garden update

It's starting to get difficult to enjoy the garden. It's either unbearably hot and humid or else it's raining. There are tons of mosquitos. By the time it cools off in the evening I am too tired to get out and do much.

I've kept the front yard up but out back weeds and overgrowth are starting to get the best of things. The wisteria has runners that cross the path now. A couple times I've tripped over them on the way to the vegetable garden. Maybe this weekend I will feel motivated enough to withstand the conditions and cut them back.

There are still roses blooming but the blossoms are just not as numerous. The most prevalent flowers are the purple coneflowers. They look best in the shady areas where they keep their purple color.

So far the lantanas have had only sparse flowering and the flame acanthus is just coming to life. The ruelias are blooming but I don't get to enjoy them because the flowers have fallen off by the time I get home from work.

Posted by Bill Hopkins on June 25, 2004 10:20 PM
Comments

It is so hard to imagine that it is already so hot out there .........we have had a cool week in St. Louis......I did have one black swallowtail fluttering around my garden this week- she was too active to get a picture - she was flying around the fennel that has grown to almost 5 feet, but not too many of the zinnias have bloomed for her to feed on. I can see tiny buds on the milkweed and they are already taller than I am- can hardly wait for the monarchs to arrive.........

Posted by: Dottie at June 25, 2004 10:36 PM

Exactly how I feel, Bill. I can barely drag myself out to the garden in this humidity and when I do, I'm covered in mosquitoes. They seem to breed in the mulch, not just in open water (which I'm careful not to leave around). At least the toads seem very happy.

Well I'm off to beautiful, cool, dry San Francisco (as AJM's speaking at JavaOne). So no updates on my site for awhile.

Posted by: M Stevens (Austin) at June 25, 2004 11:48 PM

Unfortunately for us in Alberta, we've been told to do all we can to avoid the mosquitoes this year as some are carrying the West Nil Virus. Deet is once again reappearing on all the store shelves after having been removed previously because of health concerns.

We don't get the humidity here that you do (thankfully) but I have experienced it in Winnipeg once summer and it was unbearable, turning everything in its wake to a sloth.

Posted by: Leslie at June 26, 2004 11:50 AM

I was doing GREAT on my garden until the damn catterpillars drove me out!! Now the chick weed has taken over everything, and the quail have scratch all the seeds away, and Sadie has dug up all the plants....CRAP!

Posted by: Mary Lou at June 26, 2004 08:23 PM