And the Bouquet

Hydrangea Massacre

Well, another hot week with bad air quality. Still, in the midst of hazy, hot and humid, I managed to make time for a little pruning. Granted, this is after my juggling class (yes, I'm a dork) and in the twilight. I didn't do that great a job, and there are still branches and blooms invading the neighbor's yard. But it is a lot better than it was. And they aren't staring at the bare interior of the bush either! I brought all the flowers I pruned off inside. It's a big vase full of them. I'll try and get pictures tomorrow when the light is better.

Procrastination Special

Woot! I'm in the running for the Tomato Procrastination Award! I put my seedling in its permanent pot on Saturday. At least I'll have tomato weather well into autumn, so I might get some fruit out of it.

Seems the garlic needed all winter to grow. The leaves have died off already. The bulbs are barely an inch. I plucked two out to dry and am going to let the rest be until next year. They should be bigger by then.

Oh, and did I mention how much I hate white root grass? It's running all through my gardens, and I cannot keep ahead of it. Even while mulching with the deadly lawn clippings. :(

On the plus side, the bonus day lily is going to bloom soon.

Wow, Two in Two Days!

I did get out with my camera. I do like the fact that I've got the transitional pH soil going on with this hydrangea. I really need to fertilize it with the rhododendron fertilizer next time to push it back to blue. I definitely do not want it to go all pink. And yes, that's all one bush. Yikes! It likes being pruned.

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Also, my finch sock fell down. At first, I thought some squirrel was messing with it. There is a partially husked walnut near it. However, it turns out that the rope holding it up gave up the ghost. I guess it isn't all-weather enough. I restrung it and put it back up.

Brushes off the Dust

Yikes, it has been awhile. I blame apathy and finding time after work to blog. Not that much is going on it the garden either. I'm minding the heat and humidity a lot more this year. And if there's one thing the summers in DC are, it is hot and humid.

Hydrangea is blooming its little heart out. Unfortunately, I need to prune the neighbor's side a little bit harder next time. But then, that's probably why it is lush and thick over there.

Some of the butterflyweed came back on its own. Some regular orange some yellow. There are also some black eyed susans trying to move into the iris bed. Surprisingly, the beebalm is not thriving. Two little sprigs this year. I guess I have to let at least some of it go to seed. Hostas are in bloom too.

Sorry, no photos. I really need to get a new camera. The color and lighting values are going. But then it is several years old. These things don't last forever.

Happy Summer

It's odd. The eve of the summer solstice and we've had overnight lows in the 50s. We did not break 80 until today. After all that hot weather, we are back to springtime goodness.

As it so happens, my hydrangea is pink. And blue. And some of the flower heads are even purple. It's adorable looking.

I was affected by the big water main break in DC this week. I did not lose water pressure, but I was under a boil water advisory for three days. I brushed my teeth with bottled water, ate frozen microwave meals, and washed my hands with dehumidifier water. (For the record, dehumidifier water is bad for your skin and I used a lot of lotion.) I'm glad my water results tested negative for contamination, eventually. My container plants needed watering. I did not want to risk contaminating the sprinkling cans, because I do use them for my turtles or to refill the bird bath.

Hydrangea

My hydrangea is budding out. I should have open flowers by the weekend. I'm kinda wondering if they are going to be pink or blue this year. Regardless, I need to fertilize it with food for acidic plants this year. As well as the Rhodies.

The chrysanthemum that I thought I lost last year, is coming back strong. The little yellow buds are about to burst forth. Maybe I'll get around to posting photos one of these days.

Weekly Update

So, I was having a good weekend until I mowed the lawn.

I had gotten notice that the landlord wants to have the deck powerwashed and restained. Which I took as notification that he had managed to come out and look at the fence. So, I dug out an old piece of wood from the stack behind the shed and propped up the fence. I had done it just in time for the last batch of thunderstorms. It held up fine.

One morning on the way to work, I saw a little frog on my front sidewalk. He was about the size of my thumb and brown in the near dawn darkness. I left him to go about his job of eating bugs.

I had taken the day off Friday and was working in the living room on stuff. While I was sitting there, several little birds were looking for birdseed. I didn't get up, because they never come back when I disturb them. Until one of the little brown birds perched on the screen and looked in. I took that as a sign that they were really, really hungry.

I went canoeing yesterday before more storms. I get a little further each time and feel less worn out afterwards.

Right, mowing the lawn. Unfortunately, I discovered that I had a garter snake in the backyard the hard way. :( Poor little snake. It was about a foot long. Just the right size to be eating slugs and other pests. Drats.

Huh, 400.

So, some changes at work have made blogging weird for awhile. I'll find a new grove.

Anyway, Wednesday we had truly terrible storms buffet the region. There was rotation spotted on Doppler near work. And since there was a confirmed tornado near there that killed two girls several years ago, they take that kind of thing seriously. Fortunately, the first batch of storms moved along at 60 mph. Unprecidented in our region. So, it was here and gone. A few hours later, another batch moved through, also with tornados and strong winds. Not as fast, but still fast. A third moved through in the late night hours. I didn't have electricity for a couple hours, which wasn't too bad, seeing as how it was late. But, trying to sleep without even a fan going in the mugginess was terrible.

Right now, we're heading into a weekend of extreme heat advisories. Tomorrow the feels like temperatures will be between 105 and 109. Sunday and Monday, it will feel like it is 110 or higher. Ouch. Air quality is going to be horrid. And some folks are still without power from the storms.

Something is wrong with my peonies. The buds I was so proud of died. Just dried up. Since I've already verified the depths and the late cold snaps weren't serious frosts, I'm looking at some kind of disease. Drats. Probably a non-organic remedy too. Bugger.

But the evening primrose are blooming, so there's something in the yard.

Summer

Well, there has been a return to summerlike temperatures this week. Unfortunately, that has been balanced out with night time temperatures in the 40s. Brrr. Got to work cold, and come home baking. Ah, spring.

I have two flowers on the rhodie, both buried deep in the bush itself. You can see them if you look hard enough. Same color as the lamium flowers underneath.

The amaryllis is blooming. I really need to take pictures when the sun is at a better angle.

Millions of Millions of Bells

Well, I got the canoe out on the lake today. Saw a blue bird and a tiger swallowtail and two blue herons. It was a beautiful day. Wasn't out for long. There had been a lot of lugging that tired me out, but I wanted to get out on the lake.

I bought a purple million bells, and a peachy cross between million bells and petunia, and two six packs of petunias. I need to get out and plant them at some point. And take pictures. But not now. It's a spectacularly wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Sunny and warm all weekend. :)

Cold Shower Season

Yesterday, I stopped out to pick up sundries and was swayed to bring home some plants. A Roma tomato plant, to replace the previous seedling. Seedling was forgotten while hardening up, and did not exactly approve of cold temperatures, strong winds and deluges. *sigh* And true to form, I picked up a hanging basket of millionbells. Mixed basket of pale yellow, golden yellow and a pinkish red variety. :)

This morning, I mowed my back yard. The grass loves the rain. It even loves living in soupy soil. Unfortunately, that means that I created some muddy spots as water filled in my footsteps in places. *sigh* Hot out there too.

Yellow iris are open now, as are the white Tennessee variety. :)