So Dry

No rain for over a week and high temperatures.  It's been 9 days since we got four tenths of an inch, and before that only traces.  The aquifers are full from all the rain in May and June, so we are not in any kind of drought.  But the lack of rain for so long now has made everything crispy in the garden.

The birch trees, as always, are the first trees to show the stress.  They are droopy and dropping yellow leaves.  The climbing hydrangea looked brown and wilted in the hot dry afternoon sun.  Bad location for it next to the driveway in afternoon sun.

Annuals and some newly planted perennials look awful.  I water as much as I can, but it's never enough.

This is getting to be just like last summer's horrid dry spell.  It's hard to enjoy the garden when it looks so bad, is stressed, and takes so much work.  And the trees on the back hill get nothing.

Designs of Mann

Another beautiful day, sunny and dry.

Sharon and David Mann came today for a consult on all the projects I want to do:

1. remove the sod in the Secret Garden and put down pea stone with random accent rocks.  Widen the borders and let plants spill into the gravel area.
2. extend and expand several of the new gardens.  I have too many small skinny borders, unconnected
3. add bluestone steps off the patio out into the yard.
4. extend the little area off the steps at the east side of the deck. It needs to be much much larger.

At first they didn't get the idea of the Secret Garden and were talking about pavers, a circle, a formal structured patio area set inside the grass, but we eventually got to the idea I want, which is something like this but with fewer accent rocks:

Or like this using large irregular stones:

I think this is all going to be very expensive.  We'll see what they come up with.

It was enjoyable to walk around with them and talk plants.  They are very knowledgeable and they really admired what I've done here!

Less is More

A beautiful day yesterday.  Sunny, breezy, dry and cool.  Little humidity.

The sourwood is blooming and the bees love it.

I finally started to rework the edges of the dry creek bed to make it more naturalistic.  It turns out that less is more . . . I needed to remove rocks, not keep adding more.  I took out about a quarter of them, trying to create breaks in the edge that look more random.  I need some pea gravel to fill in the spaces.

I think I am getting there.  I like it better already.

Daylily Redemption

Hot and humid, in the high 80s. 

After all my complaining in late June about the beheaded daylilies never blooming and getting ravaged by the deer, I have been spraying much more, and now they have redeemed themselves.

Even in Meadow's Edge they are blooming, although the effect is still more messy foliage than color.

Redemption.  They can stay, although I do need to dig them up in the fall and divide all of them, and I can give Gail what I divide.

The flowering tobacco is in bloom, but I don't notice any fragrance even at night.

And the candy lilies, only the orange ever comes up, not the multi colors I had planted!

I staked the floppy gaura along the front walk, and I like it much better.  It's still too loose and unstructured, but sits up a little higher so you can see the wands of flowers.  Hard to tell in the photo.

What's Blooming in July

Half an inch of rain last night.  Sunny and breezy today.

The knockout roses that were so profuse in mid June have stopped blooming completely.  There will be a second flush, but I don't remember them taking several weeks off, with no roses at all.  The day lilies are coming in, and the spraying is working, so I am getting some blooms.

Flowering now - thimbleweed and geraniums and Shasta daisies and Petite Delight magenta bee balm and the cute drumstick alliums.

The tiarella is still blooming under the deep shade of the baptisia foliage and the astilbe is blooming behind it all.  Sedum and gaura complement each other in pink in front of the garage.

'Miss Manners' white obedient plant has created a very dense stand this year.  It looked so much better with the pink coneflowers mixed in last year.  This year there is no real conrast for the white flowers other than a lone peach colored daylily.

I love the way the bright orange butterfly weed looks with the deep puprle foliage of the 'Forest Pansy' redbud in the foregraound.  I can see the 'Karl Foerster' grass peeking through.

Potted nasturtiums in the strawberry jars add to the bright colors in Meadow's Edge.

 

Yarrow is blooming.

Mid Summer

Hot and humid for several days now, in the high 80s.  Too hot to be out there. 

The rabbits and deer are all over the yard.  I'm spraying pretty aggressively to try to keep some of the daylily blossoms from being nipped before they bloom.  The rabbits are eating the marigold blooms right off.

It's July!

Cool and breezy today, some sun, some clouds.

I planted today.  I'm never so happy as when I am planting things.

I put the Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail' that Cyndy gave me from her garden in Meadow's Edge.  It will get big, and it had deep red spires for flowers that go all summer.  We'll see how it looks there.

I moved a little redbud from the berm in front of the buckeyes, and a little river birch from the berm out into the yard.

Not sure how they will look full grown, but I do want more shade, more definition in the open lawn in the back.

The tiny dwarf goatsbeard finally looks good!

Cyndy's Visit

A nice day, warm and sunny.  80s, humid in the a.m., but it dried out later.

Cyndy Cromwell from Gardening Asylum came to see my garden today.  The knockout roses have stopped blooming, the daylilies are eaten, and the spring flowers are gone, but everything still looked good.

view out to the meadow

the buckeyes

the birch garden

sweetbay magnolia

Deadheading Chores

Humid and warm today, but not raining for the first time in forever.  The ground is squishy and completely soggy.

I deadheaded all the penstemons, the foxgloves, and the knockout roses today.

The newly planted purpleleaf sandcherry is no longer visible in Meadow's Edge --- eaten to the ground.

You can see it was rabbits --- the cuts are clean angles.  There are a few leaf buds left and I think it will regrow.  I need to remember to heavily douse any new planting with pepper or deer-away!

The New Jersey Tea (ceanothus) plants that barely survived the winter are struggling.  One looks good and is starting to bloom, but the other two have weak stems that fall apart and drop off in any breeze.

But the sweetpeas look sweet (!)

The clematis viticella that I transplanted from the front to the patio wall is so tiny, but has just started blooming.  The leaves are tinier than last year, it is sparse looking, and the flowers are tinier too.  Hmmm, just transplant adjustment?

Compare it to last year.  It bloomed at Memorial Day, and had full climbing leaves, and hanky-sized flowers:

May 31, 2010

May 31, 2010

Soggy Soggy June

Rain.

Every few days we get rain, with gray skies in between, and only an occasional nice day here and there. 

The dry days are cloudy. 
The damp days are gloomy. 
The rainy days are soggy.

June 9:   one inch
June 11:  .61 inch
June 14:  .74 inch
June 17:  .45 inch
June 22:  .6 inch
June 23:  .92 inch