Memorial Day 2019

The unofficial start of summer for 2019 is off to a less than stellar and very wet start around here. It's been a rainy spring, which isn't a bad thing, but it's resulted in a slower than normal beginning to the summer plants. They're coming along, though.

The yellow Knockout rose is generally the first to bloom.  The red one is coming along nicely and should blossom in a few days.

Red profusion zinnia are new-ish and do nicely in the gardens without fading, although they're a bit more difficult to start from seed than the yellow and orange ones.

Primrose yellow Janie marigolds will be an eternal staple in the gardens.

The fringe tree started blossoming a few days ago.  The scent is very heady and sweet, and something that I'm sort of allergic to.  I tend to keep my distance and admire from afar.

It's slow, but growing in.

The typical lawn shot.  May's lawn feeding from a few weeks ago is about to kick in.

Two Weeks of Rain...

Two weeks of rain haven't particularly helped the gardens along, although they haven't hurt, either.   The plants are certainly watered in well, but the lack of sun means growth isn't very far along and many things are delayed.  There are few blossoms.

The pots are almost always the first things to bloom, simply because they're the best fed!

And the weather hasn't done much to the rhododendron, other than slowed it down by a few days this year.  It's not quite fully open yet, whereas it generally is by Mother's Day.

I took a closeup of a rhododendron flower.

The pots grow best, as always.  This is a yellow Profusion zinnia, getting ready to open its first blossom.

The rest of the garden is...well, it'll be along, I'm sure.

The grass, which I cut about an hour before I took this photo, is doing beautifully.  While the color suffers without sunlight, it generally enjoys wet weather.

Garden Planting

Garden planting began this morning in very hazy and wet conditions, just after a raft of thunderstorms came through last night.  It ended when I ran out of energy early this afternoon and the sun broke through.  Rain is forecast again for tonight and tomorrow, so I probably won't get back to planting until Monday, but I've already completed the entire front and some of the back.

Plants always look so tiny when they first go in.

Seriously, it's like they're not even there.  A few of those will eventually exceed 4 square feet without even trying.

Around this point in the process, I always wonder why I have so many plants left.  It's because the back is enormous and I'm only just starting it.  Even so, I've used an appreciable amount of marigolds and zinnia already.

While the garden annuals gear up, the tulips are still going.  The Purple Prince are in full bloom now and will last a few more days.  They might go tonight if we get the heavy storms projected.

The azalea won't even notice the storms, however.  I got one shot of a perfect blossom--ruined by a slight shadow of the lens in the frame.

The lawn looks perfect, but it usually does in May.  This year's incessant rainfall has certainly helped.

Flats Out!

Last night was the last potential frost on the docket, most likely, so I moved the flats out to harden off.  If it looks like we might get frost again, I'll move them into the kitchen for the night and put them on towels on the floor.  It's easy and kind of fun to have the jungle in the there for the evening!

When splayed out, it's hard to believe these will fill 2,000 square feet of garden with blooms, plus a few other gardens of other people, but they will.  Yes, I need to remove that moss on the siding.


Looking around outside as I did this, the lilac is doing very well this year.  I love the look and the smell, but don't cut them for indoors.  I'm incredibly allergic to them...


And the standard grass shot.  Everybody's looks fantastic this year, we've had a lot of rain, the weather's been nearly perfect, and it looks like that's going to continue right into May.

First Planting

I'd started some morning glory (Heavenly Blue) from seed this year on the 7th of April, and they're already bursting out of their pots on the 25th.  Our long-term forecast looks great, and these are all close to the house, so I'm risking it and planting these very early, to twine up the drain pipes.

Morning glory don't transplant well, so a minimum of disturbance is absolutely required.  Take the whole dirt ball and don't disturb it.  If it has to be disturbed, do the minimum possible.  And water it in well immediately.  Some shock is always to be expected.

If you can plant the seeds in place, that's always best.

Mid-Spring

We're about a week before the annuals (860 of 'em) go out to harden off, so we're nearing the end of the bulb season.  Unfortunately, my old camera died peacefully as its flash capacitor broke, so I purchased a "new" one, a Canon PowerShot SX160IX.  It's the latest PowerShot I could find that I liked that used AA batteries, since I have many, many rechargeable ones.  So all future shots will be with that camera.

But, as always, simply click on the shot to enlarge the image to its fullest size!

Indoor gardening is going well, with the hibiscus regularly pumping out blossoms this year.

The plants are growing in the cellar and have about a week left before transporting outside for another week to harden off.  Then they go into the ground for summer.

About a week ago, these were cheerfully looking in at the growing plants.

While these were looking in more hungrily than cheerfully...

The Jane magnolia is doing very well.  One blossom is here.  The tree has, perhaps, ten thousand...

I like the grape hyacinth.  These are planted in an impossible spot under a tree.  They bloom beautifully in late April and then go away until October.

I keep the phlox restricted just because of the shorter blooming season.  It's pretty when it blooms, but unspectacular the rest of the time.

And the standard lawn shot.  It's hard to believe it'll be time to give it the spring organic feeding shortly!

Garden Crocus

These are the later crocus, the snow crocus blossomed for about five hours and were pounded down by a rainstorm we had last Friday.  These are almost concurrent with the snow glories (which never bloom until long after the snow is gone), but the colors are actually more saturated and prettier.

As always, you can click on this image (or almost any other on the blog) for a larger version.

First Sprout

While it was actually some days ago, the red Profusion zinnia were the first out of the gate.  I had a bit of a problem with transferring them downstairs last year, so I'm holding the Profusion zinnia in my upstairs office this year, so currently I'm juggling four flat.  Fortunately, I have LED plant lights I use on the pots, which can be straightened and laid atop the flats.

I'll send those downstairs as soon as they reach the four-leaf stage.

The red salvia are sprouting slowly this year, with only about a quarter up at at the one week mark.  They'll be along and, if something has gone wrong, I have enough seeds to plant a hundred times the number I actually need.

Hitting Restart...

It's been a long, cold...actually, per the Weather Service, slightly above average...winter, and as of today, the gardens restart.  I held off a little late as the Easter Eggplant tend to lose their lower leaves if started too early.

The first three flats went today, including the Easter Eggplant, red salvia, blue salvia, blue ageratum, red Profusion zinnia, and yellow Profusion zinnia.  Only the last two are purchased seeds, the rest are heirloom varieties.

2018 Lawn Additions

This year's heavy hitter was soybean meal for the organics, as usual, with some corn early in the season.  Later on, I used more urea as I damaged my knee in July.  That's repaired, but I was advised to take it easy until 2019.

I did spray ferrous sulfate as well, which helps enhance the color, back right around the time I winterized.

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
5/1/2018	1.21	0.36	0.19	0.00	25.0	Soybean Meal, Cracked Corn
8/1/2018	1.05	0.30	0.15	0.00	15.0	Soybean Meal
9/1/2018	1.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.0	Urea
10/1/2018	1.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.0	Urea
11/14/2018	1.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.0	Urea
Total per K ft:	5.29	0.66	0.34	0.00	40.0	400.0 active organic total

Four Weeks Left

Or so, anyway.  October's lawn feeding will also be urea, but I'll time that with the next rainfall.  That looks to be around October seventh.

The grass is looking fairly good.  Myrtle (the robot) broke and I have yet to replace the main board, so this is being done manually. 









The standard garden shot shows pretty good color remaining, although things are drifting out of shape a bit and starting to bronze as the season moves on.









The rose bush is still happily producing roses at a very high rate.  A few of these are finding homes in cast resin as paperweights and jewelry.


The mailbox garden looks good this year!  The blue salvia are all volunteers, as is the rear yellow Melampodium.  The front one I planted, and between the two they ate most of the marigolds.

2018 Garden Additions

2018 featured a little more nitrogen and an extra September application of urea to the gardens.  I'd irritated a torn meniscus in my knee, which meant that September's lawn feeding was urea instead of soybean meal (to lighten the weight I had to carry).  It was just as easy to also apply around 2.5 pounds per thousand square feet of urea to the gardens as well to cover September growth and blooming.

As the knee had been bothering me a bit, I also went with soybean meal more through the season so I only had to walk through carrying the buckets once.  That's also the reason for the urea additions late in the season, in addition to having a very rainy September that precluded injecting nitrogen via the watering system.

Just as last year, I didn't list the slow calcium I added this year, about 20 pounds per thousand square feet.  That will gently release over the next few years, holding the pH in the lower 6 range.

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
5/7/2018	1.32	0.30	0.25	0.36	21.5	Milorganite, Soybean Meal
6/1/2018	1.32	0.30	0.25	0.36	21.5	Milorganite, Soybean Meal
7/1/2018	1.75	0.25	0.50	0.00	25.0	Soybean Meal
8/1/2018	1.75	0.25	0.50	0.00	25.0	Soybean Meal
9/1/2018	1.15	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	Urea
9/15/2018	0.69	0.52	0.00	0.00	0.00	Urea, Monoammonium Phosphate
10/1/2018	1.15	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	Urea
Total per K ft:	8.13	1.62	1.50	0.72	93.0	186.0 active organic total

Mid-Late August

Summer is starting to spin down and nights are getting just a bit cooler than their high point, but the gardens don't notice and won't care much until October.

The main back garden, showing off the blue gazing ball.  Most of this is Magellan zinnia (in scarlet) that do very well here.


I'm very happy with the Babylon dahlia, although I wish they were just a bit taller.


I keep trying to hide the meters with things.  I didn't expect much from the Easter Egg plant, but I had some hopes for the cleome.  Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well, but at least it takes the worst of the view out of play.


Another image across the back, showing the bits of garden that have washed into the patio's brick.  So far, August has featured heavy and frequent rain.


The Easter Egg plant on the deck is maturing nicely.  These are most of the way there, although the orange tones will deepen through September.  I should be able to harvest seeds for next year starting September 15th, as the oldest eggs (which started to grow in June) turn orange with brown spots and begin to fade.


Follow the Yellow Bloom Road.  This is the upper leg of the back garden, done all in yellow this year.  With the milder winter we had, I had tons of volunteer Melampodium (the small yellow blooms) that were transplanted over here.

Mid-August Photos

We're pretty much at peak on the gardens for the year, although things are still a bit delayed and I'm expecting a good show right through September.


The salvia always do well, and our older dog appreciates that.


I like the Babylon dahlia, although I wish they were a bit taller.


The general garden image, along with our younger dog.


Easter Egg plant are a fun addition to any garden.  Right now, the "eggs" are white, but they'll mature to yellow, then gold, and finally orange in September and October. 


The northern face of the back garden.  It's very red this year...

Late July Photos

We've had about three inches of rain since Sunday, which has restored the grass and pushed the gardens into growth.  At this point, they're pretty much caught up with late July and look pretty good.

The grass is definitely recovering, but still shows signs of the drought it was in through June and into July.  Regardless, it'll recover fully by fall (assuming rainfall) and no harm done.









The Profusion scarlet zinnia are doing incredibly well.  They're redder in person, and this one is a bit more orange due to all the reflected light off the house.



The northward view of the back garden is maturing nicely.  I lost a plant in that hole, but it doesn't look too bad.


Standing on the river stone drainage area, there's a distinct orange path of flowers.


The southern side of the back garden is a bit spottier, but still doing pretty well.


The zinnia is a volunteer crossbreed between yellow and orange.  So far, it's breeding relatively true.


The front garden is a bit more constrained and less frenetic, but I still enjoy a lot of color and life out there as well!