I'm yet living. All the usual suspects here are doing well, despite the horrible heat and humidity.
We have reached the point this summer where I'll have my ten and fifteen year old nephews each Wednesday. I can't begin to tell you how much help they are.
PLEASE, God....Please! Couldn't we just have an inch or two of rain this week....and next??
It is SO dry here that we need to worry about the jerks who will shoot off fireworks during the week of the Fourth of July. Everything will go up like tinder.
Remember the picture of the meadow? Scroll down and take a look at it, because I just spent an hour pulling most of those daisies out of the garden.
I've probably waited too long. I can see seeds on the sidewalk, so no doubt the daisies will be back again next Spring. I've also ripped out the volunteer Dame's rocket, and cut back some of the iris stalks.
The ground is sere. We have had the threat of isolated thunderstorms, but no rain has materialized. I have to water the container garden daily, and I may need to consider watering twice a day. The raccoons are sucking the bird bath dry.
Before I can start dividing the iris, I'll have to run the sprinkler. The ground is so dry that trying to lift the plants now would harm them. It's so dry that I'm not getting the roots of the daisies, so I'll have to go back and root them out once I've watered.
It's interesting how much cooler the garden feels now that it's not overcrowded. Now the lilies and Peace rose aren't fighting for some sun, and the miniature day lilies will be more visible. I planted Homestead purple verbena, and I hope that we'll see a carpet of purple again this year. I'll add purple fountain grass for height and drama.
Back to the garden to finish up, and move all the dead plants!
Dear God, if it's not too much trouble, Sir, could we have a little rain, please??
I am SO proud of myself. Each year I buy plants, and I loose some of them because I don't get them planted within a reasonable period. This year, as in past years, I fell prey to that "I HAVE to have one (or three) of those" compulsion, and I filled up what passes for a trunk in our SUV.
I unloaded the plants, and some of them went directly into containers for my mother, and others were left in the garage, temporarily, or so I thought. They were there at least a week before I moved them outside so they wouldn't die of lack of sunshine.
As the ladies of my quilting bee left on Friday night, I heard one of them say that it was like walking through a meadow. A friend took this picture of the flowers at the sidewalk a week ago. The ox-eye daisies are all volunteers. I grew them in the center box of the herb garden on the north side of the house, and the chipmunks felt they’d look better at the front door. Each year they come up in new places. I rip them out, and they come back. A friend was horrified to hear me say that I planned to rip them out when I divided the iris. I couldn’t convince her that we’d have a full crop again next year.
Leucanthemum…….ox-eye daisy….about15-18 inches tall….very hardy, deals well with dry, clay soil. Buy one packet of seed and you, too, can have a meadow, forever!
