witt's Blog

The weatherman got it wrong. It was supposed to be cloudy and really cool, but the sun was out by 9:30, and it wasn't that cool. I started digging up some of those petunias to give away and those throwback basil plants, too. They are all over the place this year. I don't know why they don't reseed in other folks' gardens like they do in mine. Of course, they are never where I want them to be, so I have to transplant some. A friend came by to look at my gardens. She brought me an article about the good toads in the garden. I told her that I'd read it later. As we were touring the yard, we came upon a mess around The Rock Garden. "Gee, I wonder what happened here?" she asked. I gave her an earful about the sweet little toady frogs. "Oh. Now I see why you complain." I had jooged out one of their tunnels and repacked it. They dug it out twice the size and made a huge mess!! They are evil, I tell you! EVIL! Then we went over to her place, and I had to tell her what plants she had bought and where to put them. She had her impatiens out by the pool that receives no shade whatsoever all day long. We had a good time discussing all kinds of things about plants. I told her about Garden Guides, but she will be starting a new job soon and probably won't have much time to play with us. 

I put three of the sunflowers that the squirrel had pulled up the other day in the backyard, but they weren't looking too well by the late afternoon. See, it wasn't cool enough! Hubby had put in the milk jugs for watering the tomatoes, but of course, he didn't do it the way that it was supposed to be done even after I had showed him the pictures and discussed it. You'll probably see us on Divorce Court. I donned my summer perfume and trudged to the Garden Garden with my trusty trowel. I dug out holes beside the tomatoes and re-planted the jugs. Then I scraped up the pine straw from last years' crops and spread that around everything as best I could. He and Son had them out there bare with no cover. No wonder they don't do well. Nothing to hold in the moisture. Everywhere that I gathered the old pine straw was nice and wet, so that must mean that mulch works. I toted out some water and watered them since it seemed that the ground was awfully dry while I was digging the holes. I think that I now know which one is my Roma. I discovered the labels discarded on the ground, so I deduced that if the label was near one of the plants that they belonged together. I stuck those in the ground as well. I might go back out today and see if I can pull together more of the straw and spread more out around the plants so that the roots will be encouraged to grow better.

I did some porch-sitting after all that and was blessed with close-up visits by the bluebirds. I've never had them come up to the porch before. I also got to watch them bathe. I had my binocs so that I could have a close-up view of their antics. A hummer came by and just "sniffed" at the feeder, and then flew off. I can't figure out why they aren't drinking. I just made a fresh batch and will wash and refill the feeders again. It was a glorious afternoon bird-watching and a wonderful day teaching someone who wants to learn about plants.