnect the outlet again). I was able to get the metal box to screw into the wall pretty firmly, which meant this whole project actually could have been over with in about 5 mintues if I had just tried screwing the metal box in in the first place (of course I still would have had the white outlet but...). I did have more play in the wires with the metal box, but it was still a project trying to get everything hooked up. Finally got everything hooked up and screwed back into place and I was very happy when I flipped the switch and not only did the power not short out, but the outlet still works.


After that, I took one of the old baseboard registers out of my room and replaced it with a new one I had found in the closet. I have no idea how the newer baseboard registers are supposed to attach to the wall, maybe hang on srews? There is no mounting hardware or instructions included. Oh well, it is not in a place where it is in danger of getting bumped.

I still have not gotten back to work on painting the window, BUT they are calling for rain tonight. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow night or on Sunday.

cutting back the petunias

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



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

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

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

hot and humid

It is hot and humid and my allergies have been acting up. Yesterday all I did was water and in the evening I tried to hang the photographs, which proved easier said than done as far as getting them actually lined up.

Today after work I got some different picture hangers and also a voltage tester, as I'd like to try to work on getting the living room light installed. I am going to try to take some photos and bring them into Home Depot and see if they can help me.

I was planning on trying out the voltage tester tonight, but so far haven't. I did bake a pan of vegan brownies, which were pretty good but were more cakey than chewy and mom and I both like chewy better. I finished off the night by finally getting the daylily photos hung in the living room. They look just like I had imagined, so I am quite happy with how this project turned out.



Tomorrow I am off work. I would like to finish painting the outside window frame, get a price estimate on custom frames for a few prints and maybe try to plant one of the hostas I got a few weeks ago.

decorating dilemma

My walls are still bare in a lot of places in the house. I have several prints I'd really like to get framed, BUT they are non-standard size, so a pre-made frame is not an option as is. I originally thought it would be cheaper to buy a standard size frame and have a mat cut to fit my print, but mats seem to be quite expensive. I am now leaning toward looking into have custom frames made and see how that compares in price to custom mats, especially as custom frames (but not mats) seem to be 50% off all the time- what does that tell you about the mark-up?!

Of course, all that costs money. I still need to have my living room light installed, which will make that room look a lot better. So, what to spend my money on... not that I really have any money to spend right now, but still. I did splurge and get the $7 frames for my daylily photos, I am hoping we can finally get them hung on the living room wall later this week.

Did not water this AM as I figured that the rain took care if it last night. The pots did look a bit dry, but I will water them all in the morning. I harvested 3 jalapenos, including a RED jalapeno, a cayenne and some more Thai hot peppers. After reading that peppers can be frozen, I stuck a bunch of Thai hots in the freezer. I am planning Jerk Tofu for tomorrow night and figure that will use up some of either the cayennes or jalapenos. I may be sending my mom to work with hot peppers.

I also noticed that I have a bunch of baby bell peppers on several different plants. Let's hope I can get a few of them to maturity...

POTS STOLEN

I was just outside taking pictures of my windows and TWO of my pots of plants have been STOLEN. I am SO UPSET I can't even think straight. Of course, now I don't know when they were stolen, but thinking back on it now I don't if I saw them this morning when I watering or not. Thinking back, I don't think so. I am going to drive around the neighborhood and see if I see them anywhere or see the pots smashed or anything.

still touching up paint

Watered the yard and did some light weeding this morning and also sprayed the rest of the can of bug spray down by the camellias. It did seem like there were fewer mosquitos out but I don't know if that was because it was cooler this morning or that the bug spray had worked. If I am still battling the mosquitos next week, I'm going to get some of that spray that mixes with water and try that. We did get a little bit of rain this afternoon. I don't know how much since I still haven't gotten a rain gauge.

I painted the first coat of white paint on the left window today, painted the outside of the door frame and used the small brush to touch up some ofthe left window. I think the door frame is done, since I had already put one coat of paint on parts of it. I am not sure about another coat of paint on the window since it already had the primer on it. I am going to wait a day and think. Due to the rain, I figure the paint is probaby taking a little longer to dry today. I also did not get back to the duct tape removal project. I am thinking about buying a thing of shop towels, as I think a cloth towel might be better than paper towels. I am thinking about buying some sort of siding wash, as the front of the house could definitely stand to be washed and all of the window frames need to be washed as well.

I have not done anything today as far as working on getting stuff hung up on the walls. I need 4 9 X 12 frames for one set of prints and an 18 X 24 frame and mat for my large Azali's Domain print. Getting a mat cut for it seems to be MUCH more expensive than I would have guessed and the person I spoke to at Michaels was downright rude. I did see some uncut mat board at Hobby Lobby for $6.99 and at that price we can try to cut it ourselves. Frames are also not going to be cheap, so that project may be on hold for a bit.

this and that

Did a bunch of things today but didn't get anything all the way finished.

- sprayed 1 1/2 cans of Bug Free Backyard all over the back yard except down by the camellias
- harvested 5 tomoatoes off Tom
- harvested two small bags of basil off plants that are trying to flower
- potted up 6 coleus cuttings
- staked the red bell pepper
- used the string trimmer to cut the front yard, which just about killed me
- touched up the top of the crown moulding in the dining room
- painted around the front door frame, all except one part I somehow managed to forget
- touched up the front door and painted around the locks
- touched up the ceiling in the living room
- applied primer to the right front window
- spackled holes in the outside front door frame
- used WD-40 to remove some of the duct tape residue from the aluminum trim around the front windows

I am pretty tired, but still have tons I want to do. I finally found some frames for my daylily photos, so I am hoping to be able to hang them tonight.

dining room ceiling & crown moulding

This morning before work I taped off all the crown moulding in the dining room and repainted the edge of the ceiling, to paint over all the brown on the ceiling. I tried really hard to push down the tape and was hoping it would turn out as nicely as the line between the wall and crown moulding had in my bedroom. Unfortunately, it didn't work quite so well and I now again have a bunch of ceiling paint on my crown moulding. It is not too noticible, but it still bugs me. I am going to get a small still art brush and try to fix the problem maybe tomorrow or Friday after work.

We did not get our promised rain today, so I'm going to have to water tomorrow morning. I only did a bit of work in the yard today, cutting back the in-ground coleus that had started flowering. I think they should be okay. I have been too rushed getting off to work in the morning lately to get any of the coleus I have rooted up taken in and I'm still waiting on some other cuttings to root. I really need to cut back my two big coleus pots this weekend, as they are starting to look overgrown. I also think my Big Daddy petunias need to be cut back as well. They are still flowering some, but are getting leggy and not as lush looking. I may just go for it and hack them all back and move them out of sight for awhile. Hopefully they will start growing well again and if not I'll just dump them and put in some marigolds or something. I don't think the nemisia I cut back earlier this year is making it. It has tried to put out one of two little bits of growth on one stem, but the rest of it looks dead. Oh well, it was pretty while it lasted and it is not known as a plant that can really take the heat.

I am trying to start thinking about fall veggies, but I just don't quite know what I am going to do. I may just give it a rest and worry about putting in pansies and trying to get all my perennials in pots safe for the winter. I need to buy some more potting soil and I am going to repot my sage, rosemary and thyme pot, as the sage does not seem to have grown at, the rosemary doesn't seem to be growing either and the thyme just isn't looking so hot. Think the soil in their pot may just be worn out and they may be over crowded as well.

painting the door

I ran outside this AM and gave the veggies a quick watering. I am definitely finding bugs on my eggplant. Of course, when I was a Big Lots today I forgot to look for a sprayer. Maybe tomorrow... This evening we had some badly needed rain, so I am hoping I can get away without doing any watering in the morning. My tumbling tom is getting ready to go. He has a whole bunch of almost ripe tomatos right now, but no flowers what so ever, so once those tomatos ripen, it is curtains. I want to stop by Country Boys and pick up another Tom if they still have any. I think I should have time to get another plant and crop in before the frost, just hope it isn't too hot for flowers to form. But, my other tomatos are still flowering, so that is a good sign.

This evening, I did a little bit of painting. I started by touching up the crown moulding in the dining room, getting in the little areas between the ceiling and crown moulding where you could still see white. I did get more brown on the ceiling, but right now I am at the it has got to look worse before it can look better stage. Tomorrow I will start working on taping off the crown moulding and touching up the ceiling. I am hoping I can get the dining room looking as good as my room.

Then because I still have some brown paint left over, I started working on painting the inner door frame. I got that painted and STILL had some brown paint and then I started painting the door. Of course, that required filling my pan two more times, but I got a first coat of paint on the door. I will need to actually OPEN the door to finish painting the inner frame. That will have to wait for decent weather, when I can put the dogs outside.

I also stopped at Home Depot to discuss the plans for painting the window mullions. Think I'm going to clean them off lightly with some Simple Green and let them dry, then prime them with the Zinser 1 2 3. I will at some point have to attempt using the silicone caulk I bought last September to work on the laundry room window, which still badly needs to be caulked (and of course repainted...). I think working on the windows will be my weekend project. I'm off work both days this weekend, so I should be able to make some progress. Working on the dining room ceiling won't take as long (not moving any furniture) so it is my after work project.

My major cooking project of the week is going to be locating and cooking a recipe with my homegrown eggplant. I finally found Sriracha hot sauce that about a million recipes call for today. So, that should help. I did find a Chinese inspired eggplant and squash recipe that sounded like it could be good. I may work on whipping that up.

I have a bunch more coleus that are rooted up and ready for new homes, as well as some more mints. I think my mom and I will take them to work on Wednesday, when we both go in late, which will give us more time to organize the plants. I have enough basil for another batch of pesto, so I think I'm going to make some more pesto for myself. I should buy another pack of pizza crusts and use up the last of my old pesto making pesto pizzas to take for lunches at work. I also still have 1/2 a recipe of mint chocolate chip cookie dough that isn't getting any younger. I need to cook that soon or toss it.

new house numbers up

The new house numbers are now up. I ended up sticking them in with wood putty instead of the construction adhesive as the directions recommended, as they seemed to be staying pretty well without any help. I think the new house numbers look a lot better than the old ones, and it is nice to make the change, even though it is not much.

house number before

house number after

I got all the tape down in my bedroom and got the whole place put back together. It is looking really nice now. I did get the hole drilled in the closet door, but as the knob I bought was actually a cabinet knob, the screw that holds it on is not long enough, so I will have to go to Lowes or Home Depot and get a longer screw before I can actually attach the knob. There is always something...



I actually did a lot of work this weekend, but as most of it was touching up here and there an little things, when you look around you can barely tell I did anything! Oh well, some of the places where the window frames needed to be repainted that bug me will now no longer bug me, and I don't have to look at ANY blue tape on the walls or at the crown moulding with splashes of pink paint on it. A bunch of little stuff I should have taken care of long ago, but got sidetracked with cold weather or gardening have now been done, so that makes me feel good.

My next big house project I would like to tackle is repainting the mullions on the front of the house. I do have some white exeterior paint, so maybe I can work on that project next weekend. There are also some more window frames I want to touch up inside with the brown paint. My next major touch-up job will be working on the ceiling in the dining room, which got too painted when I was trying to paint the crown moulding. I think I amy be able to do it all without moving any furniture, except the part over the desk, and I can't move the desk. We will probably have to live with that part...

more work around the house

Started out the morning in the yard as ususal watering. Everything is looking pretty good. The eggplant lost several more leaves overnight and on the back of one of the leaves I could see dead insects. Someone suggested the problem could be flea beatles and said the plant shouldn't die if it loses some of its leaves. The newer growth at the top is still looking okay I guess. I dead headed some of the zinnias and pulled some dead stalks out of the daylilies and removed some dead leaves. I also spread used coffee grounds around my Wide Brim hosta to try to keep the slugs away and some more around my hydrangea as fertilizer. I did get some new mosquito bites despite using the Cutter wipes and wearing citronella bracelets. However, guess the prednisone is doing something as I am not itching as much today.

Got my room done I hope. I'm currently waiting on the last of the wall color touch-ups to dry. I did the bathroom touch-ups and applied some Zinser 1 2 3 before painting to one area where rust kept bleeding through. Hopefully this will help keep it looking good for longer. I also touched up the one window frame I had sanded and got the formerly crooked blind rehung straighter I hope (though it still looks slightly crooked). Also did a few other touch-ups here and there with the brown paint.

I started working on the numbers. After lots of measuring and pre-drilling, I got the holes drilled and of course they didn't quite match up. The wood was quite difficult to drill through in some areas and it was literally smoking! I'm glad I have my drill but as hard as some of the wood is in this house, sometimes I think I need a professional strength drill!! Currently each number will only hang by 2 of the 3 posts, but they seem pretty secure. Then I spackled in the other holes and also kind of spackled the whole post. I am waiting for the spackle to dry, then I will repaint it and have to wait for the paint to dry. I figure I will probably be hanging the numbers tomorrow night.

The living room is all put back together except for all my clothes from my room that are currently on the couch. I need to work on getting them hung back up. Then, once the last of the paint is dry I can move my computer desk back and my room will be back together. Figure that is something for after dinner tonight. Just remembered that I wanted to drill a hole for the correct placement of the knob on my one closet door. I might go see about working on that now.

mostly painting and a sick eggplant

Today I set my alarm for 8, even though I was off because I had a lot I wanted to do. First up, I watered the plants and when doing that, I discovered that my eggplant has taken a terrible turn. Earlier this week I had noticed what looked like a bug infestation and sprayed it with a homemade mixture of soap, oil, baking soda and water that I had previously used on my mallow. Today a bunch of the leaves have yellowed, some have fallen off and others have gotten dried out around the edge. I am afraid that it now has a disease on top of the insect problem. On the plus side, the insect problem seems to have gone away?? I posted photos and my troubles on the You Grow Girl forum hoping someone might have a suggestion, but so far no one has, but I'm hoping. Other than that, the plants look about the same. I have a yellow bell pepper that I think is getting close to being ripe. I'm trying to check it each day.

I put the coleus I had potted up on Thursday night outside to live in the big world. I then potted up the two fishnet stockings that had rooted and also finally my little baby hydrangea cutting that has please me so by rooting. So far so good for the baby hydrangea, who is still indoors. I will keep him indoors for a least a week I think to make sure he is doing okay, then start getting him used to the outdoors. I am still trying to root the piece of Joe Pye weed my dogs broke off the main plant. I think it is thinking about rooting. Time will tell.

My doctor prescribed a course of prednisone for me due to all my mosquito bit allergy problems. I started that today and am trying to stay out of the yard for a few days to try and prevent any more bites. I did take a few pretty pictures today and later in the day got 5 of my daylily photos printed up as 8 X 10 at Walgreens. I am planning on looking for (cheap I hope) frames tomorrow and then hanging them on the wall probably in the living room.

Most of today was spent painting. I got almost all the crown moulding in my room painted, except for a small part I'll need to move the computer desk to reach. I also got the wall color touched up in the bathroom and the laundry room. I took down the crooked shade and spackled in the holes. I'm going to redrill the holes in the correct place tomorrow, then repaint the top part of the window frame and probably rehang the shade on Monday. I have some other touch up work I want to do with the brown paint on a few window frames, hopefully I can get to that tomorrow.

We went to Home Depot today and they had some really nice looking house numbers. They were about $6/number instead of the $12/number of the ones I had found online. So, bought the house numbers and also some white outdoor paint to paint the column under where the old numbers were, as that area was not painted at all when the repainted the columns! I got the old numbers pried off and repainted that one part of the column (will probably need to repaint the entire thing at a later date) . Tomorrow I will try to actually get the numbers mounted.

Spent a decent amount of time today scraping paint off the glass on the front windows. When we had originally looked at the house, the mullions on the front windows were painted black. Sometime before we bought the house, the painted over them with sticky white paint. One of my early projects on the house was trying to strip all the paint off of one of the windows. This turned out to be a lot more difficult and time consuming than I expected and I never got around to removing the paint that had pretty much been slopped all over the glass. Then, it got cold and we didn't want to work outside, then it was spring and there was so much to do in the yard and so on. So, today I finally got almost all the slopped on paint off the window. Before they painted, they had also used some sort of clear silicone let's hope it was meant to be caulk on the windows. This too got all over the place. So, removing this mess from the windows was part stripping, part cutting off this silicone. It took a few hours, but I think both windows look a lot better now. I had originally wanted to paint the mullions a dark green on all the windows. Now I am trying to decide if I just want to paint them green, repaint the black (matches the shutters) or just repaint the one and leave the others white. Decisions, decisions...

tape down in the laundry room

The blue tape is FINALLY down in the laundry room, for the first time since I think Christmas. The single coat I put on the woodwork yesterday seems to be doing well. I might move the dryer all the way out again and try to paint the baseboard back there, but that is all. The baseboards behind the washer can't be seen and the washer is much harder to move than the dryer and won't move out as far. With the shelf up, the dryer cleaned off, the woodwork painted and the tape down, the laundry room is really starting to look good. I'd like to get some different sort of cabinet to hold the towels and sheets, as they will not all fit in the little chest of drawers I have in there currently. I have seen one that I think might work at Target in the past, but that will have to be on hold for right now.

I was worried about how the painter's tape would come off, since it has been up since Christmas-time I think, but other than a few areas, it came off really well. Since I still have some of the buff paint poured out, I think I will try to paint the crown moulding in my bedroom this weekend, then all the tape can be down in my room as well. I also need to touch up a few areas of wall color in the laundry room and also in the bathroom.

It is nice to be painting again, I've got some more touching up to do at various points in the house. Touching up the area were the crown moulding meets the ceiling in the dining room will be a major job, but something I might tackle once I get my room finished. And, I still need to repaint the top part of the crown moulding in my mother's room.

Right now, I have so many mosquito bites that they are actually making me sick. I tried burning citronella candles while I worked in the yard yesterday, but I don't know how much good that did. Between the heat, humidity and the bugs I am not much for yard work right now. I could stand to get out and cut some on the grass again with the weedeater this weekend, but we will see how I feel. This time of year there isn't a bunch to do, other than try to keep up with the weeds and the watering. I do think that slugs are attacking my Wide Brim hosta as it looked kind of eaten today. I need to put down some coffee grounds and see if that solves the problem.

painted the woodwork

I got the woodwork in the laundry room painted this evening. I just had a little bit that wasn't taped off from long ago, so I taped the rest of it off and then painted everything. The only way I was able to reach part of the crown moulding was to stand on the washing machine. The washing machine seems to have survived the ordeal. I am going to let the paint dry at least until Friday I think, then take down the painter's tape. Some of it has been on there for so long I don't know how well it will pull off. I already have some touching up to do of the wall color from where there are extra holes from trying to install the shelf. I am hoping that by Sunday the laundry room will be completely finished and better organized.

Lots of people in my neighborhood are setting off fireworks tonight. Luckily we have had a little rain lately or I'd be really worried about fires.

odds and ends

Today I was off work because of the 4th. I had wanted to paint the woodwork in the laundry room, but it was cooler outside today, so I spent the morning and early afternoon watering and weeding. I also decided that the Roma tomato needed to be staked, so it now has a 6 foot stake in its pot. I think this was a good idea.

Finally got a good picture of the large beautyberry today, now that it is leafed out and looking better.

Large Beautyberry- July 2007

This is a far cry from how it looked back when it was first planted and I wasn't sure it would even survive.

Large Beautyberry- October 2006

I did buy 2 new knobs and changed out the nasty looking knobs on the bathroom cabinet. It is a little thing, but sometimes just doing the little things that bug you can be nice. We also bought a tool caddy, which I have put all my gardening tools I keep around the house in and it fits on the new laundry room shelf. The dryer is finally cleared and cleaned off. We are slowly making progress here and there.

All the veggies and herbs are still growing along. I am hoping that maybe by the end of the month I will have some tomatos other than the cherry tomatos. I will probably need to either pull up and replace or try to root a piece of Tumbling Tom when the tomatos he currently has are all ripe as I have not seen any flowers for weeks. Guess he is finishing up for the year...

Perennial bed- July 2007

grow it, use it- peppers again

This evening I made another dish from Garden of Vegan. This one used 1 cup of basi, which was actually a mixed cup of basil from the cutting back I did the other day. I actually had 3 different types of basil, all of which I have grown from seed: sweet basil, purple basil (not very purple yet) and the Summerlong Sweet basil (which despite supposedly being a late flowering variety is already trying to flower...). The recipe also called for a hot pepper, so I used one of my Thai Hot pepppers. Today I harvested 2 jalapenos, 1 cayenne and 5 Thai peppers. I need to find another recipe that uses hot peppers.

I bought a packet of cilantro seeds at Home Depot yesterday and got 2 packets of seeds for one of my co-workers. I am going to pull the pansies out of one of the pots and sow the cilantro seeds in that. Probably a task for the 4th.

laundry room shelf

Yesterday morning I went out and did some weeding, pulling a bunch of bermuda grass out of my beds. I also decided that the pansies just had to come out NOW as they probably should have come out a month ago and were looking terrible. I went to Country Boys and got some impatiens and I also decided that the snapdragons needed to leave as well. They had all pretty much fallen over and were barely blooming. Still, I felt terrible pulling them as they had such nice long roots. Oh well, I'll get some more this fall and put them in and stake them come spring... I think they did pretty well and I'm happy that the two I waited so long to plant survived and bloomed. Of course when I was putting in the impatiens, half of the area was getting more sun that I had counted on. I'm hoping they will last until frost, then it is back in with the pansies and snapdragons.

I had purchased the shelving to install a wire shelf in the laundry room the other day. I figured this would be another quick project like installing the shade. Boy was I wrong. I got all the holes drilled and of course ran into studs trying to drill the holes for the clips along the back, so then I was going to be 3 clips instead of 5. Then I measured and installed the support bars. This is where the problems started. I managed to drop on of the wall anchors behind the washing machine. I retrieved that and got the right side anchor installed. When it came to the left anchor, I could not get the shelf to stay up no matter how I positioned it. We finally got the shelf to seem like it was staying and installed the left bar. So far so good. I put soap on the shelf and the whole thing fell. Then I realized 2 things: 1) I was supposed to put the plastic part of the anchor OVER the metel support bar and 2) the bar system SUCKS.

So, at this point I started thinking more clearly. There is another way that involves attaching the shelf to both walls. In order to do this, I would need a custom cut shelf. So, called Home Depot to make sure they custom cut the stuff, which they do. Then, tried to get batteries in the stud finder, but it flat out would not open. So... off to Lowes to buy the wall anchors, which I figured I could use the existing piece of shelving, push it all the way to one side, mark the wall anchors, then push it to the other side. Got the wall anchors installed without too much trouble. Then back out to Home Depot to take back the shelf I had and get a custom shelf. Got that home and it installed just fine. It definitely makes the laundry room look neater. I do need a tool caddy or something to keep the few gardening tools I like to have at hand. Then we can totally clean off the dryer and the whole place should look really good. My goal for the 4th is to paint the laundry room trim. Again something that I have been planning to do for many months, but got side tracked.

Currently it is raining outside and has been raining for over an hour. I decided to sleep in this morning, and that was good choice as I was going to get up early to water, but now I don't need to do this. I would be happy if it rained all day. We could certainly use it as all our other promised rain lately has pretty much amounted to a few sprinkles that get the road damp but don't do a thing for the plants. Not much "rain" when your impatiens look wilted right afterwards.

Cooking with thyme

Yesterday the promised rain never did arrive and the rain today didn't arrive until the evening and then not much. They are still calling for rain tomorrow, but then we are in for another dry spell. I may end up watering the whole yard tomorrow if it does not pick up and rain some more tonight.

Last night I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies with some fresh peppermint added in. I baked up about half the dough and took a dozen in to work today. Most of my co-workers liked them and I sent the extras home with one. The cookies cooked up thin and crispy, not sure why. I prefer a more cake-like cookie. Don't know if it was because the butter was frozen when I beat it or what.

Tonight we finally used some fresh thyme. Almost all the recipes I can find call for dried thyme, but this one, which was a tofu and potato stew (from Vegan with a Vengence), actually called for fresh thyme. The stew itself was quite good and the smell reminded me of Unturkey (whose demise I still mourn...).

indoor work

Today I finally did some work indoors, of course not before doing a little work outdoors! I broke down and bought a string trimmer at Wal-Mart and ended up putting it on my credit card. I was loathe to do both, but as I still can't afford a lawn mower, there has been no progress on getting Bobbie's old lawn mower working, transporting a lawn mower to my house from Bobbie's is a REAL pain and the grass or at least weeds keep growing I had to do something. I ended up getting a $35 Weed Eater that is supposed to edge as well. I used it to cut the whole front yard and it did pretty well.

It was around 90 today and just terrible to work in outside, so after cutting the front yard, I decided I needed to work indoors. I got out my trusty drill (kind of a pretty teal color too) and set to work drilling holes for the screws in my window frame. It was not hard at all to drill and the difference between trying to get the screws to go in with and without the pre-drilled holes... well... working by myself I was able to get the other shade up in about 1/2 hour.

We had purchased 3 additional shades for the dining room, but my mom decided against them as she thought it would make it too dark. It is darker in the living room with the second shade up, but I'm hoping it will also be cooler (and we need to get another lightbulb for the light). I had bought the shades quite a while ago so I wasn't sure if I could return them, so I just took one back to Home Depot. I was able to return it for store credit, which I then used to buy a 4" wire shelf for the laundry room and all the things it needs to be mounted on the wall. I also got some new shower hooks as the old ones are impossible to open so you can take the shower curtain down.

I am hoping that we can install the new shelf either tomorrow or this weekend. We are still waiting on the promised rain. When I was out getting the shelf, it looked like rain, but so far nothing...

trying to make future plans

Today was another bad allergy day and when I went outside for just a short time tonight I got eaten alive by bugs. I just watered a bit this AM and other than that did nothing but work and help make dinner today. It was supposed to rain tonight starting at 7, but as of now it is still dry. The weather report did call for 4 days of rain starting today so I'm hoping we get at least some of what they are calling for.

I am off tomorrow but working on Saturday and I'm trying to make plans. I really want to work on trying to get the woodwork in the laundry room painted. This has been something I've needed to do since last oh... September... Maybe tomorrow, as it is too hot and buggy to do much in the yard. Also, now that we have the drill I would like to get a shelf put up in the laundry room. Another project to tackle is actually hanging the shade in the living room. I think that one might be easier if I wait until my mom is home to help out, not sure...

I need to get a string trimmer to cut the yard, as I just can't afford a lawn mower right now and we've never seen about getting Bobbie's fixed. I think I may go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and get one, maybe I can get some of the grass cut if it isn't too hot tomorrow.

My fairly new hanging basket of verbena is looking pretty terrible. At first thought, I'd say it was lack of water, but I've watered it almost every day. Now I'm wondering if it is a combination of too much water and no fertilizer or what. I need to find some fish emulsion to add to my hanging baskets as I really don't want to go down the road of spraying them twice a week with Miracle Grow. The verbena I have planted at the front of the perennial bed are also not looking good. I think they have powdery mildew. I've treated them several times and only one looks really bad, but they are all out of bloom. I'm trying to decide if I should keep them as is, cut them back or pull them out and put in something else. I also really need to find something to replace the pansies! They look pretty horrible by now.

harvesting herbs, making pesto, lantern update

Today was a big herb harvest day. I harvested enough basil (to keep it from blooming) to make pesto that my mom is going to take to her boss. I seem to have reached the point where I have enough basil plants that I can make pesto when I want to. And, I have more basil plants that are growing up from seed as I type. The cilantro I bought as a transplant is growing some but it is also flowering. I cut off all the feathery flowering parts and hopefully the cilantro will continue to do okay. I really need to get some cilantro seeds and sow them in a pot, as my cilantro is ready but the tomatos aren't, and I only got it to make salsa.

Here is the pesto recipe I used. When I make it for myself, I sometimes put in 3 cloves of garlic:

2 c loosely packed basil leaves
3 tbsp pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c Italian cheese

Process all but olive oil and cheese until chopped, then add oil while blender is running. Add cheese last and process until mixed in but not a totally smooth paste


Speaking of salsa, I have some more jalapenos ready for harvest, as well as a cayenne and several of the Thai hots. I will need to find a good recipe using peppers and I'll make that this weekend. I think the peppers will be okay to leave on the plant until then. I found another immature yellow bell pepper that had been attacked by insects and had to be throw out today. The plant still have 3 other peppers that are growing. I am hoping that I will get a few bell peppers. A co-worker who is growing her bell peppers in the ground has already harvested some green bell peppers. I have one yellow bell pepper that looks full size, but it is still definitely still green. So, unless the plant was mislabeled, it still have some more ripening to do.

We got a lot of rain on Monday, pretty much all night, so I didn't water any of the shrubs today. The flowers and potted plants all seem to be doing okay. I need to try to find some flower I want to put in where I still have pansies in the ground. I am thinking I'll just end up putting in some impatiens. I also have to find a time when it is cool enough that I WANT to mess around with digging up the pansies and digging in something else. The snapdragons back there are also looking not so great. Not sure if I should cut them back, dig them up or what. I'll have to ask around at work or at the nursery when I go.

My Chinese lanterns that I started from seed back in February are now blooming and I've found baby lanterns on several of them. I think I still have about 9 pots of them. I've given several away and lost one when it fell off the porch. I saw actual baby lanterns on 3 of the plants in the back yard along the fence line. I don't think I've seen flowers or baby lanterns on the plant that is on the porch. It doesn't get quite as much sun as the others.

Operation grass grow is still going okay. I'm watering regularly and I saw that some grass has sprouted in the new area I am trying to water in as well. Hopefully as long as I keep watering regularly it will make it until the fall, then I can seed in the area some more and maybe next year I'll actually have decent grass in that area. I am currently planning on working on overseeding my front lawn this fall. There are some bare patches and just some not good parts.

too hot

Today it is in the 90s again and very humid. We got a little rain overnight so I only watered the vegetables this morning. The weather report is calling for scattered showers every day until Wednesday, so hopefully they are right as we could use the rain. I wanted to get a rain gauge today, but couldn't find any at Lowes or Home Depot. I want to go out to Wal-Mart later in the day to get some cilantro seeds and maybe some more zinnia seeds and maybe even a string trimmer. I also need to get to Big Lots and get some sort of spray bottle to mix the horticultural oil in. I discovered a bunch of bugs on the cutting of my mallow I was trying to root. I think both mallows may be infested by some sort of bug. I will need to add them to the list of plants I want to spray.

Smoky Mountain Autumn

The daylilies I planted yesterday all seem to be doing well. Smoky and Unloosed both bloomed this morning and I was able to get pics of the blooms. Think that might be it for Smoky, unless it decides to rebloom and puts out some new scapes. Nothing is coming right now. I got the other Margaret planted in the front yard this morning and she looks great. She is a lot taller than the little plants I planted back in April from the clumps I bought and divided. I could probably have divided all the daylilies I bought, but the Lily Lady said to leave them alone to grow for as long as 4 years (wow!). And, as I was somewhat limited on space where I wanted to put them, that worked out fine.

Unloosed Joy

more daylilies

Today I went back to the Lily Lady to get another Mattie Mae Maxwell. I ended up getting 3 other daylilies as well: Unloosed Dreams, Frank Gladney, and Smokey Mountain Autumn. I planted Joy, Frank and Autumn back at the edge of the woodland garden along with Fairy Tale Pink. I am going to plant the Mattie in the front yard to replace the one that died. I will probably do that tomorrow morning, as it is quite hot and that area is full sun. The others are in part shade, but they do get sun in the morning, so hopefully that is enough for them to perform well. If not, i will move them next year I guess.

I also went to JFS and bought 2 hostas today, Diamond Tiara and Silver something or other that was brand new. I guess they sold the beautyberries well this year or they didn't far well in the frost as I didn't see any of the big beautyberries they had last year. I'm glad mine are doing well and said I'd bring a pic of the silver hosta once it got growing in my yard. I also found out that the nameless hosta is Undulata Variegata. Apparently it is the cheapest hosta on the market (though I don't see it at the big box stores). I still really like it and when the weather cools off I might get a few more for the yard.

Mattie blooms, cooking with basil

Today the Mattie Mae Maxwell daylily I bought back in March from the Lily Lady bloomed. I bought 2 plants and ended up splitting them into 5 total plants. Unfortunately, one of the pieces has just recently died, about 2 weeks before the other one bloomed. The Lily Lady is still open, so I am thinking of going tomorrow and seeing if I can buy another Mattie, even though this is definitely not planting time. If I keep up with the watering it should be okay.

When I was out watering this AM, I saw that my inground impatiens back by the camellias and also one plant around the dragon were looking wilted. I gave them a bunch of water and the ones by the camellia had perked up by this evening. The one by the dragon looked better, but not as good as the one by the camellia. Everything will get a good watering tomorrow morning.

I have basil that is trying to flower again, so tonight I cut several plants back quite a ways and used the basil to make Linguine with Sundried Tomato Pesto from the Garden of Vegan cookbook. I had 4 oz of silken tofu left over, so I also made chocolate pudding. I'll have that tomorrow night for dessert and I have enough of the sauce to make 2 more servings.

grow it, eat it- peppers pt 1

This evening I harvested two jalapenos and used them, along with the cayenne from earlier this week to make an African inspired seitan dish, out of the Vegan with a Vengence cookbook (yum!). I also made Maple Walnut cookies, but those didn't use anything from the yard. Tomorrow I am planning on using some of the basil to make linguine wih sundried tomato pesto.

tomato update

Watered this AM and got a look at my plants. The big beautyberry had been looking wilty yesterday but a good watering seems to have perked it up. The small beautyberry is flowering now. I sprayed my big pieris with baking soda yesterday as it had a sort of fluffy white fungi or something on it. Also hit the verbena at the front of the perennial bed. Think they have powdery mildew, hopefully I won't lose any.

I also sprayed all the tomatoes yesterday. Tom has some more leaves that look like they need to go, but he also has some new blooms and a bunch of unripe tomatos, so all hope is not lost The surprise of the day was seeing that all 3 of my new tomato plants have tomatoes! Hopefully I can keep the plants healthy and reap a harvest. I have Roma, Bush Goliath and Better Bush. I also have cilantro growing and peppers ripening, so I need some tomatoes to make salsa.

I am going to have to cut my one pot of basil back quite a ways as it is trying to flower again. I think I am going to make some pesto and maybe even... gasp... give some away!

fertilizing

Got an early start on things this AM by waking up at 5. I was unable to get back to sleep, so I headed out to the gym. My 7:30 AM I had worked out, eaten and showered, so it was out to the yard for a while. I harvested a few herbs for my mom to take to work. I also used my veggie fertilizer on all the tomatoes and peppers. I think it has been about a month since I last fertilized Tom and the peppers. One cayenne is turning redder, so it may be ready to harvest soon. I did harvest 4 more Tom tomatoes.

After that I got everything watered and took a few more photos.

too hot to do much work

I went out of town for a week, which as a bit concerning, as that left mom in charge of all the watering. I got some brass quick connects that actually worked, which made the whole connecting the hose to different things much easier. I was very pleased to come home and find everything thriving.

My coleus definately needed to be cut back again, but I am currently not having as much luck getting things to root. I've got a bunch of coleus cuttings and hopefully they start rooting soon. I also cut back a ton of basil and made pesto. I've been eating pesto pizza and even having bruschetta made with my pesto and slices of Tom Tomato. I harvested 4 toms this morning. He still have some yellow, but also has a bunch of tomatoes that are still ripening, so I guess things are okay. I am hoping that next week with a bunch of rain again I will see some more blooms. I have also seen my first blooms on the roma, so maybe I am on my way to sauce and salsa. In other salsa news, one of my cayenne peppers looks like it is finally starting to turn red. The jalepenos continue to get bigger, I don't quite know when they will be ripe. My cilantro also put up some funny looking leaves. Don't know if it is trying to bloom, being influenced by the dill that is nearby or what, so I pinched them off. Then my hands smelled like cilantro for quite a while.

Today is the first day since I've been home that it has not rained, so I haven't had much watering to do. The forcast is for no rain tomorrow, then a weeks worth of rain. I decided to try to seed in another area of grass, just past where I have been watering. Figure I would water it today and tomorrow, then let the rain work on it for a week. The area I have been working on is starting to fill in nicely. I do think the pine straw helps.


I did some weeding off and on today. It was very hot and I'm getting eaten alive by mosquitos. I was able to get some really nice flower pictures, which I couldn't resist posting!


Here are before and after shots of the area along the side of the house I call "the tunnel". It is still a work in progress (I would like to replace the fencing, maybe add a gate and grow my Carolina Jessamine on it), but it is a big improvement.

Before

After

rain at last

Right now outside it is raining. Bobbie told me today that we have gone 8 weeks without any rain. Grass everywhere is dead unless you have been heavily watering it. I am hoping all my shrubs will enjoy the rain.

I ran around today trying to get everything done before going to KY. I added dirt to the camellias, azaleas and rhodie. I also cut a wilting branch of the rhodie, afraid it has dieback so hopefully this will help. I sprayed it with neam as well. I also cut a branch off of the Margaret camellia that was wilting as well. No idea what might be wrong with it, but figured since it wasn't healthy anyway, why not just take off that little branch. I've been watering that area really regularly, so I think they are wilting from disease, not lack of water. I also added another back of mulch to the azalea bed. My biggest yard feat of the day was getting some brass quick connects that actually work, unlike the plastic quick connects from Big Lots that were a mess. They will cut down on my time switching over the hose and should make it a lot easier for my mom.

I pulled a dead for I don't know what reason penta out of one of my pots today. No time to replace it before I leave and no idea what was wrong with it. Oh well... It is definately disease time and I think I may have seen aphids today. There was some big nasty bug on one of my basils. My one basil was actually flowering, so I cut it way back. I also cut back one of the basils in with the roma tomato because I needed a few more leaves to make pesto.

The zinnias still look like they might have black spot on the lower leaves, but the upper leaves are looking pretty good. I sprayed them with neam today. I also sprayed Tom again and the wave petunia. I thinkt he fungus on the wave petunia is clearing up, but it now has some additional problem, as it is covered in what look like poppy seeds. I may call the nursery on this one tomorrow. I have a feeling I will be dumping this plant when I get home from KY. It seems to have a variety of issues now.

cookies!

I am going out of town for a week and wanted to take some treats with me. Since I have so much mint, I hit on the idea of making cookies with fresh mint from the yard. So, I did some web searching and turned up these two recipes (one uses dried mint) that I tinkered with a little bit and I thought they turned out well.

To dry the mint for the first recipe, I nuked it in the microwave on high between two paper towels for 20-30 second intervals until it seemed crunchy. Then I forced it through a fine sieve to grind it. I think it turned out well. I used peppermint in both recipes, but am going to make a second batch of the chocolate chip cookies with chocolate mint.

Mint Cookies
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp to 1 tbsp ground dried mint leaves
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add mint, flour and salt. Mix thoroughly. Chill dough. Form small balls and roll in sugar. Press with thumb in the center. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Mint Almond White Chocolate Chip Cookies (basically Toll House cookies with a few changes)
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs
2 c (12 oz package) white chocolate chips
1 c chopped almonds
1/4 c finely chopped fresh mint

Preheat oven to 375 F
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and almond extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips, nuts and mint. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 9-11 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooking racks.

getting hotter

It is 74 degrees at only 10:45 today and already the sun feels hot. The ground is hard and dry from the lack of rain and the grass is brown. It seems like mid-summer is here early this year. We are supposed to get rain next Friday and off and on through next weekend. Lets hope.

I am keeping up my watering schedule and the plants seem to be doing well. I managed to scratch 4 Chorus Line Daylilies into the earth today where I had planted lirope a few days ago. I bought them in one big pot, then unpotted them, washed all the soil off and separated the big clump into 4 plants. If it takes, it won't be bad, 4 pink repeat blooming daylilies for $5.

The big bell pepper is still hanging on as are some of the little bells on the other plant. I noticed today that the eggplant has several big purple flowers. We'll see if it sets fruit. Tom tomato still doesn't look that great in a few places. There is one little branch I think is a goner, so I'm going to prune it off. The Roma tomato is growing, as are its basil friends. I will cut them back next weekend and make pesto. The little rooted basils that weren't doing well outside yesterday seem to have perked up inside overnight. I will keep them in the windowsill for a few more days and see how they do, then work on moving them outside gradually if I need to. Guess I'm used to the mint: root it in water, pot it up, shove it outside.

Bobbie is bringing her string trimmer in a bit so I can work on the front yard. Right now I am off to clip some grass.

new azalea, tomatoes and LOTS more

I started out this morning at Lowes, with a major disaster. I got my bag of potting soil, but it was faded and the plastic ripped terribly getting it into the car. On top of that, the soil turned out to be very wet. I discovered that I do not need to repot the Roma tomato, as it is already in a 14" pot. This AM I potted up the Better Bush tomato, all my little Summerlong Basil seedlings and also the two rooted sweet basil cuttings. The sweet basil cuttings were not looking good, so I pulled them back out and stuck them in little 3" pots and put them in the windowsill. We'll see if they revive. I have been trying to move the golden oregano I rooted outside, but it was 93 today and everything was starting to look worse for the wear, so I moved those back inside for the day. The Chinese Lantern in the blue pot I accidentally kicked off the porch last night did not survive, so I put another plant in the potter. I got the remaining Chinese Lanterns moved into 8" plastic pots. I also gave a plant to Norman's wife when she came over to see if she could borrow some potting soil. I lost one of the tarragon seedlings. It just pretty much burned up I think and I have another that is only so-so looking right now. I will have to make sure the seedling tray is out of direct sunlight during the afternoon tomorrow. I think it might move it out to the porch.

Repotting the two yellow bell peppers was not nearly as bad as I thought it could be and I didn't even lose any peppers off the plants. I did notice that the big bell pepper on the one plant has either been eaten by an animal or it has a disease. I will have to figure out its problem tomorrow if I can.

I went to Wal-Mart to look for a new water wand and to get some more potting soil. I got a Bush Goliath tomato, as I now have a spare 14" pot, and some sweet basil seeds to seed around it (Month by Month Gardening in the Carolinas recommends seeding a late crop of basil in July?!?!). On the way back to the car, I saw some Encore Azaleas. There were just a few and they were marked down 50% off (they weren't looking 100%) so I got an Autumn Amethyst for $6.50.

Back home it was planting time. First step was to start doing something about the box of dirt. I shoveled some into the wheelbarrow and added some compost and used this dirt to add more dirt around the azaleas, rhodie, salvia and small beautyberry. The heat of the day was not good to the 6 pack of coleus my mom had gotten me yesterday, so then it was into the ground with it. Hope it all survives. From there, it was time to plant the double impatiens and Bridal Veil astilbe down by the azaleas. That went well and then I cleared a bigger space on the other side of the ginger lilies and mixed up all the rest of the left over dirt in the box and compost and planted the Encore azalea on top of the ground and made a little soil volcano for it to grow into. Now I will need to get some mulch to mulch in the area. I think I will go to Lowes for that, even though I don't like their mulch as well, they are a lot closer to Wal-Mart and I already have Lowes mulch in the area. I did get about 1 1/2 bags of the good Wal-Mart mulch down over my perennial bed. Hopefully that will help keep everything moist and happy. My goal of having the box of dirt gone has been met! Its space is now being taken by a potted Bush Goliath tomato.

Planted today:
- Bridal Veil astilbe
- Autumn Amethyst Encore azalea
- Bush Goliath tomato
- Better Bush tomato

Repotted:
- 5 Chinese Laterns
- 2 yellow bell peppers

border filled in and more

Yesterday Susie brought me some purple coneflower and lambs ears from her garden. I knew that they would be almost enough to fill up the perennial bed, but I'd still have a bit of space. I stopped at the Farmer's Market on the way home and got another mallow, a pink salvia and an Autumn Joy sedum to round out the best. Last night I got it all planted and watered in. This AM it looked pretty good except the tops of the coneflowers are a little droopy. Hopefully this will resolve itself. After watering the side yard today, I saw that the mallow was falling over, so I grabbed the stake I was going to use for the hollyhock and used it to stake the mallow back into place.

I still have some coleus that has not been planted, but I finally planted the 6 pack of red velvet last night. I planted it back by the 2 Miss Biloxi camellias. I just need another 6 pack of coleus for the other side. I may send my mom to the Farmer's Market tomorrow and have her pick out whatever she likes.

I picked some leaves off Tom tomato and the wave petunia last night so I could take them to Underwoods today and find out what to do. The diagnosis was fungus and I got some neem and pyrethrin spray to treat the plants and some fertilizer for my veggies and I also got a 6 pack of purple upright annual verbena to edge the perennial border.

One of my major goals for this weekend is to get rid of the box of dirt that is by the oak barrel. Step one was to move the lirope that was living (amazing it is still alive after all this time- I only heeled it in and have NEVER watered it) in the box and finally plant it up front. I planted it on the house side of the ditch in the area where they backhoe scraped up my yard getting the yard waste. I watered them in and will water them for a few weeks while the get established, and that is it. I still need to figure out what to do with the dirt (right now I'm leaning toward dumping it along the back fence) .

I watered the grass on the driveway side of the yard as it was pretty much dying from lack of water. Tomorrow I will try to get the front yard watered, which is having the same problems. I also REALLY need borrow the weed eater from Bobbie to cut the yard (the mower would be better but it is such a pain to transport).

I stocked up on stakes today and staked 2 of my 3 other bell peppers and my eggplant with 3' stakes and used 5' stakes for the hollyhock, mallow and delphenium. I may need to buy taller stakes for the peppers, but I hope not. I did see that the other yellow bell pepper now has one actual pepper on it. Hopefully the fertilizer I used today will be a good think and will help more of the blossoms set fruit. Despite his illness, Tom tomato continues to set fruit.

I want to get some sort of plant to place between my two azaleas to add a little color to that area (since I am watering every day). I had been thinking of a geranium because for some reason I thought they grew in shade, but apparently not! I went to Country Boys thinking maybe I would find a nice big begonia or double impatien or something that I really liked. Didn't see anything that looked just right for back there (I'm now thinking astillbe). I was looking over the herbs and while playing around found varigated peppermint. It was SO fragrant! At this point, it almost looks like a low creeper like pennyroyal, but it is stupposed to get up the 24". I just had to get it. I also got a Better Bush tomato, that is supposed to be a standard eating tomato but made for containers. When I got the Roma, my mom's comment was "no slicing tomato", so now we have a slicing tomato as long as it grows.

I need more pots badly. I hit up K-Mart and got 3 more bronze pots in two sizes. The smaller pot is the new home of the varigated peppermint. I am going to plant up some coleus in one of the larger pots. The other one will just be extra for right now, but I love those pots so much I'll kick myself later if I don't get enough now. This evening I hit Garden Ridge and got some more cheap pots, some small ones for more of the Chinese Laterns and a big one for the Better Bush tomato. Now of course, I need more potting soil.