We Have Bloom

I'm plant-sitting a neighbor's hibiscus for the summer.  Today, July 31st, it has bloomed!

Manure Tea and Soaker Hoses Do Their Magic

Now that the heat wave is over and we are back to just hot days of summer and lower humidity, I sprayed the plants with The English Lady's Manure Tea.  I seems to be working well, greening the plants up and giving them the strength to recover from the heat and tolerate the active insects. It's a foliar feeding so I just mixed it up in the sprayer with a 1:10 ratio manure tea to water, gave the sprayer 20 pumps for pressure and gave the plants a spritz on a calm morning with no rain in the forecast.

The soaker hose is also working well.  I've used it twice a week for 45 minutes each time.  The leaves and blooms of the plants stay dry and the water soaks in deeply to encourage deep roots for times of drought probably ahead in August.  The herb planters and flower containers on the deck, patio, and front sidewalk and the hanging pot still take quite a bit of time to water in well. 

After an initial spray with soap insecticide after the rainy, cool June days, the plants are looking very healthy.  The leaves are whole and dark green, not chewed by insect mandibles or weakened or discolored by sucking insect mouth parts.

But, once again, am I ahead of myself? Overconfident?  Thinking I'm in control of this thing we call "Nature." We still have August ahead in the garden--and who knows what damage weather and the little beasties can still do!



July Bouquets--Indoors and Outdoors

Full Moon in Full Flower

Here's that moon coming up over the ridge in July:

and the interior of a balloon flower can be just as eerily beautiful:

Oh, the mystery of nature!



July's Full Moon

We had the most beautiful full moon rise over the ridge of the Salmon River State Forest beyond Bear Swamp the past three nights.  It was yellow-orange and moved across the sky quickly after sunset.  The fireflies were also out, lighting its way through the dark sky from our view high above the rock ledge on which our house sits. It is definitely high summer.

In the garden, the border is full and the blooms wave in the great breezes we've had in the past few days.

The daylily Hemerocallis 'Mini Pearl' is blooming.  It is a coral, apricot color with a peach, melon blush.  The petals are loosely ruffled and the tips recurved.  It's a dwarf variety, so the blooms are smaller, but keep coming as long as it is watered deeply in dry spells.

The Panicle Hydrangea or Tree Hydrangea Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' is now blooming also.  The bloom color begins as pale lime green, but changes to white and later, in fall, to pink.  I fed it blood meal last year to strengthen its stems, but they still fall over with the weight of the blooms, especially when wet from rain.

A neighbor gave me a young sunflower plant from her garden. The birds at her bird feeder gave it to her!  I put in the soil a few weeks ago and it, too, has bloomed.

The Big Sky 'Harvest Moon' Echinacea purpurea hybrid is blooming in the border with the others: 'Sunrise', 'Summer Sky', and 'Sunset'.  They have designer colors, large blooms, and a wonderful fragrance.  The butterflies and the goldfinches love them.  I love to see the goldfinces land on them as they wait for the bird bath or the feeder. I've tried all week to snap a photo but they are very sensitive to any movement, even through the window of the house.

Daytime full moons and fireflies!

New, Free Plant

I planted the free plant given out during the Old Home Days Parade from our local garden center, Paul and Sandy's Too.  It is a Tourenia fournieri (Duchess series). I didn't know anything about it.  I found some information on the Learn2Grow and Gardening Pro web sites.   I also found that it was a top ten plant in the flower trials at Virginia Tech Agricultural Experiment Station in 2004. It's also called the "Florida pansy" and it looks like it pops up everywhere in following years--just like our Connecticut pansies can.

I placed it in a rectangular planter that had a bare spot. I was waiting for a perennial thyme to reappear, but it hasn't.  So now the corner of the planter will be home to this Torenia. We shall see what it will do over the next two months, prime growing time!  And next year, too...

Perfect Summer Day

I walked out to the garden this morning to find many butterflies on the cone flowers and butterfly bush. I didn't have my camera, but my grandson, who is visiting, brought it to me. I caught this butterfly flashing his colors in the sunlight.

Time to split the irises --and I have a generous planting in this third year of my garden. I clipped back the catmints and yarrows and chrysanthemums this past week. I always think of the last clipping on the Fourth of July, but a neighbor clips her fall bloomers again in early August. I think I will try the extra clipping this year to see if the result is thicker stems, bushy foliage, and profuse flowering. It's hard to be thinking ahead to autumn when summer is so perfect now--but it's coming, although there are no signs of autumn at all on a day like this.

Japanese Rock Gardens

My grandson is visiting this week. We've been to the lake for a morning walk and along the river for an evening meal, but last night's stop at a Japanese rock garden at dusk was as refreshing as the water in these hot temperatures.

The fluid lines of the border and the raked gravel, the mossy islands, and the unique placement of the upright stone draws you to the other side to look closer and then with a different perspective through the hewn hole.  What we saw through the porthole was the crescent moon!



Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime

Well, it's official!  The daisies are blooming and the butterfly bush just popped out also.  So grab a chair and sit among the blooms.

The perennial sunflower is prolific with blooms.

The coneflowers are fully blooming and ready to take off like rockets.  This photo shows many stages of their bloom "taking off."

I've been changing the bird bath water each day to give the birds fresh water and to keep the mosquitoes away.  We supposedly have more mosquitoes than ever this summer.







West Nile Virus Found

More Mosquitoes Than Usual This Year

Ticks Are Also Plentiful

July 01, 2011|BY WILLIAM WEIR, bweir@courant.com, The Hartford Courant

The state's first case of West Nile virus has been found, state officials announced Friday. Also, there are three times as many mosquitoes this year as there were at this point in 2010.
Mosquitoes trapped inBridgeport on June 21 tested positive for West Nile in testing conducted late Thursday, officials said.

July 1, 2011--A month in the summer garden

Today was a perfect summer day with cooling breezes, temperatures in the low 80s, and low humidity.  The garden was looking good, but needed some watering and deadheading.  I pruned back the thick peony stems that held blooms just a month ago.  I also trimmed back the False Indigo but left the seed cases which are still green and not ripened yet to black. 

I had to cut back all the Knock Out roses.  They were damaged by something that has been corrected with a second application of Bayer Advanced All-in-One Rose and Flower Care. I don't like to use these chemicals--and this year they don't seem to last more than four weeks before a repeat application is needed--but the garden would be eaten to shreds and invaded by disease if I didn't. I am going to apply the English Lady's Manure Tea starting tomorrow to see if that organic "cure" will strengthen the plants enough so that I won't need to apply the chemicals at all--or so often.

I turned the soaker hoses on for about an hour and gave the potted plants a good dose of water.  I'm plant sitting my neighbor's poinsettia and hibiscus.  They look great already with the rain, and the sun, and daily turning to keep them straight.  They also got a weak dose of the Bayer Advanced to protect them.

The daisies and the coneflowers are just coming into full bloom. They looked so fresh, I removed the old daffodil leaves that detracted from their pureness.

Ahh, summer!