really pouring now

I finally decided I needed to run out and get some more staking tape, as my dahlias and some of the tomatoes needed to be tied up some more and they were calling for rain. On the way home there was HUGE crack of thunder that made me jump. I got back home and started tying up 'Pink Accordion' to a taller stake. It had started to rain when I was pretty much done with that, then I ran over and tied up 'Lavender Perfection' dahlia, that was starting to lean some and got back inside before it started pouring. Looking out the window I'm already wishing I had gone out a bit earlier, so I could have staked my 'Black Pineapples'. They are all young, so none have stakes and they are really blowing in this hard rain. I don't like the staking tape I got at Home Depot. I don't know if there is something wrong with it or if it is always this way, but it is thick, oily and not very stretchy. I'll get it at Lowes from now on.

This is the first really hard rain I remember in it seems like months now.

rain at last!

We have gotten 1/2" of rain this afternoon. It isn't all that we need, but it is so much more than we have gotten, so I'm happy for that. I'm hoping that it won't be all for the day.

This AM I was out in the yard and there were bugs ALL OVER my squash. No wonder the plants have not been doing well. I think I may just pull the squash plants. I don't really need anything that attracts munchy bugs to my yard. I did reseed the squash today, but that was before I found all the bugs, so I'm going to think about it overnight.

I also discovered today that what I thought were new flower pods on my Stella d'Oro daylilies were actually SEED pods. Two had split open and only had a few seeds left in them. So, I collected the few seeds I saw and sowed them out in a little 4" pot. I'll have to look up growing daylilies from seed, as I think one of my others has set seed as well. I'm always looking for more daylilies for the ditch!

I also moved 2 of the 3 purple hydrangeas outside for at least part of the day. They are doing well, but the 3rd has a bad case of the wilts and is staying indoors were I can mist it regularly. If it starts to look worse, it may go back in the water.

I have decided that I really want to do something serious about replacing the porch light, which I have always hated. I'm going to have to look around online and see what I can find. I'm still not sure what size light would look the best, but I think at 8"- 12" would probably be the best as far as scale goes.

I hate fireworks

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

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


Hydrangea 'Penny Mac'

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

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


Dahlia 'Lavender Perfection'

first attempt at tomato sauce

Today was once again hot and I watered twice. I also got a pretty good harvest, including a lot of the romas that were suffering from blossom end rot. I figured they would not keep too well once picked, so I would need to do something with them ASAP. I didn't have a ton, but I decided to try to make tomato sauce. I used a modification for a recipe in the book Mediteranean Harvest.



I sauteed 2 cloves of garlic in 2 T of olive oil, with about 1 t minced onion over medium heat. Then I added all the tomatoes, about 1/4 t minced red pepper, 1 sprig of thyme and some basil leaves. This was then simmered over medium-low heat for maybe 10-15 minutes (I didn't have that many tomatoes). I don't have a food mill, so I pulled out one big chunk that looked like the end of a tomato, then ran it all through the food processor. I think it tastes pretty good and is spicy! I'll have it over pasta for dinner on Monday night.

I was able to fix the part that had blown off the hose and gave the front yard a good watering today. Things in the back are looking okay. I got some new fiberglass planters at Sams Club Thursday night and have planted up the 2 'Black Pineapple' tomatoes I was never able to place out. I'm now growing FOUR plants of this tomato, so I hope it produces well and that we like it.

water bill may be the biggest problem

After coming inside and typing up a few things and worrying, I decided to go back out with a lantern and check out the situation literally on the ground. I think, other than my water bill, that I may have dodged the bullet. Our super-dry ground may have helped because the very areas that were squishy when I first turned off the water are only moist to the touch just about 10 minutes later and the two plants I was most worried about are surrounded by dry mulch. My forsythia seems like it got some water, but probably just a nice deep watering, as the top layer of soil doesn't even seem that moist.

Now, of course, I am still imagining a $500 water bill. I'm going to call the water company tomorrow (not that I think it will do any good).

disaster in the side yard

I went to wash my hands a few minutes ago, and the water pressure just didn't seem right. I thought... what if I somehow forgot to turn off the water this afternoon when I was done watering the front yard, so I went to check.

My worst fears were confirmed, I had left the water on. The spray nozzle on the water wand was turned off, but the ground underneath my feet squished where I walked. The hose that connects diretly to the hosemobile has been blown apart in some fashion, I'll have to investigate it in the morning.

Currently I am worried about two things: 1) my water bill- which is going to be huge as the water was running for 12 hours, though I don't know how long the hose held before it blew and 2) my plants in the area that was soaked for that long. I am most worried about the forsythia, as it is closest to the area where the hosemobile is and where the water would be coming out. The water would have poured on this area. I am also worried about my 'Gentian Dome' and 'Mini Penny' hydrangeas that are also in the general area and my creeping phlox. I am hoping that the fact that the ground is so dry will work in my favor and that some of the water will have run off, to be absorbed in other areas and that none of the areas will have become waterlogged. Obviously, I won't be watering in these areas any time soon.

It will be daylight before I can really access the damage and it may be a week or more before I can tell if the plants were damaged. I'm going to hope for the best.

finally- new hose

Not the most exciting thing to write about, but something I've been meaning to do for a long time... The "never kink" hose I bought last fall should have been an "always kink" and has been driving me nuts for months. Of course, I lost the receipt so I can't take it back, even though it has a 6 year warrenty and has started to leak.

So, the plan for a long time has been to get a new hose, but the ones that seem to work well cost about $25 and lets face it, I can get a 3 gallon hydrangea for that (or 6 gallons of gas). So, no hose for quite a while. Today I was at Wal-Mart and went in through the garden center. They had 50' "professional" hoses with a lifetime guarentee for $19, so I figured why. This time I'm stapling the receipt to the paper it came with with the guarentee, so if it fails I can take it back. I did some watering this evening with the new hose and it seems to work well. It is a bit heavier than the other hose, so I may hook it directly to the hosemobile and use the other hose and the one I drag around. That, and rolling up the old hose to shove it in the back of the yard (since I DOES still work, it just sucks), are tasks for Wednesday AM.

In other exciting news, I got my sun hat today! I was following a discussion on Myfolia about garden hats and someone linked to the Sungrubbies.com site and I couldn't resist this hat. Okay, so it is probably not the MOST practical garden hat, but it will give me lots of sun protection and look great!

not much other than watering

It is that time of year, there isn't much to be done in the garden other than watering, harvesting and weeding. I'm sure there are areas I could weed, but trying to kill of the poison ivy is enough for right now. On Friday AM, I cleared the area I plan to plant the fatsia in. I pulled out a bunch of honeysuckle and cut back all the privet that was growing in the area. Once it is a bit cooler, I think I'll need to dig out all the privet stumps and add some compost to the soil. The soil in this area gets really dry from all the tree roots. I still haven't decided if I am going to plant the fatsia this fall or let it grow on in the pot for another year.

Today I watered and harvested and photographed in the morning, then watered and photographed a bit in the afternoon. I did get some good shots.

Daylily 'Fairy Tale Pink'- first bloom for it this year


Tomato harvest- 4 Early Girl, 2 German Pink, 1 Cherokee Purple and cherries

Orange ditch lily


Tricolor sage


Veggie garden part 1- by the fence


Veggie garden part 2- in the yard

always more watering

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

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

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



Route 66


Pushmataha


Smokey Mountain Autumn


Unloosed Joy

got a little bit done today

The heat is really keeping me from doing much in the yard, but I got a bit of work done today. This morning I watered the entire back yard, but the front some how got forgotten so I have to try to catch that up tomorrow. I repotted my new Endless Summer into a 3 gallon container to live for the rest of the year while I figure out where to go with it. Cityline Venice went into a big pot I had gotten at Sams Club a while back figuring I'd find a use for it sooner or later. I think it is just perfect for Venice.



My other big project of the day was digging up Masja hydrangea. It was probably too small to really plant out last fall and it was killed to the ground over the winter. This spring it did come up, but seems to be struggling and not putting out much growth. I dug it up and it will live in a pot at least until next spring. I'm hoping that this will get it growing stronger before it goes back in the ground. I put my 2nd Together in the space where Masja has been. It is a much bigger plant, so hopefully it will be able to thrive there.



In the afternoon, I got some work done on the veggies. I pulled up the last of the lettuce. I currently have too many squash in the windowbox, so I dug up the smallest one and potted it up to give away. Then I dug up two that were really close together and moved one where the lettuce had been and put the other in an 8" (probably too small, but it was at hand at the time) pot. I'm hoping that I did not disturb the roots too much. If I don't get many squash, I'll figure it was because they did not have enough room.

Speaking of room, I had planned to try to thin the cucumbers, but their roots have totally taken over the whole pot. So, I built a trellis out of bamboo stakes and either attached or tied each of the plants on to its own stake. We will see if this works. Other people have successfully grown lemon cucumbers in pots, so it may not entirely be mission impossible.



I was trying to get rid of all the remaining pots of pansies and violas, so with two others that I had left I seeded one in with Genovese basil and planted 4 bush bean seeds in the other pot. My current group of bush beans are starting to flower.

My Jagged Edge daylily bloomed this weekend and it is really fugly. Not at all the expected color. I don't know if it was that particular bloom, heat and drought stress or what. I'm hoping some of the other blooms are a better color.



Endless Summer hydrangea- this is why I grow them!

massive hydrangea haul

I was on vacation all last week and since getting back pretty much all I've done is water. Today I was off work and wanted to try to get some work done in the yard before the heat really hit for the day. Bobbie had brought over some petunias she found on super mark down and I used some of them to make up a few pots, replacing the pansies that are now dead. Wednesday AM I also pulled out some dead pansies.

After potting up a few things, I ran out of potting soil and we went out to Lowes to run some errands. Monday night I had been at the Woodruff Rd Lowes and seen a lacecap hydrangea 'Claudie' that was really nice, but I didn't get it due to money and space issues. I was hoping that maybe they would still have it and I could get it. When we got there, the store was pretty much wiped out and there were not many hydrangeas left at all. It turned out that ALL there shrubs were on sale 75% off. At that point, I just decided to get ANY hdyrangea that looked good and sort it out back at the house. All told it came to $30. I got:

3 Forver and Ever 'Double Pink' - 1 gallon
2 Forever and Ever 'Red'- 3 gallon
1 'Madame Emilie Moulliere' - 3 gallon (originally marked $4.98 instead of $14.98)
1 'Glory Blue' - 3 gallon
1 'Merritt's Pink'- 1 gallon
1 'Endless Summer'- 1 gallon

After that, we went down to the Lowes in Simpsonville to see if they had the same sale and what they had. NO SALE in Simpsonville, but they DID have the 'Together' totally double hydrangeas I had wanted to get for Mrs Phillips, so I bought 3 of them, 1 each for me, Bobbie and Mrs Phillips. My mom fell in love with a huge beautiful 3 gallon 'Cityline Venice' so I got that as well. Those FOUR hydrangeas came to more than the big haul on Woodruff Rd, but it was worth it to get the 'Togethers' and 'Venice' is a real show stopper right now.


Massive haul of six Forever and Evers- 75% off


I told Bobbie and Mrs Phillips that the 'Togethers' were 75% off... I gave them each a 'Together' and a 'Double Pink' and gave the other 'Red' to Bobbie. That had found some of the original Fovever and Evers in 1 gallon pots marked down to $3 the other day, so now they have some of the special ones too. During our visit to Mrs Phillips, we saw the most INCREDIBLE hydrangea. It is just the color I've been wanting, a deep purplish blue. It was so beautiful! She gave us 3 cuttings, which I have put in water to root. I'm hoping they root well, but I doubt I'll get the same exact color, probably partially due to her soil in that particular area. A total showstopper! She also gave me some cleomes, which I planted at the back of the annual bed.


Cityline Venice- couldn't let this beauty slip away twice


Part of the haul staying with me

planting camellia and so much more

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

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

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

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

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

preparing the area for the camellia

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

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

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

planted limelight

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

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

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



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

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

rain this evening

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

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

hostas dug up- 2, hostas planted- 1

The forecast changed and we did not get any rain today. That was good as it allowed me to work in the yard, but due to the forecast for rain, I didn't really have any plans for the day.

My first task of the day was to finally dig up the one 'Julie Morss' hosta by the 'Generale' hydrangea that is looking pretty terrible. When I got it dug up, it was surrounded by other roots and some of its own roots were dead. This plant had been planted bare root straight into the ground, so I don't know if those roots were ever alive or if all the root competition killed them. I potted it up and will eventually give it to someone.

Despite thinking that I did not want to waste my day pulling plantain weeds, I got started on that again. This time I was working back closer to the camellias, trying to pull them in areas where there actually WAS grass, so that those would stay grassy areas, not get taken over. I probably spent over an hour doing that.

I called Bobbie just before noon to see if she wanted to get together. We went to lunch at Stax, then over to look at Mrs. Phillips' yard and have dessert. Bobbie was thrilled with the 'Ponderosa' tomato I gave her. I do hope it grows well for her. Mrs. Phillips' yard looks really nice. She also lost a lot of the old wood on her hydrangeas this year, she thinks the late freeze and the super cold night early in the year might have done it. So, its not just my plant, it was just a bad year for hydrangeas. She does have a HUGE hydrangea that is quite exposed and covered in buds, I might see if I can take a few cuttings off it later this year. She also gave me some tall irises, some are two shades of blue and others are two shades of brown. I have to figure out where to plant them now. I might plant a few along the house where I have the two daylilies now.

After I got home, I dug around in the area where I had dug up the hosta and got rid of as many roots as I could. I then planted the 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd' hosta there. I'm not sure if this will be a good place for that hosta, but for the time being, I'm giving it a try. I dug up the 'Elegens' that was crowding the carex. I'm going to give Bobbie and Mrs. Phillips each an 'Elegens'. I don't think either of them has a blue hosta. My final task of the day was to get the water sprouts cut off the bottom of the Bradford Pear. It no longer looks like it is wearing a skirt and now looks like a tree again.

planting under the pecan tree

Yesterday was my day to go in late to work, so I was out in the yard early trying to get some things done. I got the whole place watered first, then set to work on a little planting. I planted hosta 'Orange Marmalade' back under the pecan tree between the Teller Red hydrangea and the astilbe. Then I planted the golden spiderwort kind of between the hosta and the hydrangea, but set back a little. The hope is that the spiderwort will spread out and fill in that area, kind of making a (20" tall) ground cover in this area. It has little blue/purple blooms and is supposed to bloom all summer.


I cut back some of the junk privet near where the 'Orange Dream' Japanese Maple is so that it shows up a lot better. It is still a tad close to the hydrangea, but until I can get the shack repaired/torn down/whatever I want to leave the junk privet in place to block the view of the falling down shack. Speaking of privet, several of the largest privets are in bloom right now. While it is pretty, blooms mean seeds and seeds mean more of that garbage in my yard. It is never ending...

Once the planting tasks were complete, I felt compelled to tackle the grass a bit more. My yard is being taken over by plantain weeds. I picked an area in the shady part near the fence and pulled as many plantain weeds as I could for about 2 hours. My fingers are still red and sore from this. Then, I spread Black Cow (my bag is sort of waterlogged, so I need a new bag) over the newly seeded area, spread shade grass seed and watered well. I really wanted to get this done yesterday as the forcast was for several days of rain and I figured that would help get the grass seed off to a good start. My *latest* plan for the grass is to pick fairly small area each month and weed it and seed it in the same fashion. I'm hoping by sticking to a pretty small area, I can maybe get it watered well enough with the hose while I'm doing my other watering and will be able to get grass to grow. I'm going to get some of the sod and seed soil to spread over the bare areas before seeding, as that seemed to work well in the two area where I used it last year.

Today (Thursday) it was supposed to rain all day, but was just cloudy until late afternoon, when it finally did rain for a few hours.


Hydrangea 'Together'

hung up the rest of the porch baskets

I got up early this morning so that I could water and avoid the wilting tomatoes I came home to yesterday. I got the potted back yard plants watered and then swung around to the front. My big basket on the shepherd's crook was looking horrid, but seems to have perked up this evening.

After all the watering was done, I still had plenty of time, so I was able to pot up the other three hanging porch baskets and get them hung up. I also repotted, yet again, the one 'Ponderosa' tomato seedling that I'm trying to nurse along for myself. It had finally been doing well, then all the wind of the last two days really bent its stem. I'm hoping that this latest REALLY deep repotting into a trade gallon pot will do the trick.

I also had time to pot up the spider plant cutting that I had been rooting, so I was able to take that to work with me for one of my co-workers. Now that warmer weather is here, I need to ramp up my coleus production, so taking some cuttings will be on the to do list for tomorrow.

trip to Atlanta

I went down to Atlanta this weekend to see my friend act in a play, but of course I hit a few nurseries while I was there.

First up, my mom had wanted 'Blue Mouse Ears' hosta and found it on ebay, but I told her not to bid on it because we would just buy it locally. Sure... so, no luck finding it locally and of course it wasn't on ebay anymore. So, I decided that as Mother's Day present I'd get it for her. A quick web search turned up Bloomin Designs, a hosta and other plant nursery north of Atlanta, pretty much on my way down to my friend's house. I got in touch with them and though they would not be open on Saturday, we made arrangements for me to pay for the hostas, then pick them up while the nursery was closed. I was able to walk around for a little bit and all I can say is WOW, I really need to go back and bring my mom, because I pretty much wanted one of almost everything. I also was a bit scared when I saw how big 'Elegens' and 'Guacamole' can get. I think I may have a few too many 'Elegens' in my yard currently... They will make lovely gifts. While at Bloomin Desings, I also got 'Orange Marmalade' which we had both fallen in love with from its photos.

Since I was in the Atlanta area, I also stopped by the Pike Nursery out on Pleasant Hill Rd. Pike is unfortunately in bankrupcy currently, but they have been bought out or something. I did notice that there was a whole section that had been full of plants when I was there last fall that is now empty. Still, I did find some good things at reasonable prices. I initially got a mini hosta 'Sitting Pretty' and some black mondo grass (decent price and I needed at least one more for the area I've got planned). Then while I was walking around looking at things, I saw two Japanese Maples in the neatest octagonal boxes. I thought that I would like a box like that when my 'Tamukeyama' gets bigger, so I took a closer look. I was looking at 'Orange Dream', which just so happens to be the one other Japanese Maple I really want (after realizing I had a red dissectum, a regular red and a variegated one, the only thing really left was orange). Then I looked at the price. Wow... I will not repeat it here, but considering the tree was as tall as I was... However, due to the size of the tree, I was sure there would be no way I could get it home, so I left without it.

Once I got to my friend's house, I told her about my shopping trips and the tree and she said if it wouldn't fit in my car, we could get it in her van and figure out how to get it to my house later. We didn't go back on Saturday, because we had to meet friends for dinner, then the show, both of which were lots of fun. Sunday AM we headed out to Pike again to look at the tree. While there, I picked up a second mini hosta 'Golden Prayers' and also an Ostrich Fern that was marked $2.00 instead of $12.99 because it looked like someone was trying to kill it. I selected one that looked like it had some healthy but not yet unfurled fronds and will hope for the best. Of course, I got the tree, but not before triple-checking the price. I was even MORE amazed when we were actually able to fit it in my car. WOW!!



I got back home around 2 PM but was totally exhausted, so pretty much all I did was pot up the two mini hostas. I'm going to look for a really special pot for 'Blue Mouse Ears'.

Today I was still worn out and didn't do anything this morning. I regretted that decision when I came home to wilted tomato plants and had to hurry up and do a bunch of watering before my yoga class. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get up early and water the front porch plants.

several busy annual planting days

My work schedule has been different this week, so I had Thursday morning off. I decided it was time to get rid of some of the pansies in pots that really were not doing well and start seeding in some other things. But, before I could do anything, disaster had struck my cilantro. Apparently my dog managed to not only knock over the pot the cilantro was in, but also break the terra cotta pot. Impressive...

I did my best to salvage the little cilantro seedlings and repot them in a new pot. I then planted out some patty pan squash seeds in the windowbox where I have been growing lettuce. I dumped two pots of pansies and one pot was planted with Bush Blue Lake 274 beans. I'm hoping they will not require trellising. I didn't soak the bean seeds, so I hope they germinate alright. The package didn't say to germinate and this is my first attempt at growing beans.

I saved seed last year off my 'Peppermint Stick' zinnias and the seed seems to be okay, not moldy or anything. I spread this seed behind the two salvias along the front fence. If they do come up, the zinnias should be tall enough to peek out over the salvias, which should look pretty.

My final seeding for Thursday was to seed the basil in the herb barrel. This year I'm not growing as many different herbs in the herb barrel. I still have curly leaf parsley in there, as well as a few chives and apparently one dill. I divided the remaining area in two and planted one half with 'Purple Ruffles' basil and the other half with 'Lime' basil. I did leave room around the outside edge to plant nasturtuims, which I can never remember to soak overnight, so I tend to get them in quite late. I need to plant out more basil as I'm afraid 'Early Girl' tomato is pretty much shading out the basil I planted around her. I may start a few pots just of basil. In other herb news, I finally decided that it was time to dump the stevia and bronze fennel. Neither has shown any signs of coming back this year. When I dumped the fennel, I could see that the roots were totally rotting. Guess it got too cold for it in the pot last winter.

Seeded on Thursday:
- zinnias with seed saved from last year
- lime basil
- purple ruffles basil
- bush blue lake beans
- patty pan squash

Friday I had to work, but had a few hours of light after work, so with a quick stop for a few plants on the way home, I was ready to tackle more annuals.

First up was the hanging basket (still need to get over to storage to get the other frames) now that I have new liners. I got pretty orangey million bells and black sweet potato vine to make my far full sun corner basket. I got this one planted and hung today. I also found two pots of New Guinea impatiens that I really liked. One is small 4" pot that I'm planning on putting in a hanging basket and the other is a big quart plant that I planted in one of the bronze plastic pots.

Next up was one of the hardest things, pulling out the pansies. In the fall it is easy to get rid of the summer annuals because the frost kills them, but in the spring you have to pull out your living cool season annuals. The pansies in the annual bed were looking pretty rough, so it was definitely time. I pulled out all except the back row, which are in the most shade and therefore look the best. I added some Black Cow to the areas where I pulled out the pansies. The main area was replanted with 'Blue Puffs' Ageratum around the outside edge, then seeded in with 'Peppermint Twist' zinnias behind that. For now the pansies are in place along the back, but they will probably be replaced with coleus in a few weeks. I planted a 4-pack of pink vinca in front of 'Masja' hydrangea. I still have some more areas where pansies need to be replaced. I am thinking I'll use the Ageratum in front of the camellias, as it is a pretty color and will grow in part shade.