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Many years ago, when I first started my Web site, I created an online diary of my gardening activities and observations. However, with work and the commute from Hell, I was often so tired I had to choose between maintaining my garden and maintaining my diary. Sometimes, I did neither. In 1998, I stopped my diary and removed the pages from my Web site.
Now I am retired. I am well-rested and have plenty of time to both garden and maintain a diary. This diary is primarily for my own benefit, so that I can look back upon what I did and when. But I thought others might also be interested, so here it is.
Also see What's Blooming in My Garden Now?
Diary entries for 2004 through 2012
Entries below are in reverse order (latest at the top). Daily, I might stoop to pull a weed or use a hose to water some potted plants; however, I don't consider those significant gardening activities. Thus, you will not see daily entries. Also, I might accumulate a few entries before updating this page on the Web.
When plants have well-known common names, their scientific names are given only the first time they appear on this page (entry closest to the bottom). There, the common name is in bold or appears as a link to another Web page.
Dates refer to other entries in the same year as the entry in which they appear unless a different year is given. However, they may refer to entries on prior pages.
| Date and Weather | Observations and Activities |
|---|---|
| 28 June
Partially cloudy, mostly sunny, and hot Temp: 71-98
Rain —
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No gardening activity while my wife and I spent two weeks cruising the rivers of France. Then, when we returned, we had to adjust to 9 time-zones of jet lag.
Most of my garden seems to be coping with reduced irrigation, but some potted herbs needed extra water today. A major limb of the tea tree died while we were away. I cut it out. That made me sweat so much that I abandoned any plans for further work today. |
| 7 June
Clear, sunny, and hot Temp: 55-92
Rain —
|
The clock for controlling the sprinklers is not so easy to program. Since last Sunday (31 May), the sprinklers have run either on the wrong day or at the wrong time. I think I finally have it set correctly. I hope I do not get fined by the Oak Park Water Service.
Raked the paths in back to collect the grass trimmings, leaves, and twigs I failed to get with my hands while trimming the edges of the paths. Fed the dwarf citrus and gardenia with a commercial citrus fertlizer plus a pinch of zinc sulfate. Finished pruning the mock orange bushes in front (31 May). I wanted to start pruning the loquat tree in back, but the green bin for garden waste (for the county's composting program) was already full. |
| 3 June
Mostly cloudy, some hazy sun, and mild Temp: 54-70
Rain —
|
Used output from my office shredder to mulch parts of the east bed.
In back, trimmed the edge of the teardrop bed on the side towards the east bed. Now I only have to trim the edge of the lawn along the main patio. Extended the heights of two shrub sprinkler heads in the rose bed by about 4 inches. The heads were partially blocked by adjacent dwarf Burford holly bushes (Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii Nana'). With restrictions on irrigating gardens during the current drought, I have to make sure all sprinklers are working efficiently. |
| 31 May
Clear, sunny, and warm Temp: 55-82
Rain —
|
Adjusted the clock for the sprinkler system to comply with ever tighter restrictions on the use of water. Following most other water agencies, the Oak Park Water Service insists on micromanaging how I tend my gardens without saying anything about the use of water within our house. I am now allowed to irrigate my garden only on Mondays and Thursdays. I am allowed to run each sprinkler valve 15 minutes on those days; with seven valves, that is a total of 105 minutes. Actually, I set the clock for 104 minutes, with two or three shorter perdiods for each valve to allow the water to soak into the ground.
Fortunately, Oak Park is "built-out". All remaining undeveloped land in the community is public open space owned by a park district. In other communities, however, water agencies continue to approve hookups for new customers — homes, restaurants, offices, shopping centers, etc — creating even more demand for water while restricting the use of water for existing customers. The new water restrictions begin tomorrow. Today, I gave the oak and rosemary a soaking by letting a hose run slowly in their root zones for a few hours. Finished pruning one mock orange (Pittosporum tobira) behind the liquidambar tree (L. styraciflua) and started on the other. (For some reason, I forgot to make a diary entry for when I started pruning it.) Just as the garden-waste bin became full, I mislaid my pruning shears. I searched all over, including in the waste bin. Since they were not new and the spring was starting to give me trouble, I bought a new pair. I also bought a new folding pruning saw; the old one was more than 42 years old — bought before I bought my current house (1973) — and was getting bent and rusty. |
| 24 May
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 51-74
Rain —
|
Trimmed the Sprenger asparagus (A. densiflorus 'Sprengeri') in back, in the east bed next to the camellia bed. Because of thorns, I had to wear leather gloves. I really do not like this plant. It spreads and can crowd out adjacent plants. This is a female plant — asparagus, Ginkgo, and ash (Fraxinus) species have distinct male and female plants — which means seedlings can start as weeds any place in my garden. However, Cleopatra's favorite sleeping place in the summer is under the Sprenger asparagus; so I keep it. It had to be trimmed because it was becoming difficult to find Cleopatra, and it was blocking access to my compost pile.
Trimmed the candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) from the stepping stones that separate the camellia and east beds. I do not remove dead flower clusters from the candytuft. Instead, I allow it to go to seed so that newer plants will get established and become dense. There is a good patch of this, not only where I trimmed today but also at the opposite corner of the back yard under the pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana) in the west bed. I hope it grows thick enough to prevent weeds. Trimmed the edges of the path between the back lawn and the teardrop bed. I still have to trim the edge of the teardrop bed towards the east bed. It's a squirrel that has been eating my loquats (10 May). I scared one out of the tree today. Then I took a damaged fruit and placed it in the squirrel trap. Moved the seedling valley white oak (Quercus lobata) from a pot (9 Apr) to a 1-gallon nursery can. |
| 21 May
Overcast, gray, and cool Temp: 49-62
Rain —
|
Finished trimming the 'Goodwin Creek Grey' lavender in front (10 May). This is the "mother" plant from which rooted cuttings produced all the other lavender plants in my garden.
Fed the dwarf citrus and gardenia (G. jasminoides 'Veitchii') with ammonium, iron, and zinc sulfates. I also gave the Australian tea tree some ammonium and iron sulfates. Almost forgot to feed the azaleas that were not fed earlier this year (15 Mar) when they were still in bloom. They were beginning to look somewhat tired. Today, I used a commercial azalea and camellia fertilizer on the 'Alaska', 'Formosa', and 'George Taber' azaleas. I also gave a second feeding to the 'Thomas D. Pitts' and 'Kramer's Supreme' Camellia japonica, both of which have been merely surviving without thriving. |
| 10 May
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 52-79
Rain —
|
Yes, we actually had measurable rain this past week. While 0.02 inch is enough to wet dust — 0.01 inch will not even do that — it was not enough to wet the soil and reach plant roots.
Partially trimmed the 'Goodwin Creek Grey' lavender growing in front, in the brick panel at the end of my driveway. I will trim some more soon. I also trimmed some of the growth on my rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) just across the public sidewalk from the lavender. The rosemary was growing out over the sidewalk and my driveway. Finally potted the rooted cuttings of the spoon-flowered chrysanthemum (C. morifolium) (9 Apr), discarding the parent plant and its stale potting mix. Trimmed the edge of the back lawn along the path that separates it from the circular bed. It appears that insects are the culprits that are damaging the fruit on my 'MacBeth' loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica). Squirrels would remove an entire loquat, and birds would attack exposed fruit. The damage I am seeing, however, is partially eaten fruit hidden among the leaves, something I have seen with my grapes when wasps and hornets attack. I picked some of the damaged fruit and fed it to Cleopatra; she is fussy and would not touch the loquats until I peeled them. |
| 7 May
Mostly cloudy, gray with occasional hazy sun, and cold Temp: 48-62
|
Fed the roses with a commercial fertilizer that contains a systemic insecticide. The instructions say to use this product every six weeks; but I use it once every two months (approximately nine weeks), alternating with ammonium sulfate. Although the interval for the commercial fertilizer is 50% longer than recommended, I never see any aphids, spider mites, or other pests in my roses.
Rain —
|
| 3 May
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 50-77
Rain —
|
Removed several thistle seedlings from the parkway (parking strip) in front. Although quite small, they already had spines that could penetrate the leather gloves I was wearing; so I wrapped them in a wad of newspaper to lift them and place them in my bucket.
Trimmed a third 'Goodwin Creek Grey' lavender (Lavandula lanata × dentata) in the circular bed in back (26 Apr). The fourth one was planted as a rooted cutting last fall (15 Oct 14) and has not yet grown enough to interfere with adjacent plants. Trimmed the final two dwarf myrtles (Myrtus communis 'Compacta') (26 Apr). |
Weather data are from the Cheeseboro (CHE) weather station, about 2 miles ENE of my house.
The high temperature (°F) is daytime for the indicated date; the low temperature (°F) is for the previous night.
Winter chill is the cumulative hours of temperatures at or below 45°F from 1 November through 31 March. It is reported during that period and through April.
The relative humidity is at noon. (In my garden, it is likely higher than reported, a result of regular irrigation.)
Wind speeds (mph) are average (not peak) low and high, midnight to midnight (subject to later correction for diary entries posted before the end of the day). I also indicate peak wind gusts parenthetically when they are significantly high.
Rain is in inches. Season is the cumulative amount of rainfall from 1 October until 30 September of the following year. Week is the cumulative amount of measurable rainfall from noon seven days ago until noon of the indicated date. If no rain fell in that period, Days since last is reported.
Characterization of the weather (e.g., Clear, sunny, and warm) is purely subjective; for example, "warm" might occur with higher temperatures than "hot" if the former occurs with lower humidity and more breezes than the latter. Also, a day that would normally be characterized as "mild" might instead be "warm" if the immediately previous days were quite cold. Finally, such characterization reflects when I was actually outside and gardening and ignores changes that occur while I am inside.
The signature line I use when writing messages about my garden includes the following:
Diary entries for 2004 through 2012
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