Lily Time in the Garden

June 23 - 29, 2025

Weekly journal of a Midwest gardener…

Monday, June 23, 2025

Before the heat of the day arrived, I weeded in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral and said good-bye to the pea vines and the lettuces. The pea vines were dried up and had started to get powdery mildew again, like last year, so I put them in the trash. The lettuces were doing what lettuces do as soon as it warms up. They were bolting, sending up flower stems faster than the temperature got to the 90s. I added them to the compost pile. (High temp: 97ºF / 36ºC)

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

I went to the library, which isn’t far from CourtsYard and Greenhouse, so I decided to stop in there for a quick look-see. Oops, I bought some hollyhocks. These hot days aren’t the best for planting out new plants, but if one keeps them watered… (High temp: 93ºF / 34ºC)

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

I got up early and worked in the garden from 7 am to 8 am, mostly weeding and cutting out tree saplings that were hiding in a big spruce in the back garden and in a few larger shrubs. After that one hour, I was a sweaty mess! I got cleaned up, ate breakfast, and ran a few errands. Later in the afternoon, I was out and about when a thunderstorm rolled through and dropped a quarter inch of rain on the garden. I appreciated it, but had I known it was going to rain, I would have planted those hollyhocks earlier in the morning.¹ (High temp: 88ºF / 31ºC)

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Another early morning in the garden. I trimmed back some much-ly overgrown shrubs and then chopped up the trimmings to use as mulch. Gosh, yes, it was hot, sweaty work, and I was oh so tempted to dump those trimmings into the trash bin placed at the curb waiting for the weekly trash pickup. But after drinking some coconut water, I was revived enough to stand there and use my one-of-a-kind chipper to chop it all up.² Then I spread the chippings on a border in the back garden. All told, I spent about two and a half hours out there. (High temp: 91ºF / 33ºC)

Friday, June 27, 2025

I mowed early in the morning, starting around 8:30 or so. I thought that was late enough for neighbors not to complain, though most of my neighbors are out and about early.³ I decided not to trim as it was about 85ºF when I finished mowing, and I had just read a story about a gardener in one of the Carolinas who died from heat exhaustion. I didn’t feel that hot, had drunk some coconut water, so honestly, I felt revived, but why push it?⁴ I could think of no good reason, so I didn’t!⁵ (High temp: 91ºF / 33ºC)

Saturday, June 28, 2025

I went early to another nephew’s house, where we cut back some big tree weeds and pruned up shrubs. He let me cut back two burning bushes (Euonymus alatus) as far back as I could⁶. When all was done, we left a large pile of limbs and trimmings for the city to collect. There must have been quite a bit of wind earlier in the week in his area because nearly every neighbor had limbs at the curb to be picked up. We were proud that his was one of the biggest piles! (High temp: 89ºF / 31ºC)

Sunday, June 29, 2025

I ran out in the morning to plant the hollyhocks I bought earlier in the week, then I cut more suckers off the tomatoes and tied them up. I spotted the first three currant tomatoes and picked them. They are tiny tomatoes. I also picked two tiny bouquets of flowers to show when Dee and I record the next podcast episode, which we did in the afternoon.

That’s a Week!

The tall Orientpet and other lilies are starting to open. I like the bold statement they make in a flower border, and that they do so with a small footprint, because they don’t need a lot of room to grow. I don’t stake mine, so if a big storm blows up on a hot summer day, it’s possible they’ll get knocked to the ground. I’ll take my chances because I don’t like to see all those stakes, and I doubt I could get a stake deep enough in the ground that they would really support the lilies in a storm anyway. They’ll be in bloom for a few weeks and then, well, let’s not think about summer waning and enjoy summer waxing as new flowers open up every day.

What Else Did I Write or Show Up This Week?

The garden fairies posted on my blog for International Fairy Day on June 24, and I published an article about another Lost Lady of Garden Writing. Dee and I also recorded another episode of The Gardenangelists podcast. And once again, a reminder if you missed it, check out my interview with Noel Kingsbury on his Thursday Garden Chat on YouTube.

Quotable

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have a great gardening week!

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1. As of Wednesday, we’re six months from Christmas. At Half-Priced Books, I bought A Literary Christmas: An Anthology to add to my Christmas-themed book collection. I also sold back several bags of books, though for what they pay for books, I’m not sure the word “sold” really fits. I’m just happy to pass them along and give them a chance to be read by someone else.

2. A company sent me a free chipper to review on my blog years ago (2009), and I still use it and love it. But as far as I know, you can’t get this particular model these days, and I’m not sure why it was discontinued before it really got going. Back in the day, I reviewed it in two parts. Part 1 was assembly, Part 2 was using it. I think someone should figure out how to manufacture these again, as it is a marvelous machine.

3. I finished listening to The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters, by Laura Thompson. I chose it because I’m watching the new series on Britbox, Outrageous, which is all about their lives and scandals. They are rolling out a new episode every Wednesday through July. Then I started listening to The Memory of Lavender and Sage by Aimie K. Runyon, about a young woman who goes to France in search of her mother’s roots.

4. Coconut water, specifically Kirkland’s Organic Coconut Water, is my new favorite beverage to revive me when I’m hot and sweaty from gardening. Did I write about it last week? I might have—I’m telling everyone about it—but I’m too lazy to look!

5. Later in the afternoon on Friday, we had a brief storm blow through, leaving behind .09 inches of rain. That was nice, but I still had to water containers in the evening.

6. Burning bush, Euonymus alatas, is a horrible invasive shrub and everyone should remove them from their landscapes. Their leaves turn bright red in the fall, which is why people like them. I was successful in getting one nephew and his wife to let me cut theirs out a few years ago. I’ll keep working on my other nephew to completely get rid of the two in his backyard.