Dear Friends and Gardeners Week 16

Dear Carol and Mary Ann (and all of our gardening friends),

I do believe this is the latest I’ve prepared my weekly gardening letter.  As you know, it was delayed because my mom had surgery Monday, and I was preoccupied the day before.  I started this letter at the hospital, but couldn’t concentrate enough to finish.

Here’s what I wrote:

I’m at the hospital.  Waiting.  In the 20 years since my mother’s car accident, my sister, Mom’s best friend, Shirley, and I have become professional waiters.  I have a bag filled with fruit and gluten and dairy free snacks, including Vienna sausages (I know gross, but they are “safe”) and dark chocolate.  Really good dark chocolate.  Dark chocolate is an essential antidote to waiting I think.

But, back to the garden wherein peace doth reign.

Everything is growing, but we’re still in a holding pattern.  Above, you can see the potato plants steadily growing in the compost pile.  They haven’t bloomed, so I can’t rob them of  new potatoes yet.  Nothing else is producing, but there is promise on the vine in the form of tiny cucumbers, tomatoes and even tinier beans.  I can hardly wait.

The heat is horrendous with highs over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  For my Canadian friends, that translates to 38 degrees Celsius.  Every freakin’ day for over a week, and today, tomorrow and Friday will be no different.  We don’t usually get this kind of heat until late July and into August.  Also, this is a huge jump for the plants which enjoyed a cooler than usual spring.  Hello Summer!

With the horrid temps, it seems as though all of the insects get an attitude like a teenager when reminded of his/her curfew.  The wasps are especially vicious protecting their nests.  I’d be glad to give them a wide berth, but I don’t always know where their nests are as they hide them under my log home’s eaves.  I confess I finally brought out some spray when they wouldn’t let me water a container next to the house.  Enough is enough.

Okay, I’ll admit that this photo isn’t as garish as some of the combos I’ve come up with over the years, but the red does stand out like a fire truck on parade.  I love these glads up close, but like the divas they are, they don’t want to share the stage with the other flowers.  Why am I putting my mistakes on display?  Elizabeth from Garden Rant asked bloggers to post photos of our color combo blunders.  Here are a couple more:

There are a lot of things wrong with this grouping.  The colors don’t blend, and they don’t complement each other either.  Also, there’s a height problem with H. ‘Killer’ having tall scapes, and H. ‘Rachel’s Tea Party’ is a much shorter daylily.  Also, the flower sizes don’t work together.  I’ve got to change this next year.

Although I love this garden bed, it has many of the same problems as the group in the previous photo.  They just look horrid together if you think about it too much.  So, I don’t believe I’ll consider it at all.  Have you ever tried to move a bunch of daylilies.  It’s really hard work.

Bye for now and see you Sunday, I hope.  My mother is supposed to have surgery on Monday, so we shall see what we shall see.