Summer Now

The first zinnia is now blooming, and I found tiny Cypress Vine seedlings in their home around the pool fence. These are signs of true summer, and when I spotted them the other day, I was thrilled. I could hardly wait to tell my friend Leni about them. But that won't happen. She told me she'd be up in the afternoon, I waited to tell her until I could show her. But she never came, and never will again. Rest in peace, my friend.

Saturday

So the steady rain of the last few hours has stopped, and the sun is struggling through. Which makes it a good growing day, everything nice and wet, then warmth and sun following.

I'm planting some of my latest hypertufa pots this afternoon, I'm doing a batch for shade. I have Persian Shield, tiny palm trees, this fabulous purple spilling plant (whose name I don't know), and I'm sure I'll find lots of other stuff out there to add. It will be nice to sit on the cool patio under my porch and enjoy a miniature landscape. I have some beach rocks for decoration, can't wait to get started. Pictures next time!

Plants for Shade

My shade containers are finally coming together. Much more low maintenance, as they don't dry out too quickly. With a little planning you can have plenty of color, too.

Rainy day, time to thin the zinnias

My zinnia seeds are finally popping up, in the garden, and in the whiskey barrels. Of course, even though I tried to space them properly when I planted them, rain and wind and probably squirrels muddled them about. Now they are in clusters, which will fight each other for space. Today will be perfect for gently pulling them out and separating them. The trauma will be eased by the lack of hot sunlight, and the rain. In a few short weeks, they'll have shot up and started to bloom, can't wait.

Me vs. the Squirrels, Part 2

This morning I opened my front door to find an odd sort of debris on the walk, which I realized had come from the gutters. The squirrels must have gone foraging there for seeds and what not. I was briefly tempted to line peanuts up all along the gutters, but the little @#$% have become so bold, I don't want to encourage them to be too near the house. I'd like them to be 200 ft. from the house at all times. At least!

Me vs. the Squirrels

The squirrels are going nuts in the garden (ha ha). They're pulling plants out of pots, digging up seedlings and casting them aside, including the pumpkin seedling from the other day's post. They even dug up my tiny new blue hydrangea, which really got to me. This is a relatively new problem for me, as our old dog, a Rottie mix named Belle, struck terror in their little rodent hearts. But Belle moved on to the Happy Hunting Grounds, where she is probably chasing little squirrel angels. For some reason our current dog, Niles, doesn't have the same affect. Maybe its the clothes.

Another Heat Wave

Its not even Memorial Day yet, and the temperature is in the 90's, even now at 7:30ish. I hope we have a thunderstorm tonight, because I'm too lazy to water. I'm kind of an air conditioning snob, but right now I don't care too much about fresh air, if it would only be cooler in here. The pansies and violas are drying up, and I'm worried about the lobelia and Gerbera daisies, too. I guess perhaps I should log off and water, after all.