Watered the beds and containers, cleaned the bird bath and fountain, very dirty little birds. Moved 3 large urn type planters to the front now that they are starting to look nice, I hope the deer don't eat them after all my hard work of planting them.

I went outside at about 4:30 this morning to get the compost taken care of (just the kitchen scraps worked in, no major turning or anything) and to water and plant some things before the heat which was pretty bad today. I worked til about 8, actually, got a lot done. Went out a few times later on to check containers and water them where needed. So far so good!

Predicting a deluge of rain. Rather than taking a chance, I moved 3 new plumeria under cover. There they will get bright light, rain mist but no direct rainfall.

Spray misted my Vanda coerulea and other outdoor orchids this morning. Inspected my caladium containers to see if there are new growth, so far the recent heat wave seems to trigger some new leaves finally!

Eased the passiflora vines out of the screen and redirected them...again. I think this is going to be an every other day occurrence! The tag was certainly misleading on this one...4'??? R.i.g.h.t......uh-huh...only till week two. It grows 18" overnight...every tentacle...every night! I think it'll be on the roof by tomorrow morning.

Fed and watered the birds, watered the many containers and pots, did some weeding, trimmed a few low branches off the spruce tree, very heavy with cones this year, birds and squirrels will be well fed this winter, cut the dead wood off a couple of shrubs, trimmed the low hanging twigs on the willow, tied up the delphinium and columbine that had flopped all over the place. Sprayed weed killer on oxalis in the lawn, don't like to use it but that stuff will take over if I don't.

Been very busy.

Yesterday was out in 90 degree weather mowing the lawn and wheedwhacker. Today I laid down sod on bare patches in the lawn, and also put down organic fertilizer and new grass seed. After I finished it started raining which made me happy, but I'm exhausted! 😅

Usual misting of all my outdoor orchids and gave them some Miracle Gro orchid fertilizer mist, checked on the carnivores and replenished their distilled water, sprayed the leaves of croton.

Took advantage of the cooler morning temps to do some much needed sweeping of leaves and other debris dumped by the city trees. Just have to take it in stride, these city trees help cool down the garden and our house during this hot summer days.

Inspected my caladium containers..woohoo! Something good with these recent heat wave days, finally it is waking up the caladium tubers! They're alive!! I accidentally hit a container of aeoniums while I was sweeping around, so now I have to repot a bit..oh well!

Today I had my Mom bring in some plants I grew to her Workplace I was giving away for free. Quite a few found new homes and I got compliments and someone said I should sell them for money at my house. I made $35 too!

The favorites so far were the Lilys and Japanese Maples.

Keith, that's a great thought. I'm glad people are appreciating your skills and plants that much.

By the way, that irradiated marigold, the one that did germinate from the seeds you sent me, is looking extremely healthy and is about to bloom. I'll post a picture or two when it does.

Today I watered and mulched and not much else. Shaded some things in the more intense heat of the day. Edit: It was nearly 100 at the hight. Gosh, it's not even officially summer yet and I am wondering how this garden is going to make it through the next two months. Well, some things are fine! but I fear my poppies are done. I have to find something to put in that spot; it's quite a central area and having it bare is not going to be a happy situation. Maybe if I sow cosmos seeds among the poppies now, they will grow to replace poppies as poppies languish. Have to get some and try that! I don'twant to remove the poppies because I want to collect seeds first.

Did my usual container watering, then trimmed the grass and edged the beds. Raked the grass clumps and swept the walk and patios. Moved some potted petunias in among the shrubs for a splash of color, impossible to plant there and the pots work great.

Yesterday I had a fairly troubled day. First, I started weed whacking and had to re-string twice. Then when I got it started, it would not stay running so I gave up and decided to work on the brick edging along one side of a bed I wanted to get finished. It is on a down hill grade. I could not get the bricks to line up without building up the soil. I finally gave up and decided to mow the lawn. I only mowed the back because the blades were bent and was making very uneven clipping. Needless to say, I was doing mowing until the blades get replaced. I then went inside to make chicken soup for supper. My bad day did not end by coming inside. LOL

Today I hope to finish the weed whacking and the mowing and the problem edging. Hubby is going to buy new blades for the mower and is going to pick up more bulk mulch so I can finish getting the beds mulched. Hopefully this will be a better day.

Hoping your today is much better than your yesterday, Jeanne.


My nine year-old and I celebrated a special day yesterday by packing it full of silliness and fun. We ended up bringing home about sixty dollars worth of specialty plants that I got for six bucks, and a wire and rock turtle ornament for the rock garden.
Toward the end of the day I started putting up some more fencing for the passi, but I'm not sure I like it where it is. I may end up taking it down, and start cutting off the extra growth instead...not sure yet.

I weeded and edged half of my herb garden, hoping to finish today and then mow the pathways. Lots of slugs, especially in tbe strawberries.

I got out early again, planted a couple of wooly thyme starts, moved a salvia to a better spot, removed old spinach plants except for two from which I hope to gather seeds. (Took pictures of that and intend to do a little investigation as to the best approach, since it gets so wet in that area.)

Harvested another cucumber, decided I am going to juice most of the ones in the refrigerator along with some of the nearly finished kale. Harvested some green beans, gave support to the three bush bean plants that didn't have any -- even though they are bushes, they tend to lie on the ground and the beans can get moldy and damaged, so, staked them up.

Oh yeah. Moved the three containers that had the first lettuces away from the other containers that have tomatoes in them. The lettuces are done and seeding, and I needed at least one of the pots. I dithered about whether to compost the lettuce or let them go to seed (for the goldfinches and other seed-eaters) and decided first of all to just compost from one container and let the other two sit there for a while until I feel more able to decide: Compost? or, seeds?

By then the sun was on me and the mosquitoes were beginning to find me, so after harvesting some of the new lettuce, I came on in here. In a while though I am going back out to sow some Cosmos Sulphureus (sp?) in a large pot that currently has some languishing kale and a few volunteer tomatoes that aren't going to do a thing. The Cosmos grew happily in that pot last year and made a nice splash of color over there. One cosmos is there already, having seeded from the first ones. I probably disturbed many more planting that kale in there.

Continued weeding the herbs, still not done.

Finished building a shadier nook on the west end of the screened porch today. Yay! I wasn't sure about how it was going to look, but once the rest of the climbers fill it out, I think it'll do. The passiflora is already jumping out to start covering the top, and I just put it up yesterday evening! Amazing...it's like it tips its hat to me, says thanks, I was waiting for that...and then shoves me outta the way!

I'd picked up some really nice looking caladiums at Walmart recently, and today I was amazed at how great the root systems are! Those are now planted with Alternanthera 'Little Ruby' and some white-edged Swedish Ivy...pretty.

Trying an experiment with a plug of Moss Rose. A few years ago I saw a picture of it growing through a hole in a flat stone and thought it looked really neat that way...so today I planted one.

@Chelle Thanks, I did have a better day. I got the last of my bulk mulch put into buckets and that area cleaned up awaiting my new load of mulch. I got the buckets spread onto a flower bed. I got the grass clippings put around the raised bed area. Dug some thistles out of the lawn before Hubby mowed. Then went and helped a friend do some weed whacking. I hope to go out after the sun gets lower in the western sky. I want to try to finish weed whacking in the garden and then lay down some black plastic. BUT if I don't make it back outside, there is always tomorrow.

It was a cool 65f degrees, mostly cloudy, quite breezy day here, so I got quite a bit of weeding done this afternoon. I hate chickweed, it is everywhere.

Margaret, I get the chickweed here, as well, but I find if I keep enough bark mulch between the plants, that keeps it to a minimum. I do very little weeding. You guys are so lucky not to have to go to work and are able to be in your gardens any day of the week!