Re: peach tree, new map, weekend gardening recap

In a message dated 05/26/2003 10:44:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
justme@prairieinet.net writes:

> Is everyone else ahead or behind schedule in their gardens... the
> plants, not you!
>

Everything is just about on schedule or maybe a bit ahead this year, which is
surprising after the bitter winter we've had.  For the first time in several
years, my daffodils bloomed in sequence so that I had daffs for nearly two
months, beginning around the first of April and just ending last week.  They
are
chosen to provide a long season of bloom, but the weather in the previous four
of five years has meant that they all bloomed in one two week period.
Spectacular, but frustrating.
Fruit trees have bloomed and gone.  Dogwood is about past.  Azaleas are
fading.  One brilliant red-orange azalea is still blooming near a
lavender-pink
rhodie which is just opening.  That's not supposed to happen - never has
before.
The combination really sets your teeth on edge. Dame's Rocket has rocketed in
the front flower-bed to hide the daffodil foliage, and the orange poppies are
beginning to open among them.  These will all go in a couple of weeks and
make way for annuals and a few later perennials.  The tree peony has eleven
huge
blooms, which were really spoiled by rain yesterday, but still look good at a
distance.  Herbaceous peonies will be opening in ten days or so.  A patch of
yellow tall bearded iris is striking.  The Siberian and Japanese iris won't
bloom until later.  One of the hardy geraniums is blooming, but I can't find
the
name of it - know I bought it from Plant Delights a few years ago, but nothing
in their current catalog seems to match it - very vigorous with magenta
flowers.


> First time in ?? everything is in the ground before June 1! Must not
> have bought enough plants this year:) Still have an ongoing clean up, as
> always. Darn Canadian thistle is back big time... thought I had it
> licked last year:(
>
Certainly don't have everything in yet.  Was tied up with work and garden
club events until last week.  My perennial order from Bluestone had come the
week
before.  What could I have been thinking of in January when I took advantage
of their "buy two, get one free" offer?  I have found homes for most of what I
bought, but still don't know where to put everything.  Then there were a
couple of plant sales we just had to buy from to support the organizations.
And
my vegetable order of 1000 onion plants, 50 broccoli, 50 collard, and 100
leeks
came on Saturday.  Rain on Sunday and yesterday.  Today I planted the
broccoli, collards and leeks, plus various seeds like lettuce, Bok Choi,
parsley,
etc.  I hope to get to the onions on Thursday. (I won't really plant all 1000
-
share with another garden club member.)  There are still the seedlings I
started indoors - peppers, basil, zinnias, marigolds, tithonia, and I forget
what
else - but they are still small, and I don't know where I am going to put
them.
Oh well - same old story.  At my age, I'll most likely never learn.

> And lastly, noticed how many creatures have had babies this year in my
> garden already too.. amazing, birds, rabbits, fish, and even snakes.
> Much to DH disapproval, saw one snake and he hit it back inside the
> house:(.. wonder what he would have done when I ran across the whole
> family.. LOL! Glad I could provide a place for God's creatures to feel
> safe, and have enough to eat and drink. Now if they would just eat the
> nasty weeds, and leave my specialty plants alone.....
>
We were looking out the kitchen window one morning last week and saw a deer
standing in the middle of the back yard.  My dh went out to encourage her to
breakfast somewhere else, but just as he got outside the door, a tiny faun ran
out of the shrubbery and began to nurse.  He didn't have the heart to chase
them away, so we stood at the window and watched the baby have its breakfast
for
about ten minutes.  It was a hungry little bugger - so tiny it could hardly
reach the "faucet," but it drank hungrily, pawing with one little foot.  The
mother stood quietly and looked at us for a while, then finally seemed to get
bored with the whole process and began to nudge the baby, which didn't want to
be
discouraged.  Finally the mother just walked off and the little one tottered
after. 
  A touching scene, but in six months - or even six weeks - we won't find
them so charming. 

Auralie

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