I've found (like a lot of older folks) I'm waking up early in the mornings - someplace between 4 and 6 am. I've always been a night person so it's new for me. The good news is it's an especially beautiful time of the day, the weather is tolerable and it's peaceful.
I have a quick cup of coffee and head out as soon as it gets light. I work until I'm tired, super hot or have to be someplace. Funny thing is these short spurts of work are accomplishing more than my marathon all day sessions.
With my youngest son, Ian, putting down almost 80 bags of mulch in one day, I was able to put down the rest doing a little at a time. The word "plodding" comes to mind.
A garden this size is never done but at least I'm getting the first round pretty much tolerable and with all the mulch, the second round is much easier.
One of my miscalculations this spring was assuming the torrential rains would continue into summer. Wrong-O! I have a very nice big raised bed where I grew vegetables. Having decided to quit doing the hundreds of jars of canned goods, it was the perfect place to transplant any daylily that had become too shaded, too crowded, or originally placed wrong.
Thirty-six transplanted daylilies later and hot/dry/windy weather stretching on and on means I'm watering almost every other day. For three hours each time. The daylilies, the pots of annuals and a patch of grass we seeded way too late and whew and whew again.
I've been ruthless about the daylilies this year. Anything, no matter how lovely, that tries to crowd out a daylily is dealt with fast and furious. Either the lily gets moved or the other plant is moved or it's eliminated.
Next year the daylilies in the raised bed will be self sufficient and not need so much or any real care.
This year, I planted annuals among those 36 daylilies so as to give the bed some color. Also, a large bag of cheap gladiolus.
Although my first daylily started blooming May 3, the rest are just starting and soon I'll have many in bloom. Most of those transplanted may "pout" or only put out roots this year instead of blooming.
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| Stella de Oro daylily |
I did take every Stella de Oro from any bed (I had started with one plant) and divided them enough to surround two of the outsides of the raised bed. Another, Happy Returns, was divided on the 3rd side. Both are super robust continuous bloomers and will keep the bed looking cheerful and help control weeds.
These daylilies (including Stella de Oro) have started to bloom:
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| Happy Returns daylily |
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| Bitsy daylily |
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| Eenie Allegro daylily |
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| Middendorfii daylily |
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| Susie Wong daylily |
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| Raspberry Pixie daylily |
Have a good gardening week friends. It's only just begun.
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