Rained again today. Raining every day. I like the rain and thunderstorms, but my 10 year old dog, Rylie, is traumatized by them.

I'm going out to check plants for any rot again. Using a fast draining soil mix and clay pots really helps to prevent rot. A lot of my plants come from an area that has a monsoon season. So overall they are doing good.

Removed dried out Kniphofia sarmentosa leaves. Placed a grid stake on my Hymenocallis Ismene Festalis. Have tried to be as careful as I can..but I still managed to break one leaf.grrr! Oh well, hope the plant makes a new leaf replacement.

Fed my compost bin the used coffee grounds we hauled from Starbucks, added some more dried leaves, added water, turned the bins several times.

Saved some coffee grounds for direct application to some plants.

I also tried to peek and see if my caladiums are doing anything under the soil..well, some seems to be waking up already but not breaking soil..some still sleeping soundly. I think it needs our full summer temps before it can wake up here.

Bird poop once more on some of my orchids, so sprayed them with some water. Thankfully it has been windy so orchids should dry out fast.

It has been a rather cool month of May, temps-wise our highs only in the high 60's to low 70's..about 20 degrees lower than usual. But I will take it! Just wishing some rain will try to visit us.

Set out some sacrificial pepper plants this morning and some more petunias. We'll see how well they handle this unseasonal heat (80's!).
Watered all the flower beds and admired DH's progress on creating a new spot for our fountain. We're moving it from the back, now abandoned, garden area up to the front yard where we can enjoy it from the front porch.

I am sooo tired, but had a great time planting more containers, got sprinkled on and heard a few distant rumbles. I got 7 filled today with petunias, nemesia, lobelia, wallflowers, butterfly gaura, osteospermum, buddleia, marigolds, hopefully the butterflies will love them.

Spent the first part of the morning moving Orchid Cactus from 6 inch pots to 8 inch hanging pots. March 2014 cuttings so not blooming this year.
This afternoon spent time trimming overgrown forest trails and enjoying the tropical environment. It's like painting the Golden Gate bridge. As soon as I think I'm finished its back to the beginning again. Sometimes I wish we had winter to give everything a rest, but then I don't like cold and snow.

I visited not 1 not 2 but 3 garden centers today. I got a bit of not so good news today and I know only plants make me happy and forget about those things in life I cannot change.

Cheryl, plant therapy is always good. I hope today was better for you.

No gardening today, I had other stuff that had to be done. We had a good thunderstorm with lots of rain and some hail this afternoon, I'm glad we got the rain as our area is very dry.

@keithp2012 ---- I had bees set up in a large upturned pot (with a bird bath on top of it) in a flower bed right beside my driveway. Not a good spot. I found a beekeeper who removed them as he wants to set up more hives on his property. When I showed the photos to our country extension agent at our Master Gardener meeting; she said they were probably Africanized bees. What ? The guy did put a bee protective suit on, but I was right there just taking photos. We both agreed they were quite docile. However, she said that usually the African bees nearly always set up exactly that way; in pots or something low to the ground. Plus it had 4 combs already formed - in less than 3 weeks. She said the European honey bee would take about 6 weeks to do that much. The straggler bees that were still hanging around the next morning weren't happy and were somewhat aggressive and I had to come indoors. Later in the day, my son came over with his boxer and she got stung on her ear. I've got to give the guy a call and ask what he now thinks. Of course, they have co-mingled and bred too over the years; so it's a guessing game sometimes. These are the honeycombs in my pot before he moved them to his hive.

Keeping a careful watch on some green peppers I would like to turn red. Planted more milkweed seeds and some milkweed plants. Repotted two Desert Roses in more suitable pots. Did a lot of watering (using the rain barrels) as those rumbles of thunder I hear almost every day haven't produced any rain. Some of my plants appear to be on steroids ! This is the second time this year I've had to prune the plumbago on one of the back fences and I still have about a quarter to do. I filled up three huge bins (and I cut the pieces down and pack tight). Admired some pretty blooms on a couple of cactus. Hosed off; took a dip in the pool; cleaned up and went off to the library to do some volunteer time with the Master Gardener clinic there.


Did about an hours work on a water feature and will try to finish that off tomorrow. Pruned the sweet Almond tree so I can see the bird house now.

orchidgal said:@keithp2012 ---- I had bees set up in a large upturned pot (with a bird bath on top of it) in a flower bed right beside my driveway. Not a good spot. I found a beekeeper who removed them as he wants to set up more hives on his property. When I showed the photos to our country extension agent at our Master Gardener meeting; she said they were probably Africanized bees. What ? The guy did put a bee protective suit on, but I was right there just taking photos. We both agreed they were quite docile. However, she said that usually the African bees nearly always set up exactly that way; in pots or something low to the ground. Plus it had 4 combs already formed - in less than 3 weeks. She said the European honey bee would take about 6 weeks to do that much. The straggler bees that were still hanging around the next morning weren't happy and were somewhat aggressive and I had to come indoors. Later in the day, my son came over with his boxer and she got stung on her ear. I've got to give the guy a call and ask what he now thinks. Of course, they have co-mingled and bred too over the years; so it's a guessing game sometimes. These are the honeycombs in my pot before he moved them to his hive.

Oh, Africanized bees are just like your garden honeybee, with the exception of being highly aggressive and attack fast, you are right don't want those around! However in a safe area they still produce honey so someone might find use.

@orchidgal and @keithp2012 -- the bees in my pot, which I thought had left, are still there! I tipped up the pot at the edge yesterday to check as I had not seen any bees around the whole day, and feared they'd become discouraged somehow. But they were in there being busy! so I quick put the pot edge back on the ground.

No idea if these are "Africanized" or not, but they have totally not been aggressive at all, even when they were (just a few, mind you!) hovering around the drainage hole.

I have a friend in a neighboring town whose husband is a beekeeper and he has offered to come around later on in the summer and move them to a hive, if I want. He seems to think it's a good thing they are there.

As for yesterday in the garden, well, I did weed the grass behind the bees since they didn't seem to mind my bee-ing there. haha. I also planted out Milkweed seedlings -- my final winter sowing jug. Weeded a bit more here and there, encouraged buds to hurry up and open, stuff like that.

Keith, nice avatar image! with your kitty there.

Planted out division gifts from my sister - darmera, rodgersia, goatsbeard, chinese lanterns, yarrow. Hoping for a bit of rain tonight to settle them in.

Also weeded a small island bed, cutting back the sun roses hoping they will recover from a tough winter.

Got thundered and rained out today.

Really windy over dry plants here today, so I hope we get some rain, too.

I will buy plants on sale that otherwise I might not choose to acquire. Thus I have gotten a four pack of rather sad snapdragons, planted in the Butterfly Bed to recover. Also got (great deal!!!!) four pack with Lavandula angustifolia Munstead! One plant was missing, one in decent shape, two others iffy and one of those I could even smell the roots were rotting. That part of the rootball I removed and I potted the two iffy ones in my pot border, and the one in decent shape went in the ground. Got those two four packs yesterday.

And today I got a Gaura! There were maybe 20 of them on the dollar rack at Lowes and they all looked quite close to death, except for this one which looks perfectly healthy. Haven't planted it yet; that's tomorrow. I have planted out annuals though, this morning, petunias in the bed by the back door and a few zinnias in a container while I wait for a decision to form about where to put them. I also put some petunias in a container to wait and see if my nasturtiums are going to succumb to the heat. One pot on the fence may need to be replaced with something else.

Sounds good, Kyla!

I reconditioned a few containers that had self-sown sprouts from last year, and added an annual or two where needed. The sprouts are no longer just sitting there...the newly loosened soil now has them growing like mad.

I'm doing a lot of areas with dwarf nicotiana this year, and I'm really liking them so far. The only drawback that I see right now is that they don't seem to have that intoxicating aroma. I'll need to do a full-sized plant or two for that, I guess.

I got quite a few of my annuals, and 3 small containers planted between light showers today, thankfully no thunder.

I ran some errands today and had some hours at dusk to get some yard work done. I fed the plumeria and other flowering plants, trees and bushes, transplanted the little Italian Tomatoes into bigger pots. The ficus benjamina I started from a cutting 2 years ago is 5 feet tall now. I gave it a bigger pot, too. I set out some beer to get the snails good and drunk. Got the lawn mowed but not edged and blew off the driveway and patio of the debris before the rains came. Still wishing for some sunshine here in the South.

Finally planted my tomato seedlings and corn seed! Was very windy almost 30 mph I had dirt in my eyes, nose, ears, and mouth lol.