Iris Archives - Kerry's Garden

For the most part the vegetables are in. I had planned on getting more done this weekend but I do tend to plan more than I can accomplish. I had to work with the tiller a bit to get it to start. It had some old gas in it from last year. Last spring some time I tried using it and I couldn’t keep it running. I was about done at the time so I didn’t fool with it then. The plan was to take it in and have it looked at before this season. Well the time got away from me and the cars took all the extra money I had sooooo it was up to me. I ended up emptying out the old gas by removing the line from the carb and draining it from the tank. I put some fresh gas in but as I suspected it didn’t start. There was still some old stuff in the lines. I took the air filter off and put a little bit of new gas in directly in the carb and she fired right up. After a warm up and some wd40 in the linkage we were good to go.

I only tilled half the area I usually do. I just don’t have time to keep up with so much and rather than plant it and let it go I will just keep those areas mowed for this season. Today I planted 16 tomato plants – 6 Mr Stripey, 7 Big Beef and 6 Jetsetter. I still have some more BB and a few Celebrity that will need to go in. I am holding them back to see what the deer leave me. I may need those as replacements. I also planted 4 hills of watermelon, some little round guy not sure of the name, a couple of hills of zucchini and 4 rows of flour corn. I picked it up from the Native Seed Search and it is called Tohono O’odham. It is a 60 day flour corn from the south west. Since June and July tend to be dryer here I decided to plant it now. It is supposed to be more drought tolerant than many other varieties. The plan is to plant some beans with the corn once it gets up a little bit. Since I didn’t plant THAT much I may end up hand pollinating.

Yesterday we mowed the lawn and I mowed over about 200 raspberry plants to get my two beds back in shape. I hated to do it but I had offered them to several people and nobody was interested. They would take over the back half of the property if I didn’t keep them in check.

The image above is an Indigo Doll iris that had fallen over onto the Coreopsis next to it. She is pretty. Can you see the little visitor on the right?

The weather station that I put up last week is now connected to the computer and the data is being transmitted to the net. It took some fiddling but it’s all good now. I was doing the transmission from the outdoor unit to the base unit in the house wirelessly but they would lose each other occasionally which would result in a temp reading of 177F. It has been warm the last couple of days but nowhere near that warm. Once I connected them via some outdoor telephone wire there hasn’t been any bad data. Burying the cable was easy enough. I used an edger to cut the slit and a skinny piece of wood to push the cable down into the ground. It didn’t have to go down far just far enough to be out of the way. If you are interested, the page the station transmits to is located at the Weather Underground.

I went out to take some pictures for this post and almost stepped on a little rabbit that ran under my foot as I was walking in the garden. We startled each other I think as he/she quickly ran for cover next to this daylily. Judging by it’s size, I would say this little guy is about 4 weeks old. Several years ago seeing this little guy would unnerve me but it is hard to feel the same way since I hand fed that litter a few years back.

These yellow iris have probably been here as long as the house has. They were growing up near the door in a small area that was very over crowded when I thinned it out a couple of summers ago. This is where I planted the smallest ones. They get lots of sun and it tends to be on the dry side. This is the best showing of blooms I’ve seen from these yet.

I got back from watching Tia’s rehearsal at about 1:30 or 2. I tore into the 3 bags of composted manure I picked up from Lowes yesterday and made some soil by combining a bag of manure, some top soil from the yard and some peat moss. I have a small metal trash can I keep the soil in after mixing it in the wheel barrow. Nothing scientific about it but the plants seem to like the mix. I repotted the new Chicago Hardy fig, kiwi and Pres. Lincoln lilac I recently picked up. I also repotted a blueberry and a rooted fig cuttings from last year. The black knight butterfly bush as well as Eric’s zebra grass went into the side yard. I wanted the BB closer to the house but there really wasn’t a good place that the dog doesn’t get into on his walks. The last bag of manure was spread around a couple of container lilacs and cherries.

In addition to these gooseberries, we have currants (red and white), the blackberries are blooming and the raspberries are about to. The kiwi fruit are developing as are the grapes. We will have lots of grapes assuming I can keep black rot off of them. It has been VERY wet the last few weeks so that may be a trick in itself. Many of the old roses are blooming or preparing to do so and the chives are in full bloom. May has to be my favorite month. Everything is so new and green and alive.

Tag Archives: Iris

The veggies are in

Young visitor