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Post by whollygoats on Jul 30, 2022 3:41:08 GMT
The second bloom of roses has begun. And, I still have not yet deadheaded Cecile.
The gladioli have begun blooming, as well.
There is lots of watering due to the heat wave.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 5, 2022 4:20:36 GMT
Today was a blissful day in the garden. Screaming yellow coneflowers (aka Blackeyed Susans) dominate the back garden. Work goes forward to clear the walkways of accumulated weeds. Cecile is now deadheaded, but the sweetpeas are rapidly approaching their demise; they're still blooming, but the mass of vines is bending towards the soil. The situation has a lot of gravity, y'know?
There are banana peppers and minibell peppers and even a couple of aubergine afoot. I may have some late raspberries, as well.
The front is dominated by the spiky crocosmia with its spires of flame orange bells, largely massed at the foot of the stairs, next to the public walk. The eastern front, slope and plateau have become tatty (or, is it 'blowsey'?) with weeds and grass. This will wait.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 6, 2022 23:20:39 GMT
Cecile has been deadheaded. On to bloom two!
Ordered snowdrops and more miniature daffodils for the front.
I'm awaiting the arrival of my box of new iris rhizomes.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 9, 2022 1:34:57 GMT
I harvested my first pear tomato today. It looks as though I shall have no shortage once production starts in earnest (say, next week).
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Post by kingedmund on Aug 11, 2022 17:13:29 GMT
Love tomatoes! I wanted to get to my family farm to harvest some vegetable on the way to Colorado. But I ran out of time. ,
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 13, 2022 13:43:14 GMT
The oriental lilies are finally abloom. Nice big, white, and very fragrant 'Casablanca' lilies. Deadly to the cats.
I just noticed that my sunflower has bloomed. It has a flower head maybe eight inches across (say 40 cm?) and 1.5 m above ground level. The thing is, it may well have bloomed a couple days ago and I just didn't notice it. The flower face (of a fair-sized sunflower blossom) faces the fence, rather than in to the garden, or to the balcony. It's a 'shy sunflower'. (Mayhaps because it is a 'Mammoth Russian Sunflower' in a known Ukraini sympathizer garden.)
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 17, 2022 18:07:50 GMT
I got two pear tomatoes to snack on today...
The back paths are now reasonably clear and I can begin work on the far SE corner. I've extracted all but one of the upright dead lilac branches, leaving the one as a bird waystation to the birdbath/bee beach below it. Those extracted have been set aside to toy with the idea of attaching some of them to the fence...a tentative project. I suspect that I'll have to remove some raspberry canes to work in the area where I wish. Then, upend the broken concrete walkway chunk to work the soil under and extract alstromeria bulbs for a gardener friend. Out of those leavings, my intent is to create a 'bed', with soil augmented with lots of compost, that runs along next to the fence, to host the majority of the new iris rhizomes.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 17, 2022 18:18:37 GMT
On July 3: Then, on August 15: I can see I need to retake that from the same perspective...
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 26, 2022 17:51:35 GMT
Pear tomatoes, ripe:
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 27, 2022 16:04:13 GMT
My first ever hollyhock has bloomed.
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Post by Mari on Aug 30, 2022 17:28:35 GMT
Are you still enjoying the pear tomatoes? Or are you getting sick of them? My neighbour with a community garden keeps providing me with courgettes after I complained to him about slugs eating all my plants to the ground. He has too many anyway, but 5 per week is also a lot for me... :eek:
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 30, 2022 23:13:42 GMT
Driven from the garden at 9 am by direct sun and warm temperatures.
This is a degradation from the 11 am quit I had yesterday and the nearly all day overcast the couple of days prior to that.
I did manage to plug in some new Irish moss sets in the pathways I'd groomed last week. I still have to overturn the bed along the fence for the iris rhizomes, but I have already replaced the white rhizome in a pot set I have, and prepped the spot at the front of the fenceline iris bed for the new tall yellow iris, Picasso Moon. The new bed also means removing as much of the alstromeria bulblets as possible to pass on to another friend who wants screaming yellow alstromeria in her garden.
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Post by whollygoats on Aug 31, 2022 16:26:46 GMT
Again, driven from the garden early.
Weather reports say there is a cooling trend and that today will be three whole degrees (those are 'discount' Fahrenheit degrees) cooler than yesterday.
Big.
Whoop.
Well, at least I got some of the new Irish moss plugged in to bare spots in the pathways...
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 3, 2022 22:17:28 GMT
**deep sigh**
All things must end.
Today I noted that the petals on the rudies are drying up. Soon, they will all be bird-food on the hoof.
I finished plugging in the last of the Irish moss, and the pink thyme ("Pink Chintz" variety). The latter is an attempt to revive what was "the fairy thyme" pathway. That attempt disappeared under an exceedlingly lax weeding regime and got uprooted in the reforms.
I have four composting towers for household kitchen compost. All four are now nearly full. One is being topped off. A second will prolly accommodate a topping off. A third has been topped and closed with a layer of commercial manure and soil. The last is one which had the above done a couple of years back and has 'settled'. This latter tower will be raised and the pile of compost extracted and moved to the strawberry field next to the veranda, topped with conventional commercial farmyard manure, and allowed to percolate over the winter and early spring. Weeding and then turning in some bone meal before replanting with new strawberry plants (or moving around errant and misplaced strawberries from other locales, already in the garden).
Of course, I'm still in the process of preparing the new iris bed running next to the eastern fenceline from the clematis to the post of the unused gate in the fence that abuts the "Wall of Sixty Plumbers". Before I can continue, I have to visit the hardware store and purchase a new manure fork. My present one decided to shed its handle, which had rotted. I need a fork because I shall be trying to salvage alstromeria bulblets.
I now get to snack off the tomato bush while I'm wandering in the back garden. 'Harvest Season', such as it is.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 7, 2022 3:02:33 GMT
I got the first few new iris rhizomes tucked in. They're the yellow varieties and I've placed them on the east side of the crossroads, at the front of the fenceline iris bed.
I picked up some more 'Pink Chintz' thyme for the pathway to the SE corner, where I'm working up an iris bed along the fence, along with a new manure fork.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 7, 2022 17:07:08 GMT
During the morning shade, I hustled out in my planting gear and plugged in the five 'Bee My Honey' rhizomes. They are red with yellow centered falls and they went between Cecile and the clematis, at the base of the fence. Now, I must needs start turning over new soil alongside the fence and harvesting alstromeria bulblets. I've the two sets blue rhizomes, two sets of blacks, two sets of pinks, and the bonuses. One dozen rhizomes in the ground, 23 more to go.
Plus, the plan was to move the blue iris out of the front pot (of the four arrayed in a line from the crossroads back to toward the chook chalet), down into the real soil, with the pink iris that used to be at the base of the rhubarb tub. The tub moved SE a few feet and the pear tomato was planted where the tub had been. That tomato is now out of hand, intruding into the crossroads, covering the ground plantings, and spreading everywhere, dropping little pear-shaped seed bombs to engender next year's crop of freebie tomatoes. After the first frost kills the tomato, I'll shuffle around potted iris and try to leave one pot next year for entirely catnip. Catnip in four pots was a poor decision. Catnip pots seem to get trashed all too easily....
The snowdrops and the miniature daffodil bulbs have yet to arrive.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 11, 2022 23:06:49 GMT
My only forays into the garden have been to move the sprinklers around; usually during twilight hours.
I did notice that Cecile is producing her second bloom. This is just as I'm about to deadhead away the bulk of the second bloom on the other roses.
The creation of the new beds for iris is waiting until average temperatures drop about ten degrees (F).
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 15, 2022 22:30:53 GMT
Ta-daaaaa!
Is done.
All the iris rhizomes that came in the box are now in the ground in a new bed I created and groomed on the south end of the eastern fence. Just finished watering in.
In the process, I resurfaced the entire southerly 'thyme' pathway from the crossroads back to the eastern fenceline with new thyme.
The more northerly pathway, from the crossroads to the east end of the balcony is partly stone and was partly Scotch moss. The Scotch moss planted last year succumbed to weed infestation and I had to remove it all. I just obtained 8 pots of Scotch moss, now awaiting insertion along the path to China Beach.
Next up, snowbell bulbs to go in the western parking strip. And, more tete a tete miniature daffodil bulbs for anywhere and everywhere.
On the schedule is hunting down and eradicating nightshade vines, mulching the seeding sweetpeas into a rerun next year, prepping the eastern front, including the slope, for seed casting. I suppose I really need to assay the situation along China Beach (the narrow passageway along the eastern boundary of my property) before things get too far out of hand. I fear already that I may be forced to turn to...herbicides. I have a bamboo infestation. So far, I've largely been in ignorant denial; I've not been there since last spring.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 15, 2022 22:52:17 GMT
First foliage change. The katsura tree, the westerly of the two street trees, is distinctly changing to its autumnal yellow.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 18, 2022 19:44:29 GMT
All small pots of Scotch moss are plugged in.
Now, I await snowbell bulbs and miniature daffodils.
One of the three clematis is blooming. It's the medium violet blue one. I have to admit, I'm not clear on the growth processes of these plants. One bloomed prolifically in May (the light blue), then, in June, the very dark purple bloomed (for the first time, ever). Now, the medium blue, which has bloomed before. But...I have a completely new vine, a robust specimen with healthy new leaves which is arising. You see, all those clematis which bloomed in May promptly went to looking like they were fried right on the trellis by early July. Now, they're greening again and blooming.
The plea has gone out for gardener friends to recommend particularly fragrant lilac varieties in a move to replace my old snag.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 22, 2022 20:25:42 GMT
Most of the roses are finishing off their second bloom and I will prolly take down the remnants of their second bloom by deadheading before the end of the month. This will be the final deadheading of the year and the rest will be allowed to hip out. But, 'Sweet Surrender' is well into its third bloom (which seems to be more robust than its second bloom), thanks to losing most of its first bloom to bud blast (and thereby being deadheaded early). On another note, Cecile is just producing her second bloom and is accompanied by the nearby deep purple delphinium.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 27, 2022 16:16:02 GMT
I was out early today to take advantage of as much shade as possible.
I finished loosing the sweetpea vines from their supports, rolling them down and then reducing their volume. Finally, I covered them with a two inch layer of farmyard compost. This is in hopes that they will reseed in place. We'll see next spring. I'll have several packets of 'fresh' sweetpea seeds on standby.
The gardener did a sweep through China Beach and defoliated much of it. She has just emerged out on the eastern front and raked out all the alstromerian 'straw'. She's working on removing grass from the brow of the slope on the eastern front. She asked for a pre-watering to 'soften up' the soil and I spaced it. So, she asked again. This time, I remembered to actually turn the water on. That was at about 6:30 in the evening, telling myself that I would need to shut it off before retiring for the evening. Well, I awoke very thirsty at 3 am and realized that I'd left the sprinkler running on the eastern front, so I arose, dressed and ran out to shut it off after some eight or nine hours of watering. That's gonna leave a dent on the next water bill...I'm hoping it will buff out.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 27, 2022 17:56:39 GMT
Whilst tending the pathway mosses, I noticed that my single sunflower was taking a beating from one of the local SQRLz. When I went over to examine it more closely, I realized that an earlier 'injury' to the sunflower had prolly been SQRL-induced. The flower head is now gnawed around much of the edges and the pest is into the seedbed on the flowerhead. I did see that it places said intrusive SQRL in considerable risk, especially given the recent habitation of the premises with a very young tutored tom (Buster Muffikins) who desperately wants to 'play' with the SQRLz.
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Post by kingedmund on Sept 28, 2022 18:19:37 GMT
Squirrels can be crazy. So can bunnies.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 29, 2022 18:13:19 GMT
Rain.
At first, it was just a dry rain, but it kept on overnight and must have picked up at some point in time, because I had wet and friendly cats.
It was wet enough to keep me indoors, but, still no puddles. Yet.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 30, 2022 1:29:36 GMT
Oh...In the midst of the rains, I noted that the gardener had cleared a nice patch in the front, near the eastern border, where the footpath enters, close to the rosa rugosa. I figured it was a much better place for iris than the south end of the eastern fence in the back garden. So, I lifted the recently planted rhizomes closest to the 'Wall of 60 Plumbers', three each 'black' and 'loud pink', and moved them to this newly created bed in the front.
This does not include the possibility of replanting iris in the (maybe) soon to be empty parking strip, after the cursed maple is removed. I'm thinking I may well move the other two sets of 'black' and 'soft pink' rhizomes to the new parking strip, where there are light lavender iris already. It's really dark along that fence in the back. The more northerly they are back there, the better off, so these may prosper and flourish out front, with more light.
I've already decided to try more hollyhocks and sunflowers back there next year.
I'm back to toying with the idea of a climbing rose on that back fence, reaching from just south of the post, so that it could arch forward toward the clematis and back toward the 'Wall of 60 Plumbers'. I'd prolly lose it to the expanding canopy of the lilac I intend, but for that multi-year span, I'd have a colorful rose on the fence. (I'm verging on crowding, here, folks.)
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 30, 2022 1:49:13 GMT
I'm still waiting on the city 'forester' to assess my request for a permit to remove the maple at the street.
I found some plastic warning tape/ribbon to mark the tree as per instructions. It's yellow. So, now I've tied a yellow ribbon 'round the old condemned tree.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 30, 2022 17:12:01 GMT
PS - I got 'the next water bill'. Luckily, it did not include the slip-up. That'll appear on the next water bill, three months down the line, and will be 'watered down' in the rest of the declining usage of late fall. Less of a bite on my budget, for sure.
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Post by whollygoats on Sept 30, 2022 17:16:46 GMT
The SQRLz have decapitated the sunflower. I will get no reseeding from that flower. They ate it all.
More next year.
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Post by whollygoats on Oct 9, 2022 0:22:57 GMT
The bulbs arrived today. 120 tete-a-tete miniature daffodils in six bags. 100 snowdrops in one bag.
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