Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Hanging in there. Part 3, 1 by stormyla

stormyla wrote:
Don't worry Sally/Billy, I think we are all behind this year. Holly, hope your dad is doing better.

What a beautiful day yesterday was. No humidity and relatively cool, mid to high 80's, but with a nice breeze. I went to a really nice picnic and it was the perfect day for it, sitting in shade under a giant Sycamore. Couldn't have been nicer, although, the later the day went on, the warmer it got, right into the evening. Still no rain, but at least I'm encouraged to see the 10 day forecast is showing some next Saturday and the following Monday. I've been having to water the pots 3 times a day, and the newly planted at least twice.

There's still no humidity here, but it is 95, but breezy. Sprinklers have been running again all day. Will have to hose a few beds later this evening when the sun wanes. Without a soaking since May, some of the newly mulched beds, it seems the mulch might be holding all of the moisture and not letting any through to the plants. Noticed a few shrubs really wiltiing. Upon examination, it seemed the hosing had washed away the soil and exposed roots. Put new soil down around them.

Been busy deadheading, weeding and caring for the pots and repotting seedlings and plugs. Lots of dead foliage to cut away. Hopefully, if we get some rain, some of the perennials will replenish themselves without all of the weight of that dead foliage.

Chris, I used a very scientific method for sowing and growing the tomatoes this year. Last year I had 23 varieities thanks to some I bought and largely to Critter & Nisi. You know that I grow all of my 'maters in pots. Last summer I joked with Critter and told her that I was going to throw all of the bad tomatoes back into their pots as I picked them and see if any came up. I planned to cover the posts in clear plastic in January. Well as there was at least 2 feet of snow on the ground from midJanuary to April, I never got the covers on the pots and didn't expect anything. By mid May I had over 100 tomato plants. 5 varieties did not come up. But the other 18 are growing very well. I gave quite a few plants away. Almost all of them have fruit now, but none ripe so far. If everything goes well the rest of the season, I think I'll continue with this labor and cost free method indefinitely!!!! I did thin them, transplant some and replenished the top 10 inches of soil. I fed them really well too. I might also try throwing some of the bad tomatoes into milk jugs this year, so that I get some earlier yield.

Chris, I know how much you love your lilies. this one is either Touch or Shocking. Hope you had a nice relaxing holiday weekend, and am looking forward to catching up with you whenever you feel up to it. Praying that will be sometime soon!!