It happens this time every year ... the excitement has worn off, just about everything's bloomed and I can't even bring myself to keep up with the watering ... the Late Summer Blahs!
You fellow gardeners must know what I mean. Every spring, you can't wait to see the perennials breaking thru the surface, going to the nursery to pick out this season's crop of annuals, waiting for those first tomatoes, why even watering is an absolute pleasure in the beginning ...

I love to walk along my garden path each morning, peruse it at lunchtime and then go over it once more before twilight. But lately, I can't be bothered to do much else than make sure the waterfall's running properly, the fish have been fed and the glut of new tomatoes have been harvested. Remember just a couple of weeks ago I was complaining about the lack of red tomatoes ... I knew what was coming. Now I'm up to my ears in tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
And yes, although I couldn't wait for that first fresh taste ... now I'm trying to unload them on anybody I can. But it's hard because everyone's veggies are coming at the same time ... I couldn't even be bothered this weekend to chop up and freeze my peppers. I'll get to it ... sometime.
It doesn't help that my petunias and impatiens look beaten. Yes, after blogging about petunias needing lots of fertilizer, I bought Miracle Grow extra blooming formula and applied it immediately. Then I went on vacation, hoping that I would come back to refreshed, stellar blooming annuals. Not the case. I cut them back, but they still managed to get stringy. Yes, they're blooming, but not like they were in mid-July.
Same with those annual geraniums that I proudly planted in May. They were supposed to bloom all season long. Didn't happen. They're healthy for the most part (I lost a few). They've grown bigger than I thought, but the whole point was to have constant blooms. I'd have to give them a "thumbs down" at this point.
And although I was initially excited by all the salvias coming up thru the garden path on they're own, now they just look cluttered and it's getting difficult to walk thru. I have some major garden cleaning to do, but I'm just not up to it yet. I have another vacation coming up (remember I said I'd warn you), so it'll just have to wait till I get back.
Oh well, in just a few short months, I'll be missing it all again, and waiting for another spring. And soon the Blahs will pass and I'll be getting excited about fall planting ... it's just a few weeks away!


I haven't forgotten ... I'll get to the Stargazer Lillies and Hibiscus this week.

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!

Sorry, it's been awhile, but when I last blogged, I said I was going away for a couple days. And you know how that goes ... take a few days off and pay for it when you get back. So it's taken my a couple more days to clear the piles off my desks (yes, I said "desks," I wear more than one hat at work).


But work's not the only thing that I needed to catch up on when I got back. Although my family did a great job of watering the gardens while I was gone, things needed to be tended to when I got back ...


Like the pond: It seems that another vacuuming is in order. Unless you experience it yourself, you'll really never know how much waste 30-odd goldfish can make! And there's eggs hanging onto the roots of the floating water hyacinths! Not sure if they're from the fish or the frogs, but I can only hope that the fish are making a smorgasbord out of them!


At least I came home to find a couple of beautiful waterlilly flowers! Aren't these blooms beautiful? And the water Canna are coming up nicely. They'll be blooming in a couple weeks.


Hopefully (and I know I've said this before) this weekend will be the weekend we FINALLY install that new waterfall (weather permitting, of course). It seems that every time I try to schedule this task, it rains or the temp is way too high to be doing it in the hot sun. I'm thinking Sunday might be better since Saturday's going to be a scorcher!!


The "hill" where the waterfall is going is really getting out of hand, since I really haven't done any gardening and/or weeding there. I figured why plant anything new there, it'll just get ripped out doing the waterfall. So it's getting quite overgrown now.


Weeds are invading the stone path and brick patio. This happens every year, yet it always seems to just appear overnight. I'll have to buy some extra vinegar at the store this weekend.


The petunias are in desperate need of dead-heading. And we're fast approaching July, when in my garden the petunias get leggy and the blooms are few. Every year I vow to figure out exactly how all those wave petunias in the professional beds at the malls and businesses, not to mention in the hanging baskets in downtown Pottstown, stay so full and blooming, maybe this'll be the year it works for me!

And if that's not enough, I'm not in the middle of a HUGE computer issue at home ... I can't open any programs. I can already tell that fixing this will take a pretty big chunk out of my weekend.


Well, it's not all bad ... I was happy to come home to a pretty established pepper on one of my plants, and there are also some cherry tomatoes and a couple of early girls on the stems. My cucumbers are coming along great this year. They're really taking to the twine-vine I stapled to the shed for them.


And the daylillies! What can I say about one of my faves? They are a great plant that needs absolutely no care at all! They don't take a lot of water and when they bloom, it's show-stopping! I'll blog more about these fantastic plants next week. But for now ... take a trip to Manatawny Creek Daylilly Farm in scenic Oley.


This weekend will be a perfect time to see most of the daylillies in bloom. The farm is located at 64 Fisher Mill Road, right across the street from Glick's Greenhouses. Or visit their web site www.manatawnycreekfarm.com for more information. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Sunday.


Also next week, I'll be featuring my neighbors fabulous garden ... here's a sneak peak.
Well, it looks like my weekend's all planned, see you Monday.