Spring being a tough act to follow, God created JUNE READING
kathy_t
6 years ago
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carolyn_ky
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Quote for Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Comments (2)It's 72 degr., not a cloud in the sky, the birdbath corner (3 big saucers) has been refilled for the 2nd time today and the vegetables are watered. Now come the flowers along the front path and after that I have work to do. Great 1st of June indeed....See MoreTough Perennials
Comments (43)Pat, This is one of the worst years ever to be a gardener in Oklahoma, so maybe next year will be better. Your soil sounds a lot like mine and some of the plants you've tried and lost, like nepeta and penstemon, only grow well for me and return consistently if I grow them in raised beds that are at least 4-6" above grade level. That helps keep them them from becoming waterlogged and dying during the wet springs. Our soils are highly variable here and it can take some experimentation to figure out what will grow well in your specific combination of soil/climate conditions. I planted and lost lots of stuff as I learned what would tolerate heavy, red, highly-alkaline, slow-draining clay in a climate where rainfall can be 19" one year and 52" the next, but summers are invariably hot no matter what the rain is or isn't doing. It's just a matter of whether the summer is hot and dry or hot and humid. With heavy clay, look to native prairie flowers as your inspiration because they have adapted to the poor drainage and the wild swings from wet, soggy, pudding-like wet clay to hard-as-concrete dry clay. Often, flowers that survive wet clay don't survive dry clay but most prairie-type natives do. One salvia that works well for me is the common Texas Hummingbird Sage. Not only does it survive whatever the weather throws at it, but it reseeds itself vigorously so if you plant it once, you have it forever. Laura Bush petunia is another. It reseeds right out in our pastures where it gets nothing but rainfall. These are the kinds of flowers I've learned to appreciate--tough ones! Hibiscus muschuetos grows very well for me. I have the common white (with a red eye) swamp mallow growing on the edge of our big pond (it is about a half-acre when there's water in it though there's no water in it now), our spring-fed swamp and in the buttefly garden outside my kitchen window. Down in the border around the veggie garden I have 'Disco Belle' and 'Dixie Belle'. They are blooiming now. I water them about once a week since no rain is falling. You asked about gloriosa daisy. I have been able to keep it alive for 2 or 3 years, but can't keep it going longer than that. I suspect it needs soil that drains better than my red clay. However, clasping-leaf coneflowers and native brown-eyed Susans grow wild on our property. We have some of them every year, although some years they do much better than other years. In our red clay, Sweet Autumn clematis was not invasive, but I suspect Betty's area has much nicer soil than we have so I can see how it would be invasive there. I had one here for 7 or 8 years, but it died in 2009 after 12.89" of rain fell in one day, followed by 6 to 8 more inches of rain over the next 6 weeks. It just couldn't tolerate staying that wet for that long. Gypsum works with some types of clay and not with others. It doesn't work with the kind of clay I have. You can check with your local ag extension service or Natural Resources Conservation Service office to find out what kind of clay you have and whether or not it would work there. The only thing that has worked for me is to add copious amounts of organic matter. I added 8 to 10 inches the first year (not at once, but in several rounds of soil improvement) and rototilled it into the soil. Now, I add it from the top down as mulch and I still add tons every year because "heat eats compost." We all need to compare notes this fall after we see what survives Don't get discouraged. Eventually you'll figure out what likes your soil and tolerates our weather and it won't be nearly so frustrating. I never absolutely, positively decide that a specific plant "won't grow here" until I've killed it 2 or 3 times. I've found that most things described as invasive aren't invasive for me and instead they struggle to survive in our dry clay. I guess in an odd way that's a bonus. In order for something to be invasive in clay, it has to be very, very tough. As you've already found out for yourself, pink evening primrose is one that can tolerate our soil and our wild weather. I have 'Pink Lemonade' honeysuckle on the cedar arbor that serves as an entryway to my veggie garden. There's one plant on either side of the arbor. They grow just fine and are lovely but haven't escaped and run wild. I just love the 'Pink Lemonade'. It looks very similar to goldflame, which isn't surprising, since both are coral honeysuckle (Loniera x heckrotti) types. The flowers that are blooming right now look great, but the water bill arrived today (ugh!) leaving me pondering how much I can cut back on watering them without completely losing them. Dawm...See MoreJune Reading
Comments (128)I finished Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates over my "girls escape to the mountains" weekend. I enjoyed it very much - very creative, interesting twists, and the historical tie-ins were well done, I thought. During this "escape" weekend, my friends and I hiked through some snow/slush, down to spring wildflowers, then re-entered summer by heading further "down the hill" a ways, into the little goldrush town of Murphys - where, to our delight, we found a "used and new" bookstore! It was even air-conditioned - critical, since it was 103F. All 3 of us picked up various biographies - all of our DDs need to read bios for "summer reading" before high school starts. I found several good buys, including some early editions of some favorite childhood books, which, of course, I had to sit down and read immediately upon our return. I also picked up a Jonathan Stroud (of the Bartimeus trilogy ) called Buried Fire. It concerns an ancient dragon sleeping, and then waking deep below a hillside next to a small English town, and the effects on some local boys. I'm sure glad I read this after we had our Mid-summer fest! I have quite a TBR list and stack, but a friend just loaned me Dan Simmons Olympus, sequel to Ilium. So of course, I have to re-read the latter to read the former. Not that I mind - it's great the second time around, too! take care, litlbit...See MoreSpring being a tough act to follow, God created June, Al Bernstein
Comments (78)Carolyn, I have read a lot of Frank's work and I think she is slipping a bit. Somewhat reminiscent of A.R. Siddon's novels, which get quite repetitive in their vocabulary and plots. (e.g. I think she used "spavined" as an adjective in every book she ever wrote!). I have just finished Ian Caldwell's "The Fifth Gospel." The author claims it took him 10 years to write. In a sense, it is a "tour de force" in terms of scholarship re early Christian church history. The plot has many twists and turns. It is also a study of the separation of the Eastern Orthodox patriarchy from the Western Catholics and the papacy. The novel puts a very human face on the late Polish Pope as well as the Vatican as a small nation unto itself. (Caldwell's previous novel was "The Rule of Four.")....See Morecarolyn_ky
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