Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
6/16/00 - Finally, the intense heat is over and with a nice rain the temperature dropped twenty degrees last night. Today (Tuesday--I am trying to get an early start on writing this because of the problems I had putting it on the Internet last week), I did more trimming along the fence in back of the Sun bed. I am trying to keep my neighbor's shrubbery from shading the flowers, especially the phlox, that grow in back of the bed. I also clipped some of the perennials in the Birdbath bed that were getting higher than the birdbath. In gardens that are not in full sun, plants are inclined to grow taller and do need to be clipped back. This will delay flowering some, but, if anything, you will have more flowers in the end.
Another job that goes well after a good rain is weeding. I have been keeping the edges of all of the beds clear of weeds, but haven't had time to do much about the bed centers. This afternoon, I pulled most of the pink knotweed, white ageratum, and other undesirables from the center of the Rectangular bed. Then I worked on the sunny bed in front of the house, which I have neglected this spring. Lo and behold, I found a dozen Rose Campion that I had planted there earlier this year. I also found that not all of the dalhia bulbs had come up, and was most unhappy to find only one Cut-and-Come-Again zinnia--this is a disappointment, because I had planted eight or a dozen plants that I grew under the cellar lights. I hope that some self-seeders will spring up elsewhere in the garden.
The rock garden, which is at the very back of the garden, became, over the years, Gertrude's responsibility. I don't remember any discussion about this or any formal decision--it simply evolved. It could have been that the rock garden was such a difficult part of the garden to maintain that I gave up on it, or that, in the early years, Gertrude had more time to garden than I did. However it happened, the rock garden was shaped and cared for by her, and a difficult task it was. It is slightly higher than the rest of the garden, which means that it dries out quickly. Also, until recent years, when some trees were removed, it was the shadiest part of the garden. But Gertrude persisted and, among other things, built the stone walkway that encircles it. She also struggled with many plantings that failed and some that are still there. In the left-hand corner of the rock garden, Gertrude had placed a wooden bench on which she would sit and look over her domain--in recent years, unfortunately, this bench had rotted. I thought, therefore, that it would be fitting to replace the old bench with the one shown in this week's picture--I know that Gertrude would have loved it.
6/23/00 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
6/9/00 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
Last Year's - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
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