Weekly Report

Front: The daisies are blooming; as well as the campanulas, the stella odoro day lilies. The spirea need their summer trim now that the flowers have all expired.

The calla lily has 4 flowers. It has never had more than one bloom on it before. I LOVE the Miracle Grow bloom booster!!

South: The cat mint is in bloom. The Algarve lily is in bloom now as well. I love the pink flowers with the purple cat mint.

Back: The lavendar and astilbe are in bloom in the perennial patch. The laminum are still in bloom as are the honey suckle vines, the polish spirit clematis and the purple clematis and we have blooms on the trumpet vine. The humming bird is back.

Weekly Report

Front: The spirea are still in bloom. One stella o'doro day lily has bloomed and one campanula. The daisies have buds.

South: The cat mint are still in bloom but need to be trimmed. The Lollipop lily is in bloom.

Back: The polish prince clematis is still in bloom as is the purple star clematis. The Hals honey suckle vine is covered with yellow flowers. The Wild Blue Yonder rose has a couple of flowers left for its first bloom and there are two pink flowers on the QE rose. The pinks are still in bloom and so is the lamium.

I have two buds on the hydrangea. I think our routine of fertilization is working.

Two New Perennial Purchases

Name: Ruby's Tuesday Dianthus
Variety: Dianthus hybrida valda kitty
Color: red
Type: Perennial
Height: 12"
Sun: Full

We purchased this perennial at Lowe's. It came in a 2 quart bucket for about $3.00, which is a great buy. It has buds but is not in flower. However, you can never be certain when the flowers truly bud out because the green house always skews bloom time.

Name: Brass Buttons
Variety: Leptinella Squalida
Color: None
Type: Perennial
Height: 6"
Sun: Full

This is a ground cover that has a fern like look to it. It was copper colored with tinges of green and looked very interesting. It will be moved to the water fall eventually.

Both these plants were put on the south side for now. Actually that area is becoming over grown with plants ready to go onto the water fall as soon as it is finished. I hope we can get them moved this fall or in the spring. In the meantime it really looks great in those planting areas.

Waterfall

The design on the waterfall is in full gear. After having a pile of dirt for nearly 9 years and a hole in the ground for one, Wayne has sculpted the final hole, purchased many of the puzzle pieces. We even found a picture on how we want this to look (see above picture--ours will be shorter but wider; about from the grass forward). I am excited and now have an idea about how this is going to be.

We purchased a couple more flowers to go on it--a dianthus that has beautiful red flowers and a low growing plant that is fern like, but very interesting. We also purchased another tomato plant.

Regimen

This year we are trying a new regimen for the flowers and the roses. For the flowers we are using miracle grow liquid bloom booster once a week on the weekends. So far my hydrangeas have a bud coming, which is a great improvement over last year.

On the roses I am using insect spray in the blue bottle on the weekends and mid week the fungus spray in the white bottle. So far I have had fewer insects and no fungus or rust spot. However, only one of the rose bushes is doing well. I think the problem has been not enough water.

Installation

Yesterday the electrician came to install the outlet by the waterfall. He had to put the conduit down the front of the lattice, but I think we can live with that. We will need to hide it with the clematis. He managed to get it underground and past the landscape with only minor damage to the hydrangea. The lawn will need a little time to recover, but all in all he did a good job.

Weekly Report

Front: The spirea are in full bloom. Day lilies have buds.

South: Catmint are still in bloom. Lilies are growing tall

Back: The dogwood tree is in bloom with beautiful white star shaped flowers. Dark purple clematis are in bloom as well as the Polish prince clematis. The peonies are blooming. There are lovely white, pink and red blooms out there. The Wild Blue Yonder rose is blooming. Pinks are still in bloom and there was one oriental poppy flower that has since died. And lastly the Halls honeysuckle is in bloom.

Peony

Name: Peony
Variety: Paeonia Lactiflora 
Color: White and pink
Type: Perennial
Height: 3'
Light:  Full Sun
Fragrance:   Strong 
Bloom Time: Late May Early June
Location:   North East side of arbor

We brought the white ones from Saline. They harbored in Martin and Jessica's yard for several years and then a piece was transplanted here. I got the light pink ones from Duane Laws. It somehow survived the transplant and a miserable year, but it is growing nicely now.

Vegetable Garden

This week we finished planting the garden. We purchased tomato cages and only planted 12 of them. That still should be plenty. We also put up a new stake for the cucumbers. Last years worked fine but fell apart.

Along with 4 zuchini, 12 peppers, 12 tomatoes, 4 cucs, we also planted, 12 beans, 2 cantaloupe. We sprinkled insect killer around the beans and planted onions surrounding them. So far the bugs and the rabbits have left them alone. Perhaps neither one like onions.

We had cucs, tomatoes, cantaloups left over and gave them to the Gray family.

Dark Purple Iris

Name: Iris
Variety: Iris
Color: Dark Purple Flowers
Type: Perennial
Height: 3-4'
Sun: Full sun
Bloom Time: Late May

This root was a request from Martin and Jessica. They brought it last year from their garden in June. It struggled last year, but this year I have one beautiful bloom. They grow rapidly so I look forward to a lovely flower bed some day.

Chives

Name: Chives
Variety : Allium schoenoprasum
Type: Perennial Herb
Height: 18" to 2'
Light: Full sun
Flower Color: Lavender
Bloom Time: Early June
Location:  East of the water fall on the hill side

We have had these chives since we moved into the house. We purchased them at Colemans and our idea was to have chives to dry and eat, although we have done very little of that. On the other hand the poor plant was covered for a long time in vines and then grass until last year when I moved them and dug the grass out of them. I really didn't think they would make it and really didn't care because they are cheap to purchase. But they survived and this year they bloomed. We still look to cut some and eat them, but mostly they will go in our waterfall garden someday and look beautiful as they bloom in June.

Mum

I purchased three more mums at Sells Nursery. These are Garden Mum (Chyrsanthimum) called Tabitha Scarlet. There is no specs on the plant, but these had buds on them, which I cut off. I will keep the buds cut off until July. The instructions also said to mulch in winter. We'll try that and see if we can get them to survive the winter.

Weekly Report

Front: The weigela is in bloom. Everything else has faded.

South: The cat mint are in full bloom. The lavender flowers looks wonderful. I still need to trim back the tulip stems. My new purple iris has one bloom on it. Also the chives are in bloom.

Back: The polish prince clematis is in bloom; the iris are in bloom; the pinks are starting to bloom. The bridal spirea are still in bloom. The small new ones are blooming too.

We planted the zuchinni and peppers last night.