| May 2, 2003 Iris are beautiful. Yellow flags and blue flags are putting on a show. Got plants mapped out for the new bed--will plant tomorrow. Drainage system is covered and blends in with the other beds, and, in fact, makes an additional small bonus bed. Blue-eyed grass is blooming. |
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| May 3, 2003 Dug up the unnamed spiderwort (which gets tall and gangly) and bought lilac 'Miss Kim' to put in it's place. Moved the spiderwort around to the end of the garage bed. Also got a couple of new hostas for containers: Hyacintha and 'Halcyon'. Planted various perennials in the newly renovated bed. Tree guys came a few days earlier than planned and took down a big maple and several other smaller trees. This gets a limb off of the roof/gutter and opens up that end of the back deck and side yard to much more sun. Brought caladiums out onto the back deck. A couple are just peeking out of the soil. Planted calla lilies (that had overwintered in their pots in the holding bed) in the pond bed. Marked some iris--duplicates--for removal later. Moved the Blue Eyed grass--1 to another place in the pond bed and the other to the newly renovated bed. Planted seeds of morning glory 'Star of Yalta'. These are supposed to stay open all day. The Carolina jasmine was indeed alive. It got planted on the other side of the new arbor from the grape vine. Looks like the voles got my newly planted sweet autumn clematis. Clematis montana looks OK so far. Think I'll dig it up and put it in a container, and will get another sweet autumn, when I can, and do the same. Daylily 'Strawberry Candy' didn't live. I'll call for a replacement. All tomatoes are putting out blossom buds. All cukes are poking through the ground. Only one 'Dasher II' so far. Due to old seeds, maybe? Delmarva strawberries are blooming. I just don't have the heart to pinch blooms; I want fresh strawberries THIS year. Fed tomatoes with 5-10-10 fertilizer. Will feed again at fruit set, as recommended by a garden list member. |
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| May 4, 2003 Cloudy, damp, and cool today. 'Earliglow' strawberries are starting to bloom, too. Fed sweet peppers with 5-10-10. |
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| May 5, 2003 Rained all day. Found a replacement Sweet Autumn Clematis at Mom's Greenhouse. Hope the C. montana is still alive. I'll try to get them both potted up tomorrow--way too wet today. |
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| May 6, 2003 C. montana is *not* still alive. Grrrrrr. Rigged shepard's crook beside the rose trellis at the newly renovated bed. Replanted some cucumbers, as they have not germinated well. Too much rain? Labeled more TBI to remove in August. Established hollyhocks have blossom buds. Both geraniums--'Johnson's Blue' and 'Karmina' are blooming. Ismene festalis are sprouting. Three of the four patio lilium sprouting. Saw a frog jump into the pond today. |
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| May 7, 2003 I'm really bummed. Found my newly planted (street bed) Clematis Jackmanii looking less than good. Gave it a gentle tug, and yep, it was chewed off. Some roots were still there, though, so I took it up and potted it up. I'll figure out something. Also found several areas of tunnels in the street bed into which we stuck some of those smoke thingys. Yellow flag in the waterfall tub is so top heavy with blooms that it fell over! Gorgeous. |
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| May 11, 2003 Out of town for the weekend. Apparently got some rain and wind while we were gone. Everything has grown SO much in 48 hours!! And, I'm SO excited: the Louisiana iris in the pond has 2 buds!!!! Gloriosa lily has sprouted. Clematis 'Mme. Julia Correvon' is blooming. The "dwarf hollyhock" my neighbor gave me is blooming--just too sweet!! Cukes and squash are up. Tomatoes are looking great. Strawberries 'Allstar' and 'Red Chief' are starting to blossom. Went to Anderson's (quickly becoming my favorite gardening center) and had fun. Went specifically to pick up a couple more Salvia 'May Night' since the one I already have is looking really nice this year. Got 2 of those and 2 more varieties of salvia: 'Blue Hill' (blue) and 'Snow Hill' (white). Also got a dwarf lily of the Nile (agapanthus), Cheddar pink 'Firewitch', veronica 'Royal Candles', Tradescantia 'Lilac Frost', Aquilegia 'Spring Magic Blue and White', geranium 'Alpenglow', hosta 'Lemon Lime', Agastashe rugosa 'Blue Fortune', strawberry foxglove, Shasta daisy 'Snowcap', and delphinium 'Summer Blues'. |
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| May 13, 2003 I was bemoaning the fact that all of the 'Ultraspire' apple blossoms fell off. Well, duh! Of course they did--they didn't get pollinated because neither of the other trees bloomed. Bought a replacement C. montana 'Rubens' today. Broke some of it off accidently, but otherwise it looks good. |
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| May 14, 2003 Replanted coleus 'Wizard Mix', since most of the previously potted plants rotted. |
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| May 19, 2003 Nothing much happening for the last few day. Lots of rain lately with more in the forcast for the next week. Potted up clematis montana 'Rubens' and sweet autumn clematis in large containers, which I set at the base of each side of the arbor. Lets see if this will work. Potted up two hostas: hyacintha and 'Halcyon'. Also potted up some unnamed ole TBIs and what is probably I. germanica. The Louisiana iris in the pond is blooming!!!! Beautiful dark purple. We have cicadas. Lots of cicadas. Limequat is definitely getting ready to bloom, as is the Meyer lemon. 'Arapaho' blackberries are looking good. Cleaned out the compost bins and got 10 5-gallon buckets of compost. Restarted with unfinished compost material. |
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| May 20, 2003 First sunny day in a while. Redid the stone step and short stone walkway. Sowed Pearlwort seeds in the soil, but am not too hopeful for favorable results. Bought a Lady Banks rose and a blue plumbago. Got all new and started perennial planted except for the white salvia and the dwarf agapanthus. Ran out of daylight. Also got the hardy glad bulbs, which had been back ordered and just arrived, planted. |
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| May 21, 2003 Bought two hostas: 'Patriot' and 'Blue Angel', as well as a geranium (cransbill) 'Max Frei'. Bought fish emulsion. Order from Richard Owen Nursery arrived--last order of the season--for now. Potted up redbud (Cercis canadensis), quince (Cydonia japonica rubra), 2 'Stella D'Oro, 1 'Purple D'Oro' and 1 'Pardon Me' daylilies, 3 red painted daisies (one looks dead, but I'll give it a try), and free bulbs for "anemones", "shamrocks", and "ixia". Plants are small, but inexpensive, so what do you expect? |
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| May 23, 2003 Well, that didn't take long. Ordered from Richard Owen Nursery again: Sagina subulata (Irish Moss) to put in the short stone walkway, Thymus S. Coccineum (Mother-of-Thyme), 'Sugar Sweet' cherry (bush cherry), 3 dwarf reblooming iris, hosta 'Loyalist', hosta 'Richland Gold', and a dwarf orange tree. Put request in the mail to them to replace Christmas rose and one of the red painted daisies, both of which were rotten on arrival. Brent and Becky's bulb catalog arrived and I've been drooling. Ordered a double rain barrel set. |
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| May 26, 2003 Lots of rain. Every day or night. Something chewed off the "dwarf hollyhock" that my neighbor gave me last year, and that was doing so well. It stayed full of blooms. I suppose it was a vole. Neighbor gave me another baby. |
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| May 28, 2003 Two more lilium chewed off in the street bed, for a total of 4, now. I'm bummed. Still raining almost daily. Bet as soon as I get the rain barrels set up there won't be another drop all summer. |
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| May 30, 2003 Found a dead vole in the yard. Rain barrels came, but were missing a part. Called and they will send it right away. |
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| May 31, 2003 More rain. Planted Clematis jackmanii in a pond basket and put it back in the same place in the street bed. Maybe this will work. Bought a rosemary to plant in the little stone walkway bed. |
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