My Garden Diary

A hummingbird built a nest on a tiny twig at the top of the potted Ficus benjamina on my front porch. From the window of my second storey bathroom, I can look down into the nest. Every time someone goes in or out of the house through the front door momma bird (or is it pappa?) gets nervous and flies away. I hope this doesn't impair the hatching of the two eggs, which are the size of small peas.

Severely cut back the penstemon in the east bed. This should promote stockier growth this year. In the process, many seedlings from The Tree were exposed. Pulling them is a never-ending battle.

The excess rain is turning my soil back into heavy adobe clay, both by the force of the rainfall packing down the soil and also by leaching away the gypsum (calcium sulfate) that I added to break up the clay. Today, I broadcast over 50 pounds of gypsum both in front and back. I didn't rinse any of it into the soil. The soil is still quite saturated, and next week's rain sould suffice.

Around the Liquidambar tree in front and in the teardrop bed in back (where I have an Australian tea tree), I added iron sulfate, zinc sulfate, and Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) to the gypsum. I spread this mix (with soil sulfur) around the trees less than a month ago (31 Jan) to counteract chlorosis, but I'm sure the rain has removed these highly soluble metallic sulfates. This time, I did not add sulfur around the trees. It's not very soluble until after soil bacteria convert it into sulfuric acid.

I did not put gypsum on the lawn in back. I'll do it later, when I feed the lawn in April. I also did not do the rose bed in back. This bed might have to be replanted after My Hill is repaired (11 Jan). In any case, much of the rose bed is now buried under mud.

After also clearing a clog from a small section of roof gutter, I'm exhausted. I have spent over two weeks just watching the rain and waiting for a little dry weather so that I could work in the garden. Thus, I've had little exercise. Now, even my flab has flab.

Gave the peach tree its second dormant spraying. I also sprayed the miniature roses.

Went to replace the red clover (Persicaria capitata) that was trampled in front last year when we had our house painted and the windows replaced. However, I discovered that several plants that I thought were lost are now resprouting under the leaf mulch. I planted two rooted cuttings where plants failed earlier, before the work on our house.

Did some serious weeding in the parkway. The dandelions are in full bloom.

Sprayed the peach tree and roses with a mix of dormant oil and copper sulfate. The oil smothers insect eggs that are over-wintering on the plants. The copper is a fungicide. This may be the only preventive spaying I do. I generally wait until I see an actual problem before spraying.

Why is it that, when I pick up my sprayer, the wind begins to blow? As soon as I put it down, we have a dead calm. It took me almost twice as long as usual to spray today because I had to stop every time the wind began again. I've even noticed the wind increase just as I start to measure the spray mixture and then stop completely when I get into the shower to clean up.

Pruned the 'Peace' climbing rose. As with the 'Chrysler Imperial' climbing rose (24 Jan), I pruned it far more severely than would be necessary for promoting good growth and flowering. Again, some branches that I cut could not be removed since they extend under the mud slide on My Hill. It's good that my philosophy of rose pruning includes removing all remaining leaves from last year. I noticed that many old leaves were seriously infected with rust. I'll have to use dormant spray soon.

Pruned the 'Chrysler Imperial' climbing rose. I cut it back severely to only three canes so that it won't interfere with repairing My Hill. For that reason, I did not tie down the canes. Some of the canes that I cut could not be removed because they disappear into the slide.

Slightly trimmed the Burford holly next to the 'Chrysler Imperial', just enough so that it no longer crowds the plants in front of it. As I indicated before (18 Jan), I won't be able to really prune the holly until next year. I might even have to replace one or two of the bushes.

The pink penstemon that appeared to be dying (18 Jan) is coming back. I trimmed it short. Having learned a lesson last year (18 Jul 04), I will pinch them back as they sprout.

The pink penstemon in the rose bed seems to be dying, perhaps a result of the excessive rains we have had starting last month (almost 7 inches since New Year). The red penstemon nearby at the north end of the east bed are still thriving and even blooming.

The warm weather after frosts and heavy rains is bringing out all kinds of flowers and weeds.

Pruned the 'Arizona' and 'Color Magic' roses in back. I'll also have to prune the climbers — 'Peace' and 'Chrysler Imperial'. However, when My Hill is repaired, I might have to untie them from the slough wall. The 'Iceberg' and 'Cherish' roses are buried under the mud that slid off My Hill.

I can't prune the Burford holly (Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii Nana') in the rose bed as I had planned. African daisies (Osteospermum fruticosum) slid down My Hill and tangled with the holly bushes, creating a barrier that is preventing more mud from sliding into the rose bed.

A geological engineer was supposed to come out a see My Hill today, but he postponed the appointment until tomorrow. This is the first required step towards repairing My Hill. I'm waiting for return phone calls from at least two other engineers. Another engineer wanted $800 just to look! I told him to forget it.

I'm so upset that I can't even think of gardening. It's not safe to climb what's left of the slope to prune the grape vines. At least one rose bush — 'Iceberg' — has disappeared, buried under a pile of mud.

When this happened in 1992, the entire hill had to be cleared of vegetation. It was almost three years before it began to look nice again and four years before the new grape vines had decent crops. In the meantime, I had to keep climbing My Hill to clear weeds in order to give the new plants a chance to thrive. I was in my early 50s then; I'm now in my mid-60s.

Sob!!

With rain predicted for tonight and heavy rain for tomorrow, I decided to begin pruning my roses today. I did four of the seven roses in front before I decided it was too cold to continue. Some of the bushes seemed to lack vigor this past year. I really like the flowers, and I hope I don't have to replace them.

My Hill is far too wet for me to climb and prune the grapes. The rose beds in back and front are far too wet for me to prune the roses. Usually, I'm more than half done with those tasks by now.

I did rake the back lawn. Most leaves from The Tree have already fallen, so there was enough room in the garden-waste bin for me to dispose of the mounds of leaves that I raked last month from the lawn onto the walkways.