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There's no place like home
OK, I'm back from vacation, and I'm always amazed at how much my garden seems to grow while I'm away.
I spend time every day tending to various aspects of my garden. I'm happy to do it. It's very therapeutic and I enjoy seeing the plants grow and bloom or produce veggies. But sometimes it's like watching paint dry ...
Before I go on vacation, I always trim things up, make sure the last plants are planted, finally finish mulching and water and fertilize everything again.
Although every vacation is a great getaway, there's no place like home, and I look forward to seeing what's been happening in the garden. And I'm never disappointed. Everything seems to have grown a lot this time ... the pond's overcome with water hyacinths and lillypads. (I'm happy to report that the waterfall's just fine.)
My dad's on "pond watch" while I'm away, feeding the fish, and making sure things runs smoothly. So he couldn't help himself and already cleaned the new waterfall filter twice. "You can't believe how much easier it is than the old filter," he told me over the phone. "Dad, the new filter's not supposed to need cleaning for a couple of weeks," I said.
"Yeah, but I just wanted to see how difficult it was and it's not at all!" he gleamed.
The ornamental grass has gotten taller. New spikes are coming out of the top of the ravena grasses. The butterfly bushes are starting to bloom. The hydrangeas are blooming. The annual salvias have returned among the stones in the path. I haven't planted annual salvias in at least three years, but they must re-seed themselves and keep coming back each year. I even have petunias coming up through the bricks in the patio. They must have re-seeded out of the planter pots I had there last year. That's the "cool" thing about a mild winter ... sometimes annuals come back.
And it's time to prune my wave petunias, a chore that I don't look forward too. Everything I read says that it's perfectly fine to cut them back. It promotes more blooms. But that hasn't exactly been my luck over the years. They are definitely getting too leggy now, but I know once I cut them back it'll be weeks before they bloom again. I just can't win with them!
On a brighter note, the first veggies have been harvested out of the garden ... we have a few cherry tomatoes, the first Early Girl tomato, four zucchini and six cucumbers! Yes, I love to have fresh vegetables in the summer. Soon we'll be making our own bruschetta and cucumber salad. I already made some zucchini bread, and we recently dined on zucchini "crab" cakes.
Before leaving on vacation, I declared that my 2008 Planting Season was officially over ... I spoke too soon. I bought a few new plants on vacation, and yesterday I had to stop at Lowe's to get gravel for a new pond plant I bought ... and there by the check out stood racks of plants marked "Clearance." Well, you know, I couldn't pass that by without a look. So I got some elephant ears ($1.99), a lonely lime green hosta ($1.49), lantana ($2.49) and a few more geraniums (all under $1), because, you know, I can't pass up a bargain.
Remember, there's still a lot of good stock out there, just be sure to check the roots before buying. And when planting these late buys, definitely break up the root ball so the roots don't continue growing in the shape of the pot they've been kept in.
So now that I'm back, there's lots to share ... I tell you about the new plants I got at Rehoboth Beach, plus the unexpected visitor on one of them, my lillies, salvias, ferns, hostas, the parrot boat and, best of all, the triumphant return of Flamingos to my nighttime landscape!
I spend time every day tending to various aspects of my garden. I'm happy to do it. It's very therapeutic and I enjoy seeing the plants grow and bloom or produce veggies. But sometimes it's like watching paint dry ...
Before I go on vacation, I always trim things up, make sure the last plants are planted, finally finish mulching and water and fertilize everything again.
Although every vacation is a great getaway, there's no place like home, and I look forward to seeing what's been happening in the garden. And I'm never disappointed. Everything seems to have grown a lot this time ... the pond's overcome with water hyacinths and lillypads. (I'm happy to report that the waterfall's just fine.)
My dad's on "pond watch" while I'm away, feeding the fish, and making sure things runs smoothly. So he couldn't help himself and already cleaned the new waterfall filter twice. "You can't believe how much easier it is than the old filter," he told me over the phone. "Dad, the new filter's not supposed to need cleaning for a couple of weeks," I said.
"Yeah, but I just wanted to see how difficult it was and it's not at all!" he gleamed.
The ornamental grass has gotten taller. New spikes are coming out of the top of the ravena grasses. The butterfly bushes are starting to bloom. The hydrangeas are blooming. The annual salvias have returned among the stones in the path. I haven't planted annual salvias in at least three years, but they must re-seed themselves and keep coming back each year. I even have petunias coming up through the bricks in the patio. They must have re-seeded out of the planter pots I had there last year. That's the "cool" thing about a mild winter ... sometimes annuals come back.
And it's time to prune my wave petunias, a chore that I don't look forward too. Everything I read says that it's perfectly fine to cut them back. It promotes more blooms. But that hasn't exactly been my luck over the years. They are definitely getting too leggy now, but I know once I cut them back it'll be weeks before they bloom again. I just can't win with them!
On a brighter note, the first veggies have been harvested out of the garden ... we have a few cherry tomatoes, the first Early Girl tomato, four zucchini and six cucumbers! Yes, I love to have fresh vegetables in the summer. Soon we'll be making our own bruschetta and cucumber salad. I already made some zucchini bread, and we recently dined on zucchini "crab" cakes.
Before leaving on vacation, I declared that my 2008 Planting Season was officially over ... I spoke too soon. I bought a few new plants on vacation, and yesterday I had to stop at Lowe's to get gravel for a new pond plant I bought ... and there by the check out stood racks of plants marked "Clearance." Well, you know, I couldn't pass that by without a look. So I got some elephant ears ($1.99), a lonely lime green hosta ($1.49), lantana ($2.49) and a few more geraniums (all under $1), because, you know, I can't pass up a bargain.
Remember, there's still a lot of good stock out there, just be sure to check the roots before buying. And when planting these late buys, definitely break up the root ball so the roots don't continue growing in the shape of the pot they've been kept in.
So now that I'm back, there's lots to share ... I tell you about the new plants I got at Rehoboth Beach, plus the unexpected visitor on one of them, my lillies, salvias, ferns, hostas, the parrot boat and, best of all, the triumphant return of Flamingos to my nighttime landscape!
Labels: flamingo lights, gardening, ornamental grasses, petunias, salvias, vegetable gardening
posted by Garden Gal at
12:23 PM
1 Comments:
Do you ever have trouble with your grasses not getting big? I bought two silvertailed grasses and they've barely inched up from the purchase size. I bought them well over two months ago. I'm wondering if they need fertilizer or if they're getting too much sun.
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