It’s been a bad year for gardening. I’ve done very little other than admire the flowers which survived the harsh winter, both mine and other people’s. I lost several lavender bushes, a favorite purple clematis, two older established John Cabot/David Austen rose bushes, and most of the ever-bearing strawberry plants. Other things came up looking pathetic including my hardy Knock Out Roses which did not seem as lush this year especially the ones facing north, not to mention a half dead birch tree and lilac bush. Blame it on the weird spring, with the temperatures yoyoing up and down so much.
In early May when all the hanging baskets were out for Mother’s Day, it seemed too cold to be buying plants which I would only have to bring in and out of the garage. So I waited until it got warmer. Then it was too hot, then cool again…..by then I had waited too long to buy dipladenia – all the pink ones were sold out. I was busy was other things and then it was too late for anything, although I did scoop up three Red Twig Dogwood bushes for half price to try and replace the privacy hedge the new neighbours had cut down. (Why oh why?) Otherwise my sole flower expenditure this year was a hibiscus plant, plus some lettuce seeds (I couldn’t find seedlings), one beefsteak tomato, and a new rhubarb plant. The plus side of not having any hanging baskets is not having to water, as rain has not been as plentiful either and now in mid-July the lawns are as dry as August, although we did get a glorious rain this morning.
Here’s a mini-tour of the good and the bad.
My mothers purple geraniums, with a twenty year spread.Her honeysuckle bush, which is almost too sweet smelling to me.My fuchsia clematis did well and is inching it’s way up the side arbor.The purple clematis was very prolific too at climbing the garden shed.I had better luck turning the hydrangeas blue this year due to a double dose of aluminum sulfate, which has gone way up in price, but note the dead lavender bush in front of it.The rest of the lavender was meh, although the butterflies enjoyed it.One bloom-again lilac bush did well, the other is half dead. My regular lilac bushes had very few blooms. Ignore the weeds, I did. (Note – Creeping Charlie cannot be halted without pesticides which are illegal here.) I had five of these pink dipladenia pots last year, but they sold out early as everyone now knows they are drought resistant.My solitary flower purchase – a pink hibiscus. As for the vegetable garden, I planted five packages of lettuce, all different varieties, three came up, one mixed salad variety was so strangely peppery tasting that it was inedible, even to the rabbits which snuck under the chickenwire. The hardware store sold out of chickenwire so I couldn’t even reinforce it. These bush beans are from a freebie packet the library was giving away as part of the One Tomato project. They are supposed to be purple but turn green when cooked….we shall see…. The rhubarb was thin and spindly, but at least the bunnies didn’t make a nest under it like they did last year. I haven’t harvested it yet. I bought another plant for next to it in case it’s lonely. As seen in the neighborhood – a grass-cutting robot? It wasn’t doing a very good job as it was zigzagging all over and banging into trees like a drunken soldier. I’ve never heard of such a thing so maybe it was an indoor Roomba which went rogue! (I googled – The Terra is made by the same company IRobot and retails for around $1000 – it probably needed to be set up or maybe it was giddy from escaping to the great outdoors?)And last but not least, this month’s puzzle – my kind of gardening this year!
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