Photo quality, Gardening excitement & being a blogging rookie

My photos don't look as good as everyone else's, that is clear. I am behind a very steep learning curve but am trying. Hope everyone has patience, I am certain I will get better with practice. Just getting these photos resized and uploaded has been a monumental accomplishment for me and I am proud of the fact that I was able to do it, so there.

I guess I am supposed to be doing this blogging thing for me anyway, as a means of keeping a journal of my mistakes. So, as far as building a foundation of mistakes that I can improve upon, I am building a very broad base indeed.

I am excited about being able to grow something other than vegetables, which is where most of my gardening experience lies. I have had several failures, mostly shrubs, for some odd reason. I thought viburnum were supposed to be easy to grow.

Once I get those problems worked out my frustration at flower gardening and landscaping will be lessened. None of this has dampened my enthusiasm so I will continue to carry on.
This garden is not quite two months old and I am trying to learn as I go, I know that's what all gardeners are doing. I am proud to be in such good company as those that I try to learn from. I want to take this opportunity to give thanks to all of you who do share your gardens with the rest of the world so that we may learn from your talents (and mistakes) as well.

Until then, I will continue to practice these things called digital photography, gardening and blogging.

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Water, not to be taken for granted!

This past week the garden has not received much attention due to high heat (temps in the 90's), although I have done a lot of much needed weeding early in the day and I have had to water every day. Also, yesterday we got hit with high winds, up to 50 mph at times! This can be a curse because winds dry out the soil as well. Last night it rained and the rain is continuing through today.

I'm very thankful for the rain. We don't ever get enough of it here in Utah. We are constantly reminded of how this is a desert environment and because of this we can only water between 6pm and 10am. We are faced with fines otherwise. And there is always hanging over our head the fact that we may not have enough water to last through the entire season. In 2004, the canals ran dry in mid-September! I should mention that we get our irrigation water from a canal system that fills from a very large lake south of us, Utah Lake. That lake is mostly filled from the snow melt from the surrounding mountain tops. Sometimes we don't get enough snow to fill that lake. This year is one of those years.

The irrigation canal water from Utah Lake is not filtered, unless we as homeowners are willing to filter it when it reaches our homes. And the filters I'm talking about only filter out weed seeds and it does not have anything to do with making the water safe to drink. The lake collects the runoff from the hundreads of thousands of homeowners who live around the lake. The runoff is loaded with whatever fertilizer and chemicals they deem necessary to put onto their lawns.

The financial cost of this water is less than the treated water we take into our homes, called culinary water. Some people opt to use only this water on their lawns and gardens, even at the higher expense. We are still charged for the irrigation water wether we use it or not. What a deal for the city, right?

There are plans being hashed out to improve the current water treatment plant to provide us with at least some filtration of this irrigation water, but that won't come about for several years. At that time most of the unfiltered water will be directed to highway landscaping and not so much to residential use.

The rain water is cleaner than what we get from Utah Lake, although everyone knows that air pollution does sully this water as well, but at least it doesn't have weed seeds that need to be filtered out! It always bothers me somewhat when I hear the weather person say things like "Gee, hopefully this rain will stop soon." It tells me that this person cannot possibly be a gardener.

So, I welcome the rain and wish there was some way we could get a lot more of it.

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May Recap

This is the first year I have grown allium of any kind and I planted two different kinds that bloomed this month. The Rosy Bells bloomed a bright reddish pink
and the the Sunny Twinkles bloomed a bright yellow, both very nice looking bulbs. They bloomed later than I thought they would. Still, it is nice to have the bulb blooming season extended in this way.

Carrots are coming along nicely, I planted two kinds, 'Danvers Half Long' and 'Thumbelina'. Both were chosen for their short roots due to our clay soil. The Danvers were put into one of the raised beds and the Thumbelina was put into a container on the deck. I wanted to see if I could grow a salad garden on the deck in containers since I have never grown plants in containers before.

The Clematis 'Jackmanii' has set some beautiful deep blue flowers on the last day of the month.

Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' has begun to show signs of color. This is surprising since I just planted these one month ago.

Dianthus 'Agatha' bloomed weakly, but again was surprised it bloomed at all since it was one of those planted just one month ago.

Dianthus 'Zing Rose' bloomed a deep red. This one was planted last month, so I guess they are going to be prolific bloomer. I can only hope.

One of the Echinacea 'Magnus' sent out a bloom. This one is commonly called the Purple Coneflower. The plant itself is still short, as it was planted last month, and has one flower on the very top.

One of my very favorite and most anticipated bulbs is the Iris. I planted 12 and several have bloomed this month. They are yellow and blue and look very nice.

Lamium 'White Nancy', groundcover, bloomed.

Set out a bunch of Marigolds, hoping to attract beneficial insects to combat caterpillars, etc that would mean destruction of my other plants, such as tomatoes and beans. None have bloomed yet.

Primrose 'Firecracker' opened a bright yellow flower on the last day of the month.

Deadheaded roses for the first time this year.

Salvia 'East friesland' bloomed.

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New seedlings

Finally felt the time was right to plant some of the seedlings I had started earlier this year. I kept putting it off because of the weird weather patterns that has defined this Spring.

Last night we got frost! I couldn't believe it when when this morning I looked at the recorded 'low temperature' from last night and it read 32F.

I went out to the garden and one of my tomato plants had several 'burnt' leaves. The majority of the plant seemed untouched. Maybe it will survive.

One of my pepper plants is completely shriveled up yet the other five in the same bed are fine.

All of the seedlings I had left on the deck, as I have for the past two weeks, are all fine.

So, I figured that this is the last surprise that Mother Nature will throw our way and it is finally time to set the seedlings into their new homes and let them do what they will. I remain eternally optimistic.

I set out two cherry tomato plants along with a bunch of Marigolds 'Antigua Yellow' around them.

Set out this Astilbe 'Amethyst and

this Hostas 'Piedmont Gold'

and this Hosta 'Golden Tiara'.

I set out 25 sunflower plants along an ugly chain link fence that I hope to cover up, and then planted this Hydrangea 'Parzifal'. It doesn't look like much now but it is supposed to grow to 5' tall and 5' wide with lavender flowers.

I also scattered several packets of alyssum seeds around and then watered everything down.

Daytime temperatures are supposed to get into the 80's over the next week, so I believe we have seen the last frost scare until next Fall.

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Vacation, already?

I've been sitting inside today waiting for the rain to let up and it doesn't seem like it is going to. I was planning on setting out more tomato plants and my squash.

I've been holding off for several reasons, one being that we are supposed to get some unseasonably cold night time temperatures within the next few nights, it is already down to 52F right now at 8 pm. This Spring sure has been 'up and down' weather-wise.

Another reason is that we are taking off for a week to visit family in California. I'm always a bit ambivalent about leaving the garden in someone else's care when I'm gone. I can usually count on our daughter to take care of it but she and her family are going with us. I have asked one of the neighbors to tend to it and she has agreed, but still... This is the first year I have planted a full bed of perennial flowers and she is barely a rookie herself.

I'm trying to decide how to make it as simple as possible for her to just turn on the sprinklers at certain times and not worry so much about the lawn or weeding. We don't have an irrigation system installed. I made up this portable setup out of pvc pipe and two sprinkler heads that I move around the yard. It's a bit cumbersome but is the least expensive way to go for now. The real problem is that with the weather acting so unpredictably, I don't know if it will be warm enough to have to water twice a day or just once every other day. I would hate to have to call every day to check on things, I do want to enjoy my vacation and not let her think I can't count on her to do it without my nagging.

I have several trays of Marigolds, herbs and sunflowers that need to be planted and I suppose it would be best just have them in the ground before I leave. And then there are the bird feeders. I have five of them I fill up every morning (some people just don't take the time to feed the birds and so I can't really ask her to do it because she is one of those who doesn't feed the birds). I guess the birds will come back when I get back and begin filling their feeders again. The Hummingbirds will be okay because there aren't enough of them to empty the feeders everyday.

I'm going to wear myself out worrying before I get out the front door.

Just take a deep breath, let it out slowly and relax. Nothing will happen that cannot be fixed.

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