A break from planting
I'm taking a break from planting right now. I bought a load of compost yesterday to enrich my poor soil (I have been mucking around in years past with peat moss, soil pep, and steer manure), and I'm planting some of the perennials I bought when I went in a week ago to get a new faucet for the tub. (The thinger to divert the water to the shower head didn't go up, and the faucet I bought was the wrong kind, so I had to bang the faucet with a hammer to get the thinger to go up, and now it's stuck there. Fine with me.)
As for my energy level, it seems to be a bit better, I stayed in bed only until 11am, which is 5 hours earlier than usual, but as far as exerting myself physically, I'm still struggling. I manage to perform one task, plant one thing, before I have to stop and take a rest.
So there's some improvement, but I'm not back to my old self. Some of it is, of course, a matter of being out of shape, but not all of it.
I managed to plant a lupine (which almost always die on me, but I luff them), my Mimulus monkey flowers (in the puddle where the hose leaks), two Phlox subulatas, and a Lithodora diffusa, which I'd never seen before. It's a native of southern Europe, has fleshy leaves, and bright blue fleurs. Lovely little thing. We'll see if it survives.
I've also discovered that two of my Euphorbias managed to reseed plentifully last fall: E. amigdaloides purpurea has children growing in Vitality, with the Hemerocallis fulvae, and Euphorbia myrsinites has spawn in various places in Effusive. My original Linaria purpurea Canon J. Went is dead, but its children thrive nearby, and the Achillea millefolia are also spreading hither and yon along with the Helianthus maximillani, which needs to be pulled up in places.
Nevertheless, I've got plenty of that stupid "Lettuce weed" flourishing, despite two rounds with RoundUp®, so my yard looks greener than it should, not to mention the recurrence of my old nemesis, Convolvulus arvensis, bindweed (pox be upon it).
I also discovered a trick: I have not been 100% happy with the soaker hose I was using in Effusive, the large sunny bed in the back yard. The hoses in Serendipity, the shadier bed, shot fine spray around, soaking soil that wasn't right under the hose, but the hose in Effusive was very staid, soaking only the ground directly beneath it. So I took a push-pin and poked holes in it at strategic locations, and now plants don't have to be Right By the hose to get water.
Did I mention that I bought a bird bath? I fill it almost every morning, and I've seen finches take a swig. And I've seen honeybees around, both drinking from the birdbath and down in my mom's yard, 100 miles to the south. There's been a lot of talk about honeybees dying off, and for the past few years I haven't seen many, but maybe they're making a comeback around here. That's good news.
Blooming: Penstemons galore! Prairie Dusk, Margarita BOP, Sunburst Ruby, Silverton, and the Tanacetum niveum and the Oenothera pallida that I thought was dead (though its blooms are light pink this year), and some Veronica spicata.
As for my energy level, it seems to be a bit better, I stayed in bed only until 11am, which is 5 hours earlier than usual, but as far as exerting myself physically, I'm still struggling. I manage to perform one task, plant one thing, before I have to stop and take a rest.
So there's some improvement, but I'm not back to my old self. Some of it is, of course, a matter of being out of shape, but not all of it.
I managed to plant a lupine (which almost always die on me, but I luff them), my Mimulus monkey flowers (in the puddle where the hose leaks), two Phlox subulatas, and a Lithodora diffusa, which I'd never seen before. It's a native of southern Europe, has fleshy leaves, and bright blue fleurs. Lovely little thing. We'll see if it survives.
I've also discovered that two of my Euphorbias managed to reseed plentifully last fall: E. amigdaloides purpurea has children growing in Vitality, with the Hemerocallis fulvae, and Euphorbia myrsinites has spawn in various places in Effusive. My original Linaria purpurea Canon J. Went is dead, but its children thrive nearby, and the Achillea millefolia are also spreading hither and yon along with the Helianthus maximillani, which needs to be pulled up in places.
Nevertheless, I've got plenty of that stupid "Lettuce weed" flourishing, despite two rounds with RoundUp®, so my yard looks greener than it should, not to mention the recurrence of my old nemesis, Convolvulus arvensis, bindweed (pox be upon it).
I also discovered a trick: I have not been 100% happy with the soaker hose I was using in Effusive, the large sunny bed in the back yard. The hoses in Serendipity, the shadier bed, shot fine spray around, soaking soil that wasn't right under the hose, but the hose in Effusive was very staid, soaking only the ground directly beneath it. So I took a push-pin and poked holes in it at strategic locations, and now plants don't have to be Right By the hose to get water.
Did I mention that I bought a bird bath? I fill it almost every morning, and I've seen finches take a swig. And I've seen honeybees around, both drinking from the birdbath and down in my mom's yard, 100 miles to the south. There's been a lot of talk about honeybees dying off, and for the past few years I haven't seen many, but maybe they're making a comeback around here. That's good news.
Blooming: Penstemons galore! Prairie Dusk, Margarita BOP, Sunburst Ruby, Silverton, and the Tanacetum niveum and the Oenothera pallida that I thought was dead (though its blooms are light pink this year), and some Veronica spicata.