The heat wave started on Tuesday and the very first thing I had to do when I got outside at 5:45AM was water the seedlings. I also set up a sprinkler to water the New East garden as soon as the sun is off the plants.
Because it was so early and the sun wasn’t really up yet, I decided to try to get photos of the Big rose by the cold frames. But they have such a radiance about them, they just sort of wash out.
But there sure are a lot of flowers on this plant.
The goal for the day was to weed this South garden and find out how the sweet peas had fared. This was just as I was starting.
Under all that grass and weeds, there was a sedum flowering and the sweet peas had survived. I put them up into their trellis and I hope they do well now the grass is gone. Then I planted:
Wallflowers (3)
Red begonias (2)
White impatiens (1)
Double unscented dianthus (1)
Portulacas (2)
Once this side was done, I set about weeding the other leg of this garden.
The 4 O’Clocks had crowded the clematis on the trellis on the far left. So I hacked them out of there, leaving 2 small 4 O’Clocks. There were a LOT of black-eyed susans in this bed. I left a few of them, but the majority got yanked out.
The ground cover in the garden is white alyssum, a flower my husband liked. The tall bushy plant is chocolate mint in a pot. I had to cut away where it was trying to send out roots over the top of the pot. The next 2 are hollyhocks. They had bad rust on the leaves so I took them off. In the corner on the right is a pot of hybrid spiderwort, and a geranium.
While I was doing that section of the South garden, I was also pulling the weeds out of the stones in the walkway. I eventually got the whole thing done. It’s lined with creeping thyme and violets.
This shows the black-eyed susans on the left, white alyssum and black-eyed susans, and the chocolate mint.
As I worked my way down the walkway, I reached the West of Steps garden. It’s a tiny thing, with daffodils, a dianthus (that died), a chrysanthemum, and stars of Bethlehem in front by the flowering thyme. This is before.
The chrysanthemum was just hanging on, and the pansies I put in during the spring were doing well. As I said the dianthus died. So I planted:
1 scented dianthus
1 snapdragon
1 red verbena
1 tiny portulaca
By this time the sun was working its way into this area. I finished the walkway and quit at 9:30AM. The thermometer read 79F in the shade.
On Wednesday I hope to get out early again and do this East of Steps garden.
There’s also this New West garden that’s just packed with weeds. I hope to get them both done and planted.
I need to clean the kitchen, get laundry started, pay bills, update my calendar, get the storm window from the office door downstairs, and get the AC put in the office window.
Larry was in his chair all afternoon. He was dreaming here, the front paws twitching and ears swiveling.
Comfy kitty
My brother is picking up some hot dogs and a cabbage and we are to have cole slaw and hot dogs.
It will be comfortable in here today, but it’s not to cool down much tonight so tomorrow won’t be fun, if we don’t get the AC in and working.
We got the AC out of the cellar and finally figured out how it went into the window. I need to make notes so we don’t spend so much time fiddling around with all the support boards. Of course, the work was closely inspected.
It will be an early start on Wednesday and I’ll be sure to have the AC going in the office, as it’s to hit upper 80’s by noon and top out at 95F, never mind the humidity that’s moving in.