By early June I finally got some of the perennials into the new front garden: a few Penny Mac hydrangea, three Garden Sun climing roses, french lavender, sedum and a smattering of other things.
The grass was coming up on the driveway through the burlap John and I laid last month so I removed it and delighted in the first green to grace that area for a long long time.
In the back, the hydrangea along the fence were blooming--amazingly I had only killed 4 out of the 13 the fall before with the homemade baking soda concoction. So I replaced those with new Endless Summers and enjoyed the blue blooms that would probably only last for this season. I tried a sulfur mixture to acidify the soil but the year-old transplants came up pink this year anyway. John's dad suggested I bury copper wire or rusty nails to blue them, which I might try sometime.
I also planted several flats of pink impatiens by the back steps, which did well last season there in mostly shade.
In the one corner of the back that gets a smattering of sun I laid out plans for an herb garden backed with clematis, and I planted seven tomatoes, all started from seed by my neighbors and given to me last month, some bell peppers, a mystery pepper and a cucumber plant in the vegetable patch.
At the end of the month, the Shasta daisies were starting to bloom. On a nice morning I was clearing weeds from around some Kansas-grown hostas that I had transplanted from my Mom's yard when I was startled by a baby deer (who seemed just as startled by me). Deer are common garden guests in this part of the Hudson Highlands but I live in the middle of town on a small fenced lot near a busy road so I don't ever see them. It was unclear how long this little guy had been there or where he came from. He apparently had been separated from his mother and was clearly scared. As he tried several times unsuccessfully to jump the 4 foot fence in the rear and then ran in circles around the patio, I tried, just as unsuccessfully, to get a hold of animal rescue. But by the time I returned outside, he had disappeared. No dead body in the street, no clues about his point of exit. He was just gone.
Equally loving the heat, my crowded tomatoes completely overwhelmed all my peppers and threatened to shade out the cucumber plants as well. I let them go, as I could hardly keep up with the number of cucumbers from these two little plants. One I didn't get to until it was nearly 18 inches long. Not great eating, but fun to pick and give away as an oddity.
The grass was coming up on the driveway through the burlap John and I laid last month so I removed it and delighted in the first green to grace that area for a long long time.
In the back, the hydrangea along the fence were blooming--amazingly I had only killed 4 out of the 13 the fall before with the homemade baking soda concoction. So I replaced those with new Endless Summers and enjoyed the blue blooms that would probably only last for this season. I tried a sulfur mixture to acidify the soil but the year-old transplants came up pink this year anyway. John's dad suggested I bury copper wire or rusty nails to blue them, which I might try sometime.
I also planted several flats of pink impatiens by the back steps, which did well last season there in mostly shade.
In the one corner of the back that gets a smattering of sun I laid out plans for an herb garden backed with clematis, and I planted seven tomatoes, all started from seed by my neighbors and given to me last month, some bell peppers, a mystery pepper and a cucumber plant in the vegetable patch.
At the end of the month, the Shasta daisies were starting to bloom. On a nice morning I was clearing weeds from around some Kansas-grown hostas that I had transplanted from my Mom's yard when I was startled by a baby deer (who seemed just as startled by me). Deer are common garden guests in this part of the Hudson Highlands but I live in the middle of town on a small fenced lot near a busy road so I don't ever see them. It was unclear how long this little guy had been there or where he came from. He apparently had been separated from his mother and was clearly scared. As he tried several times unsuccessfully to jump the 4 foot fence in the rear and then ran in circles around the patio, I tried, just as unsuccessfully, to get a hold of animal rescue. But by the time I returned outside, he had disappeared. No dead body in the street, no clues about his point of exit. He was just gone.
We visited John's dad and stepmother this month and she gave me a smattering of shade-friendly perennials from her garden--some yellow foxglove, sedum, missouri primrose and sweet woodruff--which I tucked into the back. I also took 10 tiny cuttings from some wild rose bushes near my mother-in-law's house over Mother's Day and tried to get them to root. These are pink rambling-type roses that I really love (see photo of parent roses growing on a fence in Nantucket). So I dipped them in rooting hormone, stuck them in pots covered with bags, stretched burlap over the newly seeded driveway, and waited.
