This week's update features the finale of annual flower selections for 2011, as well as some more ongoing tasks around the garden.

First we'll start with two new perennial selections: carpet roses! You can't really get these in smaller sizes than mature, or for less than $20, so today I found Amber and Scarlett colors from Monrovia at Stanford Home Center.  These will make a nice low ground cover along my full-sun fence beds where needed.

Now for the annuals. For the last few weeks, my wife and I have been looking for New Guinea Impatiens and some more Dusty Miller to fill some tighter areas in the front, and the only place that ended up having them was K-Mart!

Other tasks done included some weeding in the front, grasscutting and edging, and it was finally time to move the Herbstonne rudbeckia from between the Endless Summer hydrangeas in the north bed to the west fence bed. 

A couple of days without the burning heat, combined with a milder forecast means even more work done outside! I had actually not planned to do anything outdoors until we stopped at Lowe's while waiting for our tire service next door. We ended up getting a 3-gal Peppermint hydrangea, with tons of blooms. But I was angry at either Lowe's or Forever & Ever (the grower) because I had bought a smaller one out of bloom which clearly wasn't peppermint afterward. I am also having a beef with another F&E product that's looking a lot like their Summer Lace instead of Red Sensation. Anyhow, we also got a Red Heart Althea rose of sharon sapling and a clump of Gaillardia "Arizona" variety.

To work in these new additions, I decided to finally extend the east wall bed around to meet the driveway 5 feet up. There I placed the Althea in front of the downspout, moved the old supposed-peppermint in front of that, and also sunk my Endless Summer Twist n Shout between it and the Blushing Bride. To fill the spaces in between all of this, I divided and moved 2 types of daylilies, 2 clumps of liriope grass.

The new Peppermint hydrangea was a bit of a task, because my wife wanted it out front for everyone to see, so I really had to think hard for a location. Then, I realized that if I smoothed out the lawn's curves around the yews, it made an excellent nook for it. I then cut the bed out to suit and vwallah!

In doing these things, I was thinning down the east fence bed too. I divided the Zagreb coreopsis twice. At that point, I was really on a roll, so if anything else was done, I forget and it's not that important!

Lastly I trimmed back the yew bushes, as they need every year. More of a clerical activity than anything, and the results are usually good. I might be talented at topiary, you never know!

Well, a few days ago I finished cutting out the northwest corner of the west fence bed. Haven't added or moved any plants to the open soil areas yet - but I will debate which to do so with by the end of Summer into early Fall. Now we're back in a pattern with moist, humid days with half sun, half overcast with temps seldom topping 80 and a few rain showers each day. Needless to say, the plants love it! I'd rather have partly cloudy skies with cool dry air, but can't win them all. At least the plants won't be frying in 90 degree heat any time soon.

Weeds and summer die-down. That lushness of Spring just never lasts, does it?! So today it was comfy and dry, perfect conditions for cutting out the rest of the west fence bed and tackling the latest round of weeds. Also put in 2 pots of Goldsturm black eyed susans that were purchased last week. The growth of things has slowed, but all of the lilies and hydrangeas are getting into bloom and other types are getting ready for their first and second flushes of flowers. 

So today I had a weather window + energy to take care of some of those issues I've discussed in my last post. To make a long story short, I thinned out some plants in my east wall bed that weren't doing so well, mainly by moving them to the newly cut rounded corner of the west fence bed. Included in these moves were the pink & white knockout roses, and the orange/yellow/double-delight tea roses (scrawny and destroyed by insects). I also moved there and divided a clump of purple coneflower, Red Fox Speedwell, pink Chrysanthemum, and a couple of perennial bachelor buttons. Back in the east wall bed, to refill the semi-blank areas left by the moves, I arranged four of my hydrangeas that were struggling in their previous locations. These included the Lemon Daddy, one of the Blushing Brides, a pink Endless Summer, and my Forever & Ever Early Sensation. These were arranged in sets of BB+ES / FE+LD on either side of my air conditioning unit. All that was left after that was a couple of small spaces between the two sets, which I filled in with small clumps of black-eyed susans.

First Heat Wave

Heat, heat, heat! And very little rain... It's been a rough couple of weeks for the newest additions to my garden. Seems at this point that if I don't water things every other day, they suffer from severe droop. At the least, I'm glad this is just a water issue, as leaf scorch hasn't really come into play. Ten minutes of whole-can-watering of the strugglers perks them right up after each incident. This is a good sign because it means the plants physically are both sun-tolerant and heat-acclimated, just not well enough established root-wise. I'm about two-thirds finished cutting out the fence beds, and I'm also planning to wrap my east wall bed around to meet my driveway five feet up toward the front of my property.

Well, today I received the last of my back-ordered plants, which are 3 hydrangeas that are going to live in pots for at least a couple of years. Once again, those were the Mathilda Gutges, Pia, and Harlequin (picotee) varieties. These are in great shape with woody stems and should take off nice as they will also have a chance to overwinter in my garage.

Tomorrow, I plan to get out at the crack of dawn to resume bed cutting and I need to make a few last minute transplants. Those roses in my east wall bed are doing terribly, and they need to be moved pronto! Again, these include five items which are hot pink knockout, sunny knockout, oregold tea, orange tea, double-delight tea. As of now, the leaves have been severely eaten back by undetermined insects that have left all of the other plants in this bed alone! The few leaves that aren't completely eaten off look like swiss cheese! These should probably regenerate in a different (sunnier) environment, though.

Okay, time to shift from diary mode to status updates. I've been working a bit more overtime lately, and beyond that we've been in a long spell of predominantly dry weather with temps soaring into the 90's. And that can only mean one thing - planting season is over! Rightfully so, as most things in the yard are now established and steadily growing, with some beginning to bloom. Now, I've shifted my work to saving struggling plants, weed control, and cutting out the remainder of the "fence" beds.