Keeping a gardening journal is an excellent way to record events in the garden, such as bloom times, weather patterns, and plant performance. I have decided to record these entries on Sundays, since the majority of my gardening occurs on the weekends and Sunday will be a good day to wrap up everything that happened in the garden over the past week.
The weather this week has been moderate. One morning, it was in the upper 30s but warmed up into the 60s. By the end of the week, highs were in the 80s. It did rain a lot last Sunday. I do not have a rain gauge, so I cannot attest to exactly how much. Note: purchase rain gauge.
I have weeded the flower bed right behind the house. It did not have enough mulch on it last year and the crabgrass quickly invaded. Once the weeds were gone, I dug out two plants that I did not want to keep: a culinary sage that was past its prime and a sweet autumn clematis that had came up from seed several years ago. I had allowed it to stay, letting it climb on an obelisk, but it was getting too big for its support. I planted a Double Pink Knock Out rose and tickseed in the newly open space and transplanted some narcissus bulbs around to help deter moles. I finished raking up the last of winter's leaves and spread over the bed as a first layer of mulch.
I mowed for the first time this season last Saturday. I purchased a new self-propelled Toro lawn mower. Overall, I am pleased with the mower. It cranks on the first pull and is powerful. The only drawback is the additional weight the drive brings to the mower; perhaps I will build some better upper body strength using it! I also put out two of my hummingbird feeders and before the end of the day, two birds had appeared and were fighting one another for the rights to the feeder.
I also planted some begonias, dianthus, pink gaura, columbine, and thrift (creeping phlox) in the beds across the front yard. The holly and autumn ferns are adding new leaves, and the spreading deciduous fern I have is coming up from the roots. I also hung two Boston ferns under the front porch. The iris are beginning to bloom and many that have never bloomed before have buds this year. I am excited to see what they look like. I do wonder if the cold winter assisted with a better show of flowers this year. The roses have buds, too. Fantin-Latour, Ducher, Archduke Charles, New Dawn, Hwy 290 Pink Buttons, American Pillar, and Clotilde Soupert all have buds. The moles or gophers chewed off my Martha Gonzales rose this winter; I was very disappointed but then I found three rose shoots coming up in another part of the same flower bed. One of them has a bud and I think they may be suckers from a remaining Martha root; if so, I will dig them all up and pot them together so they can grow and get some size to them. Meanwhile, I put out mole/gopher bait in all of the runs I have found in the yard. They better watch out because I have just declared war!
I also did weed the bed around the shed and dug out another sweet autumn clematis volunteer. Those things come up everywhere, it seems! The one other major accomplishment for this weekend was to get my bag of pre-emergent weed killer spread on the lawn.
I confess that I did not focus as much on the garden last year as I should have, so I have a lot of work to do this year to get things back in shape
The weather this week has been moderate. One morning, it was in the upper 30s but warmed up into the 60s. By the end of the week, highs were in the 80s. It did rain a lot last Sunday. I do not have a rain gauge, so I cannot attest to exactly how much. Note: purchase rain gauge.
I have weeded the flower bed right behind the house. It did not have enough mulch on it last year and the crabgrass quickly invaded. Once the weeds were gone, I dug out two plants that I did not want to keep: a culinary sage that was past its prime and a sweet autumn clematis that had came up from seed several years ago. I had allowed it to stay, letting it climb on an obelisk, but it was getting too big for its support. I planted a Double Pink Knock Out rose and tickseed in the newly open space and transplanted some narcissus bulbs around to help deter moles. I finished raking up the last of winter's leaves and spread over the bed as a first layer of mulch.
I mowed for the first time this season last Saturday. I purchased a new self-propelled Toro lawn mower. Overall, I am pleased with the mower. It cranks on the first pull and is powerful. The only drawback is the additional weight the drive brings to the mower; perhaps I will build some better upper body strength using it! I also put out two of my hummingbird feeders and before the end of the day, two birds had appeared and were fighting one another for the rights to the feeder.
I also planted some begonias, dianthus, pink gaura, columbine, and thrift (creeping phlox) in the beds across the front yard. The holly and autumn ferns are adding new leaves, and the spreading deciduous fern I have is coming up from the roots. I also hung two Boston ferns under the front porch. The iris are beginning to bloom and many that have never bloomed before have buds this year. I am excited to see what they look like. I do wonder if the cold winter assisted with a better show of flowers this year. The roses have buds, too. Fantin-Latour, Ducher, Archduke Charles, New Dawn, Hwy 290 Pink Buttons, American Pillar, and Clotilde Soupert all have buds. The moles or gophers chewed off my Martha Gonzales rose this winter; I was very disappointed but then I found three rose shoots coming up in another part of the same flower bed. One of them has a bud and I think they may be suckers from a remaining Martha root; if so, I will dig them all up and pot them together so they can grow and get some size to them. Meanwhile, I put out mole/gopher bait in all of the runs I have found in the yard. They better watch out because I have just declared war!
I also did weed the bed around the shed and dug out another sweet autumn clematis volunteer. Those things come up everywhere, it seems! The one other major accomplishment for this weekend was to get my bag of pre-emergent weed killer spread on the lawn.
I confess that I did not focus as much on the garden last year as I should have, so I have a lot of work to do this year to get things back in shape
