Not too long ago I had to replace the dryer, then maybe two weeks ago the oven died and the part was no longer available, then Friday the washing machine would not let any water fill the tub. I checked all the things I knew and decided before I called another repairman out to charge me a service call and say "no parts available" I would just go pick up a new one. Locally, here in town they wanted $80.00 just to deliver the washing machine, the weird thing is that if I ordered it on line they would deliver it for free from who knows where, but there was over a weeks delay before it could be delivered. I picked it up in my truck and saved that $80.00, got it installed and my wife likes it so far except she says in the spin cycle it sounds like a jet leaving the runway.
Many of my hostas are coming up now so I checked them for snails and slugs. I did not see any at all on the hostas. We had a good rain yesterday and another good rain storm last night, so when I went down to check the daylilies this morning, I was a little surprised to find quite a few snails and slugs on them. They were munching away leaving shredded leavs behind. So this is a reminder that my first spraying with ammonia to kill the slugs and snails was on March 19th 2018. I spray every year and this year I could not remember how much ammonia to mix with a gallon of water, so I experimented a little. A one to five mixture actually seemed to work, but slowly and I am not sure it actually killed the snails or just temporarily stunned them, they did not melt away. So next time I will try a little stronger solution. I have seen it suggested to use a 1:1 mixture but that seems like a lot of ammonia to me.
Sill no scapes, I keep looking and hoping but nothing so far.
Here are a few photos taken today from around the yard.
We did have some very hard wind and rain yesterday and last night plus some frost damage from a week or so back, so the blooms are not as pretty as they could be, but still it looks like spring is here.
I am hoping last night was the last frost for the year. We had beautiful weather for a long time then a few cold snaps with frosts that did some damage, but nothing that won't be corrected when the weather finally warms the soil up again.
I have been collecting leaves, grass clippings and pine straw and using in for paths, beds, and new rows. I had a large pile of pine straw I was planning on spreading out over some of the paths but this morning I noticed it had already settled down and was only a little higher now than the bed around it, so I decided to just leave it in place.
I got out and watered the seedlings again and this morning I added one more new row to bed # 3, that will be row # 5.
The far row on the left is the new row of daylily seedlings in Bed #3 Row#5:
A view of the daylily seedling beds from the lower end:
A closer view of what some of the seedlings are looking like now. There are all different sizes in the beds, from very tiny still to looking pretty good with several leaves and standing quite tall.
Here is a view of the seedlings grown from seed I received from Hemlady last spring.
Here are some seedlings that were planted back in 08/2017, they were lagging behind so I replanted them in this tub after they had been removed form their cups , they are looking pretty good now.
Here are some seedlings that sprouted in the fridge, and were not planted until 02/2018, this is this year.
There is not a lot of difference in the sizes of the two different plantings, I think already being sprouted gave much better results for the time they have been planted.
I need to get out and get some photos of the Azaleas, the Hippeastrums (Amaryllis) are also ready to burst into bloom, hoping the frost did not damage them too badly. The Lilies are starting to grow now so hopefully they will be blooming in a month or so, then the daylilies should start to bloom also. I can barely wait!
I have only ordered three new daylilies this year, and they arrived today. They were small plants but hopefully even if they won't bloom this year they will be off to a good start for next year.
I received a bonus plant:
'Heart's Treasure': Not the type of plant I would normally be interested in, but I will save judgment on it until I see how it performs in the garden.
For years I have grown Amaryllis, now I find they have been reclassified as Hippeastrum....whatever you call them they are starting to send up bloom stalks.
A white Cemetery Iris:
I thought this was a white Cemetery Iris, but I noticed it had a yellowish hue, so I got a little closer and I realized that I did not recall having an Iris like this.
