A year comes and goes

With one thing and another I haven't posted on this blog in over a year. I'll try again and we'll see how it goes.

The old roses are fading in the garden now and the peonies have begun to bloom. Everything is overgrown. I keep making vows to trim it all back and something always comes up. This year I did get a start but I was rewarded with a colossal case of poison ivy. I'll work to avoid that in the future.

We're having a neighborhood block party this weekend so I'll do the lawn but not much other trimming. I'll kick in with pruning, weeding and clearing once that event has come and gone

Rain rain and rain

I haven't done a thing in the garden all year and it shows. It's time to kick in. The roses that I rooted from Harry & Barefoot's place are in bloom this week. They are some sort of old rose and have a heavy true rose perfume.

The window boxes are planted, at least. The two on the sunnier side of the house had dianthus in them last year. I left them on the back porch all winter and didn't water them. They seemed to survive well so I cut them back and hung them back at the windows. They're thriving now and are in full bloom already.

Leaves and needles cleanup

On December 1 my brother and two of his sons came and helped me rake needles and leaves in the yard. I also cut down any of the perennials that had died back. This was the perfect weekend for this sort of thing. Everything that was coming down had done it so I didn't have to worry that the yard would be re-covered. It worked out well.

So dry

It is so dry that very little is blooming. I a few purple tall phlox that are making a go of it. They've been chewed down by the deer but haven't given up.

I mowed the lawn!

Today I finally mowed the lawn. (Well "lawn" is a generous term. I have a small lot with some grassy areas. They hardly qualify as a lawn, though.) This may not sound like a big deal but it's the first time I've done it in at least six weeks. It has been so dry that nothing grew. We finally had a little rain last week and it was amazing how quickly the grass (and weeds) recovered.

Portulaca

I planted portulaca seeds in the window boxes on the sunny side of the house this year. Nothing happened so I filled in with dianthus and lobelia. I had used petunias in the past but they didn't do very well. Thi s year the lobelia dried up and died but the dianthus have done well. They smell very good, too. The only drawback there is that they must be trimmed back in order to keep them blooming. Just recently, I noticed that I have two portulacas finally growing in the window boxes as well. They took nearly three months to get started but they have really kicked in now. I'm going to try to start them early next year and will see if I have better success. They do very well in blazing sun with little water.

Rain at last - hallelujah!

Nothing much has been happening in the garden recently. It hadn't rained in a very long time. Consequently nothing grew much and what was trying to bloom was eaten by rabbits and deer. Everything looks fairly well chewed up. Luckily it started raining yesterday and we've had some hours of very steady rain. This may last for a few more days. The grass - which was starting to look and feel like shredded wheat cereal, has become green again already. I haven't mowed the grass in six weeks because it hadn't grown. I'll need to get back to that soon enough now.