Good morning, and it's really buzzing. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
This week's weather has been a repeat of last week's weather — minus the rain dump. We've hovered in the mid to upper 80s, excepting a single day — Tuesday — when it went to 93° at my house (91° officially).
And for next week's weather? I think the forecasters are all on vacation and are just running the same weekly forecast through the copier. Once again we've predictions of several days nudging into the low 90s, and several days with the possibility of thundershowers, but no remarkable heat waves or cold fronts predicted.
I didn't get any new pictures this week — the bees on the corn poppy is a leftover from earlier in the month.
Also leftover from early in July is a shot of a brugmansia bloom — yes, it bloomed. Finally. The first flush of flowers was absolutely spectacular; several people asked just what the hell is that awesome plant? I'm going to have to find out what the trick is to get a more continuous display of blossoms, if there is one, because now I'm waiting on the next batch of buds to mature. The buds are there; but they're really small. I doubt that I'll have another wave of flowers in time for next Saturday's Garden Blogging Garden Party and Meeting of the Colorado Chocolate Fountain Caucus. I'm also anxious because my first photos of it didn't turn out as well as I'd like, and I want another chance.
Last weekend the Mister and I did get a 2'x2' flagstone paver installed right smack dab in the middle of the yard. Not only is it just the right size to hold the Turkish grill/fire pit, it is also handy for placing the frog's-eye sprinkler when I have to water the grass patch: a nice firm, stable base so the damned thing doesn't tip a little this way or that way, throwing the water spray out of whack.
Along with painting the bindweed with brush killer, I've been doing the necessary mid-summer pruning of various perennials. Our last big rain dump knocked over the clary sage, so the flowering spikes have been cut back. Past its prime and getting floppy, the giant catmint is being cut back, too (it will re-bloom in a few weeks). Cranesbill, Jupiter's beard, gaura — all need a mid-summer trim so they can come back and continue blooming into the late summer. If anyone ever tells you that a perennial garden is a plant-it-and-forget-it proposition, don't believe it: it's just a different type and pattern of maintenance.
Yesterday I hit up Paulino Gardens for some on-sale plants. I bought three types of ice plants and a couple of varieties of hens and chicks to go into the planter boxes (in between the spots of re-emerging bindweed!). I also bought pink and light yellow coreopsis to interplant with the dark yellow tickweed we already have blooming in the front yard. As I've had little luck in getting delphinium to survive, I figured if I was going to kill more I might as well buy them at 40% off: I found a sky-blue, and a dark blue variety to plant in the back of the east-side beds in the back yard.
I have the upcoming week off to tend to various maintenance tasks outside and in, so we'll be all shiny and ready to greet our guests next week. There's crap to be hauled to the shed from the front porch, weeding to tend to, walks to clean... I get tired just thinking about it, and that doesn't even include hosing down the interior of the house!
That's what's happening here. What's going on in your gardens?