Annual Day...

After thinning out a bunch of perennials and sharing with a friend... i decided that i needed some annuals to flesh out the garden and patio containers.

I purchased:

• Hanging basket of impatiens and lobelia (hummingbird already tested it out)
• Lobelia
• Salvia (burgundy red)
• Geraniums (salmon)
• Coleaus (4.. planted in twith the tree seedlings)
• Plum tomato
• Dill
• Poteulaca
• Begonia

I also planted the Black Cohosh... and transplanted the verigated hosta...

PINK!

A year ago I purchased a pink iris and pink poppy... neither bloomed for me last year. This year they are blooming simultaneously and looking gorgeous! My wish list for next year is going to be an orange poppy to balance out the purple in the garden.

I've been digging and mulching around tress and beds all week... even between the paver path that i have through a wet spot. It looks so much nicer and so much easier to mow around. I've been going from one shady spot to another and praying for a cloudy day... there hasn't been one this week! Which is unusual for what is known as the "grey triangle"... between Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

dig, dig, dig, mulch, mulch, mulch...

So today i took maddock and shovel and proceeded to trench around a dogwood tree and a crabapple tree. That was this morning when they were still in the shade. This afternoon and evening i cleaned out the flower bed near the back patio. trenched it and mulched... it was really overgrown with weeds. i'm hopeful that i can maintain it better now.

View of the back patio steps

Fuschia
Originally uploaded by pjslomer.

I've had a three day rest from chopping away grass and mulching... Many things a blooming at the moment. All the varieties of Columbine are stunning. The latest bloomer is one of the many clematis, rhodadendron and orange azalea.

I've noticed that the blue hostas out front could use some thinning out. And the zebra grass looks sort of sparse at the moment. It may need thinning out as well.

Pretty Pot

So, i had this scented geranium (coconut) that has a rather gnarly stem to it and it's sort of small... so i decided to plant it in this shallow clay pot. It reminded me of a bonsai, so i added a couple rocks and some shiny pebbles along with some mulch to complete the look. I have no idea how this will look at the end of summer, but i'm happy with it now.

RAIN!!!

We finally got rain today... all day! It had been a month since we had a good soaking and i was getting concerned. One rain barrell was empty and the second one was being used up quickly (they are both full with some extra buckets filled up too). I had to water my latest grasses because the ground was cracking around them... and the burning bush transplants as well. So today's rain was a very welcome sight and sound. I could feel a collective sigh from Mother Earth. I also decdied to take a break and go get an adjustment... much needed from weilding the maddock so much and carrying around bucket upon bucket of mulch. I'm making some progress on the bed on the outside of the sidewalk... some parts are really easy and then others have lots of weeds to thin out. It's a challenge...
New blooming in the garden: Spring Star flowers (after many years of no blooming), pincushion flowers, lily-of-the-valley, buttercups.

All Day Digging!

All day Saturday was spent with maddock in hand digging away turf and adding trenches around the new beds and then mulching them in. I kept moving to where the sun wasn't... there are now beds around the pampas grass, dogwoods & spirea in the eastern corner of the yard. I would like this to eventually be one big bed. There is also a bed connecting two of the six burning bushes. It took me forever! I have a blister on my left hand and it totally wiped me out. But it looks great!
I'm thinking that tomorrow night i'll mulch the bed on the western edge of the property... it needs to be defined and trenched but that can come later.
Today i dug out a bunch of oatgrass and took out and planted for Mom.