Saturday, June 1, 2013

Journal Notes...Just for My Records

The following post is long and boring unless you like to see the tiny details of what I have done in the past week.  I have found the journal notes to be very useful for reference.

Husband is going to finish smoothing plinth with concrete.

Screened Europenas, climbing Iceberg, and a mystery rose


Concrete for the plinth of the sundial.

Screened area after weedeating and pulling weeds

Filler of leaves topped with commercial mulch.

After completion.  Not sure if I want to create a path to this area.

Dahlia beginning to bloom

The weeds were getting vicious.  The roses really seem to love them gone.  It also helps with blackspot.

Memphis Music Roses are doing well.  These are on the own root system.


Endless Summer Hydrangeas are really taking off.

Used aluminum sulfate to make sure they are blue.

Azaleas, the perwinkle didn't return but Mexican Heather "babies" are growing.

Got a replacement JFK rose for the bare root that died.  Got this at the Co-op.

JFK beginning to bud.

West Hydrangea bed

Rye Grass is dying.  It has been droughty so the new grass has not come in.

Gold Medallion

Paradise

Gallardia (aka Firewheel and Indian Blanketflower) is truly a plant it and forget it.  It had bloomed all winter in very lean soil.  Even with no rain it is still going.

Area is sloppy, lean, and sandy.  I have not watered or fed these.

Don Juan by the creek.

The weeds in the Impatient rose is causing black spot

Front of the house...lawn is dying

Back porch.  I need to guide the climbers.

Camellia, bottlebrush, azaleas, and japanese yew

This has gotten horribly weedy.  I have climbers and gardenias here.

Corner bed is looking much better.

West side of the rose garden

I believe this a Granada rose

First prize.  I gave them fish oil this past Monday and I feel the roses have responded well to it.

Back corner of the L shaped rose garden

East corner of rose garden

Big Daddy hydrangeas are blooming pink.  Soil is alkaline


Back path
Decided to clean up pool.  Refill it, run vacuum in it.  Trim up popcorn trees and mexican heather, kill weeds with Spectracide weed killer.

Highly recommend using the battery power tools.  The battery pack can be placed in to hedgeclippers, weed eater and even a chainsaw.  I have cut many cords in the past on the electric ones, and the gas ones are too heavy.

Cut them in squares and rectangles

It does look much nicer.

Accidentally broke the wings off this ornament. But I don't care for wings on ornaments generally.

I take everything I said about the auger.  It is dreadfully heavy but it makes planting a ton of plants down to a quarter of the time.
The auger.  It runs about 300 with the bit.  It is very heavy but if you are planting a ton of plants at once, it is very very useful.  I planted 12 plants in about 2 hours.  It would have probably taken me 6 to 8 hours normally.

Weeds grow through the drainage of the poolside.  I am gonna use a herbicide.


This was cheaper than RoundUp

Bought an Orbit Telescopic Sprinkler at Lowe's.  Cost approx. $16.  I like it better than the gilmour.  It's mostly metal and much more sturdy and doesn't stop spinning.

The rye grass I feel had died, so as much as I hated to, I opted to water the lawn.  It is distracting and takes away from the garden when the grass is dead.

Trimmed up the Mexican Heather.  Note the popcorn trees.  May try making topiaries out of them.

Shaped them as rectangles

Fish oil has made a lot of the roses take off.  But I don't think it's coincindence that the roses that are screened are faring better.  The dark mulch makes them "hot" I feel.  I am screening and mulching layer by layer in 60 feet increments.  This will eventually all be screened.

Back porch.  Because of lighting there are bugs eating them often.  Considering getting an electric bug zapper.

I need to train these climbing golden showers up the pillar but I also have curtains on the pillar.  Will figure something out.

This area is pretty dense shade.  It never receives direct sunlight but the area is bright.

6 comments:

Jean Campbell said...

Blueberries like Acid soil, Really. They like the same conditions as azaleas except blueberries want sunshine.

Blueberries are blue because they have anthocyanins -- powerful antioxidants which gives blue color. Adding lime to blueberries won't change the fruit color.

Periwinkles don't return until it gets really hot. A lady down at the lake told me to go out and stir the soil and seeds would come up to the light and sprout. (Weed seeds come up, too.) She was right. She gave me seedlings from her periwinkles. The seedlings are usually hardier than the ones you buy, which tend to die off. I transplant them around where I want them.

Cerberus German shepherds said...

Well, it's definitely hot. The perwinkle died in the front bed except for one. The old canes are still there (or whatever you call them). Are you saying they will come back?

Jean Campbell said...

What I meant to say was that Periwinkles come back from SEED when it gets really hot, if conditions are good. They must have bare earth, light and water to sprout.

Cut off a stem and see if it is green on your old plants. If it is brown and dry, there is no hope.

Anonymous said...

everything is looking much better love it all mom

Jean Campbell said...

I noticed in all the Chelsea Flower Show photos how popular square cut box and topiary were. I like both.

Cerberus German shepherds said...

@Mom, thanks....I am so glad a nursery isn't closing next year....this has been so much work

@Nell, I will have to look up the Chelsea Flower Show...never heard of it...which doesn't mean much because I'm new at this. I does look nicer though.