In the Garden: June 2007 Archives

I have spent the past few months trying to get gardens cleaned up from winter, and getting the new plants into the ground. Then, we reach a point where peonies, iris, poppies and lilacs are in bloom, and we sit back and enjoy the view. At that point, there's another flurry of cutting back and cleaning up. I've been waiting for the daffodil leaves to ripen so that I can pull them out. We're just about there.

At the same time, everything in the herb garden has been growing like crazy. I SHOULD be cutting back chives and harvesting sage and oregano, but we're having a lovely rainy Saturday. Cutting back will have to wait until tomorrow or Monday. I plan to share some of the harvest with my friends at exercise.

I wanted to show you a picture of the overgrown herbs before we get to the mid-summer trim:

The chives and oregano are so wooly that you can't even see there's a center box in the garden just beyond them. St. Francis is in that center bed, and you can just see his head and shoulders. This year all that oregano will be shared, rather than going to waste. YEA!!

I plan to throw in a little catnip, too. NO, I won't mix the two together! *G*

I rolled out of the sack before six this morning so that I could deadhead the peonies before I had to go to exercise. The driveway garden looks better for a little trimming back. I carried rings of hardware cloth down to the driveway garden because bunnies have been at work. The wonderful orangey-red lily that I planted as a focal point in the long driveway garden was stripped of it's leaves and flowers, and the stems have been pulled from the ground. I set rings around the rudbeckia, because the bunnies were testing the flavor of the leaves. I didn't want to drive past and find them eaten to the ground!

When I got back from exercise I pulled the hose out from the area where it nests and watered the herb garden, the ferns and rudbeckia, the plants waiting to be planted, and the containers along the sidewalk. Watering is the perfect time to take stock of what needs to be done.

I haven't quite gotten everything planted yet, even though it's almost mid-June. I'd like to get the last of the plants into the ground and then start trimming back or harvesting some of my herbs. The chives all need to be severely cut back, and the oregano should be harvested. There are areas in the center box of the garden that need to be dug up, to remove weeds and get more things planted. I'd like to see if nasturtiums will grow starting this late in the season, and I'd like to get a little more dill planted..

Three of the tomato plants need either to be staked or caged. The construction debris in that section of the garden still needs to be removed, and I'll have to weed the walkway once the poppies stop blooming. I hope the guys will help me add more chat to the walkway.

It's time to pull out the spent blooms of the ox-eye daisy, and I need to unearth several iris that are having some kind of problem with rotten stems. I think I can save the corms if I do it soon. And, I have several iris to divide and share.

There are ALWAYS things to do when you are a homeowner, and a gardener. These lists are reminders to me that I need to get these things done, and a way to look back over the years to see how little things change. I bet I have at least one, or more likely MANY entries just like this for each year I've blogged. Sorry for the repetition. *G*

It was a good start to the week.

Each year I have volunteers in my garden. The chipmunks have seen to it that I have a steady crop of dill to be found in a number of the beds. One year Cleome took over half the sidewalk garden. Despite that, I'm thinking about sowing Cleome when I move the Dutch Iris this year.

Out in the herb garden, I've grown a number of things in the center of the center box. Some of those things are herbal, and some are just for color. The annual poppies have decided that it's their turn to volunteer.

If you can see the picture above, there are Ox-eye daisies (which have volunteered now for about 16 years), and the red poppies. The salvia is a perennial. I was thinking the other day that we almost have Red, White and Blue going on, if you overlook the purple-ish cast of the salvia.

The walkway of the garden is supposed to be covered with a very white "chat" or tailings, or screenings. It's a very tiny limestone particle. We had intended to settle brick into the chat to make a brick walkway, but we haven't gotten there yet. I like the look of the volunteers in the chat, but it's been so disturbed with the rebuilding, that I may have to dig things up, lay down more chat, and maybe even lay the bricks. Right now, in addition to a few weeds, we have garlic chives, fever few, lamb's ears, the poppies, ox-eye daisies and thyme on the walk.

I'm frequently of a mind to let volunteers grow. God's surprises can make for interesting gardens. I purchased a pack of wildflower seeds, intending to have DH rototill an area for me, where I could strew the seed. I don't think we're going to get to it, so I might strew the seed on the edge of the property where we don't mow. I wonder if we will see visitors and volunteers for years to come, or whether we will be simply providing appetizers for the chipmunks?

"Bloom where you are planted!" Is this the lesson of the day, or is my mind just absorbed with the gardens? *G*

At least we HOPE wet weather will becoming this way. We're supposed to have scattered showers over the weekend, and it should be overcast for the best part of a week.

My immediate goal is to work in the gardens at the sidewalk. Quilting Bee is tonight, and I'd like for the entryway to look nice as the ladies come in.

I think we have a quiet weekend ahead. I want to putter some more in the gardens, weather permitting, but I don't have any hard and fast plans. I might even check the paper to see if there is anything I want to see at the movies!

I hope you all have a great weekend.