Picture Perfect Roses

When we opened the curtains in our bedroom this morning, I was greeted by these perfect roses.  I commented that they were picture perfect and my sweet husband went out to capture the image.  I wish you could see the dewdrops that were on them. 

What's blooming in October? Yuletide Camellia

Yuletide Camellia, Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide'

This flower is supposed to bloom at Christmas.  It's early!  Hopefully it will continue to bloom through winter like it's supposed to.  It likes filtered sun, which it gets in the corner of our front yard, under the neighbor's tree.  I just love the bright red flowers, the puff of bright yellow centers, and the dark green glossy leaves.

What's Blooming in September? Mexican Evening Primrose

Mexican Evening Primrose, Oenothera berlandieri.  My brother-in-law gave us some of these.  We drove them down from the bay area and they have done great.  They really can be a weed, taking over, but I cut them back freely and they have behaved themselves.  I love their pale pink flowers!  They fill in around under the rose bushes.

They do die back during the winter, but their appearance is always a pleasure!

She's Back!

The UPS man delivered yesterday.  Charlotte was very patient with him when he came through, destroying her home.  I didn't hear either of them yelling.  She may have cursed silently, and perhaps the UPS man did as well.  

Charlotte stayed up all night rebuilding.  This time she rebuilt just a bit lower, but did not include a line to the pilasters.  I climbed up on a chair to take this photo.  I was perched precariously, trying to focus on the spider, but the camera kept focusing on the tree way behind the web.  As I leaned closer, trying to find her in the shot, I realized the breeze was blowing her and her web toward me!  Time to rethink this shot!  So I climbed on our big rock so the sky was behind the web.  The camera could focus on Charlotte, and her web was no longer aiming right at me.

I would really like to see how she manages to run a line from one tree to the other.  Does she climb down, crossing the sidewalk, laying line behind her and somehow managing not to get it tangled along the way?  Does she take a flying leap when the breeze is just right?  Does she shoot the web with her tiny fly-fishing pole?  Does she enlist the help of some trusting flying being?  I thought I'd see if I could find out, so I headed over to YouTube.  I found this delightful video.  I didn't learn how the initial line is strung from tree to tree, but I did  learn a lot! Spiders are fine, but I've got to admit this guy is more accepting than I am! 

Here's another video.  You can almost see how this spider makes her stitches!


Charlotte still has lines going to the two trees, so if you come visit me you will be walking under her handiwork.  Today you can walk up our sidewalk without disturbing her web.  But if I were in your shoes, I'd watch my step...  looking up!

Update: My sister sent me this helpful site. Apparently they do like to fly fish, but without the fishing rod. I guess that makes sense since it is indeed flies she's fishing for.

Giant Spider Time!

At this time of the year I walk through my yard carefully.  Usually I'm looking down (we have dogs) and around to check what garden chores I should put on my To Do list.  But in the fall I need to look up.  It's time for giant spiders and their giant webs.  Allen spotted this one from the front door this morning.

The "tie downs" for this web are from tree to tree, about 15 feet apart.  I took the photo from back about 6 feet and the spider is about 8 feet up.  I did use the telephoto feature on my camera.  It's not the largest spider I have ever seen, but I sure wouldn't want to walk into this web! 

I remember one year there was a HUGE spider that had made a web looming over the gate to the trash cans.  I'm really not very afraid of spiders, but this one had me fearful of taking out the garbage!  If I remember correctly, she was about an inch or more...  maybe six inches!

I believe these are Garden Spiders and they really aren't aggressive.  They are actually considered a beneficial insect in the garden.  They eat insects and anything that goes after the flying pests is a friend of mine!  If you take down the web, they are likely to just rebuild it in the same place and it is pretty amazing how quickly they can construct these enormous structures.  When they have built a web lower down, I actually like to look at the beautiful patterns on their bodies. 

So I let them be.  But I walk in the garden with my eyes open, and sometimes I carry my garden tools at arm's length in front of my face.  I really don't want to disturb any of these friends and then have them looking for a place to hide on me!

What's Blooming in September? Ginger

The Ginger plant Hedychium, grows next to the waterfall.  The flowers smell heavenly!  The plant never really looks fabulous though.  They tend to lean over like they're trying to get out of the shade of the neighbor's Ficus tree.  

I was reading up on it in the Sunset book.  It says the foliage of White Ginger is usually unattractive because if it's hot enough for the flowers to bloom well, the leaves burn.  Well, it's been hot and the flowers are blooming.  You can see some of the edges of the leaves are burned.  

I don't know if I have the White Ginger, Hedychium coronarium, or the Cream Ginger, Hedychium flavum.   The root was given to me by a friend.  The flowers do look kind of creamy to me, so maybe I have the flavum.  It's supposed to be  more fragrant that then White Ginger and the Kahili Ginger. 

The plant looks OK to me and the scent is wonderful! 

What's Blooming in September? Plumeria

Isn't this gorgeous?  I understand the common name is Frangipani, but I have always known it as the botanical name, Plumeria. The flowers can be white, yellow, pink, or dark rose.

These tropical plants look like a thick stick when you plant it.  It is definitely a tropical plant, but it really does well in our area.  They don't need much water.  In fact, over-watering can make the root system rot fairly easily.  I should use fertilizer more often.  I keep my Plumeria in pots in an area that is watered with the sprinkler system.  

In the winter, the leaves fall off and it looks like the stick I started with.  In the spring, the stick will grow a new branch so a mature plant will look like a tree with many branches.

They can be put in the ground, but they cannot tolerate temperatures below freezing.  My friend Kristen has a lot of mature plants grown in the ground.  She goes out each winter and puts a styrofoam cup stuffed with cotton on each and every branch tip.  I think she also wraps the plants.  I used to keep a plant in the ground and I would toss a sheet over the plant.  It must not have been enough because the plant died.  I'm not as dedicated to caring for any plant, not even these beauties.  Kristen gives her plants tender loving care and they are so big she has to cut them back in the spring.  She gave me some of the "sticks" and now I have my plants in pots.  

If you have such a generous and kind friend, the stick needs to be given a chance to dry out a little and heal over at the base.  These new cuttings are most likely to rot

In the winter I tote the pots into the garage. They do not need any care whatsoever during their stay in the garage.  Do not water!  When the leaves start growing again in the spring, haul the pots back out and start watering lightly.

Procrastination

 I have been walking past the overgrown Agapanthus for quite a while.  The plant has grown away from the original center plant leaving huge thick roots around a bare middle.

These roots looked like concrete.  I have been putting it off.  I didn't think I wanted to rent a jack hammer or swing a sledge.  Ugh!

So I've been thinking maybe I could start at one side and over time, work my way through this eyesore.


So I grabbed my work gloves, my heavy duty work sandals, and the shovel.







It turned out most those concrete "logs" were actually just a thin covering over rotted centers.   I was able to pull out a lot of these with my hands.

Sure, some of the root stalks were still viable, but all of the plants in this area had the long overgrown look.  Out they go!


I was able to pull all of the Agapanthus in just a few hours.  Whoopie!

I replaced the old plants with some that had planted themselves in the wrong place...  in other words, they had become weeds.

I covered the area with home-grown mulch.   Much better!

I won't wait so long to thin the Agapanthus.  It was work, but not nearly as bad as I thought.

Cut Us Back, Please!!!

The Hydrangeas have been begging me to cut them back!  I really don't mind the look of the spent flowers.  They keep a pale version of their color.  I've even cut them and kept them in vases inside like that.  But the plants will really do better if I cut them back. 

 

You can just barely see the dried flower at the top of this picture.  Below that you can see the back of a large leaf covering the stem. Then below that you might be able to see some n3ew buds right at the base of the two leaves.

 



 I think you can see the new buds better in this photo.  If I cut just above these buds, they should both branch out.  As I wrote in my last post, this will make the whole plant healthier and more full.  The plant won't spend any more energy trying to maintain the old dying portion and can spend its energy on the new growth.

So I cut it back right above the leaf nodes.  Any lower and I might damage the new buds.  Any higher and I'd leave a branch to rot.  This should be just right to dry up and heal over.

Cutting Back

I remember when my dad would cut back our huge Chinese Elm tree in our front yard.  It would look so bare and dead.  But of course, it always grew back again, healthier than ever.  It's actually good for most plants to be cut back.  I recently bought a little Basil plant from the grocery store.  I have not gotten around to planting it in the ground yet, and I may decide not to.  It's doing fine where it is and I really see it as a temporary visitor to my garden.

But like most herbs, it needs to be cut back.  This is really a win/win situation!  As I cut a few bunches of basil, it encourages the plant to grow back stronger.

In the middle of this photo, you may be able to see a place where there are two sets of new growth with small leaves.  Look closely between them and you may see a whitish place where I have pinched off the branch.  I made a great salad with garbanzo beans and fresh tomatoes and I also added some fresh basil.  That was a couple of weeks ago.  It's fairly typical for two branches to start where ever one is snipped, so the plant grows back fuller. 

You can just pinch back the ends of the new growth, like those 2 sets of tiny leaves above.  Or you can clip lower on the branch.  But whenever you cut back, try to cut just above where there leaves growing.  You don't want to cut very far between branches or leaves.  A short section of branch will just heal over.  More than that leaves the plant vulnerable to disease and insect damage.  Not only that, it won't look nice having all those sticks poking out.

I think I'll go out right now and pinch back that basil some more.  Shall I make pasta with chicken and marinara with fresh basil for dinner tonight?

A Hidden Gem

I was cruising through the City's website and found this hidden gem.  Water-wise Gardening in Camarillo.  You've got to check it out!

Time for Power!

It's been over 6 weeks since my last entry!  Bloggers should post regularly and gardeners should tend to their gardens regularly and I haven't done either.  I went to the Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City.  The grand-kids came for a few days and then we took them for a vacation in Indio. (HOT!!!)  Then it's really been too hot here to want to work outdoors.  I bought the new My Digital Studio 2+ and have been working on that.  I love it! 

But my garden has been calling me too.  So today it was time to get the biggest bang for my buck.  No time for plucking weeds today!  I got out the power tools. 

The biggest eyesore today was our xeriscape area on the other side of the driveway.  This patch gets almost no water, so I've put in plants that thrive with neglect.  It's predominately Statice and Sage with a few Aloes tucked in the middle.   The sage grows very quickly and can get "leggy."  If you regularly trim it back, it stays nice and bushy, but I don't seem to get around to it very often.  If you cut it back all the way, it looks naked, with just a few sticks poking out with few or no leaves.  I learned a trick from watching the gardeners which I've put to use now that I'm the gardener.

The trick is to cut the bottom and sides of the sage and then let that grow back a bit and then cut off the top.  That leaves part of the plant looking OK all the time.  So I brought out the Hedge Hog to cut back the sage. While I was at it, I cut off a few of the dried flowers from the Statice.  I should really be clipping the dead parts off.  I did that to one plant, but I didn't have time to do it right for all of them.  So I tidied them all up a bit.  I raked up the big stuff. then I got out the Leaf Hog to vacuum up some leaves and lots of dried Statice flowers.  Time to call it a day!

Perhaps tomorrow I'll get back to the daily weeding and deadheading.

Theological Weeding

Thanks to my friend Judy, I am now passing my time weeding contemplating theological issues.  When last I wrote about weeding, I was not thinking Godly things at all.  But my sister Irene responded and I've changed my thinking.

I was blaming the weeds, calling them sneaky and a wolf in sheep's clothing.  But as I was weeding just a few feet away from those weeds, I found a new enemy.  This one too, was masquerading as the desired plants.  I was weeding out the clover from the ornamental strawberries.  The soil, light, and watering conditions are not much different, but a different weed had taken over.  But it wasn't the weed's fault.  It was the way I had reacted to the weeds.

Let's go back to my definition of a weed: a weed is an undesirable plant.  It's a plant that has planting itself where you don't want it. The weeds to the left are easy to spot.  Nothing else is growing there.  I didn't plant them.  They are not a plant I want.  They are weeds.

But the ornamental strawberries that have sent runners into the area where I've planted pansies are also weeds.  I like the ornamental strawberries but they have planted themselves where I don't want them.  They are also weeds.








There are people who actually like dandelions.  For all I know, there are people who intentionally plant dandelions.  There are definitely people who harvest dandelions for their salads or to make dandelion wine.  Most of us would agree that we do not want dandelions growing in our gardens.  There are dandelion weeders and most herbicides list dandelions as something it will kill.  If you have dandelions in your lawn, there are fertilizers that you can add to promote your healthy grass while killing the dandelions.* (See the bottom of this blog entry for an explanation.)  So most of us know what dandelions look like.  As soon as we see those bright yellow blossoms, we make plans to get rid of the plant.  We may tolerate a child blowing the dandelion puffs, but we also cringe at the thought of each one of those seeds growing into a weed we will have to pull out.  Dandelions are an easy weed to spot and there are plenty of ways to get rid of them.

But as I've said earlier, we don't have a lawn in our garden.  We have used other ground covers that do not provoke our allergies.   So that means weeding.  Our ground covers do not look like dandelions.  I can still spot these weeds and take care of them fairly easily.  But near our door we have elfin thyme.  It has tiny round leaves and the plants hug the ground and spread outward.  So when the weed with tiny round leaves and the plants hug the ground and spread outward started growing, I don't notice right away.

And where the ornamental strawberries with their three smallish leaves on a plant that spreads with runners are growing,  I didn't notice so much when the clover with their three smallish leaves on a plant that spreads with runners started in.  It was harder to spot.








Ready for the theology?  There is sin that's easy to spot.  There are some activities that most of us notice right away and we know to keep our distance.  If we are drawn to it, we pretty much know that we are violating the standard moral or ethical code.  But there is sin that's not so easy to spot.  Maybe it's a good activity, but done at the wrong time, the wrong place, or just too often.  Or maybe it's an activity that is OK for some people, but not for us.  We can easily do this type of activity and it's fine at first.  But slowly, without our noticing, it becomes sin.  It takes over our lives.  And then it's hard to stop.

When the clover started growing, I saw some of it.  But I'd heard clover actually adds nutrients to the soil.  And the red-leafed clover is very hard to notice with its dark leaves on the dark soil.  I consciously allowed the clover to grow, hoping the strawberries would be able to hold their ground.  And after all, the runners get so tangled with the runners from the strawberries.  I think I will get around to weeding later.  Just like those little sins we don't worry too much about, they got out of hand and I'm having to work a lot to make the change now.

Are you still with me?  Now I have a gift for you, if you want it.  I was weeding around the pansies and found this lavender "weed."  I planted lavender, but not there.  This little guy planted itself in the wrong place.  I put it in a pot and I'm fairly sure it will make the transition to container living, at least for a while.  If you want it, and it's still alive, you can have it just for the asking.  First come, first served.  (Assuming we can make arrangements for the transfer that works out.) Just leave a comment, and say you would like to give this lavender plant a home.

* Dandelions are dicots and grass is a monocot.  These herbicides kill the dicots.  That works just fine when trying to kill weeds in your lawn.  If you use these products to kill dandelions or other weeds among your shrubs and flowers which are also dicots, you will kill your desired plants. And yes, there are actually herbicides that kill grass that grows in among your flowers. 

The Wild Things

OK.  They are not plants.  But these finches are an important part of my garden.  I love watching them share the choice perches.  I love the songs they sing most of the day.  I love the colors of the red-chested house finches and especially the bright yellow and black goldfinches.  The birds and the pond are as important to my garden as any plant.

We used to feed the standard bird seed, but I've switched and exclusively buy the more expensive Nyjer, or thistle seed.  This is the seed the finches prefer.  I've found it everywhere the other bird seed is sold.  It's been treated so it doesn't sprout weeds under the feeder.  I do try to vacuum up the spent seeds every now and then, mainly for cleanliness.  I use the Leaf Hog to vacuum. 

We can go through about a bag a week, especially in the summer.  I have thought about buying a huge 50 pound bag, but then I'd have to find a place to store it.  So I buy one or two of the biggest bag I can find when I'm at Target, Walmart, or Home Depot.  The Walmart site said prices depend on location, so it may be different where you are.
Walmart:  $15.87 for 7 lbs
Home Depot $15.98 for 7 lbs


The feeders we use are similar to this one from Target.  Again, it's not cheap.  I love feeding the birds, but I do not like feeding the squirrels and rats.  We've tried a lot of different ways to keep these rodents away. 

• I thought having the feeders hanging from these tall "shepherd's crook" hangers would be enough, but the rodents can just run up the skinny poles as if they were ladders.  
• We've tried dried pepper flakes.  The theory is that the rodents' don't like the taste and the birds don't mind it.  
• We've tried a thistle "sock."   We had the plain kind and the fancy kind with a dome cover.  These didn't keep the rodents out.  The birds loved them!  We would have maybe 30 birds on the sock almost all day.  There were so many that it felt like a swarm or infestation.  We also went through a lot of bird seed!
• This style of bird feeder has springs inside.  When the heavier rodents land on the feeder, the outside falls down, closing off the holes.  When the feeder is full, 8 birds can feed at once.  There is often a bird waiting its turn on the top of the crook and more waiting in the bushes and the tree nearby.  We have 2 feeders in the back yard, so there are plenty of birds to watch.

We rarely have the squirrels empty out our feeder any more.  Occasionally a family of rats will move in.  When they get to be a problem I put a trap next to the fence by the feeder.  I surround the trap with an exercise pen to keep the dog from getting his nose or paw caught in the trap.

I just moved one feeder closer to our bedroom window.  I was afraid it would not work out there.  I was afraid it was too close.  I thought the birds would be too wary of our movements inside.  They often, but not always, fly away when we're moving around.  If we sit still, they don't seem to mind us too much, though they do seem to keep an eye on us.  I was also worried they would run into the glass.  That hasn't been a problem yet.  One of the first things I do in the morning is open the shades so I can watch the birds for a while. I love having the feeder closer to the window so I can get a close view.

I think the location of the feeder is important.  When I gave up on the thistle socks, I gave them to a friend and she never saw any birds on it.  I think she said she had it by her front sidewalk.  Perhaps there was too much traffic there.  I think she also has cats, so that might be the problem as well.  I think the birds appreciate a tree where they can fly to escape or rest.  But there may be other reasons why we can attract so many birds here.  Even before we had the feeders I would seem them in our trees and splashing in the waterfall.  We may also be in the flight path where other people feed birds.  When you first put a bird feeder out, be patient.  Try one location for at least a week or two.  If they don't use the feeder by that time, try moving it.

This site sells a different kind of feeder.  I might give their roller feeder a try!   They recommend sunflower kernals.  I don't know if their feeder would work with the tiny Nyjer seeds.  The site does offer some great  feeding tips and links.

Let the water flow!

We had a leak. . .  not a major leak and it turned out not to be much of a problem to repair.  But to locate the leak we had to turn off the waterfall.  And since the leak was in the skimmer we needed to keep the waterfall and pump turned off until we could get it fixed.

Oh, how I missed the sound of the waterfall!  It brings life to our whole home!  The sound lulls me to sleep at night.  The sight of the waterfall greets me in the morning as I get my coffee.  Even now, as I sit at my desk, I can hear it flowing. It is truly the highlight of our garden.

Due to a series of technical issues, we had trouble touching base with Frank Cornellier.  I worried that we would have to find someone else to call on for maintenance.  Frank has a special touch when he builds ponds.  He builds ponds that function as close to a natural system as possible, so there really is very little that needs to be done on a regular basis.  One guy that came had a very different philosophy for ponds.  It sounded as if his ponds were really more designed to showcase koi.  You could put koi in our pond, but our pond showcases our yard, not the fish.  The goldfish don't need daily feeding.  The are pretty, but if a raccoon, opossum, or egret comes to eat from the pond, I won't lose a major investment.  I much prefer Frank's natural style of ponds. 

The technical glitches were resolved.  I was able to reach Frank and he got the water flowing again!  It reminds me how wonderful it is to have a pond.

If you are considering a pond, I'd say go for it!  I highly recommend Frank.  Check out his website for Paradise Now Ponds, then give him a call. 

Weeds!

I turned my back on my garden for just a little while!  I got distracted with the new catalog from Stampin' Up!  I've been planning and wishing and organizing and yes, ordering.  I've also been posting on my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Blog.  I also went down to my daughter's to help her for a few days.  I have clipped off a few spent roses, but not much else for a week or so.  The weeds noticed my neglect and moved in.

A friend just posted on Facebook that she loves weeding.  She says she reaps spiritual lessons as she removes the sinister invaders.  I don't think I benefit spiritually from pulling weeds.  I may even lose a few spiritual points for the evil thoughts I have toward this part of God's creation. 

Today I worked around the front entry.  I don't know the name of this weed.  I don't want to become any more familiar with it than I already am.  We are not friends!  This weed is sneaky!  Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, it grows among the ground cover, keeping low and trying to blend in.  There's no springing up like a dandelion with its bright yellow flower.  I do marvel at this weed's skill at self preservation and propagation.This weed has tiny little flowers with seeds to lure its accomplices, the ants, which like to carry the seeds home for a snack, dropping a few seeds along the way. 

 If I'm correct, the flowers are kind of brittle, breaking off and spreading the seeds as I walk across the yard.  And as I'm pulling out the plants, they are trying to leave seeds behind to plant the next generation.

So I try to be a little smarter than this weed.  I try not to walk on it any more than I have to.  It grows and spreads outward from the central stem, so I try to find that center, and use my trusty weeding tool to get all the roots.  I gently pull it up and get it into the bucket without shaking or disturbing the plant anymore than I have to.  If I get a clump of dirt with the roots, I don't shake it off.  I hold the plant still and gently tease the dirt away from the roots.  The only thing good about this weed is that since it spreads wide, the coverage looks worse than it really is.  I can clear an area faster than with other weeds.   I may be smarter than this weed, but it's got me outnumbered!  It will take more work to get it under control again!

Memorial Day Lilies

Easter Lily Lilium Longiflorum  These flowers are sold as Easter Lilies.  I always thought they were called that because they bloomed at Easter time.  Mine were blooming today, Memorial Day, so I have decided to rename them Memorial Day Lilies.

However, when I was looking up their botanical name I discovered they ones sold in stores are forced to bloom at Easter!  Their usual blooming time is in mid-summer and they may even rebloom in fall.  No wonder my Easter Lilies haven't bloomed "on time!"

The Sunset book also says not to plant the forced bloom flowers near other lilies because they may carry a virus.

Leaf Variety

Canna

 

Baby Tears Soleiroliea soleirolii

I like to select plants for their foliage as much as for the flowers.  After all, you'll have leaves for most plants all year and the flowers for a few months if you're lucky.  I discussed this a little here.

Pittosporum

Pittosporum

Pittosporum

  

Roses

Lamb's Ears Stachys olympica

Don't know what this plant is.  The pond guy put it in, but I love the colored leaves!

Nandina

Nandina Nana

Pelargonium

 

Nandina

Breath of Heaven Coleonema pulchrum

 

Bird of Paradise

Managing the Creeping Fig

 Creeping Fig Ficus pumila  I love the delicate vine as is grows, hugging the fence.  It was there when we moved in.  It covers the fence across the entire back of the yard.  The leaves are only an inch or so. 








But make no mistake.  This plant is not delicate at all. It looks like an entirely different plant when it grows away from the fence.  The leaves get much larger (up to 2"-4" long)  as do the branches.  The Sunset book says there is almost no limit to the size of this vine and the area it will cover. 

It's a very common landscaping plant, but I suspect most gardeners hate it. Instead, it is almost always cut back with a hedge trimmer.  This creates something that looks like a wall-hugging hedge. 

If you want to keep it delicate and clinging to the fence you have to clip anything that grows away from the fence.  I think of it as a labor of love.  This does not make it a low-maintenance plant, but it is manageable.  If you cut it back severely it will  only need this every 6-12 months.   

If you let it grow it just might take over the world!  I discovered that ours had grown over the fence and up the neighbor's tree. I don't know if you can see it climbing up its cousin, a Ficus tree Ficus benjamina.

 

May Day - May Gray

Welcome to May!  I remember when I was little I would make a little flower bundle for my Mom and maybe a neighbor or two.  Today, here in Camarillo, CA we are having our typical "May Gray" weather.  The sky is overcast and there is enough moisture to keep everything just a little wet.  It's not raining though.  Just a light mist every now and then.  It's not too hot or too wet to garden.  It's also great weather for adding soil supplements, so out I went. 

Baby's Tears.  Soleirolia soleirolii
Cyclamen

To the left of our front sidewalk, we have a bed with just a few flowers and lots of Baby's Tears.  Baby's Tears love shade and moisture.  Obviously it gets what it needs here.  It has totally overwhelmed the flowers!  Luckily it's easy to pull up to give the flowers a chance.  I'll need to repeat often.





Phew!  This poor Cyclamen can get a little sun and air!  The snails and slugs love the shade and moisture too.  I saw a little damage to the leaves, so I put out some Sluggo.  Sluggo breaks down to organic fertilizer and is supposed to be safe for pets.  Some slug and snail bait is very attractive to pets and very poisonous.  Just to be sure, I only use it in the front yard.

Now you see it, now you don't.  Just a week or two ago the Raunculus looked full and healthy.  The other day I saw that most of them are almost gone.










I don't know if you can even see the one in the foreground.  It just has a few stems and very little else.  The red one in the back is doing a little better, but it's only because the slugs haven't gotten to it yet.  The whole plant may be gone tomorrow. With weather like this, the slugs will be out  munching all day.  With any luck, the slugs will be distracted with the yummy Sluggo and my Ranunculus will be spared.

I finally put out the Soil Acidifier today.  I scattered it all around the base of the Hydrangeas and Camellias.  I'll repeat in a couple of months.  Home Depot has a video about adding acidifier.  In the video, Rick Feldman uses an electronic PH reader.  I can tell by looking at these plants that they are very needy.  He says the goal is to have a reading around 6.  I may need to get the gadget so my plants don't need to get so needy. He says the blue hydrangeas will only be blue the first year unless you add a special bluing agent.  I didn't know that!  I have heard they need copper and to add pennies to the soils as well as the acidifier.

I wanted to also show you my new little spreading rose.  My friend Kristen gave me this one and a light purple one.  She said they are suppose to spread out several feet.  This one is still small, just about 8" tall.  But it got its first yellow blossom.  You can see I've sprinkle some fertilizer today as well.






Yep!  May Gray is perfect weather for spreading fertilzer, Sluggo, and soil acidifier.  Perhaps I'll take a few flowers next door.  Happy May Day!