Weekend Fun

El Esposo and I took Mom and D to the UCSC Arboretum on Saturday. It started with a join-up at Emily's (yum!) and ended with lunch at Thai Orchid (yum!). All really good events are bookended by food, I think!

The Arboretum was interesting and I will elaborate and post pictures another time. I would rather put them on the laptop and I am currently on the old desktop. Still waiting for my powerbook to get back from the spa. The Geek said he ordered the new operating system (from Amazon since it isn't the most recent operating system--the laptop is too old to handle that) and it was shipped, but it didn't arrive so he is investigating.

Yesterday was all about the yard. I had ordered bare root blueberries and they arrived Sat. so I needed to get them in the ground. I dug out a patch of ground along the west facing garage wall. I hope it doesn't get too hot for them, but the books said sun. I planted four. Two 'Dukes,' a 'Chandler' and a 'Bluray.' I had also ordered a 'Bluecrop,' but it turned out to be out of stock and by the time I called the next day to exchange it for one of the others, they had already shipped! Four worked perfectly for the amount of flat space I had. So now they are all planted with their peat moss and worm castings. They are bare sticks about a foot tall, so they don't look like much. I'm supposed to take off all their flowers this year and just let them leaf out and establish. So there will be no blueberries this year, but I am looking forward to the plants. I don't absolutely love blueberries, but I think the plants will be very pretty.

I also got more natives in the ground. I bought a Fragrant Pitcher Sage at the arboretum and I got it in the ground. There were three gallon cans of grass that I had agonized about placing since fall. They finally went into the ground--I think I placed them well, but I am not used to thinking about the shape of grasses in my almost subconscious designing system. I also planted two of my earliest propagation successes--monkeyflower. I hope I didn't plant them too soon. They had root systems about the size of a walnut and the plants are about 4" tall.

I finally got around to a few moves that I had wanted to make, too. The dahlia that D gave me has been in its spot since we put in the bed. At that time it was the place I knew that would be attended to. Now it is a bed full of plants that need very little water. The dahlia struggles there and then its flowers get eaten for its effort. So I decided I would move it to a zone that I am going to water more regularly. I don't know if that will do anything about the earwig problem, but it shouldn't have to struggle so hard just to get eaten! So I dug it up to move it. Oh My Gosh! It was a pile of tubers as big as a basketball! It always looked like it was struggling on top of the ground! Meanwhile, underground are uber-tubers! So..... I propagated! I broke up some of them and planted them (three places) in sunny spots in the camelia garden. I still have a huge pile of tubers so I think I will pot them up and see what happens. I also divided the violets and spread them around the shady part of the camelia garden. Oh, and I couldn't resist two six packs of johnny-jump-ups when I went for the peat moss. I put some in the bird garden out the breakfast room window and some in the camelia garden.

Ok, this is getting long and I have to get ready for work, but I have to report this, too. As I was having my coffee outside yesterday morning I noticed the little "peep birds" (bushtits, I think) in the cherry plum. At first I thought they were eating the petals of the few remaining flowers. But as I watched I saw that they were gathering petals, stuffing more and more in their little beaks. So when one of them flew off, I watched where it went. A nest! On of those hanging sack nests. I guess inside it will be lined with pink plum blossom petals. Just imagine that for your bed! I love it!

I have another bird story too, but it will have to wait!