Honorable mention -

Absolute gorgeous day with a high of 75.

My white Coreopsis are in bloom, despite the fact the chipmunks keep eating the buds off. I saw one in the Coreopsis bush and scolded him, telling him he was being a very bad boy! When he turned to look at me he had white petals all over the end of his nose, ha, caught in the act! If he hadn't been so darn cute I might have gotten mad.

I can't be certain, but I think this is the same chipmunk who's eating the fruit off my Adams crabapple tree because they are both in the same flowerbed.

This is Punkin on the deck trying to convince me to let her chase the chipmunks. She can't figure out why we let these renegades run amuck in the yard.

The only good thing about the lack of rain is the fact we have NO mosquitoes and can sit on the deck!

This time it's the Astilbes turn -

We are starting to get a few hotter days thrown into the mix; sunny with a high of 87.

The Astilbes have decided it's their turn to get all the attention, and I think it's fair to say, they deserve it. The Astilbes to the left are on the north side of the house in FB #5. There are a total of 7 in this bed.

The Astibles to the right are in the Forest Flower Bed (FFB), and are in the shade 70% of the time. There are a total of 12 in this bed. That means I have 19 Astibles to deadhead in about 30 days. Hey, do I know how to have fun or what?

You can barely see the blue hydrangeas in bloom in the back. After looking at this picture, I can't imagine why I wanted pink hydranges!

Another day, another tree -

Partly sunny but humid, with a high of 82.

We got another tree planted today, this time the Galaxy Magnolia got lucky. While we did hit a lot of rocks, thank goodness they were all reasonably sized, and could be removed. To be on the safe side however, we took the grass out by sections just in case we had to move the hole, something we've had to do in the past.

Shortly after getting the Magnolia planted we got a short rain burst, just like we planned it ;-) We've only received a few days of rain this spring and are going into summer with a deficeit. I think it's going to be a long, hot, dry, summer.

My pink, I mean blue, Hydrangeas are blooming ;-)

Gorgeous day, high of 82. I planted pink Hydrangeas and wanted pink Hydrangeas, what happend?

Most gardeners want blue hydrangeas and usually buy the Nikko blue variety, then go to extra lengths to ensure they get blue with a ph balancing fertilizer. I guess it's the loam and peat moss I used, because I used nothing special.

If I were honest, I would admit I love the blue, even though I didn't think I would. The blue really sets off the pink Astilbes. Some of the Hydrangeas are multi-colored which I also think is very pretty. Also, I'll bet if I tried to duplicate this process in another bed, I'd get different results!

This picture shows one of my multi-colored hydrangeas just "starting" to bloom, which I think is almost prettier than a full headed bloom. This hydrangea obviously loves where it's planted, from the very first this one came up early and set a lot of heads. It gets sun in the afternoon for about 2.5 hours, which isn't what the grower recommended. But it's where I had a spot for one so that's where it went.

It just goes to show flowers are more versatile and forgiving than one would think . . . thank God.

Wow, my very first homegrown fruit -

Sunny and hot with a high of 91.

I guess the heat is good for berries because I picked my first black raspberries this morning. They were pretty good by themselves, but would have been better on ice cream :-)

Another thing, I won't have to worry about the bear coming down and stealing my raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, because the kazillion of chipmunks in my garden will eat them first. The little rascals climb all over the branches and go straight for the ripest ones, how they know which is which is beyond me.

I also took a picture of my blackberry bush which just started to bloom. This shrub gets 6' wide by 8' wide, can you imagine how pretty it must be when it matures and is in full bloom?

Okay, maybe with 2 blackberry bushes that large there may be some berries left over for the bear and me.

Flowerbed #3 is strutting it's stuff!

Nice & sunny today after an overnight rain, high of 83.

Speaking of Stella d'Oros, they are now in bloom and are quite the show-stopper. I have 9 Stella's in the front, and 11 in the back. For this year anyway, the Stella's in back won't need much trimming because they are still young. But I'm betting the front are going to take me 1 full day to deadhead.

If you look at the close up picture, you can see the Goldmound Spirea still in bloom peeking from behind the Stella's. Of course the Sugar Tyme Crabapple and Poukhanense Korean Azaleas have been out of bloom for a few weeks now.

I have to admit that taking the time to work slow-release fertilizer into all of the beds around each and every flower seems to be paying off. This is now my second year of using this approach, and it seems to be working well.

Of course the .75" of rain overnight didn't hurt either. Can you tell yellow is my favorite color?

The Spirea are really putting on a show . . .

Mostly sunny with a few clouds in the morning, high of 78.

The Little Princess Spirea are in full bloom and are quite pretty. Unlike their cousins the Goldmound Sprirea that have turned into monsters in the front, the Little Princess are still very dainty.

Unfortunately, I have 9 of the Goldmound Spirea to cut back in about 30 days, and I don't mind saying I'm not looking forward to the job. But, they are very pretty right now . . . .

The Stella d'Oros are really budding this week so they should be in bloom sometime next week. They too will be a chore to deadhead or cut back, but are also worth the effort.

While I did get 5 cubic yards of premium mulch delivered, I only got about 1/3 of it spread. While most of the front beds are almost entirely without mulch, at least FB#5 now has mulch. I hate to say it, but I'll be lucky to get the rest of the mulch spread this fall in the BFB when we're done planting.

Oh well, as Scarlet would say, "there's always tomorrow", or in my case, "there's always next spring," and with each new spring comes renewed hope for the perpetual gardener.

More rain - yeah!

Cloudy with light rain all day, in my area we received .75" of precip, high of 60.

Light rain all day precluded me from working in the yard, but that's okay, we really need the moisture. With the rain we've been getting the fertilizer is starting to kick in, I'll be mowing quite frequently again for a while.

Too bad I had the echocariogram yesterday, or I would have gotten the lower half of the yard mowed. I'm afraid when I can finally get down there to mow, it will be time to call the bailers again. Maybe I should just plant timothy grass down there and have the Joppa Hill hobby farm come and take care of it for me ;-).

Some of the To Do's I need to take care of in the next 30 days:

• Edge the flowerbeds
• Trim the Goldmounds, Weigelas, Roses, Lilacs, Burning Bush and Bradford Pear tree.
• Fertilize the Rhodos
• Spray the backhill with Roundup
• Cut trees out of the pines on the back ridge
• Weed the flowerbeds, again
• Spray the weeds in the grass
  

Last but not least, plant 7 - 15 gallon trees, 1 - 10 gallon tree, 6 - 5 gallon fruit bushes, 12 - 1 gallon daylilies, 2 -1 gallon lowbush blueberries, to name a few . . . of course I'll be planting these over the course of the summer. I'm glad this is the last of the planned flowerbeds.

Along with mowing, trimming, fertilizing, spraying, and other miscellaneous chores in the yard, I'll be fairly busy this summer . . . :-).

Gorgeous day yet again, I'm getting spoiled!

Sunny and windy with a high of 72; I'll take this kind of weather in June any day!

First thing in the morning I took the preformed concrete to the dump, and while I was at the rock pile, I noticed another person picking and choosing rock to take home. I said to myself, dah, why don't you do that, it's a lot easier than going rock hunting. So that's what I did.

I went through a 30' long and 20' high rock pile looking for nice looking rocks that weren't too heavy or hard to reach. After I thought I'd picked up enough "nice" looking rocks for my hose-path, I went home and placed them.

When I was finished I didn't take a picture because the rocks were still pretty dirty, and I knew I needed to get more river rock for the pathway itself. I'll take a picture when it's finished, and let you be the judge of whether it looks better or not . . .

After lunch while waiting for my echocardiogram appointment, I decided to take pictures of some of the new flowers in bloom.

The 1st picture is of my Little Princess Spirea in FB#7 that's between my back sidewalk and deck. You can also see my fountain, my frog rain gauge, my new solar lights, our patio table w/umbrella, and at the far end of the patio, our fire pit and chairs.

The 2nd picture is of my Goldmound Spirea that are in FB's 1 & 2 at the front of the house. The hose-path I worked on yesterday divides beds 1 & 2.

The 3rd picture is of FB#3 which is in front of the living room bay and at the end of the west side of the house. You can see the Goldmound Spirea in bloom behind the Stela d'Oros, which are just starting to bloom.

Absolute gorgeous day;

Today is even more beautiful than yesterday, sunny with a high of 71.

This is more like May weather we're having in June, but believe me, I'm not complaining.

In the morning after watering, I decided it was time for the preformed concrete dividers in the front flowerbed to be removed. I'd been thinking about this for a while, and after the rain storm on Monday, the mulch had washed into the rocked pathway. I'd used the concrete dividers thinking they would channel the water away, but every time we get a hard rain, the gutters overflow and the rock gets a bunch of mulch mixed into it, I give up!

In the picture you can make out the preformed concrete Don and I worked really hard to get in level . . . oops!

I've decided instead to go with a natural look by using large rocks to divide the flowerbed from the path, much like I used in the back flowerbed. The only problem being, we've used up all the rock on top of the ground, so it's either go rock hunting, or wait until we hit more rock when we start planting again. Not in the mood to hunt for rocks, or plant, I decided to mow :-).

I actually made good time mowing the upper yard. Since it had only been 3 days since I last mowed, and the fertilizer hadn't really kicked in yet, I was able to mow using the full width of the mower. I hadn't been able to do that since early spring, yeah!

What a difference a day makes

Wow, the cold front that came through on Sunday really cooled things down, partly sunny with a high of 74.

Unfortunately I had to work today, so I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time in the yard. Punkin and I sat on the deck periodically, and I didn't think I'd have to water, but I noticed one of the Red Maples was wilting, so out I went to water . . . again.

The picture is of Punkin watching me water, wondering where her deck buddy went.

I did get the order made, and when I got home from shipping, Punkin and I had supper on the deck. It's a beautiful place to relax after work, I feel very blessed.

RAIN!!

I woke to the sound of rain, yeah!! Much cooler with a high of 76.

I was so excited we were to get rain all day. Then I heard we were in a thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch until 8PM, and I said to myself, here we go again.

Around 2:30 the worst of the storm hit our area with drenching, vertical sheets of rain. Then the winds started up, and as I watched the large trees bend and sway with the wind, I said, "If I loose another tree, I'm moving!"

Thankfully we didn't loose any trees, nor did we see any tornadoes, straight-line winds, or hail, like some parts of NH experienced. By the end of the day, I'd say sometime around 7:30PM, the sun was peaking out from behind clouds. Everything looked and smelled so good. I decided to go out and check the rain gauge, and we'd gotten 1.5 inches. Boy did we need every drop!

Warm and dry with more humidity

From the time I got up I could tell it was going to be more humid, sunny with a high of 87.

I'd heard it was going to be cooler on Sunday, so after watering in the AM I decided to run errands after lunch. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten very far when I heard on the radio we were to get high winds and a lot of rain on Sunday when the cold front moved through.

I quickly tried to finish my errands so I could get home and mow the rest of the upper yard. Lowes was one of my stops, and I remembered it was about this time last year I saw the Cedar Waxwings eating berries on trees lining the parking lot. At first I didn't see any, but as I was driving out I spotted 3. I quickly pulled over and watched them for a bout 10 minutes, plucking only the ripest berries. Don and I both agree they are the most beautiful bird we have ever seen.

Trust me, this picture does not do the bird justice. The colors are such a beautiful, striking pastel, it's almost surreal.

Remembering I should be home mowing, I grudgingly left to go home. Once home I quickly changed and mowed the front of the upper yard. Again having to double mow, I finished at 5:30 after starting at 4:00, and boy was it humid, yuck! I literally sweated off 4 pounds in that hour and a half.

All I got to say is, IT BETTER RAIN TOMORROW!

Warm and dry -

Sunny and warm with low humidity, so it didn't feel all that bad with a high of 86.

Watered in the AM, boy do we need water. It's getting very hard to keep the lower grass watered that's on it's own. I wish now we would have put sprinklers down there, but at the time we could barely afford sprinklers in the upper yard.

Mowed the upper side and back in the PM, but had to double mow, which is what I call it when I can only mow half a mower swatch, 12" instead of 21", with each pass. This is painfully slow, and even then it's necessary to rake after wards. To mow full strips without raking I would be mowing some part of the yard every other day - I'd rather rake.

I decided to raise the level of my mower to the next notch because of the dry conditions. I will probably have to leave it there until September, unless we start getting frequent rains.

Again, warm and dry, it's like a broken record -

Mostly sunny and more humid, with a high of 82.

About noon I was walking up the driveway towards the house when a mink (it was black, and with the tail about 18 inches long) jumped from one of the trees by the creek and startled me. I could hear all the red squirrels .were off doing their "drums along the mill pond hollow" routine, so they must have been trying to alert each other to the danger. I'm going to guess he was after one of them? I didn't know mink could climb trees . . .

On the bright side, after the red fox killed a mink two weeks ago and I saw it taking the dead mink to the den, I was afraid he'd gotten all of them. But there are more on the property, yeah! Sometimes is hard to watch how harsh nature can be.

Then in the afternoon Punkin and I were sitting on the deck when a baby chipmunk ran up the Adams Crabapple tree and promptly scrounged every morsel he could get from the tree branches. What the little booger was eating is unknown to me, and I'm not sure I want to know.

I'm feeling less dizzy today, just a little tired still.

Warm and dry -

Spent the day watering the West side of the lower yard, high of 83 with low humidity.

It seemed warmer than it was for some reason. I called the doctor in between sprinkler settings about the adverse reaction I was having to the antibiotics, and she didn't think that was the problem.

After seeing the doctor at 4:30 and doing some preliminary tests, she sent me to the hospital to get a CT scan and an ultra-sound. The CT scan was normal, and the ultra-sound showed a very slight narrowing of the carotid artery on the left side. I am going to have an echo-cardiogram done Wednesday June 9th at 2:30. I am also to start an aspirin a day regimen.

I still felt a little dizzy today, but felt a lot better than yesterday. I'm afraid except for watering the poor yard got ignored.

Chance of rain turned out to be a sprinkle . . .

Cloudy day in morning gave way to a few showers in the afternoon, which were more like sprinkles than anything else. We had a high of 80 with high humidity in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, I believed the weatherman when he said rain, so I quick ran out and fertilized the lower half of the yard. Now I'm going to be stuck watering both sides of the yard trying to get the fertilizer watered in over the next two days.

By lunch I wasn't feeling very well, and by 4:ish I went to bed. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow. I think it may be the heavy duty antibiotics I'm taking.

I did get most of the East side of the driveway watered however, I'll begin again tomorrow . . .