Oh, all right: Garden Update

It's already insane-hot (99 degrees!) which I take as a personal attack on my pregnant self. But I did get to spend some garden time this weekend, even if I did have to get up at 6:45 on Sunday to do it before it got too horrible out there. Veggie Garden: All the tomatoes are doing really well and setting fruit already. In fact, we've been eating some of the Better Bush Cherries and Yellow Pears for weeks now. This is way ahead of last year -- I don't think we had tomatoes until nearly July. Lesson learned: Get some early varieties each season so you don't have to wait to enjoy them. But the real treat is still to come. I can't WAIT for the first Brandywine of the season! I pulled out the onions last week. They seem smaller than last year. I don't know if they were a different variety, or I didn't feed 'em enough or planted them too late. But still, fun. M ripped out the neglected kale, which we really didn't eat this season. And I've got a few purple bush beans harvested, hoping they keep long enough to make a real batch. Those are cool plants -- the beans are purple until you cook 'em, then they look like regular green beans. Bermuda Grass Eradication Update: Well, there have been a few scattered reoccurences, but I'm hoping to keep it at bay if M and I stay vigilant. I hate having to RoundUp it, but it's the only option I've found. I have to get M to do it, because of the pregnancy, but I make him wear gloves and a mask and shower right after. Nasty business. New Beds (back of yard): These new beds are, well, mostly waiting. I am really enjoying the redbud I planted in front of the electric guy-wire that crosses the yard. It's a beautiful tree, with a twisty trunk and gracefully drooping leaves. I planted one of the big roses next to it (Star of the Republic, I think), where the wire meets the ground. Hopefully by next summer the two will have grown enough to screen out the wire entirely and also keep our yard from looking so much like a big triangle. I planted a Mutabilis rose in that bed too, which I'm excited about. We saw them all over Fredericksburg and they're such fun roses. That bed, and the other two, are really just holding beds this year. I'm using them to try out a few swap plants to see how they do (which means dopey "one of this and one of that" planting) but that's all the energy I had this spring. I'm alllllmost done mulching them. The bare soil just ate up the tree-trimming mulch I put down last Fall. That's the thing with mulching paths and new beds: it takes a few years of steady topping-off and reapplication before you get a good solid layer and things become low-maintenance. But I sure can see the difference in the mulched vs. un-mulched areas. Even though I had all that area roto-tilled last fall, the areas with scanty mulch are dry and hard even just a day after a rain. New beds close to the patio: I'm loving the daylilies I moved from the front beds, where they didn't do much for me. In the back, they get more sun and bloom their happy heads off. Note to self: more daylilies next fall! The dietes are pouting, but I have hopes. I'm afraid I over-pruned the pomegranates, though. I wanted to limb them up into more of a tree form, but now they're dropping to one side or the other. We had to stake them. Hopefully by next year, they'll have enough trunk strength to stand upright. The shasta daisies, I'm not so sure about. I'd tossed some seeds into the herb garden last year and they came up and sat there happy, about 6-inches high. So, I divided and transplanted them into the new beds. I had no idea they'd get so tall and fall over in the heat. They're crowding a rose, so I may have to pull them out. At the least, they need staking. Behind the rose bed, I put in a sort of semi-circular bed with Mex. bush sages from brary girl, a few swap lantana and a candlestick tree that one of the swap guys has been telling me I really must try. We'll see. The whole bed's been sitting under a layer of old leaves because I didn't have enough mulch, but I did get it topped off with pine mulch this weekend. Finally, I used a nice coupon at Red Barn and got 50% off my purchase last week! I got a vitex, which I've been wanting, and planted it where it may one day steer the eye away from the ugly ornamental crab-apple or whatever it is that's behind it. Of course, I wait until the hottest day of the year to plant a new tree... but I'm watering it it like crazy and it seemed perky last night. Vitex are tough. Front beds: Mostly looking good. I got more mealy blue sage at Red Barn to fill in the pathway bed. I thought they'd fill in more, but apparently they really don't widen at all. It takes multiples to make a nice clump. The crocosmia have been dazzling as usual, and the Russian sage look happy. The two asparagus ferns in pots on the front step look realy crummy. It may be time to look into those upright plants I was hoping for to frame the doorway, but I don't know what will do well in that weird sun situation. Hmmm. And that's about it. With my increasing heat-sensitivity (even worse than normal with this little space heater strapped to my front), I bet it's a "survival of the fittest" summer out there. I need probably at least 40 more bags of mulch to do a decent job protecting the soil before summer. I can handle a bag or two at a time, which is more expensive and less efficient than just getting a truckload of mulch, but what's a prego to do? Hopefully I can hire a friend's teenaged son to help out and get it all done before High Summer. Or at least sort of done. From here on out, it's mostly just pathways that really need covering -- the beds are pretty well covered. I just don't want to be sweating the weeds (literally) this summer. There! I've set a good record to look back on next year. And if anybody is still reading at this point, you must be a gardener, too... ;-)