Last week of school before summer break. Whew! So I couldn't sleep due to lots of worries. I got up, got laundry in and decided to make monkey bread again. But this time it's a dough with an egg in it. Which you may not realize, makes a better tasting dough. So surprise!
Today will find me trying to find an answer to my soaker hose. I've read I should soak it for days in vinegar. I'm going to see what it does w the end off and if it runs. And maybe it just needs more pressure. Unsure. Maybe too with it full open I can get all the folds worked out and no issues with that and it placed correctly as it snakes the plants.
Then later this week I hope kid1 will help me w the corrals. Or maybe I'll start them today. I don't want to let the dahlias go too long without being tied up. They can get sprawling if that is the case and just a giant pain in the rump if that happens. And that I don't want.
They say more rain today, I wonder when. Just checked - early afternoon. So I'm hoping I can get that maintenance completed and working.
Then next on the garden list is checking the iris and labeling those that are blooming or have bloomed. And I'm hoping some who haven't bloomed forever get going! Will I find a Gnus flash?! Will I find an inky black one? What lurks out there? My front bed ones are big fans of leaves but no bloom stalks. Of course those seem to not be there the day before and all of a sudden 40" in the air with buds. I've not yet figured out how that happens!
The good news is things have all settled into the dirt well and hopefully have taken off. Maybe we'll have flowers for summer sooner than not.
The monkey bread is delightful. How one can find joy in a sweet yeasty bread with cinnamon sugar … heavenly!
Probably not enough symbols above to spell any particular word, but we didn't get the dahlias corralled because I'm fighting w the darn soaker hose. When I first place it into position, I turn it on and then check to make sure it's weeping and make sure there aren't any bends or folds with the stupid thing and make sure it's watering. Well it did the first 35 feet and weep, and there appears to be water in the hose but there is nothing coming out of it. I don't know if it's just dirty and clogged or stuck together or what. So tomorrow I'll take it apart and just send water through each hose and see if:
A) anything comes out the open end
B) just cap each single hose and see if it will weep on its own.
C) curse at it and say damn you, it's time to work!
Who knows what its issue is, but it made me mad today that it's not working as it should. Irritating for me, so I came in to sulk.
All the annuals are in. No real rhyme or reason to where I put any of them. I just mixed them in and hope for the best. I need to locate my solar fountain and get that in my birdbath. And then maybe Wednesday we can corral if I can get both hoses working at the same time. Grrrrr.
Dahlias look good. Seedlings are standing straighter. That's good. Then I have all those that never bloomed and those are planted in there too.
I wish I had specific beds for the iris and dahlias and not combined; but my yard isn't very large when all is said and done. Not for my collection at least. Not that it's huge - but it'd be nice to have specific areas, specific colors etc. Ah well, probably not going to happen anytime. I've been without life goals for years (like after repeated job loss or repeated miscarriage and it got to the point why have goals, I keep failing at achieving any of them?!) and we'd always hoped to build a home and have something brand new to us in the country. It's not happened, the kids are getting closer to grown than growing and I don't see any big lotto winning in the short term to speed things along, so it seems what's the point anymore. Therefore my cram and jam and hope it grows method is what I have to do if I'd like the varieties I have to continue. I have full beds and hopefully they'll look nice as they grow and bloom.
I don't know why I typed all of that. With my mom's decline, I'm struggling too w having lost my dad early and thinking to myself did he ever feel he didn't reach his goals? He never got to meet any of his kid in laws, be part of our weddings, meet his grands, buy a cottage on the lake he dreamed of, or travel to see us all as adults. In fact he didn't get to see my youngest sibs hit adulthood. He retired and a little over two years later aggressive cancer snuck up and got him. So I guess in loosing a parent you go through all this thought process. Or maybe it's just me wondering why I'm not accomplishing what I had hoped.
And if someone tells me it's life, get over it, I'm going to scream.
Again.
Someone did tell me that.
Anywho, the gardens and beds are all in. Now if they will grow and look nice I'd be appreciative.
Tomorrow it's hose duty and doing a walk around to check new iris blooms and tag others on their way out so I know what is where. I hope there are some lovely new colors! And hope there are those I haven't seen for a very long time. It's time for some different colors. Some of these have always been blooming.
May all your gardens, flowerbeds and spring ready be going well.
Well, today I hope to finish the great plantout 2024. I have to deal w the soaker hose, the rest of the annuals and the great tie up for the dahlias of which I'm hoping kid1 will help me with.
We have had a lot of rain which I hope has been great for the plants and they have set good feet in the ground. I'll have to water the porch planters as when we have rain I tend to forget them thinking oh yes, they are getting rain on them too. They really aren't EVER. Maybe some mist, but that's about it.
I know this is more a place about my seedlings but I do write on my other garden items. The iris have really been doing well this year! I have a bunch I haven't seen bloom in ages. So I'm trying to get them all tagged and will come up with some manner of labeling them. I am hopeful most of them will bloom. That will be great! I'm unsure on the front bed ones though. They look back at me skeptically as I look skeptically at them!
Need to sign the kids up for the county fair and see all what they can get entered. We don't have animals much to their chagrin. But we do enter a lot of the other stuff, I've asked if they want to continue doing 4h and it's always yes. 4h sadly is going the way of the dodo bird sad to say. And the program is looking to really get into diversity/inclusion/other hot topics of the day, but I think it's falling kind of flat with traditional 4H families and they are losing what the strengths of the 4h program once were: learning life skills, being able to public speak, hold a parli-pro type of meeting and be comfortable in a working group, as well as on your own, while developing skills. Frankly kids should be allowed to be kids, learn the world before pushing all sorts of adult topics and problems on them. Parents don't spend time with their kids in the same manner as they once did, community members aren't helping as they once did etc. sad to say, I enjoyed doing 4h things back in the day. And I still use things I learned way back when in my day to day applications. It helps ensure I work and teach my kids some practical life skills and give them interests outside of school, sports or a video game.
So I still have a long garden list and will be glad when it's mainly done! Time to move on to other things and get summer growing and glowing!
Happy day all!
Mornin
I read others kind of in the same boat, you want to be done, you start seeing weeds, the body aches, you question your plant sanity and why you needed this many plants, but then you feel guilty if your pitching plants or you just are like I'm done?! Totally me right now.
I want the flowers, plants, leaves etc. I don't want to hurt like I do after a full day of planting. Gone right now are my days of feeling good about what I'm doing. I'm struggling to finish the plant out. I just want to be done. Right now I have 48 more dahlias to plant and a bunch of annuals. I'm hoping I can get the dahlias in at least. We have grad parties to get to today but I'm afraid I won't be able to move when done planting.
I need to focus only on the dahlias today. I'll fight the raindrops Monday for the annuals and then I should be officially done planting. I'll need kid1s help to get the soaker hose in and string the corrals. I hope it goes easily.
The sun is working its nose on out slowly. The moons remains of the night are super bright. It's suppose to be a beautiful day here.
As for the rest of the garden, I hope I have more iris opening. I'm not sure these are old friends I've seen the last few years or maybe some of the ones who haven't bloomed for ages. I have to take apart two blooms of similar plants. I think they in the end are different varieties. A garden friend here suggested taking apart the blooms and seeing if they match between the two varieties. Kind of like an autopsy I'd guess, so if time permits I'll do that too.
Once the garden is in, then the next stop is preen in the dahlia bed. And a quick weed of the garden boxes. I noticed some errant plants. I did take the basket cloches off the beans. As of last night the rabbits hadn't had lunch. Maybe they don't like the excess of rabbit poo in the yard. Good for me.
Oh and an update on the seedlings, they were standing straighter yesterday so maybe the rain, some fertilizer and real dirt and straw around them make them happier. I don't even recall how many I got in the ground. I'll have to check my chart and go from there.
My chart … that I poured over and redid to keep all my seed saving plants by each other? Yep, well when you start staking and loose your one long row that they were to go in and now those plants have all had to move … to accommodate shorter rows… but getting all the blooms in the ground even crammed and jammed?! Yep that's my dahlia bed this year. I messed up and trying to accommodate the space I have remaining so it will be what it is. That the best laid plans rarely go as I hope. So I flex. It's a garden, no reason to get too bent out of shape. And sometimes you just need to move forward. At least that's what I'm telling myself this mornin.
May the gardens you are in go well this weekend.
Morning all!
I overdid the dahlias yesterday and have only 48 left to get in the ground. Screwed up my staking so I lost one of my few long rows but I'll just deal with it and see what I can do squishing plants here and there.
I was going to head out right about now but we are to have some heavier storms soon enough according to accu, so I may just get dressed and haul the rest of the dahlias out and site them in and make sure I've enough room for them and my dumb spacing mistake.
My soil amending I'm so proud of. Usually the dirt in the dahlia bed is hella terrible. My soil super sandy and you dig a hole and it fills right back in type(don't ask what I fear under my house!). Well I'm happy to report the soil is now black and dark and just holding moisture in and looks good. And the worms! I finally have worms! They like the rabbit poo!
I did get the seedlings in and hope they perk back up nicely! They were stressed out and wiry and kind of all over the place. I'm hoping they'll straighten up with sunshine on them, in the dirt, with straw and fertilizer. I lost two of them, that's fine, I have two batches with maybe 8-10 siblings so will see what comes from them.
This year unsure how all of this will do. I guess soon enough I'll see what takes off if at all. I am hopeful they'll all bloom heavily. I'll also be putting 12 2023 seedlings in the ground that didn't bloom last year. The reason there are 12 is it's really 6 that hadn't bloomed but I planted two of each to see what I have. Either they'll be great or they'll be sketchy.
Well, I should grab my second cuppa and get dressed and at least go get those last pots sited and make sure there is room for my mess up. Then I'll work on the hose switch and start to snake that in place. I'll need the hubs to help get it in place on the faucet. I've been having him tighten things up for me so it doesn't leak.
And then once the dahlias are done I still have annuals to get in the ground by the dahlias. Good news is it should hopefully go quickly once I take time.
I'll be glad to have it all growing and glowing!
