Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

6/26/09 - When it is not raining, which it has been doing a great deal this spring, my work on the garden flowerbeds progresses. I finished planting the Star Zinnias and Coleus in the bed between the house and the driveway. I also talked to my gardener about trimming the rambler rose growing in the front of the chimney. It also needs reattaching to its arbor, or to a new one if the present one is too much out of shape to reuse. Next, over the period of several days, I edged the little flowerbed between the house and the steps to the glass room, planted some of the Star Zinnias and Coleus there, and cultivated the Sun bed. This latter was a big job and took several days of clipping the grass, cultivating the soil back several feet, and edging with a trowel. This is where I planted the new perennials that I bought this year. I am going to plant some of the little Star Zinnias and Coelus plants along the front of this bed. The Iris, Phlox and other tall perennials in this bed keep moving to the front, so that I must cut them back to make room for my new plants. When the job was done it looked very nice, but I know that it will only be a few weeks before it needs redoing. Some gradeners reduce their work by mulching thickly enough to prevent weeds from growing, but I always like to see the fresh soil.
This week's picture is of two newcomers in Gertrude's garden. Earlier this spring I used most of a Christmas gift certificate to buy annuals for the front and side of the house. Later I went shopping for perennials to plant in the front of the sun bed in the back garden. The showy yellow flowers in this picture and some of the dwarf Black-eyed-Susies that I bought. After I had planted them, I was so pleased with their appearance that I went back to buy more, but they were sold out. I am certainly going to try to buy more this summer or next spring to plant along the front of this bed. They are low-growing which is what I want in the front of this flowerbed, and the large daisy-like flowers seem to seem to be long-lasting. I am anxious to see how long their blooming period is. As you know, one of the drawbacks of perennial flowers is a shorter blooming period than annuals, but they make up for this by blooming every year. The annuals bloom all season, but they don't come back the next year. The big white Hydrangea is this picture wasn't planted by me, but belongs to my neighbor. When we removed the fence that separated our gardens, it was happy to spill over into my flowerbed to enjoy the southern exposure. I think that this is the same variety of Hydrangea that I pictured and wrote about last June 20 where you can read about it. The white Hydrangea is not the only visitor from my neighbor's garden that comes seeking the sunshine. There is a lovely purple Clematis that also blooms beautifully for me--I will try to get a picture of it, but I think that I am a little late, since it has begun to drop its flowers.

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