Work

I paid bills today, stopped by Mahoney’s and Bush Gardens, did some food shopping, made chicken and rice for Fluffles, who threw up again.
I tried to do some painting, but by that time, I was tired and hungry. Found more problems with the fence, so sprayed it down with a bleach solution to get off the mildew, and left the painting for tomorrow.
Felt better after an early supper, so I put up another shelf in the shed and did some organizing.

Gardener’s Diary – Spring Feeding

Finished planting the morning glory seeds today.

Fed 1/2 teaspoons of super phosphate to the “late” Miss Kim, the blueberries and the Montauk Daisies in the back. Fed Plant Tone to the peony and the other shrubs in the corner, hoping they’ll get some sun and dry off before nightfall. Put down more Repels around the tulips, which are really pretty today.

I’ll do the front shrubs some morning this week: azaleas, hydrangeas, the Andromeda. Will need to do the rest of the back garden, too, a big job. Would like to get all the heavy duty outdoor stuff done before starting at Fisheries, including the fence. Will try to recruit the kids to help.

Mr. Fluffles took the sun for a brief period this afternoon.

Gardener’s Diary

More frost, but I didn’t cover the roses again, for fear of breaking off the leaves. They seem to be fine.
Started painting the fence yesterday. Got the small section done – looks good, but the work is tedious. Five to go.
Dropped off the bad fence post to Reliable Fence in Hyannis as a template for a new one. They can’t duplicate the cut exactly, but I’m hoping it’ll be good enough.
A/C in the truck isn’t working again, probably a leak and probably I won’t get it fixed – too expensive.
Good meeting yesterday with Marie Sastre at 4Cs. She had some interesting suggestions for Mentor TechWorks.
Give Camp con call with Jim and Kelley yesterday morning.

Gardener’s Diary – Frost Last Night

It was around 20 degrees when I woke up this morning. Removed two of the pillow cases that had covered the roses in the circle. The fabric was frosty and had that nice fresh air scent.
The cure may have been worse than the disease for the other roses; I’m afraid some of the delicate leaves may have broken off.
The sweet pea seedlings survived, as did the few healthy plants in the cold frame.
I threw some daisy and wildflower seeds in the planters next to the stairs. Think I’ll start the poppies and put them in the cold frame.

Gardener’s Diary

The lawn and tree people were here today, fertilizing the grass and spraying the oaks and the ornamentals.
I pruned all of the lavender – need to replace four plants.
Finished pruning one of the Miss Kims, two more to go. The fourth really does look dead.
One of the roses had black leaves at the tips, and the rose expert at Mahoneys thinks it was due to the cold. Seeing as how frost is predicted after midnight tonight, I put pillow cases and other lightweight fabrics on the rose bushes.
Spent several hours and hundreds of dollars at Hyannis Toyota this morning while they completed 120k service and recharged the A/C.
Had a job interview this afternoon.

Gardener’s Diary – Beginning of April

Talked with a new arborist/landscaper yesterday; he thinks the azaleas will be fine. We sat on the deck to go over his pricing for tree work, and he was kind enough to say “This is nice.”
What a change from last April, when the yard was still a disaster!
He passed on a lot of good information about the St. Johnswort, butterfly bushes and Clethra, suggesting that I hold off on pruning until everything leafs.
He said it will take two years for the grass to come in completely, not necessary to overseed until the Fall. He said not to worry about the grasses that haven’t started yet, they are warm weather plants and probably won’t show new growth until May.
There is life in the fourth Miss Kim, although it will need to be pruned.
The lettuce and radishes “fried” in the cold frame over the weekend.
Jonquils are blooming in the back and the sweetpea seedlings have started.
The Siberian iris I planted in the front last year and the two clumps of home-grown iris in the back (that I thought I’d obliterated) are up and seem to be healthy, along with the phlox. No sign of Mike’s Easter lily yet.
Since rain seems to be holding off, I sprayed the roses with Fung-onil today to prevent black spot. The ones by the house are days ahead of the ones in the yard.
Emme and James helped me plant pansies in the shed flower boxes. I posted the weekend party photos yesterday.
Cleaned up with the new leaf vac at Edgewater yesterday. Finally caught up with laundry and email correspondence today.

Gardener’s Diary

The rabbit has eaten all of the crocus in the front yard, but left the back yard alone. Even so, I sprayed all the spring flowers today with a garlic and egg infusion.

The crocus in the back are quite pretty, purple and white. I’ll have to plant some yellow this fall.

Also sprayed the azaleas with Fungi-Oil. We’ll see if this helps.

I really need to enrich the soil in the front. Big difference in the size and robustness of the flowers between the front and the back.

First of three plumbing classes last night at Cape Tech. Learned a lot. No hands-on this week, but we’ll get into blow torches next week.

Picking up the kids later today for their weekend at South Cape Resort. Why did I offer to do this?!

Leaf Vacuum

I had a $10 coupon and a $25 gift certificate to Ace Hardware, so splurged on a Toro Super Blower Vac.
Azaleas appear to have leaf spot fungus. I am devastated.