| June 1, 2003 Got the platform built for the rain barrels. Now if I can just get the flexible downspout, I'm in business!! At Lowe's today I bought: Liatris spicata 'Kobold', Rudbeckia hirta 'Toto', Coreopsis 'Baby Sun', Verbena tenuisecta 'Edith', and single Impatiens 'Rose'. At Wal*Mart I got Aurinia saxatilis 'Compactum' (Basket of Gold), Hostas 'Mildred Seaver', 'Blue Cadet', and 'Mediovariegata'. On the bargain rack at Wal*Mart I found: Hosta 'Sieboldiana' and 'Francee', waterlily 'Attraction', 2 astilbe 'Diamant' and 1 'Erika', and 3 dicentra rosea. Got all the boxed bargains potted up. They were selling at 50 cents to $1.25 and seem to have viable roots. True bargains if they are what they say they are and live. I needed to line up some shade plants for the bed we'll build around the new storage room under the sun porch. Also got another Clematis viticella 'Warsaw Nike' to climb the gutter trellis at the garage post. Potted that up. It's small, but it will grow. The one at the other end of the porch is really pretty this year. Cicadas have been around for about 3 weeks. They are everywhere and very loud! Found some spotted bottom leaves on the 'Mountain Pride' tomatoes--looks like early blight to me. Removed them and put them in the trash. Old blackberries were hurt really badly in the drought last year, but there are lots of babies poking up this year. |
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| June 2, 2003 Spread the second weed and feed since it's going to rain tomorrow. Started feeding roses with fish emulsion. Pruned mums for the second time. Got some fungicide and sprayed the tomatoes to try to stop the early blight. |
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| June 3, 2003 I think I'll stick to MiracleGro. Some critter, apparently a raccoon, decided my roses all smelled wonderful and dug around looking for fish, I assume. He all but dug one out of the container. Hopefully the rain is washing the scent away. I'm just glad I didn't put it on anything else. Picked 1 'Delmarvel' strawberry. It was good. |
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| June 4, 2003 Got the gutter adapted and the rain barrels set up just before a thunderstorm. Filled the first barrel up to overflowing in about 30 minutes. Both filled in about 2 hours. I need more barrels. |
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| June 5, 2003 Ordered Carolina jasmine, a blue agapanthus, and a 'Mystery' gardenia from Flowers From Grandmother's House. |
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| June 8, 2003 Bought 2 hostas at Anderson's over the weekend: 'September Sun' and 'Frances Williams'. Calla 'Chianti' and Rehmanii are blooming and are beautiful. |
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| June 11, 2003 Got 2 more barrels and got them set up. And filled up to overflowing tonight during a thunderstorm. Getting a double handful of strawberries every day. New storage room is complete. Will build a bed on the deck side in a couple of weeks. 'Gruss an Aachen' rose was the one almost dug out of it's container and it is looking droopy. Bottom leave yellowing. Hopefully the wet conditions will help it recover. Cut it back to see if that will help. |
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| June 12, 2003 Ordered from Flowers From Grandmother's Garden: 11 hostas: 'Dream Weaver', 'Fan Dance', 'Flash of Light', 'Fried Green Tomatoes', 'Hercules', 'Komodo Dragon', 'Lakeside Meter Maid', 'Lakeside Surfrider', 'Loyalist', 'Reptilian', and 'Silver Anniversary' and 3 daylilies: 'Barbara Mitchell', 'Mary Ethel Anderson', and 'Nordic Night'. So far, all caladiums except 'Aaron' have at least started to sprout--even the ones kept over from last year. The back deck and front porch will be stacked up with hostas and caladiums this year. If all goes as planned, that is. Cucumber 'Straight Eight' has a couple of babies, as does the 'Parks Creamy' straight neck squash. |
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| June 14, 2003 Bought 4 hostas today. One, a miniature type, is unnamed. The others are: 'Albo picta', 'Gold Standard', and 'Night Before Christmas'. Also got 60 bags of topsoil to put in the new bed around the new storage area. We'll get to that in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to get the soil before they ran out for the season. 'Carnival Pink' hollyhock is about 7 feet tall and is pushing my flag sideways. Staked the three stems back out of the way. Blooming big beautiful carnation-like blooms. Clematis 'Candidum' is blooming it's first bloom. Lots of daylilies starting to bloom. |
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| June 15, 2003 Bought 10 hostas today. Somebody stop me. I got: another 'Medioveriegata', 'Enchantment', 'Mistress Mabel', 'Guacomole', 'Sagae', 'Polar Moon', 'Twilight', 'Leola Frain', 'Sun Power', and 'Minuteman'. 'Fair Bianca', 'Katherine Morley', and 'Tamora' roses all blooming. 'Ambridge Rose' and 'The Prince' are too. 'Gruss an Aachen' rose is looking a little better. The free tuberous begonia I received is doing well. The light salmon Christmas cactus is in full bloom again. The easter cactus has buds. |
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| June 16, 2003 More rain. Picked 2 'Arapaho' blackberries. Very tasty! Planted the last of the perennials that I have so far. More are on the way. I think there's a baby limequat. Meyer lemon is full of blooms. |
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| June 17, 2003 The old hydrangea we moved is going to bloom!! Dozens of the old thorned blackberries are sprouting up. |
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| June 19, 2003 Got part of the latest order from Richard Owen nursery and my order from Flowers from Grandmother's Garden. The Irish moss from Richard Owen was dead, but the orange looked good, as did a hosta. Also got the replacements I had requested from Richard Owen: Red painted daisies and Christmas rose (helleborus). They might make it. Everything from Grandmother's looked good (Carolina jasmine, gardenia 'Mystery', and blue agapanthus. Got everything planted or potted up, as well as potting up a few hostas. Potted up the Lady Banks rose and put it in the sunny corner of the deck. I think I'll let it grow up on the railings, etc. there. There's one fig on the fig bush, but maybe signs of more to come. Azalea 'Hilda Niblett' had been pruned severely last week but is showing signs of new growth. More lilium lost to voles. I won't plant any more--they're too tasty, apparently. All caladiums are sprouting--even all of the ones I kept over from last year. Yay!! Lost 2 more lilium to voles. |
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| June 20, 2003 Potted up more hostas. Got the rest of my order from Richard Owen. Dwarf reblooming iris look decent and were potted up. Mother of Thyme is shakey. Two plants were outright dead, the other may make it. Bush cherry is soaking in a bucket of water and will be put in a large container tomorrow. I snipped the stems and there it seems to be alive. Roots were terribly dry. Much more pleasant today. Sunny for a change, with a breeze and much lower humidity. |
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| June 21, 2003 Bought another hosta: Variegata. Also got a varigated hydrangea: Variegata. Notice a trend here? Got those and the cherry potted up. Fed part of the tomatoes with 5-10-10, as well as the sweet peppers. Onions ready to pull. Will do that soon, hopefully before it rains again. |
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| June 21, 2003 Went out this morning and something had dug the cherry out of it's pot. |
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| June 22, 2003 One sildacea is blooming. Sweet. 'Tophat' blueberries are beginning to turn. All callas are blooming. Lots of daylilies in bloom. Fed the rest of the tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash with 5-10-10. Pruned container ivys and put the cuttings in water to root. Planning on lots of deck rail planters with ivy since these have done so well. |
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| June 28, 2003 Picked 3 squash. Cucumbers are finally doing well and blooming up a storm. Quite a few small cukes already. White waterlily is blooming, finally. 'Sweet 100s' tomatoes starting to ripen. Last rain was 10 days ago. Will have to start watering if it doesn't rain soon. |
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| June 29, 2003 Watered the vegetables today. Tied up some tomato branches that were falling over--plants are gettin quite large. Lots of cukes about 3 inches long. Pulled one yellow onion for dinner to fry. It was delicious: sweet and tender. |
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