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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 |
|---|---|
| 30 December
Clear, sunny, and cool Temp: 45-60
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Raked many leaves in front. The back lawn also needs to be raked, but the garden waste bin is full. With wind gusts of 40 MPH predicted, raking the leaves in back onto the patio or paths would be a futile exercise.
Finished pruning the rose shrubs in front and the peach tree in back. I still have to prune the climbing 'Fourth of July' rose in front, all seven roses in back, and the grape vines on My Hill. Rain —
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| 27 December
Mostly cloudy, occasional hazy sun, cold Temp: 43-56
|
Finally started winter pruning. I did three of the roses in front and about half the peach tree in back.
Rain —
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| 25 December
Clear, sunny, and cold Temp: 41-51
Rain —
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COLD!! I should start pruning the roses, but it is too cold to work very long outside.
The Tree is finally starting to drop its leaves. With the mandated reduction in irrigating my garden, I am able to rake the leaves from the back lawn without needing to have the grass mowed. Last week, our house was tented and fumigated for termites. This was actually the primary reason for having the valley white oak trimmed (2 Dec), to make sure the tree did not interfere with the tent. While trying to show the exterminator service that the Podocarpus trees in front were sufficiently limber to bend away from the house, I broke off the leader on the tree where I worked so hard to create a new leader (27 May 05, 2 Jun 05, etc). I will have to start all over to create an even newer leader. I noticed that half of the base of the broken leader appeared dead, which is why it broke so easily; so I will have to be careful about how I trim around the newer one. |
| 6 December
Mostly clear with some thin clouds, sunny, and mild Temp: 59-78
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Checked the Artemisia 'Powis Castle' (A. arborescens × absinthium) and 'Goodwin Creek Grey' lavender cuttings (4 Oct). Both pots showed roots sufficient for me to remove the plastic domes that served as miniature greenhouses for the cuttings. However, the Artemisia shoots look quite poor; I might need to put up new cuttings in the spring, using younger shoots.
Rain —
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| 2 December
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 56-74
Rain —
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All 15.6 hours of winter chill were in November. Last year, we had NO winter chill until the end of December.
Had a professional tree service — a licensed contractor — trim the valley white oak in front. There were a few dead branches that I feared might fall and damage my wife's car, which she parks on the driveway. Some branches blocked the view from our master bedroom window, and others were actually touching the house. The tree looks very good now. I did not see any damage to the rest of the front yard. |
| 18 November
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 62-80
|
Another statice (Limonium perezii) was dead or dying (21 Oct). I bought a replacement a few days ago and planted it today in the east bed in back.
Rain —
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| 13 November
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 63-79
Rain —
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Yes, the relative humidity at noon was single-digit. It has been less than 20% for over two days now, typical of a Santa Ana condition.
My wife saw it first — a squirrel eying the dwarf 'Robertson' navel orange tree (Citrus sinensis 'Robertson'). Contrary to my prior report (11 Oct), there remains one orange still ripening in the tree. I mixed fresh bait for the squirrel trap — almond butter, orange marmalade, dried berries, and some pecans — and baited the trap. Thinking that squirrels might avoid areas that smell of blood, I also placed a band of blood meal around the inside of the tree's flower pot; I also place some blood meal around the inside of the raised bed for the dwarf 'Mineola' tangelo (C. reticulata × paradisi). (See my Dwarf Citrus in Containers.) Swept a large accumulation of seeds from The Tree (evergreen ash, Fraxinus uhdei) from the patio. Then I raked leaves from the valley white oak (Quercus lobata) in front. The first batch of leaves went onto my compost pile; the rest went into the garden waste bin for the county's composting project. |
| 8 November
Clear, sunny, and mild Temp: 58-75
Rain —
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The Schefflera arboricola in my greenhouse window grew far too tall. I cut the top off and put it up as a cutting, hoping it will root. As a backup, I left about a foot of its trunk, which might send out a new shoot.
The day after I planted the ranunculus (1 Nov), I found both had been dug up despite the wire mesh tent. In one case, the mesh tent was knocked over; in the other case, something dug under the edge of the tent. Today, I planted new ranunculus tubers. This time, I buried the bottoms of the wire tents down in the planting hole and used commercial stakes to anchor them. Soaking the "mother" lavender (1 Nov) worked. It now looks quite healthy. |
| 1 November
Clear, sunny, and warm Temp: 70-85
Rain —
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Noticed that the 'Goodwin Creek Grey' lavender (Lavandula lanata × dentata) in the brick panel between the sidewalk and the street in front was wilting. Friday, I let a hose trickling for several hours. The plant seems to be recovering. I call this the "mother plant" for my lavender since it is the source of many cuttings that I rooted to plant in my garden.
Removed the shade cloth from the greenhouse window. Since my house is not square on the compass, morning sun shines into the window from mid-spring until mid-fall; this could severely damage the plants growing there unless the window is protected with shade cloth. Now, however, the morning sun barely touches that side of my house; and it is safe to remove the shade cloth. I will rehang it in April. Once more, I am trying to grow additional ranunculus (R. asiaticus) in the rose bed in back. In the past (e.g., 30 Oct 14, 14 Nov 2014), some creature either dug up the tubers or chewed away the new foliage. This time, I made a tent out of 1/4-inch wire mesh for each tuber. I also placed moth balls in each tent. While digging to plant the ranunculus, I noticed the soil was much drier than in the east bed, where I planted some perennials (21 Oct). I trimmed some of the dwarf Burford holly (Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii Nana') that might be interfering with the sprinkler system. |
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 measurable 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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