Day: July 21, 2022

Turkey Tracks: July 21, 2022

Scenes From the Garden, July 2022

The Annabelle hydrangeas at the back of the house, outside the kitchen window, are putting on quite a show this year. There is a big swath of them, which the camera doesn’t capture.

On the driveway side of the house, I dug up the spent strawberry plants and replanted with perennials. The new bed will get some mulch soon now. I also dug up the crowded daffodils that line the path and thinned them out—and am now giving away the extra bulbs.

The raspberries are starting to come in, but the drought (broken a few days ago—and maybe tonight) has resulted in small berries. I also deep watered the raspberry roots with a hose set with a slow flow.

It is a really big ”lily” year here this year. I love how the Asiatic lilies look with the Liatris purple spikes. The Liatris planted itself in this bed.

The shrubs at the far end of this bed need trimming back.

Here’s the view from the back of the shrubs above, after I trimmed them. This job is LAST big season job that has to be done this year. Now I’m down to watering, weeding, and mowing. The camera doesn’t really capture the depth of this view well. Or the hosta and Bee Balm blooms as they are fading into the greenery.

Now you can see the back deck. The roundish structure is the kitchen—and the Annabelles are outside those windows.

The Christmas cacti love going out on to the front deck—they put out all sorts of new growth and, often, bloom. There are 3 pots of them that come into the house for the winter season.

The new bed on the wood side of the house is doing well. But the deer ate much of the hosta on the front bed, ate the Rudbekia to the ground, and ate all the tops of the two hydrangeas.

I sprayed again, and ordered and installed 10 ”whirlygigs” to put around the garden. What I probably need is someone with a rifle this fall. (Kidding, but not really.) The deer have never been so invasive as they have been in the last two years. I’m down to putting out human urine now, which a master gardening friend is saying will work.

It’s getting hotter now, but the nights have remained cool. And the cooling breeze from the bay helps a lot.