Saturday, 1 June 2024
at home
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With the big rain predicted, I planted yet more cosmos. The soil is still fairly damp and I thought I could get away without watering them in, rather a pain with tiny plants. I had about two six packs that I had been going to use elsewhere, and didn’t, and not quite knowing what to do, had planted them in two big pots.
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That was ridiculous, because it had used up two big pots (one a plastic faux half whiskey barrel) worth of potting soil that I need!
They popped right out, having only been potted since Thursday night, and I squoze them in here and there, and potted up some of the little (supposedly big later) yellow ones into little pots on the plant sale table in case I do have a garden open soon.
Skooter sitting on a cosmos instead of a weed:
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My real mission of the day was planting seeds, many different veg seeds, in every space I could find (including the faux half whiskey barrel!). Planting seeds is exhausting to me, not sure why, but I got through all the little packets and now have a second sowing of beets, and coriander and bush beans (three or four kinds) and a few runner beans, and some carrots and some celery starts that I grew in a little six pack, and some turnips whose seed might be too old, in the fish totes and the behind garage veg pots. And some flowers, nigella and evening scented stock and bachelor buttons and peach coloured alyssum and other whatnots, some in the garden and some in pots, probably planted too late but that might be ok because it has been unseasonably chilly. I have a very good crop of arugula which I could have for my dinner salad (Allan doesn’t like it).
I used up all of the bagged Harvest Supreme mulch that I had stored in a leaky garbage bin. Here’s a handy hint: I find that to reach down into the bottom of a bin like that is pretty difficult if it is at ground level, so I put it up on blocks.
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I was ever so glad that the seeding was done! I went on to repot a couple of container plants and now already have to make a trip for more potting soil.
I contemplated again, would the full bloom of Paul’s Himalayan Musk be worthy of an open garden day?
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I walked around fertilising roses and hardy fuchsias before the big rain.
Dortmund rose fighting it out with hops:
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Pink peony and pink rose:
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The Nicotiana langsdorfii that I overwintered in the greenhouse, planted, and then stepped on, is coming back!
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A glorious rose whose name I have misplaced:
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Rose ‘Radway Sunrise’ with white camassia and Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’:
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Everywhere I went, robins hopped and flew in front of me. There must have been at least seven foraging in the garden.
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I took a walk into the woods to find a home for two frogs.
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Allan had mended a broken frog rescued from a friend’s garbage can. I found a home for it by the deep swale.
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And I jfound a home by the frog bog for another frog-like planter that had come to me second hand. (I have just remembered a metal insect I can put in its mouth!)
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In the willow grove, looking west…
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…and east.
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The metal path:
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The deep path still holding some water:
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Emerging to the fire circle:
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June and we haven’t had a spring campfire. It has either been too cold, too wet, too windy, or we were too tired.
I pulled the somewhat mildewy foliage off of the pulmonarias, which always get tatty about now, and which will grow back:
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Looking north from the fire circle:
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Yesterday’s project on Willows Loop West:
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Four lovely trellises we got from the Js some time ago. I love them but have not thought of the perfect spot. I said let’s put them where we will remember to find a permanent place for them. Now on the west fence, waiting. They won’t go there because the escallonia will grow to over fence height.
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I am having a problem with my podocarpus turning yellow. It did not respond to evergreen fertiliser. Earlier today, I virtuously sorted and tidied most of the stuff sitting out on the floor along the plant supply side of the garage and found a bag of iron safe that someone had given me, so I tried that. If it won’t turn green, out it must go; it is bringing down the tone.
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The wind was rising and, to the east, the blue wall was flapping loudly.
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Allan weeded his fern garden…
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He dismantled an electric heat stove that we bought while at our tiny previous house, a great disappointment that cost a pretty penny but threw out very little heat and now needs a part that is hard to come by. He says it is now ingredients for garden art and containers (and I think I can have that wooden box for a planter or …something).
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Here it is, from an ad, as it once was. Such a shame it did not work well. I had such high hopes.
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I turned my attention to saving water by dipping water out of the rain barrels into buckets, watering cans, plastic bins, and even milk jugs and little nut jars. I know the barrels will refill quickly if the expected rain comes, and with maybe a long spell dry weather predicted after Tuesday, I would like a big stash of water for watering containers and special plants. Last year spooked me with its drought from mid May to late September. This year, had I still been caring for Long Beach, we wouldn’t even have had to start watering yet (which was also true of June 2022). That was my favourite and very unusual kind of work year, when we could start watering in June instead of mid May.
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That is about half of what I saved! We are ready, and with 45 mph wind predicted, we have all our devices and back up chargers charged up.
I can’t comment on the amount of work involved for you in an open garden but I think ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ is absolutely worth gazing on in its beautiful abundance. About your Podocarpus: I had one at the Portland house that always tended to a yellowish color and I came to the conclusion that’s just the look of that species. I was disappointed because I wanted that lovely deep green. Is yours P. salignus as well? I think possibly P. macrophyllus is greener?
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It’s Podocarpus macrophyllus var. maki, from Forest Farm, described as having “deep green needles”. Which it did when it arrived. Funny thing is, and I am going to write an illustrated post about this, I have loads of plants with gold foliage and love them, but somehow they look purposeful and this one just looks like it’s failing. If I thought it was supposed to be gold, I’d probably just wish it was a little more golden. In the front garden, it was in a dry area, now it’s in a lusher and damper (but not boggy) area.
Podocarpus macrophyllus var. maki
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You take so many pictures and put so much into your posts that I wonder that you have any time left for actual gardening. Still you must find some time, because your garden is looking in very good shape.
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Thanks, Mr T! I proofread the post at about 2 AM and thought ohmigosh it is too long, and that I should break it into two, but it was too late. 😉 You know how it goes worrying you have too many pictures (in your case, never too many!).
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I do know about excess pictures all too well but even so I always try to finish the blog work by midnight!
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