LeafNotes

A typical conversation with myself when I am out killing slugs with my ammonia solution…

Where are you hiding today?
How dare you!
Take that!
Ewwww, did I just step on one?
You ate the whole thing?!
Not the bloom!
How can there be so many and I’m out here all the time?
Ah ha, got you mating buggers- two for one spray!
You big black ones are hard to find.
Not used to all you little brown sluggies.
Ah ha! I’m on to your favorite hiding places now.
I may have to resort to slug poison, there are too many of you.
You will not beat me!

What’s newly blooming:

• clematis
• edelweiss

Since all it has done for the past 5 days is rain, I have not worked in the yard a bit and am itching to do so.  Though instead, I have been enjoying the bountiful blooms in the garden from the shelter of my home.  The colors and textures are wonderful and I am quite impressed with myself and my plant choices, though of course, there is so much I still want to accomplish/move/change.

I have also been enjoying the many birds that visit my garden throughout the day.  I particularly have fun watching two finch couples.  They visit the thistle feeder throughout the day and also really seem to enjoy the for-get-me-not seeds that are on the stems.   I have wanted to sprinkle the spent for-get-me-not stems in my little meadow for next year’s enjoymennt, but it has just been too wet.  It’s nice to see the finches enjoying them in the meantime!

Along the way, I may not have noted all the blooms so here’s what I may have missed and what is still blooming, some new since last entry as well:

• Allium
• Lady’s Mantle
• Dutch Iris
• Foxglove (Digitalis)
• Geum
• Lily of the Valley
• Astrantia (green)
• Columbine
• Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima)
• Snap Dragons

Fruit and Berries that have flowered and set fruit:

• Sour Cherry
• Strawberry
• Blueberry
• Red currant
• Black Currant
• Gooseberry
• Raspberry

The Dahlias have started sprouting within the past two weeks and with some assistance from slug poison to keep the slugs at bay, are starting to thrive.

Finally, we have a new addition in our backyard, a playhouse for the kids. To say that it was a huge hit is an understatement!

Memorial Day weekend saw much work being done in the garden. Thanks to Marenakos we found just the right rocks to build a little retaining wall for the final plantings around our new fountain. The solar fountain arrived from Silicon Solar Inc. and I already had the plants as relocations from my own yard or plants I had picked up at the local Lake Wilderness Arboretum.

I placed the rocks, poured in the soil, placed the plants, secured the landscape cloth for weed control and poured beauty bark. My husband assembled the fountain and pump and viola, the fountain is done! As a pleasant surprise, the fountain even came with underwater lights that turn the water silvery in the dark. We do have solar landscape lights on order as well, but for the time being we are very pleased!

Elsewhere, yesterday I planted some plants from my stockpile that every gardener always has such as a rhodie, a grass and some others that I’ll get the names of later. I also relocated a couple of plants that were being crowded such as one of my white roses. There is always more to do though. Next up I need more beauty bark so I can lay more landscape cloth around some trees and shrubs.

Here’s what’s newly blooming:

• Geum
• Exbury azaleas
• Columbine
• Iris
• Poppy
• Lupine
• Chives

The lawn fertilizer guy was here today.  I do not do lawns.  Okay, I mow it, but that is about it.  I do not care about what a lawn may or may not need and just want it to look good- green with no weeds. I do not want to worry about what kind of fertilizer it needs and when.  And core aeration is just more than I am willing to think about.  And so, I have a lawn service.  As long as they don’t spray herbicide on my plants (yes, this has happened and I promptly got a check for replacement value from them and a promise to be more careful) or spill too much lime on the driveway (yes, this has happened too and I had them come back and clean it up) and keep the lawn looking enviable, I’m happy.  They fertilize, de-moss, kill weeds, spread lime, re-seed once a year and aerate.  I just turn on my irrigation system and mow.  The lawn is just about perfect.  I say “just about” as we don’t have an edger, but otherwise, it’s as perfect as one can get it with a line cutter.  Now this is all despite the neighborhood association and here’s why…

The association has a no granular fertilizer clause in the covenants and no one can figure out why.  The water district prefers granular as this doesn’t flush right into the water system, but here we here with this nonsensical clause.  This is another reason I have a lawn service.  Trying to use the fertilizers that you spray with a hose are just too much work and are barely effective.  I tried.  I would actually rather be weeding.  So, the lawn service sprays their magic lawn elixir and sometimes even use granular, but it’s not my fault.  I am on the record telling them that it isn’t allowed here.  I am glad they ignore me and just do their thing like I pay them to do.

Yes, it’s still raining and I have been reduced to writing about my lawn.  At least it’s very green!