Water water everywhere, but not in the garden

Our gardens are looking great. Mr has worked very diligently to get some "automatic" water set up in the garden beds. Because of the necessity to transport water to each garden we have carefully chosen our bed locations to be able to access water with some drip hoses. What we have discovered is that the soil is so sandy here that the drip hoses don't work very well. Little organic material means little wicking and absorbing action in the soil and the water just goes strait down like a rock dropped from the Empire State Building.  We did realize that early on and have made many efforts to organically enrich the sandy soil. It is a slow process. Pine bark mulch has been a big help, but it is not enough as we had hoped. When it breaks down, it will help a lot. Right now it just helps weeding and a bit of the watering. Here are some of the garden pictures to see how things are developing.

We harvested three zuccini in the last couple of days. I am concerned though because I don't see any others in the pipeline on the plant.  We also harvested on Chinese eggplant.  I hope to get a lot more of them. They are great grilled on the BBQ. 

The peas are coming along, but I don't see any near ready. The spinach was a waste of space, nothing came of them!  Peppers, Italian vairiety, are progressing well, I think we should pick them in a couple of days.  Tomatoes are set on their plants but not anywhere near ripe. We have lots of varieties, Roma, Early Girl, Cherry and the ones even smaller than them. I can't wait for them to ripen: bacon, lettuce and tomatoes sandwiches are one of the gifts of summer!

 

I continue my quest for cut flowers. The quest will continue for some time, it seems. I had high hopes for this residence meeting that dream, but it doesn't seem to be happening.  The sandy soil and even more so the unrelenting wind, present formidable roadblocks to accomplishing my dream. Maybe once we get a handle on the soil enrichment, it could happen....if I live here that long! 

As for right now I have fulfilled another dream, lots of blooms all over the garden beds.  By far, the queen of the garden is the daylily. I brought many daylilies with me from my previous residences. I was given two  huge pot of Stella D'Oro lilies by a friend....and I gratefully accepted them and proceeded to divide them to locations all over the yard. It looks nice, though thin this year, but it will be fabulous in future years. They are thickening out as I write! Then I purchased several other colors and varieties to fill in the garden beds and to infuse color into the landscape. 

I puchased this giant red from Lowes about four years ago, and this year we divided it into two huge clumps. It has been blooming profusely.

 This marvelous yellow is a variety I dug out of my grandmother's compost pile about thirty-five years ago. I have brought it with me to every residence I have ever lived in. It is one of my favoirte plants....and it smells wonderfully, though less here than the other places I have planted it. 

This lily is quite bigger than the Stella D'Oros. They are short and full, a bit stubby, this lily is lank and gentle and stretched. it is definnitely one of my favorites.  To the left  is the Stella D'Oro for comparison. The petals are fuller, but the size of the flower is smaller, and the height of the plant is shorter.

I do have some species day lilies the orange ones that everyone knows. I love them and their stab of color. But, there are surely a lot more to daylilies than just the orange ones! Ihave a super pink one that I bought this year. It has such great color, and unexpected color...a pink daylily! I love it!

I do have a few more that I will try to include in future photo reports.  Those include a red velvet one, a double orange, and a small paler yellow. Seeing the heads of the daylilies floating over the other perennials just lifts my heart. 

Living up north under huge canopy of trees, I never was able to accomplish the color infusion I have here. I savor it, though I do miss my shade gardens of my previous life and location. Well enough for today. Hope you enjoyed my flowers. What do you think?