Gardening this Week

The mystery plant from two or three
postings ago has revealed itself as a white and
pink striped hibiscus...just as I suspected.

Not much new on the repair or construction front, so I am writing about the garden this week.  We had been having some gradual water problems. I call them gradual because it is a condition that has developed slowly. It has developed so slowly that we didn't even realize it was happening. Because of the escalating deterioration of the water volume, the plants in the garden have suffered. I was complaining to Mr that the water system did not seem to be distributing enough water to let the plants thrive.


In response to my requesst he installed more drippers to increase water volume. It did not help the plants, yet we still did not realize the water volume had decreased to a trickle. When the decreased water volume was obvious in the bathroom sinks and shower we realized that there was more to our garden water problems. The water pipes have been replaced to smooth out a few kinks in the flow, and now the water volume to the garden is  generous and nuturing. Just three days of plentiful water has made a huge difference in the bloom and growth in the flower beds. 

French Weigelia, with Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly

There has been other issues with this perennial garden bed. We have done a lot of work in this garden this spring and summer. We removed a huge five foot long cluster of French Weigelia bushes, about two months ago.  The Weigelia was huge, had a short blooming period and continuously put out runners that invaded all other plants in the bed. The Weigelia was  here when we bought the house, and it appears that it was here for decades and decades before we bought the house. In spite of that it had to go! Another problem with this garden was that it was filled with deer ticks. Every time we worked in this garden we found ourselves covered with deer ticks...well maybe not covered, but 5-7 ticks in various locations on the body was the norm. 

Black Eyed Suzies-Rudebeckia

At some point it occurred to me that my perennials were being eaten by the bunnies that hid in that garden. They ate my Black Eyed Suzies-Rudebeckia, Hostas and Coreopsis just to name a few. I finally realized that the disappering plants in the garden and the ticks in the garden are caused by the same thing....rabbits! Currently I am dealing with eliminating both, more to come in the future on that problem.

Ailing Coreopsis plant

The vacated space in the garden bed was filled with transplanted perennials. I had plants that I brought from New York to Maryland four years ago. They sat in pots in the yard for all that time, and were finally put into this bed for a new home.  I am happy to say that they are blooming now, as are some of the plants that have been biding time, not blooming, in this same garden.  They had not bloomed significantly since being brought here and transplanted. Things have changed!

I thought I would share some of the blooms in the garden right now.  We do have some nice color. Photographs of the flowers in the bed are included here throughout the posting.

White Fragrant Hosta

Heliopsis from my New York Garden

Phlox my daughter brought me from her garden