Whew

The garden class and tour is canceled for Sunday.

Whew.

It was getting too stressful with no rain and such heat and I couldn't keep things up.  I am relieved.

Now I can relax.

I am disappointed, as I had looked forward to this all year, but in the last few weeks I got overwhelmed and just didn't want to do it.  Maybe another time.

Whew.

Sunny, Sunny, Clear

I am exhausted, just as I was last year, trying to water.

Hours and hours of hand watering just wets the mulch.

The sprinklers run, but the grass is browning out, with patches turning golden in big swaths.  I ran the soaker hose under the buckeyes for four hours, but it just wets a tiny little strip that winds under the plants.

The problem is that this Sunday the New England Wildflower Society is coming, and we have had no rain for weeks.  And no rain in the forecast, unless you count a slight chance on Sunday itself.  That would figure.  The forecast up to Sunday is sunny, clear, bright, dry, sunshiny and unclouded.  Sunny, sunny, clear.  Sunny, sunny, clear.

So I am trying to keep things from looking awful.  I want to add some mulch and stake some floppy things, remove the tired containers (sweet peas are gone by and the new canna needs repotting) and tidy up a bit, but all I do is water.  Then I'm too tired.

Here's the thing: they may not get enough signed up to hold the class, so it may be canceled.  I hope it is.  I can relax a little and let the grass go dormant, which it is doing anyway.  And let the containers go.  And forget about obsessive watering.

Sigh.

Hot Pink

Hot, no rain.  There are brown patches on the lawn although we are sprinkling every night.  Sprinklers don't reach the back of Meadow's Edge, and when I looked last night, the turtlehead was limp, the thimbleweed anemone was also limp, and the Miss Manners physostegia were flopped over, looking sparse.

The river birch has dropped a ton of leaves and is yellowing.

I watered.  It's not as bad as the terrible heat and dry weather last year, but it feels similar.  Waiting, waiting for rain, plants going limp or brown, leaves dropping.  And in one week the Wildflower Society will be here.  But they need a minimum number to hold the class and I don't think they'll get enough to sign up.  (Probably will cancel.  I will be relieved.)

Guess who likes the hot dry conditions?  Hot pink sedums and hot pink gauras along the front walk.

I was quite surprised that the gaura even came back this year.  It is dropping its delicate pink blooms all over the heath, and it makes it look like the heath has tiny pink flowers!

I bought a canna lily at Wade's called 'Australia'.  It needs a bigger, more dramatic pot.

Good grief.

Nasturtiums

It's been hot and humid, and breezy at the same time.  In the 80s.  Not terribly uncomfortable, but we do need rain, and the sun is strong.

The nasturtiums are bulking up and blooming.  (And the little dwarf Boltonia, but I need to get some pictures of that.  It's crowded in among the nasturtiums further along this garden.)

I think I like the Alaska Mix better.  These are 'Gleam' and are all orange, which is nice, and I do like how they hug the curve of the gravel garden and mound up under the inkberries..

One has sent out a runner and is climbing through the inkberry holly.

It makes the green shrub look like it is blooming!  (By the way, the plumbago is blooming soft sky blue inside the towers, but the plants are still too small to see.  The pretty flowers are hidden in there.  Last year they were tall towers at the end of July, with blooms all over, arching across the opening.  So I am thinking that in two or three weeks these will take off.)

The ornamental oregano, Kent Beauty is looking soft and pink in the container by the patio.  I have two other pots of it, but they are way behind and only have a few paltry stems so far.

I do like the floppy shaggy look, which is actually quite refined up close.

And speaking of ornamental herbs, doesn't the rosemary look nice and full? And I love how the red carpet roses and sweet bay magnolias look. The trio of magnolia, roses and baptisia make nice forms and a nice composition all together.

What's Happening

The heat and humidity gave way to drier, breezy air tonight.  We need rain.

The sweetpeas are finally blooming.

The red carpet roses have been blooming for a long time.  They are softly fragrant.

The herb garden in a bowl looks really good.

The front walk is colorful.

I like this picture of the west walk garden, with all the deep layers of greenery.

Hi, July!

Hot, sunny, humid, and hot.  It's a hot start to July, in the 90s.  I have been needing to water for the past several days.

I love the deep blue lobelia plants that I grew from seed this year.  I have several in pots around the gravel garden too.

The crocosmia really are pleasing me, finally.  This is a plant I tried in a couple locations, and never got it to winter over.  Never got a big stand like Gwen's next door.  But this little group around the light post is coming along and I like it.

I finally have sunflowers.  But for all the work to grow them from seed, dig out 20 spots in the meadow, cage them, water them . . . not much to show, and the wild ones growing in the rock scree up the hill are nicer.  These are really kind of small.

Daisies by the patio wall are blooming.

And how cool are these black pansies?

I always love the way the Albury Purple St. Johnswort holds the water drops.

End of June

Today was cool and windy, with a very refreshing breeze and sunshine.

We've had rain and thunderstorms and cloudy skies for a couple days, so this was nice.

I got out and did the hard work of cleaning up the edging all around the Birch Garden and each of the birch trees.  I edged, cut the encroaching grass, weeded, and then put several big bags of mulch down around the edges.  More to do.

Crocosmia is starting to bloom.

With all the rain, the meadow is looking good.

Milkweed is everywhere and blooming.

The Day After

Everything looks good the day after a soaking rain.  Cooler today, but still humid.  We got 3/4 of an inch Friday and another quarter of an inch of rain overnight last night.  An inch of rain makes the gardens and lawn look so refreshed.

I took the rosy garlic and allium moly out of the front garden today.  The allium moly bulbs all came up and I have removed all of them.  But the rosy garlic bulbs had hundreds of tiny pearls of bulbs all around the main bulbs.  Hundreds!  And they were tiny.  So I may still have a ton of rosy garlic next spring, even though I tried to remove everything.

The buckeyes look so big this season, and are getting ready to bloom.

Hot Hot Hot

Yikes, 100 in the sun, 90s in the shade and the whole garden is suffering.  I watered well, and the sprinklers run each night.  Cooler weather is coming next week.

As I rethink spaces that aren't working now, here are some things I know I will need to do this fall.

1. Take out the onions along the front walk.  There is too much little bitty stuff going on there and it's busy.  And although they are cute for a brief time when blooming, the decayed foliage isn't.

cute

ehhhh

2. Meadow's Edge needs editing.  A few big bold shrubs or forms is what's needed.  No more fountainy day lilies (get the rest out of there), and no more small perennial flowers.  It shouldn't be a flowery mixed garden.

The groundcover epimediums and persicaria can stay.  The camassias?  I do like them in spring, but the flopped foliage after blooming is not so hot.  But they will probably stay.  And the Ogon spirea and winterberries should stay.

What about the stands of physostegia, lobelia and turtlehead?  They are big enough and massed enough now that they may work as single large elements.  But the little pink sage, and the over-shaded butterfly weed, and the heleniums and sanguisorbas all need to come out.

For the moment I actually like this combo of sedum and Chocolate Joe Pye Weed.

3. The Karl Foerster grasses are the main thing that needs to be edited out of Meadow's Edge Garden.  They don't fit.  For that strip in the middle between the low persicaria and the bigger stuff in back, how about a line of Japanese painted ferns?  They are not big and bold foliage, which is what I think I need, but they are bright and can be massed to be a big element.  They won't be too tall like the grasses are.

4. Where to use the Karl Foerster grasses?

Phew

Almost 100 degrees today, and humid.  A hot dry breeze has wilted everything and all the plants are suffering.  Tomorrow will be just as bad, but I hope it will be short lived.

It has been so cool all June, now this.  I invited Margaret over to see the garden and of course she came after work, at 5 p.m.  The heat was horrendous.  And nothing looked that great.

But it did a few days ago!

The plumbago planted in the twig towers is growing, but is still only a foot tall.  I had expected it to be winding around the supports and blooming blue billows.  Need to be patient.

And the sweetpeas are growing, but no blooms, either in the pot or the ones planted by the metal trellis near the Crimson Queen Japanese maple.  No blooms yet, and I thought they were early spring flowers that liked the cool weather.

The gravel garden has looked so pleasant before the heat hit.  I'm pleased with it, even though there is so little shade.  The smokebush looks great.