more maintenance

I did still more weeding today. Also trimmed the hedges, cleaned the gutters, and dug up the monkey grass on the southwest side of the house. I'm going to freecycle the monkey grass, but it seems that I've been put on hold on freecycle or something.

Also, I noticed that one of the coreopsis is blooming for the first time this year. Also, one of the Stella d'Oro's started blooming earlier this week. It has 10 scapes with at least 7 buds each! Lots of the other daylilies have buds already as well.

Maintenance, and what has happened

I did some maintenance yesterday, mainly weeding.

The clematis on the porch rail started blooming yesterday.

The irises are almost done blooming. The pink and blue ones that I moved from the bank at the back of the house to the front last September didn't bloom. Actually, the blue ones might have. There are some that aren't as lavender as some of the others. They're more blue, and they're more ruffled, which Mommy remembers them being on the package. So they might have bloomed, but the pink ones definitely didn't.

I planted zinnia seeds yesterday, and also noticed that a couple came up from seed from last year. I planted California Giant in the center of the section, some dwarfs that I got for $1 at Walgreen's around those, and the miniatures from Maw's along the driveway.

The amaryllis next to the driveway in the back is almost blooming, and the Stella d'Oro's have buds. They're at least a week away from blooming, though.

The red marigold and candytuft seeds that I planted along the sidewalk haven't come up that well, so I planted more. It's probably an exercise in futility, but they're out there now. There are maybe 5 marigolds and 3 candytufts that have come up. I'm going to try to water them better than I did last time. Since we were in Vermont, and I was having the exacerbation, I didn't water them like I should have.

Pinks!

The pinks started blooming today! And I noticed yesterday that the hostas are coming up on the right side of the yard!

Also, the first tulip turned red today. :)

New plantings, a trip to Aldridge Gardens and filled in the trench

Well, I filled in the trench a couple of weeks ago, with 10 bags of topsoil from Lowe's and 6 from Ace. It now looks like a dark grey rainbow across the yard.

Last weekend I went to Birmingham, and on Saturday me and my mom did the Birmingham News' Itty Bitty Scavenger Hunt at Aldridge Gardens in Hoover. We found 19 of 25 of the items, but we didn't even turn it in. It was mainly an excuse to get out and enjoy the spring. We probably walked at least 2 miles trying to find all the stuff. There was a fair amount blooming: mainly camellias hyacinths.

After we left the gardens, we went in search of a nursery, but it was after 5:00, so we ended up at Home Depot. Against our better judgment, we got a lithodora which, after reading online, seems to be more suited for the west coast zone 7 than the deep south zone 7. But it's out in the yard and is quite pretty right now, so we'll see. I also got three cheddar pinks, which I've always loved and seem to do well here.

On Sunday, we dug up some Christmas ferns and some Lenten roses from the backyard, and I planted them on the shady side of the yard when I got home.

I'm also on perpetual weed patrol.

Garden maintenance

It's a gorgeous spring day today, and I'm oncall. :( So since I can't go anywhere, I did stuff in the yard! I cleaned up the remaining leaves, filled in 6 more bags of topsoil in the trench, fertilized the mondo and flowers, and pulled and sprayed for weeds.

One of the irises has an enormous rhizome! It goes off in at least four different directions and is thick! Hopefully that's a good sign! And maybe it's the pink or blue ones that have been holding back for years. :) I took a picture, but it's hard to see. There's a penny for reference.

Start of my garden blog....and what's happened in the past week

• I added dirt to the unused trench last Tuesday. I need to get at least 4 more bags of topsoil from Lowe's. The rain yesterday helped trample it so I can add more.
  
• The first daffodils started blooming Sunday. The rest are coming along, and the ones that I underplanted in the daylilies are coming up and have buds.
• The bluebells are about 4 inches tall, and I noticed today that the tulips are coming up beside them.

Things I need to do:

• Carry the leaves from the trench and the cut monkey grass to the backyard.
• Do something about the insane bermuda grass in between the driveways.
  
• Continue filling the trench.
• Do something about a sidewalk.
• Fertilize daylilies, irises, mondo...basically everything.
• WEED!