BS: Gardening 2010

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 09:06 PM

Hail again.

I got out to the garden when I heard the thunder.

I covered most things before the worst of it hit.

The garden has been babied along to this point, so having it chopped up by hail would be a big disappointment.

Looking out the window at it, so far it is like rock salt, not the golf ball and baseball size they had east of us.

The problem is, it is pounding down with tremendous force.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 10:11 PM

Alice,

It is time someone had a talk with your weather.....



Again re: cutworm collars, I cut them about 2 1/2-3 inches high and twist them down into the ground at least 3/4 inch.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 10:17 PM

Amazing how quickly the temperature can drop... tender stuff is covered up with the clear plastic, and tomorrow we have a forecast of a high of close to 80 degrees, which will be the warmest day so far this year.

It is about 58 out there now, and will go down into the 30's again tonight.

Soaking some more seeds, as I will have to keep planting to make up for what has not germinated. I am up to this challenge!!


A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 10:41 PM

We have a different problem here, Alice, with the hottest June on record... Seems it's 90 by 10:00 in the morning every day... Oh well, I 've always said that you can complain about heat or cold but not both so I can live with the hot... Winters suck...

Went to Saunders Borthers today and picked up the rest of the plantts for one of the landscaping jobs we have going and, of course, while I was loading up the truck and trailer (by myself) with some heavy 10 gallon pots the P-Vione went off to look around... Why does it work that way???

(Because you are the "undergardener", Boberdz...)

Oh...

Well she came back with a brand new (to the ttrade) hydrengea called "Strawbrry Vanilla" and a shartrose (sp) huckeria (sp) and somethin' else that escapes me...

Oh well???

Asked about that "Seven Sons" fall lilac but they aren't propagting and selling it...

Looks like I'll have to get it on the internet???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 10:46 PM

I can send some softwood cuttings if it would help, Bobert.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 10:52 PM

This is another interesting site with information and photos of Seven Sons Tree http://www.rainyside.com/features/plant_gallery/shrubs/Heptacodium_miconioides.html

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 12:26 AM

We're almost 10 degrees above the typical average here this month. We've had three days (this was one) at or over 100 already. And at night the breeze from the gulf brings in the humidity. It's miserable. I've been watering tonight, moving the sprinkler that goes in a circle, pulsing as it goes. I can't get it to go back and forth, the lever sticks, so I have to put it strategically as close to the center and go from there. One more part of the yard yet to do.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 01:18 PM

I'm feeling the effects on my injured right shoulder from pulling weeds and grass out of the aspen grove. It has been over 3 years since my injury, but my shoulder will never be the same again. I try to use my left arm and hand, but I'm right handed, so that doesn't always work.

Years of weeds have been growing in that flower bed. There is an even larger and more neglected one next to it that sometime I will clear out.

I just took some photos, but the results don't look all that dramatic without a "before" picture. I may post a photo link when the daylilies bloom.

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 03:01 PM

I took my eye off of the eggplant and this morning found one in there the size of the large grocery store ones. I think the main difference this year is that the sunflowers nearby are attracting the pests that usually bother the eggplants. I think I'll use this one in a big lasagna. :)

This yard work in the heat has taken a toll. I felt like I was coming down with a bladder infection this morning. I think I haven't been drinking enough water, so today I'm letting it wash through the system. I have a couple of friends who have ended up with kidney stones from getting too dehydrated while out mowing (as a regular summer job). Gotta pay attention to the body's early warning signs.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 05:31 PM

I feel like I should not complain about the cold, SRS, as at least I can put on a sweater. Once it gets too hot... it is just TOO HOT!

My pumpkin started wilting from our hottest day today, all the way up to 78 degrees! Had to turn the sprinkler on, which was the first time this year.


A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 06:29 PM

Wilting leaves do not big pumpkins make.

I dug out an old deck umbrella from the garage and anchored it on a stake in the garden. It is almost big enough to be shade cover for all of the container garden. It cranks closed when not needed. Amazing what one can find in either garage or basement.



A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 08:01 PM

95 here today... I've got a 3 day landscaping job that the people want done by the weekend... Oh well, it pays well...

Thanks, maeve, for the offer of the cuttings... Lemme see if I can find a plant first but if I can't I'll sho nuff take you up on the offer...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 10:01 PM

Last summer I had overgrown junipers removed from the north side of my house. I left one well-shaped juniper at the corner and next to it created another rock garden. I brought in some flagstones and river rock to create a "dry stream" like I did next to my small pond.

The plants are starting to really grow now, and here is one that has been blooming a brilliant, deep colored pink.

CLICK here

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 01:07 AM

Fertilized all the veggies today. The cherry tomatoes are setting fruit with np problem or hesitation. The heirloom "mortage lifter", may be another story. Time will tell.

Huge but brief wind/rain storm here this afternoon.   I have a humonguous peace lily (I've had it for 18 years and it was relatively big when it was given to me.) It had been perched on top of a file cabinet in my large office, recently vacated, and I had put it on top of the table on my carport, hopefully for the summer, while I contemplated building an addition (joke) to house it and a ficus I bought when it was small and also had in my large office. The storm blew the dang thing right off the table and turned it upside down. I am amazed (and somewhat disappointed) that more damage was not done.

I really do not know what I am going to do with either the ficus or the peace lily, but especially the peace lily. The diameter of the foliage is more than 4 feet. It ain't gonna fit in my new, smaller office, nor in the waiting room.

The ficus has also grown uncomfortably large, but not as large as the peace lily. I could probably accomodate it in my house, but it is so messy I'm not sure I want to. After living with a slob/packrat for 25 years, then moving into a house 45% smaller, I have become a bit of a fussbudget about clean, clear, easy-maintenance space. My emotional attachment to these two plants is in conflict with easy, clear, clean.

What's a girl to do?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 01:21 AM

Wonderful creeping phlox, Alice.

Good illustration of the difference in climate zones. I think your photo is of phlox subulata. both it and p. stolonifera can begin blooming here as early as late February, depending on sun exposure and temperatures, and are completely finished by the end of April.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 01:46 AM

So far, ( as Bobert noted, it is still early in the year for tomatoes here,) trellising the cherry tomatoes ornamentally is working well. I do note that a few of the the lowest leaves on both the Sweet 100's and the orange cherry (I have already lost track of the variety for that one) are showing the first signs of yellowing. The lower one or two leaves of the zucchini are also showing some signs of disease, even before fruit has set. I notice ants are all over both the zucchini and the cukes, but see no signs of aphids.

We shall simply have to wait and see.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Maryrrf
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 09:36 AM

Alice, can you send us some cooler weather? And some rain too, if you can spare it? It's been very, very hot the past couple of weeks, and today it's supposed to top 100 degrees, and possibly set a record. They keep saying "chance of thunderstorms" but they never seem to materialize, and we really need the rain. Preferably a few misty, drizzly wet days to thoroughly soak the soil. I've been watering the garden, but the sun in the daytime is just brutal. Things were looking very droopy yesterday afternoon. I watered the whole plot well, and everything looks better this morning. I harvested some pattypan squash, cucumbers, and carrots. Some of the tomatoes are starting to turn. I can't wait till I can make tomato sandwiches dripping with juice.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 11:37 AM

Wow. I wish I could share some cool breezes with you.
It gets cold at night up here in the mountains, so even if it is hot during the afternoon, mornings are cool. My son put the screens on the doors yesterday. It was finally warm enough to take off the winter storm door windows.

Regarding the peace lily, Janie, you could divide it, give some of the roots away, and repot what remains. It will recover.



Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 05:18 PM

Wow... Unbarable hot here... I went to my landscaping job early this mornin' (fir me, that is) and got done what I planned to get done which took 4 hours... I thought I was gonna die right there... Got home and dfiscovered it was 99 friggin' degrees... Laid down for my usual 15-20 minute nap and didn't get up for the next hour and a half!!! Seems like someone has taken all the oxegen outta the air and that breathin' is all but a waste of time...

Hard to think gardenin' when ya' feel more like complainin' about the heat... And I rarely complain about heat but this stuff is beyond heat... It's air that ain't doin' much of anything fie ya'...

But...

...the landscaping job is looking real good... So far I've finshed 2 of the 3 roundish beds where old beat up boxwoods were taken out and put in well behaved "Dee Runk" boxwoods (columnal) in the center ringed with alternating "Green Pillow" boxwoods and hychonacloa (sp) which is a wonderful grass... Only grows to about 18 inches... Shartrose, somewhat verigated and very light and wispy so that in late summer when everything gets very still this grass continues to move givin' one the allusion that there is a breeze...

BTW, seein' as the people I am doing this job for are re-doing the landscaping around the house I'm bringin' home some stuff that they no longed need... I don't know daylillies names to well but brought home a clump of them today... Real pretty... I'll have to stuff them into my back-of-the-farm Bobert garden (Fibbers McGees garden) (lol) but, hey...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 05:27 PM

Welcome to the long hot summer, Bobert! I mowed the front this morning "early" (not the crack of dawn, but mid-morning) and it had to be over 90 by the time I finished. We've been up around 100 for the last couple of weeks.

Keep drinking the water. I've had some tea, but I'll skip the carbonated drinks for a while. I think those make the heat feel worse, in a physiological sort of way.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 09:20 PM

Today was another sunny day good for growing.

I planted some seeds I'd soaked for a quick start... sunflowers, radishes and lettuce. I used cinnamon to keep them from damping off.

Now there is a thunderstorm moving in, cloudy, rumbling, just about to open up. The forecast is for rain overnight, but not as cold as it has been. Should stay in the 40's overnight.

The pumpkin is growing so fast, you can almost see it expanding while you watch. I used some diluted milk today to ward off mildew.


A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 09:25 PM

I have no idea how I lost my mudcat cookie.

Anyway... regarding milk, I'm using it as prevention because of how very wet it has been.

Here is the info:
Got mildew? Get milk.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 12:10 AM

I use full-strength 3% hydrogen peroxide on powdery mildew. Works better than baking soda or potassium soda. There is a product called Veggie Wash or Bio Wash that is also very good on mildew. And if it isn't hot out, Neem is very good on mildew.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: maire-aine
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 07:58 AM

Good morning, everybody. I finally uploaded my pictures. You can see tham at garden pics at FB

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 09:27 AM

yesterday the only thing I got done was move the siberian iris from the base of the retaining wall where it has only bloomed once in six years to other locations. What was a single stem of the variety "tiger" (a yellow and brown spotted combo - why "tiger and not jaguar" I don't know) has multiplied so I divided and planted it out in 8 locations yesterday - and have six more sets to plant...

This weekend I am digging, seperating and moving a bunch of daffies....

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 10:20 AM

I have a pot of daffodil bulbs that are probably dried out. I'll go check, I forgot about them.

Maryanne, your yard is lovely! Those berries look delicious!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: MMario
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 11:57 AM

yeah - I've got two pots of hyacinths and two of lilies I need to get plugged in somewhere as well. The lilies I may just sink the pots so I can use them a potted plants gain next year. The one I did last year that way worked nicely.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 12:52 PM

Finished my landcaping contract and gonna move a few plants around this afternoon... Mostly into Bobert's Fibber McGee's back-of-the-farm garden... It's so hodgepodgy... Nuthin' that get shown to touring groups... Mine and I love it... It's kinda like lettin' my freek flag fly...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 01:06 PM

Maryanne, it is great to see so many colorful flowers blooming at once! Thanks for posting the photos.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 08:48 PM

We had a tiny amount of rain here at the house, compared to the large amount of rain they got today at my doctor's office, about 3 or 4 miles west of here. I'll still go ahead and water tomorrow like I had planned to.

Getting dehydrated in this heat is I think what egged on if not caused the bladder infection that finally woke me in a sweat last night at 3am, wondering if I needed to go to the hospital and have my bladder removed and if I'd end up wearing a dribble bag for the rest of my life. Oy. This afternoon I lucked out and got an appointment with my doctor's nurse practitioner and some cipro to hit it with. And I dug into my stash of old narcotic painkillers and didn't hesitate to go to the top of the heap: hydrocodone. I had quite a nap this evening.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 09:04 PM

SRS, I hope you recover quickly.


I started to turn the compost heap and as the top few inches had dried out, an ant colony had moved in. I just set a bait trap of borax, sugar, molasses, water and peanut butter. Don't know if they like sugar or protein, so I included both. I would just leave the ants there, but the compost is right next to the garden, and I don't want to deal with aphid farming, too.

Today was another day of sun/clouds/rain and so far no hail - Woo Hoo!


A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 09:25 PM

You don't have fire ants up there, do you?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 09:47 PM

As far as I know, we don't have fire ants (lucky).

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 10:54 PM

This heat sucks! I'm having to run my window ac day and night to keep a room or two habitable, even with all the shade. Gonna hate to see my next power bill.

Not that the heat has anything to do with it, but I have been home all week (between jobs.) Had hoped to get some landscaping done, or at least the yard mowed, but instead have been buried in taking care of paperwork and personal business that I never have time to get to. (and still won't get it all done!)

Oh well, at least the little veggie garden is getting watered daily and tended to.    The cherry tomatoes appear to be setting fruit despite the heat. The mortgage lifter is not. Doing like your's Maggie. Blloms, but the blooms, but no fruit. On the other hand, the two tomatoes that did form before the heat wave are growing great guns, and with no competition, ought to grow to be prize winners.

Thanks for sharing your garden photos, Maryanne. Looks great!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 01:06 PM

Well, I read through the instructions on the Cipro Rx and it seems I have to avoid a lot of direct sun for now and for a few weeks after the doses finish. I'll try to work in the yard in the morning or evening. This kind of antibiotic makes one more prone to sunburn. (I think pasty white skin also does that, so this is a double-whammy!)

We had a tantalizing sprinkle last night, but not enough to make a difference in the yard. I'm running the soaker hoses today.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 01:48 PM

Another downpour last night, so everything is soaked today.

It doesn't look like the ants are liking the bait tray... they are running around it but not going to it. I guess I'll just wait and see if I get results.

Mosquitoes love me, so I am working outside with an OFF fan device clipped to my belt loop. It seems to work better than anything else I've tried. We have had such a wet spring, I know we are in for lots of mosquitoes.

So far the garden containers are all looking great. Zucchini finally came up, squash has blossoms, native perennial sweet peas came back strong, potatoes have been hilled up numerous times, and the pumpkin is growing like a godzilla.

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 07:42 PM

Well, I'm with Janie... The heat sucks... This is going to be one of those summers for the books...

Add drought to the equation and we'tre in quite a pickle... Moving ocsillators all day long...

Worst part is that I'm trying to get about an acre of grass to grown between our house and the pond where trees and stumps were removed and that's alot of grass to keep watered... Wearin' me out...

But, could be worse... Like rain and evenings in the 40s like Alice... Not!!! That sounds delightful!!!

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: TJO
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 07:53 PM

I'm just catching on to this thread -- guess I been too busy gardening. Nice reading and some interesting adventures.
We've given up on veggies, 1/2 mile outside the D.C. Beltway in Kensington, MD, and the deer raccoons, rabbits, possum don't give us a chance, not to mention the squirrels. Our resident fox can't keep up and control all those critters. And our yard is too big and too uneven and wooded to fence without a big bucks effort.
But it was a strange spring. We have a bunch of azaleas and rhodies and they finished a month early -- we've usually got some blooming from early March to July fourth, and then some of the native deciduous ones in August -- but not this year.
Now we're mostly trying to keep the deer from eating all our daylilies. A tip for Liquid Fence users -- add a bit of sticker spreader solution to the mix and it lasts longer.
And BTW, the lavender strap petal azalea is called Koromo Shikibu, with a short "bu" at the end, rather than the long "boo".

T.J.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 09:13 PM

Welcome to the thread, TJ.


Bobert, I wish I could send some cool mountain air over there.
The temps have been perfect today.
The sun will be going down soon and I'll have to put on a sweater.



A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 09:41 PM

Hey, TJO...

Sounds like yer an azalea person... You oughtta join the Azalea Society... My wife is presdient of the NoVa chapter and we'd love to have you... I love Koromo Shikibus and have about half a dozen... We're growing out about 200 hybrids right now from various hybrdizers on the east coast... Yeah, we know them all... Don Voss, Don Hyatt, Bob Stewart, Joe Limivich, etc.... I ain't into that pistols and stemens stuff... I just design gardens and do landscapin' fir $$$ on the side...

BTW, we're 9 miles south of Luray in the mountains...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 10:47 PM

I grew up in Washington State were rhododendrons and azaleas grew wherever you happened to want to poke them. There are only a few types that can tolerate this climate in Texas. I am so envious of the colors and varieties you get to play with, Bobert.

I'm going to pull the heirloom tomatoes tomorrow. They're not doing a thing out there but taking up space. The rest of the crop (Super Fantastic) is doing okay, more or less. I'm getting a few tomatoes a day, enough to eat and give one away occasionally. There is no overage yet.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 10:54 PM

The only thing I can harvest so far is wintergreen and basil.

Oh, well, the garden will eventually come in with all the TLC I'm giving everything.


A.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 01:29 AM

Welcome TJO!

The lace bugs are beginning to get the upper hand on the Koromo Shikibu, only on its second year in the ground from the rooted cutting Bobert gave me.    I'm concerned that using either neem oil or insecticidal soap in this heat would do more damage than the bugs. I think I'm gonna start blasting it hard with a spray of water a couple of times a day in hopes of at least slowing them down a little until the temps drop. I have also started irrigating it more heavily to reduce stress and decrease its vulnerability until I can start spraying again.

The last time I sprayed neem oil was two weeks ago. I wasn't careful enough and got some neem oil on the leaves of a potted hydrangea arborescens given to me late last winter by a friend who is devoted to native plants. The plant will survive it, but where the neem hit the leaves they have turned dark brown and brittle.    I had moved an unknown cultivar of h. arborescens with me. It is probably, but not certainly "Annabelle." The leaves on the potted speciman are somewhat narrower, but the bloom is quite showy.   Still haven't absloutely decided if the potted hydrangea is is the species or a selection in cultivation.

Again, time will tell.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:28 AM

Jane, is your lace bug like this or this (my photo posted for a weblog)?

I found this year that by leaving a few volunteer sunflowers (the big kind, because the bird feeder dropped them in the garden) I have almost no lace bug problem in my eggplant. They all went for the sunflowers instead (companion planting). The eggplant is what they usually hit hard. Previously to get them off the eggplant I'd go in with a band of masking tape (pull a strip maybe 8 - 10" off the roll and stick it to itself in a loop with the sticky outside and put your fingers through the loop of tape and use it to roll the bugs, eggs, and babies right off the backs of your leaves). This is a little tackier than one of the Dollar Store garment rollers, but not so strong that it rips the leaves, and I use the 2" wide light brown tape. I find the mechanical removal was more efficient than trying sprays or hitting plants with water hard.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Bobert
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:55 AM

Actually, Magz... I think some of the native azaleas will do well in yer area... BTW, there is a Texas chapter of the Azalea Society that has been reorganized of late... I'll find out where they are... The natives, BTW, are great plants and grow in full sun...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 08:15 AM

Some amazing plantsmen this year at the "North Hill Symposium" on Friday . Dave Burdick and Rob as usual , Walker Farm and Broken Arrow from Ct .Glenwood Gardens as well Fergus Garrett from Great Dixter and Keith Wiley from Devon were both speakers plus Tom Cooper . Of course Joe Ech and Wayne Winterrowd (our hosts ) both spoke .

The really interesting change was the gathering was at Scott Farm next to Rudyard Kipling's house in Dummerston just outside Bradlebourgh Vt . What wonderful land for gardeners to gather on ..

I am thinking of making up a collection of historically inspired flowerpots to give to the museum at the White House . Hopefully other horticultural potters will add to it as time goes on   .

Erica's gardens are doing great . We are also in the town's public vegetable plot . Great fences in a beautiful field with a ton of light !! Wonderful thread as every year ! yours Guy

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 10:27 AM

Look very similar to your photographs but are somewhat lighter - though the differences may simply be about lighting in the photos. They are azalea lace bugs.

I was just reading more about them. Apparently azaleas and rhodies that are sited where they get more sun are more bothered by them.   That may be why my Koromo Shikibu is consistently more susceptible. It is positioned so that it gets more sun than the other azaleas.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: pdq
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 10:48 AM

Here is a site with tons of info on native Texas plants including some azaleas...

                                                                         aggie-horticulture

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 12:11 PM

I don't have a digital camera, so these shots are not very good quality... just taken with the laptop.

Sweet Rocket comes up everywhere here as a weed, but I let it bloom... it is so fragrant and I love the purple color.
Here it is with the last of the falling peony petals in the background.
Sweet Rocket

The hens & chickens that I planted years ago when I made a pond and rock garden are beautifully well established.
Pond & hens & chickens


Snow In Summer in front of pond

old rock garden, Hens & Chickens, violets


old rock garden, Close Up

Daisies are a weed here, just like sweet rocket, coming up
in the lawns, the ditches, the alleys, everywhere.
I mow them down except for a few choice places like the
flower garden where they came up with sweet rocket.
Daisies and Sweet Rocket


Lupines, flowers about ten
inches tall.


Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010
From: Alice
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 12:15 PM

It looks like spattered paint on those rocks,
but it is actually
Lichen.