flowers

The Joe Pye Weed around the mail box is about to bloom.

The Agastache (rupestins) I grew from seed a few years ago are in bloom.

A red daylilly.

These marigolds came up on their own and I left them.

The daisies are blooming and the marigolds in fron but not the zinnias in between.

Friday night we were in Medford Lakes. There are still some people without power or phone and some might not get it back until Tuesday. It wasn't a tornado but it was 80 mph winds. We were spared at home and the wind wasn't that bad either. I did empty 0.5" from the rain gauge.

What's in bloom?

We'll start off with a bonus, two for the price of one. We have a dark red daylilly and some white Yarrow.


Here is a lavender day lilly.

And now I have a double bloomer! There is a story to go with this one. Got this one (and others not blooming this year) from the next door neighbor of a relative while attending the annual fourth of July family picnic last year.

Any guesses? How about ONION! Yes, my onions are in bloom.



Here is a look at my onion patch. they are starting to fall over so I will be picking in a few weeks.

Yesterday I watered the veggie garden and the annuals planted this year. Tied and trimmed the tomatoes (thank goodness that most of the stunted one are looking better). I figure the wet and not very warm June has put me back about a month. I also picked 10 cucumbers.

Friday Night Memorial Day weekend -5/22/2009

Lots on the list to do this weekend and I was able to get a start on it tonight. I even had help.

The first thing on the list was to cut the grass. I am feeling better and my college aged son even helped me cut the grass. I think he was feeling guilty since I asked him to cut the grass if he got a chance this week. We happen to have two mowers so it took half the time. When my mom downsized, she gave me her mower. I was even more surprised that it started since I used it a couple of times last year just to run it.

After cutting the grass I used my string trimmer that I got for Christmas and had better luck with it this time. I had to fix the string only once this time. I also missed fewer spots.

As I was taking my usual rest (sitting on my back patio and watching the wildlife come back into the yard) and downing a water bottle or one of my kids sports drinks, I noticed my daughter had got in the shower so it was no use going into the house to get mine, so I did some weeding. While weeding I noticed that my yellow Stella D'Oro daylilly is starting to bud as well as some of my common orange daylillies.

Tomorrow - PLANTING VEGGIES!!!

Notes for July 9, 2008

This past Saturday I was able to get caught up in the yard.

I had a pair of yellow daisies growing in my veggie patch (the seeds must have been in the mulch) and so I transplanted them first.

I planted the double bloom orange tiger lillies after I split them into nice handful sized plantings. I planted eight bunches overall.

I turned the next area for planting beans using the spade (I didn't want to get the tiller out of the shed).

I had previously trimmed the tomato suckers on Thursday but I still trimmed and tied the tomato plants.

Then I planted a row of wax beans in the area I just turned.

Then I mulched. I mulched the row of cosmos I have planted along the inside fence of my veggie garden and then mulched the row of wax bean seeds (just stopping short of the row, which I will mulch just after the beans are about six inches tall). I then continued and finished mulching the remainder of my flower beds.

On Sunday, all I did was water everything and pull renegade weeds.

On Monday night I picked green beans. I picked about two large Ziploc bags full. I let them dry out on the kitchen counter before I put them in the fridge since we had rain earlier in the day. The wife made green bean casserole with the first picking, and it was good. I will get one more picking from that first row of beans (I will do that by pulling out the plants and picking off the beans). Then I will probably plant a row of Lima Beans in its location.

Notes for July 8, 2008

I finally got some measurable rain yesterday. When I got home from work, I emptied 0.7" from the rain gauge.

Friday on the fourth of July my family and I went to our family picnic which on the 4th is always at this particular Aunt & Uncle's house. I have been married for 23 years so I have been going to this picnic for lets say 25 years and I have gotten to know their neighbors (at least by name). This year as we are pulling in the driveway, the neighbor on that side is cleaning out a garden of its daylillies. At first glance, they appeared to be the common orange variety. At second glance, I noticed they were the double bloom orange variety (after one of the cousin's husband went over there and began helping the neighbor and took several clumps for himself). So I went over there and got a few too (since the neighbor was just throwing them out and I don't have any double bloom orange daylillies). Would any of you done the same?

Notes for July 3, 2008

Here is a picture of a Daylily in bloom right now.

I watered everything last night and did some weeding.

My onions will be ready to pick in a few weeks, the stems have started to fall over.

I hope to plant another row of string beans and mulch this weekend. The second row of string beans is starting to flower.

My sunflowers are about 4-5 ft tall now.

The Hosta I bought a couple of weeks and split, the smaller split has died completely. Haven't a clue why

Notes for June 10, 2008

Last night I noticed that my yellow Daylilly (Stella D'Oro) is in bloom.

Also, last Friday night I saw my first lightning bug of the season and on Saturday I heard the first cicada.

Notes for January 11, 2008

The weather has been warm and wet and we even had some rumbles of thunder this morning. The dog is our thunderstorm proximity alarm and he visited us at 1:30 and 5:30 this morning.

I have started to look through the seed catalogs and painted daisies have caught my eye.

I think I might also purchase daylillies and iris from different companies several times this year. I will have the space for them and I want to keep the catalogs coming.

Notes for July 24, 2007

I emptied 0.3" of rain from the rain gauge last night. Rather disappointing.

Lately I have been observing the different daylillies in bloom in my area. There are three types that have caught my eye. There is one that is the same color as the most common orange but this one has a double layered bloom and is slightly frilly. Very pretty. One is a yellow but is more mellow than the yellow stella that has aleady bloomed. The third is an orange color that reminds me of an orange creamsicle. I'm going to have to try to find these.

Notes for July 23, 2007

It's raining today and its a Monday. Normally that gets people down, except gardeners who haven't had any measurable rain in two weeks. Yea!

Didn't get to any new stuff this past weekend, too much on the family calendar. I did pick cherry tomatoes and cucumbers twice and was able to cut the grass on Friday evening.

My fourth daylilly is in bloom but there won't be a picture. It's another red one like just bloomed last week.

Notes for July 20, 2007

Here is a pic of the third of five daylillies I purchased and planted last fall. Its now in bloom and as you can see its red. A beautiful red. The fourth looks like its going to bloom next week and the fifth has yet to form buds.

I emptied 0.1" from the rain gauge last night and there was nothing in it to empty this morning. Looks like I will be watering tonight. In the last several days we have had brief showers and a bundle of thunder but it never rained hard enough to wet the ground under the trees.

I also need to cut the grass in the backyard as well as pick some cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

Notes for July 17, 2007

I did finish mulching last night. So everything I wanted to get mulched this year, is now mulched.

I watered the vegetable garden and the flower beds last night. I will need to pick tomatoes and cucumbers tonight.

I now have another daylilly in bloom and it is a dark red. I hope to have a picture later this week. Of the five I purchased and planted last fall, it is the third daylilly to bloom. The fourth has buds but the fifth does not.

I weeded the onions again and picked around 8 onions whose stems were brown. That's when I pick them (or rather dig them out) is when their stem turns all brown. They were all medium size. Now they are sitting on the picnic table for the outside to dry out a little (or at least until the stem breaks off easy). The mulch I used on the onions was grass clippings which turned out to be very weedy. Since the onions are closely planted, I guess I will stick to leaf mulch next year.

I started to plant more garden edging but the mosquitoes in my ears were too much. I should have gone into the shed and used the skin so soft that's in my fishing box but I was also tired of the sweat dripping down onto my glasses (the hat I was wearing wasn't doing a very good job of soaking up the sweat). The edging is for a third flower bed planned. I have enough edging for a fourth and that will be next.

Notes for July 13, 2007

The picture is of another daylilly in bloom. Of the five I purchased and planted last fall, this is the second to bloom. There are two more with buds but the fifth does not have buds yet.

I did walk through my garden last night and did see that the beets have germinated, I just had to look closer (its easy to see germinating beans from further away). I also saw plenty of tomato suckers that need to be trimmed and numerous cherry tomatoes getting ripe.

My peppers are doing worse than they usually do. Every year at this home, I don't get peppers until September. This year the plants don't even look good. Has anyone out there had the same problem of no peppers until September? Is it something lacking in my soil? Or is it just the fact that my garden doesn't get but about 3-4 hours of good sunlight?