Three days ago I got back from a two-week vacation (to Alaska), and my garden reflected the neglect. Fortunately, we got lots of rain (so I heard), so things seemed to have survived well enough (more on that later), but I came home to a radically different garden than the one I left. After two days of recovery, I was able to get into the garden this afternoon. In short, things were either weedy, eaten up, and newly in bloom.
Bloom report:
Here's what I found in bloom:
Daylilies, one corn poppy, allium sphaerocephalon, baby's breath, foxglove, nicotiana, columbine, gaillardia, butterfly bush, rudbeckia, yarrow, coneflower, lobelia, snapdragons, california poppies, white phlox, a few cosmos, lupine, russian sage, flax, petunias, impatiens, salvia, loosestrife, veronica, campanula glomerata, some liatris.
Harvest time:
My blueberries were ripe, and we feasted on those. My lettuce is still prolific, and my daughter ended up eating mostly that for breakfast yesterday.
Bugs:
The Japanese beetles are out, and aphids chewed up much of my snap peas, so this evening I sprayed a pyrethrum-based spray on all my veggies and fruits (and my one or two hollyhocks). Let's hope that does the trick.
Pruning:
I pulled out the last of my daffodil foliage and my allium bulgaricum, and cut back my very bushy baptisia and my ox-eye daisies, which sent their seeds everywhere as I pruned.
Planting:
I assessed where I needed to fill in some holes in the garden, and planted some annuals: more nicotiana, some petunias, calibrachoa (superbells), cosmos, and osteospermum. I watered all the new plantings with a diluted seaweed solution.
General maintenance:
I moved around a few daylilies, strawberries, and one liatris, to put in a new stone-gravel path around the back of my garden, which was hard to get to. I also had to stake a few tall plants and tie my grape vine up to its post, as it had fallen off.
I'll post some new photos in the next day or two when I get a chance.
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