Well spring is really gone now so time for a new title.

I put in Sharon's new Catalpa yesterday and what should have taken two to three hours took over six.
Do not know if I am that horribly out of shape or what.
I saved the sod that was there and will put it in a dead spot today.
I put in another tree last year that was far, far, far more difficult with no problem and less time although I had to dig out the old root and stump first and that took another day.

Any way, I got it out of the 25 gallon pot without cutting the pot off or trimming roots that were sticking out of the drain holes.
Was not sure I could pick up the whole thing to put it in the hole but I did.
Now I have to dig out the old tree that is a four feet farther over, some thing I am not looking fore ward to.

Finally got home last Thursday to find the vegetable garden over grown with weed where I had not put down mulch for the potatoes and the rose garden , I had totally weed two weeks before once again full of weeds.

Good thing very few Crab Gras plants plus it rained the night I got home so weeding was easy as I had roto-tilled the empty part of the garden last time I was home and not walked all over it so most of it was still fluffy.
Hope fully I got the Quick Weed before it sent seed out as there was a large patch of it but mostly it was Purslane and some types of grasses that are not a pain in the buttocks like Crab Grass or Quack Grass.
Canadian Thistle was totally gone and another type of thistle that was becoming a problem in the rose garden was mostly gone.
There was a football shaped patch of Nut Sedge 3 feet long and foot wide I left and poisoned.
As usual it was in a spot in the garden where I over treated three years ago not much grew period so I pretty much left it except for tilling it in spring.

Moon Flowers, Datura, are back and this year I thinned them more, a few Sunflowers came up on the edge of the garden I usually leave but this year pulled those that were fighting with others in the same area.
My squash I planted over a month ago and though were DOA like my corn , well , two of them popped out of the ground, so, with the squash I trans planted I have over six squash plants growing in a large empty area; I even left a few Ground Cherry plants go as where the corn was is a large empty area and they are not fighting for space.
ONE corn stalk came up, SO, technically I was not skunked.

Potatoes in the rose garden are doing VERY well; I lost one more rose but the ones growing look real , real good and the old big guy, that was six feet tall for a long time, I thought it had given up the ghost but one stub cane is now putting out healthy leaves.
I will cut off the last tall cane that was green and now finally died and hopefully, at least kinda-sorta, it is pink and I have no love for pink roses, it will one day return to its former glory.

Last year I had a cherry tree full of cherries, well this year my cousin said I had four nice red ones but when I went out the next morning to pick them , they were gone.
MY neighbor cut down his Walnut Tree so now the squirrels are a bit of a pain, PLUS, that same neighbor used to pop them with his pellet gun and chow down.
I do not miss that , though it was a beautiful, tree as I was digging up Walnut trees continually, but some times a pain in the butt has a positive side you never thought of.

Last time I looked my Choke Cherry Tree was putting out a nice batch so maybe I can make some jelly , or wine , this year.
It is losing it maroon leaf color now and turning green.
It has two trunks and I think I am going to cut one off as it is in and area that had one tree and one lilac bush twenty years ago and now has way too many bushes and trees too close together

I have a Amur Choke Cherry that I am going to cut down. The trunk is now at least ten inches in diameter and it is old enough it is starting to lose the shiny golden bark being replace with plain old fashioned bark.
It is too close to the house and I do not want to have to dicker with branches hitting the roof and the siding of the house.
I put in in about seventeen years ago plus or minus a couple , I got it for free from a closing greenhouse , and in the past three years it has really taken off trunk twice as wide and at least seven feet higher.

After two days of being on hands and knees weeding, I filled two large compost bins the city gives you, one was my neighbors, I took a break yesterday and went on a rode trip taking a friend into the Twin Cities to have his hand operated on again.
Should have kept working as after I drove back up to Sharon's yesterday, at midnight, things I did not get done started popping into my head.
Well I am heading back down home again later this week for some summer events and I will do those then.

I will be heading home soon to finish up what I missed but tornadoes did damage to a town just 9 miles East of my house so I wonder if I will be picking up branches as I have hybrid Maple trees that loves to shed annoying size branches .

I have to put down some weed killer as Crab Grass is back and Creeping Charlies is running wild.
Even though I have been doing lawn work for fifty plus years, it still amazes me how you can get weeds down to a small patch or seemingly gone and then because you pretty much ignore them for a couple of years, they are back far worse then they were when you started controlling them years earlier.

It's been a very busy couple of months, I've taken on a few more customers this season, maintaining their yards and garden beds. Feel good though and I can always use a few more shekels in my pocket.

Hello RpR, it's been a challenge keeping down the weeds in my yard this summer, I've been focused on making sure my customers don't see weeds in their flower beds.

Around my backyard this evening.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/...

j52 said:It's been a very busy couple of months, I've taken on a few more customers this season, maintaining their yards and garden beds. Feel good though and I can always use a few more shekels in my pocket.

Hello RpR, it's been a challenge keeping down the weeds in my yard this summer, I've been focused on making sure my customers don't see weeds in their flower beds.

Around my backyard this evening.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...

Nice plant flower cluster.
It has been a good year for flower gardens, when the humid heat hit hear it was almost like it is with corn, you could hear them growing at night.
Although they say do not do it, even though I have in the past, potting soil, at least some , we used this year has horrid moisture retention qualities so mixing in some garden soil reduces the nasty wilting if you miss a regular watering .
I have been dealing with hanging pots for decades and know those you buy do not hold water but some Sharon created herself are just as bad.

I finally finished weeding both the North and South gardens last night. South has not been sprouting weeds as soon as you turn your back on it any more, and I turned into a yellow toast a large patch of Nut Sedge.
Damn squash bug got into the one squash down there I bought; I cut them out but doubt it will survive. All those that are transplanted volunteers look good but are at least two week behind.
Transplanted tomatoes down South look amazingly good.
It now seems last potatoes I planted are not coming up and since the dozen or so I kept in a bucket, in the house , have not sprouted yet, I am wondering if I should call the company and ask just what in hades name they sent me.

North garden turned into a green jungle due to laziness on my part, plus poor planting planning with too much , too close together.
I crawled in, literally, thank God my knees seem to be a lot tougher than they were ten years ago, and pulled weeds, and thinned mostly tomatoes but also some carrots.
Chiles are not doing great but one or two are doing better than the rest; squash came up gang busters and I am thinking of removing one or so of them as they, even when redirected , want to go where they do not belong.
Cucumbers, look like , they will finally give me enough cukes I might pickle some, maybe; I finally pulled most of the lettuce yesterdeay and found out , IF, planted in good soil, with structural support, I.E. in the middle of a cage for string beans, lettuce plants can grow six feet high and get two inches in diameter at the base.
I pulled it so I could reach in and get the beans without hunting.
It is by the compost pile and fence so it is a good moist area and was literally a jungle of tall Oxalis and short Cleome also.
I kind of hated weeding it but there was Chick Weed in their too and that has been my buttocks agitator for too many years now.
Potatoes are going gangbusters now, and I will get some sweet corn but probably should have reduced my seeding rate by one half although cob production should be good with them being so crowded.
I actually have some Tomatillos, I will use as they popped up by the sweet corn area path that no longer exists as volunteer this and that has set root there.

Good year for veggies and flowers this year which with you doing yard work for others probably know very, very well.

I have seen butterflies here and there all summer , so far no cabbage buttervermin.

I am starting to see more and more bees, mostly Bumble Bees but that is fine, still see a wasp every now and then but no hornets which is a blessing and bit of a worry all at once.
Beside Crows, very few birds this summer even with the bird feeder and down South except for Crows and Turkeys, which are now a vernin, noting, no Robins, no Grackles.
Due to the fact the the Turkey hatch near my home has a chick with non-wild Turkey colors, I fear it crossed with a domestic Turkey which is one reason they show no fear of man.

Both gardens are now doing very well, probably best year I have had for three or four years.

Tomatoes are doing real, real well with very larg Green Zebra, even larger than big one I had a few years back.
Sweet corn North will be ready for eating in a week or so, squash in both gardens doing very well.
Tomatoes I transplanted along with squash also transplanted look good.
Peruvian Purple potatoes I put in the Rose Garden down South are three feet high ; I hope the yield equals the vine size.
Roses look good in both gardens this year; the big boy I had to cut down is growing again and has a bud on it.
Volunteer Tomatillo now have fruit and the fact they grew in an area crowed means other plants stopped them from falling over.
I found a volunteer tomato on the edge of the sweet corn with fruit on it.
Good year.

I noticed several hummingbirds in my backyard this past week. I was hoping that growing scarlet runner beans would bring more of them in and it seems to have done that.
My three cucumber vines in my GH got attacked with spider mites. I think I treated two in time, the third I cut down, it was too late to save.

Thought I would walk into the downtown yesterday morning. Got caught it a real downpour. So I stood for half an hour pressed up against a skyscraper trying to stay dry.

I was going to bike into Fish Creek Park today but there's a bear warning out and I don't have any bear spray, maybe I'll head out into the prairie instead.

Aphids have started attacking some of my bedding plants, I was wondering when they would show up.

Brief heavy rain with high wind this morning.
Lost another part of a very old Arbor Vitae.

Cut out part of a equally old Lilac with a trunk 8 inches in diameter.
Sad to lose an old Lilac like that.

Now that Autumn is almost here (it officially arrives on Monday) there are more peppers turning red.

I just love how pretty those red ones look. Even when they are still on the plant they look so pretty.

Here are some Lombardo peppers in both red and green.