The temp. was up in the mid seventies today with a clear blue sky, but very breezy. I still had plants in the cold frame and I wanted to clear them all out, I keep thinking I will have all those plants put in the garden, and everytime I look there are still plants in there. So today was the day to finally finish that task. I had a few Cosmos, very few, the germination on them was terrible. I planted lots of seeds and ended up with a handful of plants, some Sensation and some dwarf Cutesy. I have them in a cuple of locations hoping to at least see what the blooms look like to see if I like them or not.
I have plenty of purple coneflowers already but I still had a couple of dozen in the cold frame, so I transplanted all of those. Some I did individually and some I just planted the whole clump of seedlings in one hole. The purple coneflowers I have returning from last year are loading up with green blooms, hopefull they will start showing some color shortly. I need to pay attention and see just how long it takes them, I never seem to notice those things and then I wonder about it every year.
The next big thing to get cleared out of the cold frame were the tomatoes, I still had Beefsteaks about 12 inches tall growing in small containers, so I set about half a dozen out down in the bog area. I hate to say it but I still have tomates in the cold frame, hoping I can find someone to give the rest too. I had a few volunteer tomatoes pop up so I put them down in the bog bed also. I had tomatoe cages for all of them, but not enough stakes for all that many cages, so I just put five of the Beefsteaks in the cages and staked them down.
That cleared the cold frames with the exception of a few tomaotes left in one.
There were three noid ferns growing in the shade bed that returned from last year and they multiply so fast I wanted them out of that bed, so I dug those three ferns and potted them up. I set them in my fern pot ghetto with the other ferns, they are sort of in a little nursery areas for ferns.
My Autumn fern I had planted last year is really doing super, I took a pic to remind me how this plant looks as it is putting out the new fronds.
The new Lady Victoria fern I just got recently is starting to green up and grow and form a nice looking plant.
The only thing I did to the new compost pile today was to dampen it a little with the hose. Oh, and I did clean up by some of my edging and tossed that soil over onto the compost pile. Speaking of edging, I finally finished up adding the plastic edging I started about a month ago down in the bog. I also was able to get the entire edging done for the east side shade bed with the new ferns (I'll get pics of that tomorrow). I marked off one more area to add the plastic edging to, that is by the east side gate, I'll tacke that job first thing in the morning while it is still cool. I think that entire bed is only about 30 to 40 feet.
Much cooler today, much drier also. It was a nice day to be out and a great day to finish up the mowing, yesterday was very warm.
The weeds are in full force, I have tried spraying them during the early part of the year to keep them down, that turned out to be a total bust, after three or four sprayings I can't tell it did one bit of good. So with all the weeds and the seeds they were showing I hooked up the bag to the lawn mower. I used all the grass and leaves collected from the front yard to help stop a wash problem, with that five inches of rain I was glad I did.
However, all the grass and leaves collected from the back yard I used to start up a new compost pile. I will keep track of it here and see just how long it takes to become really finished compost. I will need for the pile to really heat up in order to kill all the weed seeds. The plan is to keep this compost for use next year, that should give me plenty of time to eliminate the weeds.
Today I had a little bloom on what I can the 'Street Find' rose, that is because I picked it up beside the road, it had been thrown out for dead and I picked it up and rescued it. Right now the blooms are pretty tiny, but I have noticed that this year the buds on all my roses really look small compared to what they normally look like. I am hoping as the weather warms up the buds will fatten up. The black spot is already taking a toll on the foliage, I have sprayed twice this year already and I keep pulling the yellow infected leaves off, but each time I go back to the plant there are more leaves to pull. Maybe after the rain predicted for tonight the weather will dry out for a while and the black spot will not be as bad, I need to spray by Thursday, so hope the weather cooperates.
The good news is that more of the Iris bloomed and they were the same as the earlier ones, they were confirmed in the Iris forum as being Indian Chief.
The really good news is that four more of my Hostas sent up new pips today:
1. Bressingham Blue
2. American Halo
3. Northern Exposure
4. Elegans
The Bressingham Blue was so covered over with muck and mud I don't know how it mangaged to get up. I have noticed that after a hard rain or several days of rain it really seems to help the Hostas break through. I am assuming that it makes the soil softer, but it could also give them enough strength to pushthough the soil.
Starting my fist ATP garden blog and trying to decide what things should be entered into it.
1. I should make entries when new things are planted and make notes of the location.
2. I should also enter in the dates of spraying and fertilizing so I can keep better track of such things.
3. Definitely record the purchase of all new plants.
4. Provide photographs as often as possible
5. Make notes of all unusual weather conditions
6. Make notes of first bloom dates
7. Make notes of all new beds created
8. Make notes on when things are transplanted and where
I guess that will do for now I will add to the list as I think of other things.
Yesterday and today combined we had over five inches of rain. It caused the path inbetween the to large island shade beds to wash. I patched it for the time being but more work is needed.also the bed along the inside of the west fence was washed out pretty badly, especially around the new plastic edging I installed just recently. I got that pretty much repaired. Outside the west fence the bed was a little eroded but required minimal repair, mostly just putting the soil back in place.
I added three wheelbarrow loads of compost to the inside bed along the west fence today. Mowed about half the grass, need to finish that tomorrow if the rain holds off.
More of the bearded Iris are getting ready to bloom, don't know if they well be the same or different then the earlier one.
I moved the Albo-Marginata Hosta from the middle of the path over to a better location along with two other Hostas to form a little triangle of plants. I also had to move a couple of Ginger plants that were growing in one of the paths, moved them over with some others near the bird feeder.
I dug up several more ferns from near the branch and potted them up. Sat them in the sade of the oaks next to the west fence with some other potted ferns. Still need to dig up three over in the east shade bed. Those ferns spread way too fast in that bed.
All the tomato plants that I thought the cold had killed are putting on new leaves so I won't have to replace those plants after all. I still have several Beefsteak plants in the cold fame in the bog area I need to do something with.I never knew tomato plants would recover after all their leaves had been burned off by the cold.
I need to take pictures of the Autumn Fern tomorrow to remind me of the growth habit of that fern at this time of year. All the new growth is still reddish brown, but it is starting to turn green. The Japanse Fern I planted two years ago that nearly faded out last year, has made a remarkable recovery and is doing great now. The Macho Fern did not make it though the cold even with the extra much I threw over it, I have replaced it with the new Lady Victoria Fern, now by the big fountain in the back bed. All the ferns I purchased at the fern farm are doing good an putting on new growth.
The Hostas I planted from seed seveal years ago have quadupled in size this year, after a few years of doing nothing they have finally caught up and are looking great. I had to thin them out some so I moved five of them from the border to the large shade bed. They are just plain green with ribbed foliage, but they are so green and healthy looking they really add a lot to the garden.
Checking the other Hostas today nothing new, but I remember from last year how slow they were to emerge, so I am feel most of them will return.
