Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

5/04/01 - I am very busy in the garden, because the warm weather has returned and with it a dry spell that is very dangerous for my newly planted seedlings. We have not been without rain for long enough to bother the deeper rooted perennials and shrubs, but the annuals and perennials that I have planted over the last month have not had time to get their root systems established. I am, therefore, trying to water all of the beds in the garden at least once daily.
         In addition to my daily watering duty, which I hope will end with a good rain sometime soon, I have been setting out the rest of the plants--mostly impatiens and Profusion zinnias plus a few "fill-ins"--that I raised from seeds this year. ("Fill-ins" are plants saved to replace any that might not have survived in arrangements where you don't want a "vacancy.") I have also taken all of the Wings begonias that were in pots during the winter out of glass-room and the glass-window, and I am planting them, interspersed with impatiens, in the rockgarden along the flagstone path that Gertrude made. The rockgarden, which is higher than the rest of the garden, tends to dry out so that I am not sure how this planting is going to work out.
         How do you feel about lawn watering? I notice that many of my neighbors have their lawn sprinklers on regularly. I believe that lawns can take care of themselves, and I don't worry about mine even in prolonged dry spells. Grass roots go deep so that they can go without water for a long time, and even when the lawn begins to turn brown from lack of water, it only takes a good rain to bring a lawn back to its natural green. So if you are "hooked" on the idea of a perfect lawn all season, take the time to water and pay a higher water bill; otherwise, trust nature to take care of "watering" your lawn.
         The parade of spring flowers rushes past us so rapidly that it is difficult, displaying only one picture weekly, to keep up with all of the changes in the garden and still show a reasonable number of pictures of each early variety. I also like to show you pictures of the entire garden, of beds of flowers, as well as close-ups of individual flowers. I am, therefore, going to allow myself "gardener's license" (something like poetic license) to linger over some of the spring flowers a bit longer than stern nature allows. The close-up that I have chosen for this week is of some very flashy tulips in the Birdbath bed, where, over the years, Gertrude and I have planted a great variety of tulips of different colors, heights, types, and blooming times. This planting is in contrast to the single variety of dark red, medium height, mid-spring blooming tulips planted in the First Triangle bed of which I showed a picture at this time last year--just click on "Last Year's" below to see what that bed looked like.

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