Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
6/23/00 - The first of the two important jobs that I am doing in the garden these days is the trimming of the English ivy and of the bushes, vines, etc on the garden perimeter. I finished the onerous task of cutting my neighbor's ivy about two feet back from the fence. This will insure that it doesn't come creeping into my flower beds for this season. I also trimmed the height of the ivy on both sides of the garage to a foot or so beneath the roof line. English ivy looks good on the sides of the garage but it must be controlled. And I finished most of the trimming of the bushes in my garden as well as those of my neighbor that were coming over too far and blocking sun to the beds. The trash men must be getting tired of seeing the cans of clippings that I am putting out.
The more pleasant work is a continuation of the edging, cultivation, weeding, and transplanting of "volunteer" seedlings. This needs to be done for all of the beds in the garden and takes time. At present I am transplanting mostly balsam and some cleome and celosia. Cleome will be quite tall and needs to be in the center of the beds. Celosia can come a little more forward and should be located where a bright patch of color is wanted. The balsam I usually plant just in back of begonias, impatiens, or Star zinnias. It is fun to plan the colors and designs of the flower beds in your mind and then see what nature does with your ideas. I will have pictures later in the summer so that you can praise or blame nature or me.
This week's picture is of a bright and cheerful member of the Evening Primrose family (Oenothera) known as Common Sundrop (tetragona), but in our family parlance as the "yellow primrose" to distinguish it from the earlier blooming "English Primrose." It flowers in the late spring/early summer, and provides good color at a time when the garden is awaiting the onrush of color that will be brought by the annuals. Sundrop, as its name implies, likes sun, but it will tolerate a certain amount of shade. A perennial, it propagates itself through spreading roots as well as by seed, and tends to grow in clumps. It must be managed or it will "walk" where you don't want it; for instance, in the front of your beds where its 18" height can crowd out smaller annuals. On the other hand, I welcome the cheerful color of our yellow primrose each spring, when it splashes the garden with spots of sunshine.
6/30/00 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
6/16/00 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
Last Year's - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
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