Six on Saturday

Thanks to The Propagator, who summons all who love gardens to share Six each Saturday.

1. Fertilizer. I admit that I have a tendency to neglect my plants’ needs for fertilizer. Particularly the vegetables, which I have been made to understand are “heavy feeders.” It’s not that I don’t have organic fertilizer. It’s just that I tend to become overwhelmed by navigating the different feeding requirements of different plants at different points in their growth process, and paralysis follows. A recent distribution of fertilizer around all of my perennials and shrubs was followed by a panicked discovery that several of my native shrubs may have been stressed and their lives shortened (!) by my misguided ministrations. Self-castegation, guilt, and further paralysis ensued.

2. Raspberry trellis. In a fit of activity, some of the pressure treated posts uprooted from the back area, where they were supporting a rotting fence, were de-nailed and moved to the front to form the basis of raspberry/blackberry trellises. Holes were excavated and the posts situated. And that’s where the activity ceased. And has not been resumed, partly because I suspect that I may have to redo the post holes with cement if they are to support the weight of the (hopefully eventually) growing vines. I have also weighed the virtue of their “weathered” appearance vs. the potential advantages of cleaning them up further and adding a coat of paint. A decision has yet to be reached.

3. Melianthus major scare. Several larger leaves were flaccid, their beautiful blue color giving way to a sickly, jaundiced yellow. Panic stricken, I hosed it down, then read a series of articles purporting to educate me in the art of distinguishing between The Underwatered and The Overwatered plant, as well as those providing background on Melianthus major’s growing conditions in the wild (by streams and ditches). Thoroughly confused, I checked back in an hour to find my beloved plant seemingly restored. Tentative conclusion: Underwatered.

4. Cistus x aguilarii “Maculatus.”

5. Penstemon pinifolius.

6. Blooming.

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  Potentilla nepalensis

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  Salvia clevelandii

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  Calendula

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  Verbena bonariensis

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  Romneya coulteri

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  Sedum spathulifolium “Cape Blanco”

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  Oenothera speciosa

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