The Start of Garden Work…

It was beautiful outside, so I did some garden maintenance in the front yard. I first cut down and removed all the dead Sunflowers and Zinnias. Our dog Kelly accompanied me in my chores as our neighbor’s kid kept trying to call her. Kelly pretty much ignored them, because she was busy cutting the grass.

I tried to pull as many weeds as I can and cleaned up the Swiss Chard, Rudbeckia and Mums. This was worth two 5-gallon containers of composting materials.

My mom wanted to pull up the Dahlias in the front planting area, which hasn’t been divided in I can’t remember how many years. This was no easy task because the tubers were huge (like grocery potatoes) and they were intertwined with out White Birch tree’s roots. They were also Dutch Iris and Columbine that we wanted to save, so I had to carefully dig these up and put them aside, until we can replant. It started getting dark, so I could not finish. Those Dahlia tubers were really stuck in the Birch’s root, and I’ll have to tackle this later.

I also collected all the plant labels that were in the planting beds. I washed the dirt off of them and place them away for safe-keeping. Which reminds me, I want to get some black plant labels for my seedlings.

Now, I have a blister from cutting the Sunflower and Zinnia into small compostable pieces. and my back is sore. Gosh, I feel old… hehe :)

Photos from the Garden

I love my new Canon PowerShot A610 camera, because it can take much better macros than my old Canon PowerShot SD100. I can shoot as close as 1cm. Below are some photos I took earlier today.

Jade Plant Flowers
Jade Plant Flowers

Coleus “Alabama Sunset” Seed Stalk
Coleus Alabama Sunset Seed Stalk

Dried up Dusty Miller seed heads
Dried up Dusty Miller seed heads

Dusty Miller photo

TGIF…

Friday, July 8

At work, I butchered the Coleus that I overwintered in my office. The plants are so leggy (about 3 feet tall). I’ll root the cuttings and plant them as a group once they’ve rooted.

Overwintered Coleus Wizard at work

Coleus Wizard Green(?) Cuttings

Coleus Wizard Rose Cuttings

After work, I passed by Target and bought a Yellow Cape Fushia (Phygelius Funfare) along with an untagged striped Coleus.

I also passed by Home Depot and got another bag of potting soil and steer manure. I also got a six pack of Sonnet Mix Snapdragons, to plant along the ones I planted yesterday.

Once home, I saw my mom’s broken Jade plant (see previous entry). I’m not sure what to do about it so I just left it for now. I’ll post a query online and see if anyone has any suggestions.

I planted the Snapdragons and pulled some weeds while my mom dead-heads the roses and Kelly (our dog) plays on the grass.

Sunday’s Plantings…

On Sunday, I planted Aurea, a cool little “stepable” ground cover, randomly here and there. I want it to take root and spread because I just love it’s color.

Lyssimachia nummularia “Aurea”
Aurea

My mom planted some Bataw (a Filipino bean)
Bataw

I started planting a 6 pack of Sequoia in the strawberry pot I bought on Saturday, then realized I needed more strawberries to top it off… so I took a trip to Target. I ended up buying 3 more Strawberry plants, a Coleus and a Euphorbia

My Target purchases
Target purchases

Closeup of Euphorbia polygona “Snowflake”
Euphorbia

Closeup of Coleus
Coleus

The completed Strawberry Pot
Strawberry Pot

I also planted 3 other pots: (left to right) Euphorbia polygona “Snowflake”, Acanthorhipsalis monacantha, Euphorbia obesa
Repotted Cactus

In the front yard, I tore some weeds out to create a new bed for some sunflowers.

Sunflower bed (before)
Sunflower bed (before)

Sunflower bed (after)
Sunflower bed (after)

…and finally here’s Kelly (our dog) pretending she’s a lawn mower
Kelly