one more observation i forgot to mention:

squash flowers -- the zuchini/summer squash have flowers now.

to not buy list
epsom salt - got enough for two more seasons.
collanders. i'll buy some at the dollar store this afternoon.
grass seed. i bought some in the spring, but we ont need to use it until mid september.

to buy list
more mulch -- at least 3-4 more bags.

butterfly bush, shorter variety - highland garden center -- it's a good time to do so. if we do it now and plant it, it will get most of its growth on this season and be naturalized for next season. having said that, we probably shouldn't disturb that one patch of coneflower until october.

bale of straw

to check out
we need to find out the ideal time to plant out the cruciferous fall crops. i'm thinking its in mid july. we planted much too late last year.

we have a few tiny tomatoes already! some brandywines, no less. that's a good sign. i think i also noticed some yellow pear and northern lights. I'm not even going to bother "suckering" the tomatoes this year for "too early" tomatoes and flowers. my goal is too be 'in charge' of keeping them tied up, minimize the growth of large branchs from the main stem, and keeping them from not exceeding in hieght the tops of the stakes -- which one plant already did and I cut it back.
I got a lot accomplished in three hours. I wore out a little early I think.

I weeded the strawberry patch, the bulb & hosta patch, and areas of the butterfly garden-- especailly areas inside the coreopsis and painted daisy (which i actually believe now is indian blanket). the only patch i am not touching for weeding is the coneflower, because its been a little difficult to tell whats what in there. I put down some newspaper in two spots and used the remains of another bag of mulch. I put some newspaper down in spots in the veg patch where some weeds were getting opportunistic.

I tied up tomato plants and hammered the stakes down better (time #3). also i found it necessary to start pruning some side branches of tomatoes, so I finished that chore too. I have a funny feeling, despite having a few tomato plants that Aaron labeled well, Andy's class planted all tomatoes of one type.

I also tried an experiment, which is that I am going to try to grow some tomato plants from cuttings. the side branches got dunked into a bucket of water immediately after cutting. They'll need 7-10 days in the water with two changes of the water during that time. they'll need to be planted after that point with 6 inches of stem in the soil, and then kept well watered & mulched right away with straw. Most of the stems are brandywine and a couple are omar's lebanese.


the way these plants seem to be growing i suspect we had some really good compost this year, as most of it in the tomato and pepper area was "homemade". i don't think we will need to really fertilize them with organic stuff. nonetheless, i'd like to get the epsom salt solution (1 tablespoon to the gallon) sprayed on everything this weekend. I'll probably go up after 7 pm this evening and do that. and then go see the oscar shorts.

I'm ready for my closs-s-s-se-up, Mr. Zlatkin.

So I'm adding incoming Honors students to the master files, when all of a sudden I hear a tentative call come from the lobby, like someone who just stepped into the house on haunted hill.

"Um, hello?" It's a girl's voice.

I walk over and there are two GSA students (Governor's Scholars) with concerned looks on their faces.

One girl says, "did you know you've got a big snake in your flower bed?"

"Really? Where?" I replied. I walked out onto the front porch and there was our slithery friend, all four-plus feet of him (or her), creeping around Belle's snapdragons. I exclaimed (probably a little too enthusiastically), "YES!!! Hello there, sweetie! How are you doing?" while the kids (which had grown to pretty much the whole of Frank's class) looked at me with a mixture of bemusement and concern for my mental health.

I ran back to my office and grabbed the video camera, recently purchased, I can only imagine, just for occasions such as this, and got about 10 minutes or so of footage. I caught him in the flower bed, climbing the tree in the front, and zipping across the path to the front of the house before he disappeared up one of the bushes along the front walkway. When I get some free time I'll edit it together into a 2-minute or so Quicktime file and post it here.

Mulch-needed watering

Belle and I went shopping again today. Andy needed some amendments for the herb garden (per Jim's and my suggestion), so we headed back up to Lowe's around noon and got the following:

4 bags of compost manure
2 bags of peat humus
1 pair of work gloves
2 hose attachments

I figure Andy will make use of the humus and 2 bags of manure, and we'd have 2 bags in reserve for the rest of the season. I wanted to have a pair of gloves that were just for me, that I could take home and wash and also use at home (though if anyone from Purchasing is reading this, they really are for the Honors garden, I swear), so we got a canvas pair with a suede grip. We also need a new hose attachment since the old yellow one leaks and the shut-off switch is faulty. We got 2 attachments with about 10 different settings between them (mist, spray, shower, center, massage...that sort of thing). Total cost of the trip was around $22.00. We've spent a total of $49.00 so far through the Honors Program. The only other things on Jim's list that we may need to get soon are more bags of mulch, maybe one more bale of straw, and some epsom salt.

The stone washing ideas, though great in theory, were a bust. Rather than shell out money for something that we could still make ourselves, we may try Jim's new suggestion: using a large coffee can or other metal can, poke a bunch of drainage holes in it and rinse the stones by filling, shaking and draining. Probably two or three passes per canful would be sufficient. It will be very time-consuming, but hopefully well worth it, and it still beats the Zen method of polishing them one at a time.

I gave the veg garden 2 hours under the sprinkler today (it would normally be a little less but I had to water between 11:30 and 1:30, so I allowed for higher-than-usual evaporation). From this point on I'll try to get the water on earlier in the day. Once Andy's class is more or less done with planting I'll be able to do that without getting them all wet -- and they should be doing the bulk of their plantings tomorrow. And on days where I won't mind standing outside holding a hose I may just use the new hose attachments instead of what really is the more wasteful method of using a sprinkler.

Afterthought: I'll work some more on the borders between the flower plots, laying out newsprint and mulch this afternoon.

busy day -- despite my head cold. I started the day off going over the whole of the garden with a once over using the hoe. that tok about two hours. I then went up to loews and looked for screen but it was more than i wanted to pay for it. Bought some vinyl sheeting and a replacement banana pepper ($4).

when i got back, aaron had arrived. He worked on laying mulch in the butterfly garden. I put down newspaper and straw around the sunflowers. I put the vinyl sheeting down in areas of the veg garden we wont use until fall.

i turned the compost yesterday.

aaron measured the largest sunflower. its about 37 inches tall.

everything needs a good watering tomorrow!