Fertilized pots and in ground (all 6/1 and 6/21 and 7/5 and 7/24)
July 31
July ends. Mornings are cool, afternoons are too hot, and there has been a lot of drifted haze from wildfires on the west coast, although no smell of smoke.
The mid summer garden looks a little tired, and I water every day. The kitchen courtyard has gone by, but looks lush and green. The purple agastache around the sundial isn't the deep purple with dark foliage I expected, but it's big and impactful.
I'm really liking the combination in the turquoise pot on the patio -- the bush clematis is re-blooming a bit in vibrant purple and the nasturtiums have sent out a few orange blossoms to go with.
The circle below the birdbath looks lush, although the thyme has stopped blooming and needs a cut back, and the side on the left still needs work. But the orange kudos agastache is elegant and suncatching, and blackeyed Susans are starting to do something.
July 26
YIKES. While researching parrotia trees online today, I realized that 'Vanessa', planted in a tight spot by the guest room window, can grow to 40 feet tall and 20 feet wide at maturity.
I had thought it was much, much smaller. But look at mine after only 6 years. It's still a baby tree, but already huge. Shapely and narrow, but that will be a very big tree.
Actually, the size stats for 'Vanessa' list a wide range -- from 15 feet tall, which would be perfect and 10 feet wide, which would still be cramped in this spot.
I don't know why I thought this tree was smaller. Hopefully it will grow in this tight corner like an aspen tee, tall and narrow with its canopy high overhead?
I've already pruned it to just two twining stems, so it won't be the broad thicket that is its natural habit.
And maybe the tight corner will constrain it.
Now I'm concerned about the 'Vanessa' I just planted from Forestfarm. It too is in a small spot, by the patio. And it isn't thriving. It has shown no growth since planting and leaves are beginning to shrivel.
Sooner Plant Farm has another parrotia variety called 'Persian Spire' which they say grows 20 to 25 feet tall, a much better height, and only 8 to 10 feet wide. Replace the little 'Vanessa' on the patio with a 'Persian Spire' instead? A 5 gallon is $175.
But it's a different look, with purple bronze tinged leaves that are interesting but odd. As always, it's hard to find an image of a mature one for size and form.
What should I do?
July 25
I had to prune the spreading juniper by the driveway today. It's getting irrigated now, and is rapidly outgrowing the spot. I like the look of it as it spreads, but it's encroaching over the driveway, impeding anyone from parking on that side.
I really don't like the shorn look of the front of it now. But at least it stays green where pruned.
July 21
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| Fernbush blooming in early July |
I'm keeping things alive, and babying things along, but the robust ones have gone by for blooms, the new starts aren't there yet, and everything looks like too much and nothing.
The inch of rain we got 3 weeks ago filled everything out beautifully, but the growth can't be supported now in the dry hot weather since. I think about having less, keeping a more streamlined and less busy garden, easier to maintain and not always on the edge of wilting.
And then I went to Newman's to get fertilizer -- and bought more plants.
Three are just orange zinnias for the white bowl for some pops of color, and three are replacement Radio Red salvias -- I lost three of the six I overwintered last year. The ones remaining are okay, but these new ones look great. So I'm really just back to where I was last summer with six red salvias.
That's my justification.
July 16
I was away in California for 6 days and Jim watered while I was gone. Everything looked fine when I got back, although he had a bad flare up of his pain and couldn't get to some things and they had wilted badly. But with some watering when I got home, all revived.
It was in the 90s, and hit 100 while I was gone!
The irrigation only does so much. It's helpful if an emitter is right at the base of a plant, but with perennials and shrubs scattered all over, many are a few inches away from an emitter, sitting in dry powder. Irrigation is better than nothing. It does keep most things alive, but not refreshed or well watered. That takes hours of hose watering to reach everything and keep the whole area from becoming bone sucking dry with just spots of damp.
Sometimes it feels like gardening is just an endless battle I have to fight, the struggle is the only thing.
I do have wonderful moments sitting on the patio enjoying it all in the morning or late in the day, especially this year as things have grown in. But it's relentless daily watering and hours of needy things demanding attention out there to get those nice moments.
July 5
The open field by the garage is green and hairy goldenasters are blooming with sunny yellow flowers. Nice.
I fertilized almost everything today, using a full quart of Tiger Bloom 2-8-4. It's still early summer and there is still growing to do.
The birdbath garden looks fabulous but doesn't photograph well in sun or in shade. I can't capture how nice it looks, especially from afar, sitting on the patio.
The sweet blanketflowers -- the tall aristata ones I planted from seed -- are showing now behind the bench and I love them, but need so many more. The one blooming doesn't show up much. I'd like a dozen of them behind the bench.
The newly planted things in the outer circle are coming in, still tiny, though. It's the first year for most.
The Sweet Summer Love clematis is blooming, but it's not very showy and not fragrant. It blooms starting halfway up and the flowers are small and dark. You know what is showy and fragrant? The three nicotiana alata plants behind the deck.
And a simple pot of yellow petunias, bought back in April, have bloomed non-stop between two blue leaved lambs ears.
July 1
July started the way June ended -- rain.
The clouds are deep and fluffy all day and darken late in the afternoon, with some thunder and a little lightning. It's definitely monsoon season now.
Everything looks positively plump and full and robust. The red lambsears in the dining room window garden are lovely.
I run the irrigation four times a week and I hose water constantly and I can get plants to look decent, but nowhere near as full and upright as after a full inch of rain.
All my plants look okay when I water, but wilt easily in a day of sunshine beating down, and they never look after I water the way they do after rainfall.
The rain barrel is full and overflows with each new storm.
White Icicle speedwells break up the red of the lambsears and the rain barrel. There's even a leftover white Crystal Peak obedient plant in there too.
The thyme around the birdbath garden is in full bloom now and the agastache and obedient plants are up and blooming. Blue sage is going by, but the black eyed Susans will start to bloom soon.
The big disappointment is the red gomphrena that I put next to the bench. It's green with all the water but is just four skinny stems with no buds yet in early summer. It doesn't bloom until later in summer, but it looks particularly undeveloped.