We’ve had rain the last week and cloudy skies so our temperatures have been cooler than usual. I don’t know what is wrong with my bed of corn. The seed is from burpee’s and I usually have better quality seed. It could be that. However, I have not rotated beds in the last three years because I had to rearrange some perennials that were temporarily in the other raised beds. Next year I will be able to use the beds differently. However, I’ve had problems with my corn for the past two years and I’m beginning to think I may need to solarize the bed when I remove the corn. There may be blight or something else in the soil. (Learn how to use the sun to sterilize soil here: https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/09/soil_solarization.pdf )
The trees under the shade cloth are super happy. I intend to whitewash the trunks. I really recommend doing that to any fruit trees you have if you have issues with borers or sunburn. I never get borers in plants I’ve whitewashed. All you need to do is mix 1 part water and 1 part of any interior latex based paint. White is the color to use, because it will not absorb heat like darker colors will. Stir it up and coat the bark. I don’t know if it tricks borers and they no longer can identify if they are on plant material, but that’s my guess.
The daylillies and gladiolus are blooming. Both varieties of my crepe myrtles are blooming (there’s two varieties out there. I have always had both red and white flowers and the leaves are burgundy colored. I have a second variety because the first white one failed. I always imagined them to be my Christmas in July candy cane colors!) Both types are blooming in the front. This may be a clue as to what is wrong with the corn. None of these flowers usually bloom at exactly the same time. We had super hot (above 100°F) days in early spring and now it’s much cooler and rainy. It’s already been a very unusual year for weather.
My eldest son is graduating high school and I had no idea what we were in for with college applications and acceptance letters, scholarships and college credit from high school. Picking a final college and the graduation ceremony. Now we have to go to orientation, pack his stuff up and say goodbye to our little boy and hello to the man he’s becoming. We’ve been extremely busy. Luckily things are slowing down a bit. Personally I can’t wait to go visit my mom this summer and kick back sans husband and kids. Everyone needs a break right now.
It’s a sad but proud time in child rearing, to finally not be needed. I hope I prepared him well. I hope his life is amazing! And I hope I find something I’m as passionate about, to eventually take the place of parenting. It’s going to have to be pretty special to even partially take that place.
Meet you out in the garden to catch our breath and survey all of the magnificence of life!
Crazy Green Thumbs
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Sending prayers of success to your son AND your garden!
Thank you! We’re at his graduation ceremony right now, so: perfect timing!
Are fancy hybrid gladiolus reliably perennial there? They are barely more than expensive annuals for us, although a few were perennial, and have multiplied as such over the years. Our primary daylily is TOO perennial! Eventually, we will need to discard more and relocate less of it.
The daylillies are definitely too much. I need to divide them and move them around the backyard, but eventually they will need new homes or they will go in the trash. I’m afraid to compost them they are such strong growers. The glads were put in maybe five years ago. I had a bunch of different colors originally. Fewer of those have survived, but these yellow ones are reliable.
That is what our gladiolus did, but with orange and purple surviving and slowly multiplying. I do not know if they are more resilient cultivars, or just survived by chance. Maybe the first year is the most difficult for them.