Monday
After the dire weather predictions yesterday, we finally got a 1/2 inch of rain overnight. It was cooler this morning, but heated up. They say it will be in the 40′s in LR tomorrow morning! I did tv on Channel 4 today and the gardenia had the entire studio smelling great. This is a great time to be a gardener, since there is so much blooming. I walked around the office today and was amazed by what is in bloom together–vanhoutte spirea, showy deutzia, cotoneaster, hydrangeas, fringe tree, itea and the blackgum was loaded with small green flowers. The rain garden is coming on strong, but if they don’t get the mulch down soon, we will have a mess of weeds. The surrounding area is loaded with grass and weeds, and they would love to encroach. I have been getting a lot of calls and emails about trees not leafing out. If you have a tree with no leaves, it is a dead tree. Look at the bark on the one in the photo–young tree, totally dead with cracking, peeling bark. Replace it!
Tomorrow I head to Corning in the afternoon and West Memphis tomorrow night for a program.
Even generous mulch cannot stop the invasion of my shade garden by violets and Va. Creeper. Looking for a ground cover to keep them choked out. A stand of toad lilies seems to be winning the battle. What about vinca minor? I would let the violets have their way, but am afraid they would find their way into the lawn.
That is a tough call. I would rank vinca on the same level as violets, although Vinca minor is at least better than Vinca major. What about mazus?
No pictures with this post.