Garden maintenance and new camera

As you can probably tell from the pictures that accompany my blog, I carry my small point and shoot camera with me every day, and usually take pictures.  I had a new one December of 2011 and I really liked it, but it started getting a little wobbly–not opening all the way, not closing, and I would have to take out the battery and then it would be ok.  It started working better (I thought) right before I left for Ireland, and I decided it would be easier to take a camera I knew versus trying to learn a new one on the trip.  Well, best laid plans and all–it started opening and closing constantly–not letting me shoot, about the third day of the trip.  It was getting pretty frustrating, so I broke down and went into the only camera store in a small town in Ireland and bought a temporary point and shoot, to finish the trip.  It was ok, but the pictures weren’t the quality I had come to expect with my old one.  Lately, I have been throwing away more of the pictures than I have kept, so I decided to go camera shopping. I bought a new Canon point and shoot.  My main criterias are small (so it fits in the pocket of my purse) and that it does good quality closeups and can shoot crisp in lower light.  So far, my weekend shooting has been quite promising.  The only downside is it came in only one color–black!  My old one was bright red, and my Irish one was hot pink.  I would have really liked orange or lime green!  

This morning I was out early edging, watering, fertilizing and weeding.  It is easier to pull weeds right after a good rain or irrigation.  Since I haven’t had a good rain, watering had to make do.  It gets difficult when the weeds are interspersed with annuals–you end up pulling up the flowers with the weeds.  But I replanted and hopefully the seedling zinnia will bounce back.  I used a water soluble fertilizer on my annuals and vegetables, but I used it, after the beds were watered well.  As much as we are all watering, we are leaching out the nutrition, so it is important to fertilize, but do it sparingly.   Water soluble fertilizers or slow release types tend to have less potential to burn.  I am amazed that the dianthus is still so pretty–and it is in full sun. It hasn’t stopped this summer and is right next to the periwinkle which is also doing well. I also repotted a root bound mandevilla.  You can get some really good deals on tropicals right now, but they have been in their pots for too long and are loaded with roots, which makes it difficult to water.  When you are upgrading them to a larger pot, you need to cut through the matt of roots to allow them to spread out in the new soil.  It was actually pretty pleasant outside when I started, but it is heating up now, and I think I will stay inside for a while–maybe all day!  I think that cool front they promised us was a figment of their imagination.  103 yesterday and supposedly hotter today.