Thursday, May 31, 2018

Thursday This n That - The Plant Edition

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  Well, I ain't Mary, but my gardens are growing pretty good this year.  I got my first lily blossom.  It's pink!  One of my new columbines bloomed - it's white.  My hollyhocks have buds aplenty. No clue what color they'll be.  That's the fun thing about buying mixed bags of bulbs.  You never know what you're going to get.  (Yeah, Forrest Gump moment there.)   My original hydrangea is covered in big conical poofs of white flowers - which will turn pink.  My new pink hydrangea shipped yesterday.  (Still waiting on the 'kaleidoscope' version.)

Our black walnut trees are full of little green balls.  I just heard one drop off, hit the roof, and roll down.  Looks like it might be another autumn where we'll be breaking out the golf clubs and knocking nuts into the woods. 

The black cherry trees are filled with even smaller green balls that will turn red and then black. Black cherry trees produce little pea-sized cherries that are mostly pit.  They are not the black cherries you get in black cherry ice cream.  I think those are actually Bing cherries.  These are used in medicines and for flavoring, I think.  I tried one.  Meh.  But the critters like them.  And the trees are HUGE.  Definitely not cute, little, cultivated things.  Here's a link to the Wikipedia page on those suckers, if you're interested.

Reading that Wikipedia page just now, I learned that black cherry pits can be used to create cyanide.  Hmm. 

I think I planted my new sedums in the wrong place.  I forgot to allow for the peonies, so those poor sedums are mostly in the shade now.  I'll move them later.  Probably to the place I put in the ornamental grass because that stuff is not doing well.  I planted five and they all look dead or near dead.  :shrug:  You win some and you lose some.  I get a little sad when something I plant doesn't thrive.  I'm probably batting about 750, though, so it's all good. 

We've been playing with the idea of building a brick retaining wall at the back of the flower bed under the cedars.  There's such a slope there that no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to keep that bed flat.  I build it up, it rains and washes the build-up down the hill.  My local building supply place even has bricks on sale this month.  Now I have to measure the area and figure out how many I need and what kind.  Then figure out how to transport all those bricks.  Looks like a job for Hubs' Jeepster.

And that's about it from me today.  What's it for you?

2 comments:

  1. It's Thursday. I've given up on any blooms this year. The weather was too wonky. It's summer. And hot. And humid. I really need to go dig out the bermuda grass in the front island. Did I mention it's hot?

    Women's College World Series starts today. So there's that.

    I need to run errands. So there's that, too. I just want to go back to bed.

    I have words to write. They are jumbled so I need them to settle down before I spit them out on the monitor.

    Sadly, this just about sums up my life. Oh, I have new audio books that hit my Kindle/Audible App. This makes me happy. I'm easy, yes. LOL

    Now go finish editing!

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  2. I think the retaining wall is a great idea for a slope. Are you going to try to terrace it? I can see some possibilities for plantings.

    My front yard looks like the surface of the moon. We've brought in two truckloads of dirt and spread it, but now it's way too hot to plant shrubs. I'll have to wait until I'm sure of a weather week of 80s.

    If I could've gotten the dirt only a week earlier I would've missed the triple digits.

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