Last night and this morning have mostly been about sorting out the hoses — I took a few hours to clear out the garage first, pulled all the hoses into the yard, and have started setting them up. It’s going to be a long process.
But I got some set up to water the herbs on the back deck, so that’s good, and to water the hanging baskets on the front porch (which were starting to look a little wilty at the end of yesterday’s heat), and this morning I set up the sprinklers for the front garden — I have a couple sprinklers that I need to move around every hour, so I’m giving the front garden a good soak now, and hopefully that’ll hold it for a few days.
Everything in the ground will hold better than what’s in the planters, and shouldn’t need watering quite as often, but a long drink in the morning before it gets hot every few days will definitely help. We’ll definitely need to water all new plantings at least daily this hot week!
Then I went and cut some tulips and daffodils from the cutting garden for the house. That last photo is of a species tulip, smaller and more wild-looking than traditional tulips; with luck, it’ll actually survive and naturalize in our climate.
Mostly, tulips aren’t hardy in our zone, and we expect them to reduce every year — if I plant a dozen, then the next year I might have 9, then 5, then 2-3, and then they’re gone. So planting tulips here is mostly about planning to add more every year. (Not to mention the ones chewed up by dastardly squirrels.)
But I have great hopes for the species tulips — we’ll see!
I’ve just ordered my tulips for fall (to be shipped at the right time for planting) — if you wait to order, a lot of them will be sold out by August:
• Painter’s Palette Tulip Mix (25 for $27) – https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/977198-product.html
• Turkish Tapestry Species Tulip Mix (25 for $18) –
https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/215522-product.html
I’m also trying adding in a funky daffodil — I rarely buy daffodils, because they spread in our area, so it’s been many years since I’ve felt the need to buy any, but I thought this would be a fun one to add:
• Narcissus Bulbocodium “Mary Poppins” (12 for $19) —
https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/111643-product.html
Okay, off to move the sprinklers…
