Delight in the Dirt, July Progress

Let’s talk gardening . . . the highs and the lows and in between.

The highs right now include my limelight and pinky winky hydrangeas, purple coneflower, black eyed susans, sedum, and the front garden bed. The plants there are growing and thriving and providing so much color and delight. It’s been long enough now since I planted all of this that things are established and don’t need much maintenance . . . just weeding.

The lows are the petunias in the deck boxes, which have (mostly) stopped blooming, and the pests, including Japanese and oriental beetles and woodchucks. The beetles fly in the dark and leave holes in the leaves of my plants. The woodchucks just decimate plants all together. We came home from vacation to find that every single leaf of every sweet potato vine had been stripped and eaten, photo above courtesy of Sean who took wonderful care of my gardens and containers while we were away last week. Dale has . . . dispatched . . . 4 of the pesky rodents now and I’m hoping that’s the last of them.

The in betweens at this point mostly include the dahlias. They are growing and producing buds and now I’m waiting for blossoms. Last year I was cutting flowers by the end of July but I planted a couple of weeks late this year so I’m thinking it will still be another week or so before I have flowers. Like so much with gardening, it’s a waiting game.

Here’s the thing about gardening, though. Even with the lows, it’s all worth it. I learn something new every year. And I find delight in (almost) all of it.

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This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Our dahlias are a bust! We planted 6 or 8 (I can’t remember). Two came up and one developed buds. We got a few blossoms, but they are small and almost immediately they turn grey and then black. Our gladiolas on the other hand are gorgeous. I just need to remember to cut the stalks when they are first showing color – if I don’t, then the deer munch them.

  3. There’s always some critter that eats what we don’t want them to eat! Your hydrangeas and echinacea are looking good, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the dahlias.

  4. The *&#&@^* chipmunks have eaten and/or stolen almost all my cherry tomatoes over the weekend. I am still amazed at how helpful our (indoor/outdoor) cats were in keeping the critters at bay outside.

  5. I had the same thing happen with my potato vine in the front porch pots…completely devoured. I thought it was bunnies, though there seem to be no end of voracious munchers. Some plastic forks around the vines and raised it higher on the porch and it is coming back, but does look pretty sad!?

  6. We battled the bunnies with our sunflowers until they were finally tall enough and the buggers couldn’t t reach the leaves! Our dahlias are a bust too. Fortunately the bulbs only came from Job Lot! Looking forward to seeing yours!

  7. We’re dealing with the same kinds of highs and lows here, though the lows are lack of rain and rabbits (with the occasional deer). I feel bad about being angry at the bunnies because they’re so cute, but they have eaten most of the flowers off my impatiens and even took down the one sunflower I managed to get to grow!

    I am eagerly anticipating your dahlias — I’m sure they’ll be amazing!

  8. Sigh. Gardening. You win some and you lose some. Which is both exhilarating and heartbreaking. (I’m always happy I don’t garden/farm for a living. I don’t think I could handle it . . . ) The dahlias I planted from seed (back in February) are finally starting to get some buds. I hope they’re still around when I return home this weekend . . . (Sigh. Gardening.) XO

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