Posts

July 2020

Thursday 2 July I finished the mowing today except the cemetery. Spent 1 h. 45 min on the highway. I am also weeding in the potager but not for long as it is so hot. Doing some watering especially the pots. Rain expected for the next week starting tomorrow. The armadillos have been at it near the entrance. I have just finished reading Caroline Dormon’s Flowers Native to the Deep South. I got the 1959 book at the auction of the Southern Garden Symposium last year. I had heard of her before. The book is not so great. There are no photographs to help with identification, just line drawings and water colors. The crepe myrtles are starting to bloom. Friday 3 July I got the cemetery mowed this am at 8 o’clock but still hot and I was soaked through. The areas mowed at the beginning of the recent mow need it again. And it is raining today. We need it. There is a good chance it will rain for several days. I notice today that one of the ‘dead’ banana stalks near the gallery was putting o...
Post a Comment
Read more

June 2020 Gardening Holly Grove

Image
June Gardening at Holly Grove   Thursday 4 June   In a dry spell. I have watered all the pots in the patio today. Rain expected this weekend with Tropical Storm Cristobal. We will see how it develops.   The Big Leaf Magnolia is in trouble. Did I not water enough? The geraniums I have been praising are stopping to bloom like they did.   I have been mowing and have gotten the hay field done. Mowing is best if I do it in the am. The heat is oppressive in the afternoon.   I have pulled some weeds in the potager and planted and replanted some, whipporill, stewart zeebest, jicama, luffa.   Glads are good, white in the potager, and the one in the hot bed, Joena, too near pink to be right but it is blooming. The canna are the top blooms in the hot bed but the old daylilies are producing a lot. The newer daylilies do not have a big enough clump but they are blooming.   Friday 5 June   Finished mowing, exc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gardening May 2020 HG

Image
May 2020   Saturday 2 May   Connie and I are picking up sticks in the park and I am mowing about 2 hours or so per day.   Pick salads every morning. My lettuce is as good as it ever was. The cinnamon is taller and easier to pick but the others are doing well. They need a weed. The English peas are ending with little results. Only a couple messes. The sugar snaps are few as well and I have enough to add a few to the daily salads.   Every year is different.   The orchid is in bloom finally. One plant, one stalk, one flower. Certainly not the display I had last year.   Mother’s Day is next Sunday and I used to have lots of roses at Belvidire to cut for the house. Roses here not so good. What am I doing wrong? The Peggy Martin continues and the whites in the white bed. The Chestnut rose throws blooms sparingly. The pink on the potager fence has begun.   The first bloom of the gardenia I cut yesterday for the ta...
Post a Comment
Read more

April 2020

Image
April 2020   Friday 3 April   Finished mowing today. 14 ½ hrs. including hayfield and cemetery which was very bad as I had a bad year mowing last year due to travel and multiple breakdowns. I mowed some in March last year but fully mowed all ending 8 May. The last mowing of the hayfield was done by John Leake as hay---10 bales. The last mowing of the cemetery got lost. But the push mower started easily!   No rain for the last week or so and I have been watering pots and the new camellias.   The spring planted lettuce is now producing for salads. I start with wild violets and then go to the ginko to get the still young leaves, then the wild grape vine on the potager fence for young leaves, then mint leaves, some leaves from the peas (no peas yet but blooms), small leaves of the collards that are going to seed, cilantro leaves and some flowers, wild sorrel, some arugula (wild and planted), curry leaves, starting to use sweet potato leaves, p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hollygrove gardening March 2020

Image
March 2020   Tuesday 3 March   Returned a couple of days ago from ILM. Lots more azaleas open, especially President Clay at entrance. Could use some more there. Also coral bells and snow. Many formosa      are coming out. More redbud. Dafs still good as are the snowdrops (aka snowflakes, Leucojum spp.). Leaves coming on the ginko and have started adding them to salads. Most of camellias going or gone. The forsythia fading, not particularly good anyway. The pink West Florida Republic indica looks good.   Warm the first part of the week and I am out working. Put out some sweet potato slips in pots. Potted up a couple tomatoes and replanted some.   Taking the winter protection off the citrus, fertilizing and repotting some that are full of tradescantia. I think this uses too much water in the summer. Did all but 2 which have fire ants and will need more work.   Wednesday 4 March   Rain has start...
Post a Comment
Read more