Geranium Bloom

This lovely lives on our front porch.

After being overcast since Saturday, we finally got enough rain to settle the dust in the back yard—not enough to measure, but enough to settle the dust. Yesterday, it started to spit every time I went outside, and today seems to be following the pattern.

Since I have new cheap plants in the ground, I still had to water yesterday afternoon. We’ll see if I have to water today. I took a “state of the garden” set of photos after watering yesterday, and I have posted them all to Flickr, in case you’re interested.

The clouds have at least kept the highs in the mid-80s. It’s funny how cooler temperatures outside make the house seem warmer because the air conditioner runs less.

In other news, I took Beccano to the Sophomore Roundup this morning. (TubaBoy took himself to the Senior Roundup yesterday.) The Roundup is where they hand out locker assignments, if you’re willing to pay for one and core curriculum text books. It seems a bit cheesy to make kids pay for lockers, but neither Beccano nor TubaBoy want one, so maybe it makes sense. Since the school does give out textbooks to keep at home and others live in the classroom, I don’t see why anyone would want a locker these days.

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20 August Update: Well, we eventually got .2”, which was enough with the overcast skies to keep from having to water for two whole days—even though other parts of town got two full inches, enough to overflow their rain barrels. At least the aquifer was recharged a bit.

Strange Yellow Powder

My plants are all covered in yellow powder.

It’s even on this lovely chrysanthemum.

And my chair. But wait! There’s a clue in the upper left corner.

I went outside this morning to water the plants, and they were all covered in this horrid yellow powder.

Is it some new disease, perhaps related to powdery mildew? Perhaps it is some wasting disease of plants—one in which they turn to ash before your eyes.

But there’s a clue on my blue chair.

It’s covered in the same substance, and I sat in it last night. It should be clean.

What’s that on the seat? An oak stamen! There is no fungal outbreak here. The world is covered in oak pollen—just like the cars I spent hours washing yesterday.

Garden Song

A late frost made posing all of the plants easier. I had to bring them in anyway.

Inch by inch, row by row

Gonna make this garden grow

Gonna mulch it deep and low

Gonna make it fertile ground

—David Mallett

I spent much Saturday whipping the front yard into shape. This involved shaving the weeds as close to the ground as I could and edging the driveway and sidewalks. Edging always makes a huge mess because I have an ancient Craftsman edger ($30 courtesy of Craig’s list). So, I broke out the power washer and blew the mud of the pavement.

While I had the power washer out, I went to the back yard and washed the accumulated crud off of the small deck outside the back door. This deck was originally the floor to a treehouse the neighborhood association made us take down last fall, much to Beccano’s dismay. His grandfather built the treehouse when the kids were little, and it had remained hidden for years. Last year, the NA looked harder. It looks much better with the growth blasted off.

Then Suna and I went plant shopping. This year, Suna decided she wanted a red flower garden. Last year, I bought whatever was on sale. This year, we timed it right and were able to stay within the red pallet and within my plant budget. We bought a range of plants, including:

This whiskey barrel had a lone survivor from last year’s garden. I surrounded it with red impatience and begonias, with a little dusty miller to grow over the sides and make the reds pop.

• Begonias
• Celosia
• Dusty miller
• Geraniums
• Gerbera daisies
• New Zealand
• Sweet pea

We also had a few survivors from last year.

• Our fern grew so well last year that I split it in half and repotted it. Both halves overwintered well. One lives in the media room, the other will goes back outside.
• Several of the begonia’s overwintered, despite a lack of care.
• Two or three of our pepper plants look like they’re coming back from the dead.
• The perennials all seem to have perennialed.

That means all of my free time Saturday and Sunday was spent repotting and positioning. I had to bring them all in as soon as I got home from work on Monday. The sweet pea was fairly wilted by a late afternoon cold front that dropped temps to almost freezing, but it seemed to be doing better by bed time.