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words on todays gardening. Yes, I did get to work outside this morning. It is a beautiful day, could have used a little breeze before I came in.
Used my electric edger to cut back the sweet potato vine on the top of the front bank. It has grown 'like a weed?' Maybe we are all glad this is an annual, or it would beat out the kudzu around here. The vine had grown about 2 to 3 feet into the front yard where I needed to spray weed/grass killer.
After cleaning up the mess I made and filling the yard trash can and leaving it at the street for tomorrows pick up, I got out the little sprayer. It is a one gallon, and I realize I could not carry a two gallon around for too long while spraying. So it had to be filled three times. That part is done. I think we may go get the first of many new loads of mulch later in the week. I will be glad to have this area finished.
Tomorrow is a busy, busy day. There are things to do starting a 9am, then 12 noon, then 2pm, then 4pm and finally at 6 a yogo class at the chiros office. Most likely some stealth, young cutie that can bend herself into a pretzel will be trying to show my stiff old body how to stretch. I have wanted to learn some basic yoga and that is why I signed up. It is after hours for business. Will let you know if I can bend anything I have these days. Gardening is supposed to be good excercise so maybe I can get the hang of it.
Then hopefully on Wednesday I will be back to my favorite pass time, getting those dratted weeds out of my flower bed. The mosquitoes are so bad right now that cleaning out the fence line is impossible. You have to reapply bug spray or skin so soft several times in order not to get eaten alive. Think I will call the city and see if they have been spraying this year.
Repaired a hose first thing this morning. I forgot (again) that you have to put those clamps on before you attach both ends to the middle piece. Might be because you only have to do that every so many years and not because I don't pay attention to what I am doing at the moment.
Made some hummer food (and I did not get the water boiling hot this time) to put in my new feeder and placed a second feeder out in the flower bed. Does not take them long to find that nectar. They are just chirping all the time now. Here in SC our average first frost happens October 15th, so a few more weeks and the garden will begin its long winter nap. Of course SC has a short time of cold weather so compared to many of you it does not last so long. Just long enough throughout January and February to make me look out the window every day for signs that warmth will come again.
I can remember in West Virginia as a young girl all those long dark, cloudy days of cold and dampness, interspersed with snow, rain and sleet. Let me tell you I love living in South Carolina where the sun shines almost every day.
More To Come Later
without any gardening seems like a very long time. Between the extreme heat the first week, the rain and rain the next week and the past week holding nothing but doctors appointments of one kind or another. I am having withdrawal symptoms. So far this month we have had over 11 inches of liquid fall out.
I did get outside and put my new Brug cuttings in pots yesterday. While doing that I realized there was enough of a stem for the Lemon Twist to make a second cutting.
It is going to make a beautiful plant. The Angel Trumpets have more buds now. I am hoping they will be able to bloom before mr. frost comes along.
Then it was back in the house for the 2 hour ironing marathon. washing and changing sheets, folding and putting away clothes. It seems those things are multiplied when you are on the road most every day in a week. So with that behind me means some yard time this coming week.
The weeds, as each one of you know, wait on no man. They just keep inching their way through each and every garden bed we have. Mine are no exception - My problem will be whether to get busy on the front yard or start on all that dreadful nutsedge in my flower bed. I have decided to just dig it as carefully and the best I can to see if that will halt their march through the bed. I will take a plastic bag to put them in and throw it in the regular trash can. Don't want to get it back later in my mulch, which is most likely where it came from in the first place. It really is the only thing that is a problem. Over the years this bed has been cared for and mulched so there is not a lot of weeding to be done each year.
Two of my re-blooming Iris look wonderful right now. The purple one especially has put on wonderful bloom stalks. The yellow one got moved this spring and it has so far only put out one stem.
Next is the Purple of Mexican Bush Sage - this is one plant the Hummers fight over. MINE they chirp!!
There is always a little Gold to go with the Purple in the gardens. This is Golden Rod and it has been so pretty this year.
Yes, that is Mr Rabbit you see at the left of the photo, he paid me a visit one day recently. This is also the place the newly painted metal footboard will find a home. The Golden Rod always droops over like you see here. So the red foot board will get placed in front of it after the plant has finished and the Azaleas have been cut back this fall. It should look nice with the gold of the plant peeking through next year.
The black Rabbit my grandson found has gotten a good bill of health and as the vet said is anywhere from 1 year to 6 years old. So far he is doing nicely. I do not know much about the care of animals and did not know that rabbits do not get fleas. So as far as I am concerned that is a good thing.
Was able to upgrade my cell phone and now have camera capabilities. So I can snap away where ever I find myself. Look out you may be my first picture!!!
More To Come Later
Today is the first day in several weeks I have worked in the yard. Between the heat and allergies I have been a house person. The day is just beautiful with a bit of sun and some great cooler air. Will be like this into next week. And I am going to take full advantage of this fall like weather.
I pulled up the three tomato vines, planted some 'walking onions' , dug some Bee Balm and moved one piece to another part of the yard. The lavendar seems to wander more than the red Bee Balm, so I may have to contain it someway next year. Then I put together two boxes of plants, one of burg cuttings and one of red and lavendar Bee Balm for some GG friends.
Gathered some seed which was a fun thing. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy this part. I don't do very well growing from seed and may just need more practice. The double HH seedlings are looking good and I will leave them until spring so they can get some good growth. My old HH is just bursting with new plant growth at the base so I know that she will be pretty again next year. Also the Cardinal Flower has new growth at the base, so I am hopeful it will do well next year. Last year I received a plant from a GG member she called - Flower Spike - it is red. This plant has grown and grown until I thought it would never bloom. Finally I see a few red spikes poking out. Since I am not familiar with this plant, I am waiting to see if the bloom opens further. Then I will get a couple of pictures. This plant was rooted last winter so I will take a few cuttings in case it does not come back next year.
Some of those seed I gathered will be in the seed box that will travel around the US beginning in January. Am watching to see if I can get seed from the lovely Cuphea ladies. At least now I know what the seed looks like but they are sneaky plants and drop seed before you know it. Also for the first time harvested some seed from my White and Purple Liatris. I have not seed any evidence that they come back from seed they drop however. But they must seed for those that do gather and sow in the spring. Will give it a try. Also looking to see about seeds from the White and the Variegated Lantana. Both are very nice plants. Want to do some cuttings to see if that would be successful inside my dry home.
Want to let you know that my grandson was able to catch and rescue a Black Rabbit in his yard. The family has been seeing it for several weeks now and it would come to them and they could pet it but would not let them pick it up. Brian got out the cage and enticed it with food. When it wouldn't just hop inside the cage he gave it a few 'finger pokes' to nudge it in. It now sleeps in his room. What a kid!!
More To Come Later
since I blogged so I figure I will get a few words in today. Went out for about an hour this morning. Cooler over the last week or so but Oh so humid! The mosquitoes were so bad just hanging in the wet plants from last nights rain that I came inside and got out the bug spray. One to keep the mosquitoes away from me and some Off to spray on my self.
I planted the Snow Bank Brug and the new Cuphea plus the Batface Cuphea that I had rooted into their permanent spots. A friend from my Master Gardener group brought me a cutting from her Snow Bank Brug and a cutting of the Lemon Twist Brug. She told me she won a group of Brugs including many doubles on Ebay that morning. She loves to share :-D plus she grows them in her greenhouse. I will keep the cuttings in pots inside for the winter as they have not rooted yet. You can see the Lemon Twist Brug here:
http://backyardgardener.co
m/gp/PlantsTrees/Annuals/Brugm
ansiaLemonTwi.html
I will say that if the link doesn't want to work, just go to the backyardgardener.com web site and search for the Lemon Twist. It is a Yellow and White Striped Brug. Very pretty. So now you Bruggie lovers will know that next year I will have different cuttings to share.
It has been so wet that I have not been able to collect seeds as I wanted to. Am hoping for some nice, COOL, dry days soon. When Hannah came through it beat my Cleome down a bit but there are many seeds to come from those. And I have some Balsam, both double and a single pink, those seed pods will be ready in another day. I love the way they open when you touch them. Thus the nickname 'Touch Me Not' for this plant.
Pam's Lantanas are doing great, as we expected they would, since she has been trying to get them out of one of her beds for a good while now. I am looking forward to putting them in the front bed after it is mulched. My little truck is ready and suited out with its LoadHandler contraption, just waiting for the first trip out to the land of mulch. We thought we were missing a large part for the handle on the loadhandler but turned out it was only the very big bolt that we needed. The company was good to work with and they sent the second kit with the bolt in just a couple of days. Will let you know how it works in a couple of weeks.
The Dogwoods are full of berries and the new buds for next spring. If what I see on the trees are any indication, it will be a big bloom time for 2009. My big Magnolia has so many seed pods this year also, which means we had a great bloom time this summer and the scent was so fine in the southern evenings. Makes me think of that old movie with Burl Ives and Angela Lancaster and Paul Newman with his sexy blue eyes. He is still not hard to look at today.
The grass needs to be mowed but with this wet and humid weather it is hard to find a day when the grass is dry enough to mow. Hopefully before the weekend I can sneak in a 45 minute time frame and get the mower out. It is getting really grey out right now and may add to the 2 inches we received last night before too long.
Began a wonderful ladies Bible Study last week. It is held at noon and accommodates the working gals. The teacher is so good, she can really pack a whollop in one hour. And she is on time beginning and ending. Last week in this one group out of 2 noon classes and 2 night classes there were 248 women in attendance. It is proving to be a good class and will last through the winter.
More To Come Later
OK in our part of the woods. Hanna came dropped 4.2 inches of much needed rain, blew a little bit and traveled on up the coast. Now it looks as if Ira will dump its vengeance on Florida. As if they needed more storms.
The Angel Trumpets on the other hand liked the cloudy day and the showers that began in the afternoon and some of the buds began to open. Here are photos I took this morning.
This is from yesterday morning:
These are from this morning:
This plant is so tall, maybe 12 feet and has been in that spot for several years. It just keeps growing taller every year.
This next picture is a close up of some of the big plants blossoms.
More To Come Later
it seems as if mowing is a bit hazardous to your health. As I sit here, my head feels as though I tried to cut if off and then left it in a metal garbage can. Allergies UCK! I will try to muddle through the haze over my eyes and send you some photos of my gardening efforts.
First off here is my old metal foot board painted a color of red that is more red than I wanted but looks good anyway. May use this same paint for the bench and chair that sit on the patio in the back garden.
This is an Orchid Cactus shared by friends. The first picture is from the spring and the second was taken last week.
The trick with the above cactus is that it does better in a hanging basket. Now the trick will be to find a place for it to be hanging during the winter. Bathroom shower rod? That might be a bit in the way though.
Here are some more shared plants. These are Canna, one is has a purple/red leaf and the other is a yellow canna with varigated leaves. Both are nice plants.
Now a bit of news about Mr. Rabbit. I think he has moved on. Have not seen him in quite a while. There is a young cat that roams in yards behind mine and I wonder if that is one reason. At any rate another sign that there is no rabbit are the next two photos of my Pink and White Ruellia (same family as Mexican Petunia). This is one of the plants he would use for nourishment and they are beginning to have some regrowth.
This last picture is of some Angel Trumpet Buds growing up into a branch of the Dogwood tree and some below this branch. All on the same plant. I am sure hoping either Hanna or Ira, the storms, will not ruin these wonderful plants before they have a chance to bloom. One year a frost came and got most of the blooms. I have many in my yard now and they are all full of buds.
Now I must go out and glean some seeds from the Cleome. High winds and hard rain will knock them down. And I do want to be able to share the seeds.
More To Come Later
all you gardening nuts. I just can't stay out of the yard anymore. Seem to get withdrawal pains when I can't be out digging in the dirt. My neighbor is the same way. We both have said we need to quit bringing more plants home. Well then today she leaves me three small Clematis. Now you and I both know I will never pass up a plant and if it is a Clematis all the better. Put them in three different places and am looking forward to spring/summer to see how they bloom.
The White Garden is doing so well. Here are a few pictures: First is the White Texas Star Hibiscus that I was afraid was going to die completely out. Only one stem survived and has given my heart a thrill with one beautiful flower.
Then just a couple of snippets.
Vinca and Rain Lily
Dusty Miller and White Lantana
White Plumbago
Bird of Paradise from a GG friend 'forgiven' Sure hope it does well. I would love to have lots to share.
All in all the beds are doing great. Weeds are not too bad and I will get to them soon.
Sprayed the area of the front yard that is going to receive mulch in the next few weeks. Want to get all the grass/weeds killed first though and it might take another spraying.
My little truck made its way back home this weekend. It was so nice and clean I thought they had gotten me a new truck. Then the two sons put the LoadHandler on the tailgate for me. However, there was a part of the handle missing, so I will call and get them to send me those items. So Look Out Fall - here I come.
It is time to start thinking of doing those end of the year chores. Things need to be cut back, there are new shrubs and a nice Red Crepe Myrtle to purchase and maybe a nice Japanese Yew. I am thinking the Yew is exactly what I need in the area of the little rock pool to give my neighbor and I something to look at besides our 'stuff' and the chain link fence. It has been nice to have the tall Cleome and the Red Texas Star Hibiscus growing in that area this summer. We are collecting seed from the Cleome now and I will have some to share very soon.
More To Come Later
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