First Day of Summer 2010

 

 Ice Plant from seed-I'm happy with the mix of bright colors

Three days until the garden walk, and due to the rain tonight we weren't able to make much progress at all.  All morning I ran around with the hose, watering plants that had been moved this weekend and watering the newly seeded lawn, which, as it turns out, was unnecessary.   We just had a thunderstorm with quite a bit of rain and the creek is running again.  Bye-bye grass seed.

Today was laundry day, which did not dry completely on the line so I have it all laid out on the railings and other flat surfaces to dry.  While I was hanging the laundry out, I received a phone call from the a good gardening friend of ours who is responsible for scheduling the bus trip. She wanted to make sure I was ok with their plans to arrive here last on their tour, and I was glad to hear it.  It gives me more time to make things presentable and I like having tours come here last as it gives me something to look forward to.  When a tour comes first thing off the bat, I have to get up way too early, and then after a too-short time in the garden, they all have to hurry up and get on to the next thing and there it is, 9AM or so and the tour is over, get out of your glad rags and get back to the weeding.

Being on the tail end of the tour, the group may be sick of looking at gardens, but they aren't on as tight a time schedule.  As my friend said, "You go through all that work for one hour,"  and she's right, how silly!  But once the garden is truly ready, I could have a garden walk a week.  It's just the early timing on this one which leaves alot to be desired with the annuals. When the garden is looking it's best, that's when I'd love to have the same people back again so they could see something pretty!

The ball fountain has been running very well, another thing checked off the to-do list.

Still not sorry we remodeled the shop bed,  at least there's some flowers there now

Mom came down to help me this afternoon and together we weeded in front of the house and under the willow tree and tidied up some more.  Carl came home from work and went out to deal with some of the weeds in the Quarry itself.  Joel was helping him with the string algae (ponds are fun, fun, fun!) 

When he first got home from work today, I was talking to Joel about a guy on TV who had a video camera attached to helium balloons and the aerial photography he was doing.  Joel tried an experiment with our large, homemade delta kite 'Eyeballs' and his waterproof video camera.  He attached the camera to the kite and though we didn't have quite enough wind to keep the heavy camera aloft without Joel running, the video the camera captured was actually quite clear.  I was impressed.  He'll have to think of something to stabilize the camera from swinging back and forth, but I think this type of photography (KAP--short for Kite Aerial Photography) has potential.  The kite crashed into one of our black walnuts, but 'no cameras, kites, sons or trees were harmed in the making of this film'.  If he gets a good video, I will try to post it once the bugs are worked out.

I have this plan to put trailing plants in pots on top of the small split-rail fence we have in the front yard.  My friend, Brenda, who owns a greenhouse in Suamico, gave me the idea as she has done it for years.  I bought some Spellbound impatiens and put them in rather large pots, but though their press says they are capable of handling full sun, mine seem unable to handle even the shade, wilting quite a bit during the course of a hot day, but recovering at night.   Maybe I have them growing in the wrong soil, or too much water or...?  I asked Joel if he would go and buy me several more 'Bubblegum Pink' supertunias from our local greenhouse and he obliged.   I will try these on the fence posts next, stay tuned for more on this project, too.

We have been having very bad TV reception and think we've found the culprit:

 

A teeny, tiny hummingbird!  Ok, it's not the hummingbird's fault we have crummy reception, but he looks so cute perched way up there, several times a day.

 

Not the best picture, but this is on top of the house, quite a ways up, so it is amazing to see the bird's wings, normally they are just a blur.

Ageratum 'Leilani Blue' floss flower.  Seeing it this closeup, it does resemble embroidery floss

We ended the night storm-chasing again.  Didn't get any pictures of lightning since there was so much rain but it was fun and a break from all the trudging around the yard for a change.  

d

This picture was taken just before it rained, but I like the way the white 'Snow Lady' daisies show up--I should plant a white bed next year.

Maybe the tour groups could come just before sunset, that way they won't see any weeds (or little much of anything else, either!

Off to bed again,

Karen