Gertrude's Flower Garden - Weekly Diary
7/2/99 - A few weeks ago I sang the praises of celosia for outwaiting cold weather and being the last of the "volunteers" to appear in the garden flower beds--wrong! The fellows at the end of the parade of free annuals for the garden are, of course, the faithful impatiens, which have only begun to appear in the shady bed on the north side of the house. It is a good thing that they are not in a hurry, because I am still busy transplanting their earlier cousins: balsam, coleus, cleome, and celosia.
One reason that this period of transplanting takes so long is that at this time of the year there are more than flower seedlings pushing up in the garden: there are lots of weeds or undesirable plants that we choose to call "weeds." With my kneeler, grass shears, trowel, long-handled cultivator, and a flat pan of water in which I have a dozen or so of each of the "volunteers," I am ready to go. (I don't dig up the seedlings that I am transplanting, but pull them up gently grasping them close to the ground, and getting as many roots as possible. Balsam and celosia come up easily; cleome and coleus need a harder tug.) First trim the grass at the edge of the bed; then the delicate task of pulling up weeds in the bed without uprooting plants that you want to keep. Then I use my cultivator to loosen the soil, dig holes in the open spots, and put in my plants--cleome, which are tall, in the back, then coleus for background color (you will remember that mine are a deep burgundy), and finally celosia and balsam in front. Of course, existing plantings will dictate what you can do. Finally, everyone, new plants and those that I may have put in earlier, gets a drink of lightly fertilized water.
Gertrude's garden is beginning to look very beautiful. The Wings begonias edging the driveway are spectacular, the happy black-eyed-Susans are everywhere, cone-flowers are beginning to bloom, and the blue salvia are nodding in the breeze. From now on, both prennials and annuals will be painting a new canvas of color almost daily.
The photograph below is another early spring picture of the Birdbath and first Triangular beds looking toward the house. I hope to replace these springtime views with more recent photographs sometime next week.
6/25/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
7/9/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
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