Oh my! It is h-o-t today. 95 to be exact. This means that spring is officially over for Arkansans. The farmers said the almanac predicts a summer with average temperatures of 103. Again. . . oh my!

My darling husband hauled more bags of soil out to the maple bed for me today. I don't know why clear calculations never actually work when dealing with soil. I measured, formulated the volume and everything, but no. I still need a lot more soil than the calculations predicted. Shhh! Don't tell my students! The maple bed needs about 8 more bags of soil, then I'll mix in my MG and EG "good" soil, and finally be ready to plant.

Also today, I layed my soaker hose in the fence bed. What a great deal: in the spring I got two 50ft. hoses for $13 at Sam's. I'm just ready for the baby's breath to get bigger so that I can mulch. Yes, that's correct--it is June and I haven't mulched yet. Speaking of the fence bed, I just have to do some more sowing. I'll do that tonight when it has cooled off.

Weeds! I went out to do my biweekly weed spray this afternoon and used an entire bottle of round-up. Damn weeds!

Thunderstorms

The past couple days have been slacker days and I've loved every minute. We've had thunderstorms, thunderstorms, and more thunderstorms. My nasturtium is going to have a tempertantrum if it doesn't end soon. All of the other flowers are loving this humid rain. On a positive note, I cannot believe how great the greenhouse is working. I thought none the remaining peat cups would come up, but I have sprouts in quite a few!

New "Maple" Bed

This has been a pretty nice day. I got a fine amount accomplished, only got irritated with DH a few times, and still I feel as though I've been lazy. I spent the first couple hours of the day deciding if I should spend the money to make my newest bed when something grand happened. DH came in with the mail and to our surprise a rebate check came from Home Depot. We bought a fridge 5 months ago and had completely forgotten about the delivery rebate. Yeah! Moolah for a new bed.

The Maple bed is begun! I tried different blocks for this one. I am unsure if I am totally pleased, but am content overall. I think that I need to alter the shape a bit. I wanted it to be a quarter-circle as if the center point of a circle was the corner where the fence and house meet, but it has turned out more of a D shape. For this bed, I decided not to get a scoop from the nursery, but to buy the cheap bags of topsoil and supplement them with good EG or MG soil. I'll add that I am pleased to have bought a few starter bags of topsoil for 88 cents.

The big bed was filled by the nursery's scoops and I am not a satisfied customer. They said they were delivering the garden mix which was supposed to be a mix of compost and regular topsoil. When it arrived I thought it look good and rich, but now after spending a lot of time in it (yes, IN it), it is terribly sandy. Yuck! I wonder if I actually received their garden mix. They did forget about my delivery until I called wondering where the heck it was.

The Maple bed (that's what I've decided to call it) will hold my tree, two hydrangeas, and either sage, miss manners, weigelia, or a Lady in Red hyd. Not sure which yet. I'll put the variegated grass there for now as I planned. I want to put a fountain or pond there also, but that will come later. DH has decided to take interest in some of our landscape design. With the water feature being one of those interests, I'm guessing it will be a while before a decision is made.

School WS

Friday, I got my school WS planted out. The kids lost their interest pretty quickly. Only one student helped me with this. I think that if I had planned better they would have had more interest. I am not beating myself up though, it was new for me too. The problem with WS for school is that everything blooms while we're on summer break. I thought about starting a pumpkin patch instead of the flowers, but if I do it will have to wait until next year so I can have time to plan. Also, I decided not to have the title "math club" for whatever it is I plan.

For the WS, we only had about 10 plants survive. I brought home four or five of the bottles. The custodians aren't going to water the bed while we're gone and I couldn't just leave those babies to their doom. So, it makes no sense, but I planted the cantaloupe, chives, and grape tomato in my flower bed. I'm going to plant the Cleome in my side bed where its mother was but didn't come back. That grape tomato was small, but looked healthy. About an hour after I got it in the ground, it shrivelled up. I don't have a clue what that is all about.

Oh! I almost forgot about the baby carrots at school. We had the nicest plant. It got big, but we didn't have anywhere prepared to put it so I got a pot and the carrots still loved it. Well. . . I totally spaced and forgot to water them. Everything in the bottles were fine, but the carrots dried up. I just didn't think about it after being spoiled by all the rain we had been getting. I went ahead and planted them in the school garden, but don't have much hope.

Weekend plans

Thursdays are fun because it's the day I start planning for the weekend. I think, "I just have to make it 12 hours and 140 miles until I get to play." I've decided to chop down my monster vine (a carolina jasmine or trumpet vine) behind the mailbox and replace it with an Encore Azalea and a couple Nandinas. I think it will be pretty. I really want to start on my Maple bed, but I doubt if I can get the hubs on board with that. I guess if I really want it done I can do my own heavy lifting. Actually now that I write this "out loud," that's a great plan. I'll go ahead and get it done. Plus, I'll have a place to put my hydrangeas and the variegated liriope I dug out from the sidewalk. Speaking of, I cardboarded and mulched the area the liriope is supposed to go over a month ago and that dang grass still isn't dead. I guess it's takes more like 3 months. I was planning to stick it in pots till later, but the new bed will be great. I just can't risk letting bermuda into my new area.

Ok, so this weekend's to-do:
-buy and plant azalea and nandinas
-buy blocks and dirt
-cardboard and design new bed
-plant tree, hyds, and liriope
-Remember this time that pale people should always sunblock ASAP!

I'll feign denial and say "Doesn't sound so bad." Let's hope it stays below 90.

More ideas, more labor

Oh I can tell it's the end of the school year. I'm now waking up at the time I would normally leave for work. Yikes! Just this week and next to go. Teachers never let you know that we probably look forward to the end of school more than students.




I am so excited to have nasturtium blooms. Those are funky little things. I keep getting yellowed, sparce leaves, yet here come blooms. Whatever they're doing, I just hope they keep the orangey-red blooms comming. I can't wait to see if they taste any good! Oh, and don't I love my stellas. I would have NEVER picked these, but they just make me smile. It's funny how something so "plain" can be such a joy in the garden. Actually, all my favorite flowers are things I would have never thought. I guess when you look at bouquets or single stalks/blooms it's different from having a garden full. I love my coneflowers! I don't know if I could survive without them. The anticipation of them is all that got me through winter! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. . . a little?

All of my wintersowing is planted out except a peach hollyhock, a bottle of cardinal flowers and a couple of mystery babies in the peat starter. Although I loved WSing, I'm having a bit of difficulty getting up the gumption to start my annuals. I know it's getting pretty late for starting, but still the motivation is lacking.

Despite this, I've already planned a new part-shade bed. It's going to be fab! It all started with a tree. Every year my husband buys me a tree for our anniversary. This year he bought me a Yaki-something maple. It's the Jap. Maple that has the burgandy fringey leaves and grows kind of bonsai-y. I didn't really have anywhere to place it until, while weed-eating, I got a light bulb. I have a space beside my patio that isn't for anything except hiding junk like an old pond liner we never could get to stay sunk and bags of clippings. Why the people who previously owned this house didn't take the fence out to the end of the house is beyond me, but this has turned out to be a great place for a bed. Ah-ha! This tree, that pond, the sound of trickling water while sitting out on the patio! Mua-ha-ha! So, now I've planned more of the stuff I hate doing: hauling and shoveling soil, loading and unloading those blocks. I guess I haven't had enough punishment yet. I get such a thrill out of discovering these great hidey-holes in what would seem to be a plain 'ole suburban back yard.

Disclaimer: As anyone can tell, I'm not a pro at this formatting stuff yet.

Virgin Post

Ok, I'm new to blogging, texting, and the like. You'd think that a twenty-something would be on top of technology, but I still miss written letters in ink mailed with a bitter tasting stamp. Oh well, I guess I'll get with the times.

Starting this thing wasn't so bad. All these personal questions, I'm glad I'm a great acquaintance of myself. The toughest part was choosing between my beagle and cat for top rights to the title picture. This would be a great time for my first order of buisness--posting a picture. Have a good night, all in cyberspace (do we still call it this?).