Thursday, May 6, 2010

More blooms



About a week ago I did a bunch of overdue transplants. the red coreopsis was put into a rectangular pot, aster hulk, portulaca in their own pots too. the poppy and the nicotiana were transplanted a while back into the ground using potting soil and the nicotiana is now starting to bloom which is neat to see. this makes the 3rd type of plant i've raised from seed to flower. took the pics when i got home from work this evening so they're a bit horrible, i know.

the hibiscus got moved to more attractive, matching pots and line the stairway to the front porch. when i got them they were in like 3" pots and i left them in there entirely too long so they became root bound. when i put them pots the first time i failed to loosen the roots free and so this time when i put them in the matching pots i noticed that the roots were still in the shape of that tiny little 3" pot all huddled together and not going anywhere. you fail to realize how important some things are until you actually experience the effects of going against them. so sidenote: always loosen roots of rootbound plants.

the miniature roses i bought from last year came back. well 2 out of 3 at least. one is red for sure but i'm sure on the other one. i believe i got a yellow and white variety too, but i'll see with the other bud finally shows it's true colors. seeing these and how long they've been holding out makes me wish i had different rose bushes. they have the ones on sale at park (30% off) that i want but i still don't want to shell out the cash for them yet. i know i would enjoy them soooo much more than the ones i have now. they have more sentimental than aesthetic value.


i pulled up all the snow pea that i had growing in the veggie garden. it seemed like it was way past it's prime. i felt horrible about pulling up the sweet pea that was mingling in between though. even though some still had blooms the decrepit looking snow peas were killing the whole thing for me. tomorrow morning i think i'm gonna wake up early and plant some okra there where the lettuce and spinach were.  i have no hope for that broccoli, but the tomatoes seem to be picking up a bit and hopefully i'll see blooms soon. i'll have another year or so to get anything worth anything from the asparagus, but i've heard that once they start they give you a really good harvest.

we have almost everything for the patio we're doing. we had to buy something around 107 foot bricks to lay out in the shady area underneath a mulberry tree. i spent about 4 hours a few days ago out there with a pickaxe trying to bring the dirt down about 2 or 3" so that the stones wouldn't stand up dramatically higher than the concrete walkway. i was so sore the next day it was sad. the dirt is super compact, which is probably why, even after slightly altering the soil, the new hostas are not doing well (they will be put into pots w/ good soil soon). and as expected, nothing else has been done leveling wise since i did about half the job. so as of right now we still (and by we i mean probably me) have to level about 50 more sq. ft. and then drop in sand and then the stones. after my last exam i'll be constantly annoying everyone until it's finished.

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