I started the morning with more weeding on the narrow western end of the front slope garden. The deep pink geranium and Marguerite daisy at that end are already blooming away. There is an invasive weed that has a tiny delicate orange flower at this time of year. I left it for now – eventually I will get tired of it and clear it from the part of the garden. The camellias are coming to the end of their blooming season, and I pulled the spent flowers. A few remaining buds give hope for a a lingering goodbye for the season.
Two wild turkeys made their stately progress up the driveway, with a neighborly gobble or two. The wildflowers are still blooming along the far side of the driveway, tiny yellow buttercups joining the blue and white flowers.
I collected two buckets of small stones from the side of the roadway leading up the hill. My focus was on fist-sized stones that will fill the area around the trough that I expect to have the most traffic. I found a few larger white quartz stones that I could not resist. The hill is a great place to gather stones because they are pushed to the sides when the roadway is graded.
The circle garden at the barn needed more weeding, of course. I added soil amendment and Quick Start and planted the germander. It should fill that space at three feet wide, and I was glad to read that it responds well to pruning. I also applied a second dose of Quick Start to the gray rush and lantana from last week. Intermittent showers are forecast for Monday that will help while I am in Oakland next week.
Helen was in her garden and gave me the nickel tour. She has a dwarf lime alongside the house by the back porch, and I was glad to see that it is slow-growing. We discussed pruning the older growth off the bottom of the shrub. Helen also has grown two beautiful heucheras that seem to thrive in the shade that a tree provides.
By the time I reached Lowe’s the five bags of mulch for $10 special was over. Plenty of black and red shredded bark remained, but the brown was cleaned out. I found a pile of split open bags, a clerk taped them up and I took them off their hands at half off. The brown is advertised to be color fast for a year. We shall see.
A Year at the Snake 