Monday thru Sunday, Mostly in the Garden

June 10 - 16, 2024

Jun 17, 2024

A few pictures taken the week of June 10 - 16, 2024

A week in a garden somewhere in the Midwestern United States.

Monday, June 10

Overcast and cool. The morning temperature was 45 degrees Fahrenheit! That’s quite cool for June. Time to prune some of the larger shrubs in the garden with the new long-handled, battery-powered hedge trimmers I bought. I can reach upwards of 10 feet or more without a ladder and adjust the angle of the trimmer depending on whether I’m trimming the top or the sides of a large shrub. Some might think it was an extravagant purchase for a tool I’ll use only once or twice a year, but the head gardener in me wanted them, and the head gardener doesn’t listen to others when she makes a decision like that. After I finished the trimming and put away all the hedge trimmers, rakes, etc., I noticed one branch sticking out of the top of a big viburnum. How did I miss that? The lady of the manor in me wanted the head gardener in me to get out the new hedge trimmers again to fix it, but I decided to tell the lady of the manor to stop worrying about it. (Perfect does not belong in my garden!)

Tuesday, June 11

Hmmm… how did I let life keep me out of the garden? There’s a heat wave coming, but it isn’t here yet. These are the days to wrap up sweat-inducing work in the garden, like edging, mulching, weeding, and more. But instead, I talked to another writer about self-publishing. Her book isn’t gardening-related. It’s historical fiction, and I can’t wait to read it. Then I jumped on to a YouTube live to talk about what it’s like to be retired for eight years. Eight Years. Then it was time for a Costco run, and well, that’s how life can keep you out of the garden, even as the first summer heat wave looms ahead. By the way, Tuesday is when the latest Gardenangelists podcast episode is available to listen to a day before it goes live. I’ve had a couple of people confess to me they don’t know how to listen to the podcast, so they just read the newsletter. If you would like to listen and need help, just ask! (It’s okay not to spend every waking minute in your garden or not know how to listen to a podcast.)

Wednesday, June 12

I helped tend a few flower beds in the park where the garden club meets. It was lovely to clean up a little garden and spend time with another avid gardener. Once I got home, I decided to mow the lawn before the predicted heat wave arrived. Could I have waited a few more days before mowing? Most probably, but I do like to mow. I think when I mow. Not that I don’t think at other times, but you know what I mean. I’ve been mowing with the same mower since 2010 and mowing this lawn since 1997, when I moved here. It is all rather automatic at this point which allows for thinking. Solvitur ambulando. It is solved by walking. I could not find a Latin word for mowing to change that saying. Anyway, it was while mowing that I came up with the Monday through Sunday format for this newsletter. (Mowing is thinking in my world, and it’s exercise too!)

Thursday, June 13

It’s a good start to the day when you can spend the new dawn hours suckering your tomato plants and tying them up, which I did. Then later in the day, I re-learned the lesson that small pots are a poor choice for plants in hot weather. I didn’t have a chance to water containers Wednesday evening. By Thursday afternoon, some of the plants in smaller containers, like basil, were wilting. But all is not lost, I watered them in time before they really turned crispy. (Bigger containers are easier to keep watered on the hotter summer days.)

Friday, June 14

What do you want for your garden before the arrival of 90-degree days? You want some rain! And that’s what we got in the middle of the night. I measured and poured out .31 inches from my super-official rain gauge, which I recorded on the CoCoRaHS app. I noted it was the first rain since June 6th. Then I fertilized all the plants in containers, plus for good measure, the vegetable garden. I’m not super picky or fussy about the type of fertilizer. I used a general-purpose organic fertilizer, the kind with instructions like “mix a tablespoon in a gallon of water.” But the big excitement of the day wasn’t that bit of rain or fertilizing, it was a new Aldi Find—a package of two pairs of gardening gloves for $2.99. I bought four pairs of gloves. If you don’t know about Aldi stores and their “Finds” aisle, you should see if there is a store near you. This isn’t the first bargain I’ve picked up there, and it won’t be the last, I’m sure. (Happy Flag Day!)

Saturday, June 15

On the 15th of every month, I always post on my blog about the blooms in my garden. Of course, to have a post go live at midnight, I have to take the pictures the previous day. So with my blog post completed, I headed down to the annual family reunion. Yes, the non-native, invasive ditch lilies, Hemerocallis fulva, were blooming along the roadsides, just as they have been every year I can remember when driving to southern Indiana in early summer to see cousins, aunts, and uncles again. I have a big patch of these ditch lilies on the utility side of my house. I should really get rid of them. Other than the two weeks when they bloom, they are not attractive plants. And they like to spread. My plan is as the foliage slowly dies back—and it will in this heat—I’m going to gradually dig them all out and replace them with a big bed of Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed. At least, that’s the plan today. (Did you water your plants today?)

Sunday, June 16

The heat has arrived. 3:00 pm and 91 degrees Fahrenheit. The forecasters say we’ll reach at least 90 degrees every day for at least the next week. Time to set that alarm clock for an early morning wake-up if there is to be any gardening activity in the coming week. Even then, there may not be much gardening done, but I’ll certainly be watering! I’m going to water early in the morning now. And possibly in the evening too, especially smaller containers. (See Thursday above.) At least the pepper and okra plants should take off now. They love the heat. (There’s always a plus to balance out the minus. Gardener math.)

Thank you

Thanks for reading to the end. I’ve been planning this newsletter for a while, or at least planning to do this newsletter for a while. But I was stuck on the format and how to make it different from my blog posts. So I decided on this weekly, day-by-day, journal of the garden.

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