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Many years ago, when I first started my Web site, I created an online diary of my gardening activities and observations. However, with work and the commute from Hell, I was often so tired I had to choose between maintaining my garden and maintaining my diary. Sometimes, I did neither. In 1998, I stopped my diary and removed the pages from my Web site.
Now I am retired. I am well-rested and have plenty of time to both garden and maintain a diary. This diary is primarily for my own benefit, so that I can look back upon what I did and when. But I thought others might also be interested, so here it is.
Also see What's Blooming in My Garden Now?
Entries are in reverse order (latest at the top). Daily, I might stoop to pull a weed or use a hose to water some potted plants; however, I don't consider those significant gardening activities. Thus, you will not see daily entries. Also, I might accumulate a few entries before updating this page on the Web.
When plants have well-known common names, their scientific names are given only the first time they appear on this page (entry closest to the bottom). There, the common name is in bold or appears as a link to another Web page.
Dates refer to other entries in the same year as the entry in which they appear unless a different year is given. However, they may refer to entries on prior pages.
This diary has been visited 9602 times since I started it.
There have been 243 days since the last measurable rain.
| Date and Weather | Observations and Activities |
|---|---|
| 27 September
Clear, sunny, and hot Temp: 66-99
|
The cuttings of wax-leaf begonias (27 May) developed little or no roots after four months, so I trashed them.
At the public gardens where I am a docent, there is a planting of shasta daisies (Leucanthemum maximum). I'm not sure of the variety, but they are very much similar to 'Marconi'. They have large, single flowers on tall stems. The garden manager gave me permission to take some cuttings. Today, I put up two small pots with two cuttings in each. These would look good behind the 'Esther Reed' shastas — double flowers on short stems — in my east bed in back. Trimmed the back lawn along the path opposite the circular bed. I only have the path between the lawn and teardrop bed plus the far side of the latter. Tomorrow, I will mulch the camellia bed in back with the output from my office shredder. |
| 22 September
Partially cloudy, mostly sunny (sometimes hazy), and hot Temp: 64-99
|
Fed the roses — front and back — with ammonium sulfate. I discovered the 'Paradise' rose in front was broken at the bud union, making the plant a total loss. It appears that someone stepped on it.
Remodeled Cleopatra's house, making the entry about 2-3 inches wider. Now that the inside is larger, I have to buy and install some more paver bricks for the floor before I can put the roof back. Flushed the surface drain line on the west side of the house in preparation for the rainy season, which is still one or two months in the future. |
| 18 September
Clear, sunny, and hot Temp: 59-95
|
Finished trimming the edges of the path in back between the lawn and the rose bed. I continued trimming where that path extends between the rose and circular beds and around the small brick, circular patio; there, only the edge of the rose bed required any work.
I have to remodel Cleopatra's house. She continues to grow, so now she scrapes her shell on sides of the doorway. |
| 15 September
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 57-82
|
Had to "rescue" Cleopatra. It's almost time for her to hibernate. She dug a burrow on the east side of the house near the compost pile. If we got as much rain this coming winter as we did last winter, the hole would fill with water; and she would drown. With the help of a neighbor, I extracted her from her makeshift home. Then I filled the hole with dirt and bricks so that she could not dig there again.
Finished weeding the rose bed in front (11 Sep). Trimmed some more along the path bordering the back lawn, this time adjacent to the rose bed. I only got a little over half-way to the circular bed. I did continue along the path between the circular and rose beds to remove purple oxalis (O. corniculata) and spotted spurge (Euphorba maculata) from the path itself. I'm finding a lot of small oxalis plants in the west and north paths, and the paths along the east side of my back yard are filled with spurge. (These species of oxalis and spurge are definitely weeds and not the desirable garden plants found in the other species of Oxalis and Euphorba .) Gave the mailbox in front a "haircut", trimming the dwarf English ivy that I trained to grow up the post and over the mailbox. |
| 14 September
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 61-89
|
The Dracaena cutting (24 Aug & 16 Jul) finally has roots. I discarded its parent and planted the cutting in the parent's flower pot. Then I took two cuttings of the Aloe vera that was growing next to the Dracaena in the breakfast room greenhouse window.
Fed the dwarf citrus and gardenia (G. jasminoides 'Veitchii') with commercial citrus food and a very small amount of zinc sulfate. It appears that the guava bush (Feijoa sellowiana) will have a bumper crop this fall … if the squirrels allow it to happen. |
| 11 September
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 56-84
|
After days of unrelenting heat, we had a thunder storm yesterday. A brief shower failed to provide enough rain to measure, so we are now 97 days without any rain. Before yesterday, we had eight consecutive days with temperatures greater than 90°F with three of those days exceeding 100°.
Weeded a portion of the front rose bed. Most of the weeds were seedlings from The Tree in back; those I merely dropped to form a mulch. I removed grasses and other weeds. Tried to remove some kind of Baccharis from the rose bed. I originally thought this was a seedling from the dwarf coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis) that I planted years ago. However, dwarf coyote bush grows horizontally while this volunteer kept trying to grow vertically no matter how many times I headed it. By now, it had grown too big to pull out; so I cut it to a stump. If the stump sprouts, I have herbicides waiting for it. Elsewhere in the rose bed, I trimmed the dwarf coyote bush where it interfered with the rose bushes or their drip irrigation emitters. I also trimmed where it was growing out into my neighbor's front lawn or over the public sidewalk. Trimmed the edges of the pink clover (Persicaria capitata) front lawn. I also trimmed a gap between the dwarf English ivy (Hedera helix 'Hahn's') around the liquidambar (L. styraciflua) tree and the lawn. |
| 4 September
Mostly clear with some small clouds, mostly sunny, and hot Temp: 67-96
|
Swept about 4.5 gallons of seeds from The Tree off the patio in back. Many more seeds fell in the beds, on the lawn, and on the paths. Large clusters of seed still hang from The Tree. Ash seedlings are the more numerous weeds in my garden.
Tied the potted spoon-flowered chrysanthemum (C. morifolium) to a stake in its flower pot. Last spring (16 May), I thought it was dead; but it came back. Now I have to start disbudding it, which will make the remaining flowers larger. Trimmed the edges of the path between the back lawn and the west bed. My new grass shears are so sharp that they make this task much easier than my old shears (7 Aug) ever did. My dill (Anethum graveolens) is history, but then dill is an annual. I did get a good crop (21 Jul) and dried it for use until next spring, when I will plant more dill. It seems that ants have started a nest in the flower pot for my Cymbidium orchid. Ants frequently nest in the flower pot for my tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus). I mixed a drench of water and malathion and used it on both flower pots. |
Weather data are from the Cheeseboro (CHE) weather station, about 2 miles ENE of my house (reported in prior diary pages as 1.2 miles).
The high temperature (°F) is daytime for the indicated date; the low temperature (°F) is for the night ending on that date.
The relative humidity is at noon. (In my garden, it is likely higher than reported, a result of regular irrigation.)
Wind speeds (mph) are average (not peak) low and high, midnight to midnight (subject to later correction for diary entries posted before the end of the day).
Rain is in inches. Rain amounts are omitted after 60 consecutive days elapse without any measurable amount. Season is the cumulative amount of rainfall since the start of the current rainy season, which began on 2 Oct 2010 with the first measurable rain in 137 days, until noon on the indicated date. Week is the cumulative amount of rainfall from noon seven days ago until noon of the indicated date. If no rain fell in that period, Days since last is reported.
Characterization of the weather (e.g., Clear, sunny, and warm) is purely subjective; for example, "warm" might occur with higher temperatures than "hot" if the former occurs with lower humidity and more breezes than the latter. Also, a day that would normally be characterized as "mild" might instead be "warm" if the immediately previous days were quite cold.
The signature line I use when writing messages about my garden includes the following:
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