Garden Notes May 2026

May 2nd.  I only had a couple of hours on Saturday morning to work, then to the Woodlands to watch Jonah and Blake's kids.

I spread some compost and prepped a bed in the Vegetable Garden.  Planted a little pot plant.

Spread some compost along the Boardwalk and planted 2 Oakleaf Hydrangea that I grew from cuttings.  I tried to start 6 cuttings, and only 2 survived.  Not a  very good percentage, but I learned a lot from the experience.  Next fall I will have much better luck when I try again.  Some of the cuttings I took had leaf buds but no full grown leaves.  The ones that survived had big leaves on them.  I guess they need those leaves in order to gather energy. 

Next, I worked in the Orchard pulling up Tall Winecup and Golden Rod.  Basically, I was uncovering my blueberry bushes that were covered up by flopped over flower growth.  I pulled up a truckload of flowers.

Everything is weedy due to all the rain. But, nothing that 2 solid days of work can't fix.  Unfortunately, I don't have 2 solid days for a while, but the weather is beautiful and only good thoughts are the kind to have right now!

I decided to come back to Burton on Sunday after I left Blake's house.  Bert was still here.  I had fertilizer, potting soil and perlite with me, prepared to pot up some plants for the fall plant sale.  I dug up 10 or so Dahlberg Daisy and planted them in cactus mix, fertilizer and perlite.  That plant has spread everywhere in the Rose Garden paths.  It loves gravel.  I just walk on it, it is very low-growing and charming.  I dug up 6 or so Shinners Sunflower and planted them in potting soil, perlite and fertilizer.  They got wilty almost immediately but the Dahlberg still looks perky.  I put all those plants under the table under the arbor so they can recover from their shock. 

I spent most of the day in the Rose Garden laying down the very last of my compost and fertilizer and planting many of the plants that I have been growing since the early fall.  I was waiting for the tall winecup to finish their bloom.  I pulled up tons of tall winecup last week and some as I worked in the garden.  I planted 12 or so coneflower, several Helianthus, 6 or so Hyssopleaf Thoroughwort, one Rudbeckia Goldsturm and 6 or so Pringle Aster.  Job well done!  That was hundreds of dollars worth of plants if I had purchased them in the nursery that cost nothing because I grew them from seed.  Oh, except for the cost of the soil and perlite and fertilizer!  But I still think I came out ahead.  I watered as I worked.

The last think I did was bump up most of my Ox Eye Daisies into gallon pots.  I will probably put all of them in the plant sale.  They are beautiful and healthy looking, but they were root bound.  I used potting soil, fertilizer, and perlite.  I re-potted until I ran out of perlite.  I probably got about 12 plants re-potted.

Vacation through the end of May - road trip with Nathan and family and Bert.