Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Day lilies and Death Day...

The past week or so sure slipped away from me fast!  I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted.  This is a tough time of year for me in the garden, it's so darn hot and there's not a lot going on at this point.  The peas are all done and pulled, the lettuce is all pulled, I've picked one little tomato (though there are a lot of green ones right now), I've picked and pulled 2 of the 4 cauliflower, and the onions are getting large enough I could probably pull them any time now.

The big highlight of the past week has come not in the vegetables but in the ornamental garden - day lilies are blooming!  The Stella d'Oros have come and gone a while ago, but the rest of them started blooming in the last week.  I have lots of 'My Sweet Rose' blooming, and my favorite day lily of all, 'Golden Illusions'.  It's a beautiful golden yellow color with a large flower with ruffled edges.  Of course it is the slowest at multiplying, but the clump will get big enough to divide eventually - maybe in the next couple of years.  What's your favorite day lily?  Is there a "must-have" I should look at getting down the road?  There is a master gardener in Cincinnati that is know for his day lilies - he has probably pushing 200 varieties in his yard, and he hosts an open house every year.  My mom and I went back when Kate was about 18 months - he had a little play house for kids and a large electric train set.  It's perfect.  I don't forsee my yard becoming a regional draw for day lilies, but I do love them!

My Sweet Rose





Golden Illusions


I also was super excited yesterday (the first day of weather in the low 80s in over a week) to go out to the garden and find a bloom on one of the eggplants!  It's a standard Black Beauty, which I love because they're so reliable and usually are the first to produce.  I also have an Ichiban, which has a bud but no flower yet.  And the random tomato that sprouted out the drain hole of a pot that I put compost in has a tiny tomato on it.  I left the plant go, mostly to see what would happen.  It's growing out of the drainage hole of a cheap 1 gallon pot I got with some perennial I bought long ago.  With nothing but water when I remember, it's produced a tomato.  And people say they can't grow things!

Black Beauty Eggplant


The tiny tomato on the plant growing out of the drainhole...


Finally, there are two things I want to share - first is in honor of "Garden Blogger's Death Day" over at Gardening without Skills - my pathetic blueberry has finally kicked the bucket entirely.  It's all brown and shriveled and very much dead.  I attempted to amend the soil in it's pot to make it more acidic, and I thought I followed the directions on the elemental sulfur VERY closely, but the blueberry definitely did not appreciate it.  I am really sad about it, as I don't want to start over from scratch and wait another 2 years for blueberries!  :(  I don't have a picture and it's already dark out so I'm not sure one I took now would do the dreadful looking thing justice.

Lastly, our crazy neighbors.  When we bought our house 4+ years ago, it was our first house and therefore we didn't think much about neighbors.  Well, we got the crazies.  I take that back - they're very nice for the most part, they just have no business living in a suburban housing development.  The siding blew off a large part of their house in a big windstorm we had in February and they are just now getting it fixed.  And they are using vinyl siding that looks like fake cedar shakes.  But I suppose it is better than the half-missing siding they had before.  And their 4 ft deep temporary-type backyard pool sprung a leak, which drained entirely into our yard, and then the empty pool blew over against our fence in another strong wind we had last week.  Plus in the winter they have 4 golf carts and a 4-wheeler living on their back patio - and no, they don't golf.  We had new friends over one night last month and someone asked if there was a golf course near us.  Mark and I burst out laughing.  Again, they are very nice, but they need to move somewhere with some acreage so that this is not right in the middle of regular suburbia.  Though the neighborhood would have much less to talk about if they left!

Our neighbors backyard - down to 2 golf carts, the 4 wheeler, and the half-missing siding.  Also not the dying/dead spot of grass where the pool was blown over for a week.  Good times. :)

6 comments:

  1. Hi Alyssa! Thanks so much for participating in Garden Blogger's Death Day! But sorry that your poor blueberry plant was the poor little victim that enabled you to participate. Oh how I dream of a little blueberry plant. I'm bowing my head in honor of your loss...

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  2. Boy or boy can I relate to your neighbor story. We had neighbors who let a man live in a trailer in the back yard who bathed, drank and brushed his teeth out of their blow-up pool. They kept a recliner on the porch to view the glory that was their back yard, until they burned it while their water had been shut off. Things like that. Like yours, in a nice neighborhood. I feel for you.

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  3. Kate- I wish I had a photo - I will try to post one tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

    Ribbit - they sure keep things interesting in the neighborhood. Anytime we meet someone new in the neighborhood, they almost always know where we live because we point out we're the house next to the one that A) leaves their camper in the street for days on end, B) is missing half it's siding or C) parks his pick-up truck in his front yard repeatedly. Everyone knows where we're talking about! Again, they are nice people, and thankfully they don't have a recliner in the backyard! Though when his late elementary school aged daughter complained that she wanted a green bike, he spray painted her bike green - top to bottom, front to back, including the seat, handlebars, tires, etc.

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  4. Thanks so much for the laugh out loud about your eccentric neighbours, Alyssa.
    Ribbit, you made me laugh too!
    Wow it takes all kinds... I'm just glad they don't live next door to me.

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  5. Your neighbor story makes me worry about new neighbors... I know that my neighbors do not appreciate us leaving. I will miss them much, and you too! I will return your bag soon, I promise!

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  6. I think we live right by each other cuz we've got the same neighbors! Argh! Doesn't it just make you mad? People go from our place with flowers and and greenery and cut grass, to a hell hole next door. Very frustrating.

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