Gardening people..what are you working on in your gardens?

I’m weeding, watering and observing. I take pictures and make notes for next spring. I have several plans for different areas and want to make note while the ideas are fresh.

I'm watering a lot. It's hot here and the flowering plants especially suffer for it. I also planted two large camellia bushes in the middle of July and they are needing a bit of pampering to get their best start.

I need to weed... especially in my herb garden. But the herbs have grown so vigorously this summer it's hard to get in there to do it. I guess I should cut them back some. And make pesto! The basil is out of control.

Darn it, I was going to ask your guys opinion on weed prevention. we have a small area in front of our house that always seems to look awful by August. I've planted Hostas and tulips which bloom in the spring and summer. The hostas have been in long enough that they grow to a nice size now, but every freaking year the weeds are endless. I try hand weeding, especially in the spring it's manageable, but by August- the hottest month of the year here- they've taken over the space and I wind up just taking a rake to the whole thing in September.

The same thing is happening in our backyard. We had some rocks and brick edging installed along our patio and we're getting what I think is crabgrass growing up and over the bricks. I'm lothe to use any kind of chemical back there as we do have a dog who walks around in the backyard, but my hands and knees have hurt for weeks after the last time I heavily pulled just the edge weeds. I know I've got to do something that isn't going out every week and pulling them out of the ground. I just don't know what that is.

I spray weeds with vinegar because I don’t want to use chemicals. I also weed right after a rain because they pull out easier.
You can also put newspaper down before you mulch. I sometimes get weeds that sprout in the mulch though.

I’m currently fighting weevils- they decapitate flowers.
The squash worms got my mini pumpkins. I removed some successfully but not all of them. I’m going to skip all squash plants next year to try and get rid of them.

I had to dig out my tomatoes and take them to my DD’s. My neighbor has rats and they thought my tomatoes were their snack ☹️

My peppers are doing well.

My basil has something turning the leaves spotty & yellow from the ground up. Not sure what it is.

In the fall I need to rework my flower beds. I planted some kind of native false sunflower that is at least 7feet tall. It needs to move to the back.

My lilies were outstanding this year. I’m going to add to those next year.
I haven’t seen nearly as many hummingbirds this year. I have tons of flowers for them.

I want to be a gardening person but I struggle. I'm excited in spring and eagerly plant and tend. Then the trifecta of heat, mosquitoes and weeds usually douse my enthusiasm and the borders get very ragged, downright embarrassing.

This year I have been better. I've had to keep up my Mother's extensive plantings until the house sale closes. So I am going to her house at least once a week and getting up early and doing our yard once or twice a week. So far we have kept it looking much better than usual. However, I have few flowers here. I planted a lot annuals in pots to show her house. Recently I brought some of those home and replanted them in larger planters that I'm keeping. I've got several on the porch and a really pretty arrangement of 3 extra large ceramic pots beside the patio. There is a Craftsy class on gardening that encourages you to consider the view from your window when placing things and that has helped a lot.

For next year, I have some big plans. I hope my enthusiasm will keep up even though I won't Have to make a yard sale-ready. I don't want the extensive plantings Mother had but I can appreciate some beauty and how healthy a regular gardening habit is.

my cosmos are beautiful - I love that the grew from seed and thrived. They are in an actual flowerbed.

My vegetables were all in containers - and they pretty much all drowned. It rained for all of June, all of July, and so far August has also been rainy. I think we've had somewhere between 35 and 40 inches this summer.

I did get a handful of green beans and tomatoes.

As for what I'm doing - waiting for the rain to stop and then I need to weed, mow, and prepare for fall planting

I'm hating on all of you.. I don't do vegetables and just flowers... I plant and plant.. and get good green leaves but my blooms are crappy.. they hardly bloom at all. It doesn't help that my yard is 1/2 shaded.... and this year my sprinklers were broken for a few weeks. But even that said.. I never ever get a lot of pretty blooms. No weeds, usually enough water, some sun.. and nothing. I about to resort to throwing out some fake crap.. lol

Oh lawd, don’t tell my husband that. I could see him embracing that idea. And if he got as carried away with the blow torch as he does with the weed eater and hedge trimmer… well it wouldn’t leave much in my yard!

I didn't do much in the yard/beds last year, so this year I am making up for it.

In the spring my dad insisted we get some plants or bushes for the patio beds, so I took him and he picked out two petite rose bushes and a couple of perineals and I got some herbs (basil, oregano, lemon thyme and pineapple sage) and two cowhorn pepper plants. DH then bought a cherry tomato plant for one container and a red bell pepper plant for another.

The roses have established nicely, but the two other flowers didn't do too much. I had to move my pineapple sage out to the back fence because it was taking over one of the beds. It is out there growing huge and should flower near the end of the month. The rest of the herbs are growing nicely, I need to thin out the basil and use or freeze some.

My cowhorn peppers took forever to ripen, but I have put at least a dozen in the freezer and have more I harvested today. I plan to make some hot pepper jam with them. Yum.

At the end of June I bought a scraggly single pumpkin vine in a small 3inch pot and planted it out by the sage. It has spread out and encircled the sage. DH calls it Audrey. I figured I would be lucky to get even one pumpkin from it but it has so many blossoms, it might be a bumper crop.

Front bed doesn't look too bad, the amazing thing is I have three mum bushes, one from fall of 2019 and two from fall 2020 and they are all still healthy and two of them are already blooming despite the heat. I figured that the huge snow we had in February would have killed them of since they are annuals, but they came back and have been green and pretty all spring and summer.

What I am most proud of is being able to propagate several of my plants. I tried with my rose bush first, and out of twelve small cuttings I only got one to actually root, but it is getting bigger and I have had a couple of blooms on it.

I also rooted cuttings from my mom's acuba bushes and those things root like crazy, I gave a dozen to my neighbor and planted several in pots.

My newest endeavor is trying to root cuttings from my hydrangea bushes. Two were my mom's and one was mine I transplanted to this yard back in 2012.

I watched a YouTube video about using small cups and putting them in a clear container with a lid to make a mini greenhouse. I started over twenty cuttings and have eonly lost one so far. I have several that have new leaves and while I can't see the roots yet, I am thinking they are doing well.

Have really enjoyed trying to change by black thumb green. I am already making plans to expand the flower beds and put in more vegetables in containers.

I will have to bring my questions here since there seems to be many Peas who can give me guidance.

this is the first year i've planted squash and now i have vines everywhere! they are in my apple trees and climbing higher. i have trellises running horizontally but there's just so many. DH walked outside to pick apples and said "what the heck are these things?" LOL

Truthfully I haven't changed soil or anything.. probably would make a world of difference.  I just wanna throw in some bulbs and let them grow and bloom... lol.. It amazes me that I can drive around my city and see beautiful flowers but never once see anyone do anything to them.. 

I am sure it's my fault. 

What fertilizer do you all use on Petunias. What a high maintenance annual.

We have battled weeds in our flower beds for 20 years. I finally went to the hardware store last year and told them I wanted a weed killer that wouldn't cause cancer and wouldn't hurt our dog. They led me straight to the aisle where they sell Burnout. Here's the description:

"Made from natural ingredients, BurnOut® is safe for use around people and pets. BurnOut kills all types of actively growing weeds and grasses. It's rainproof once dry, works at temperatures as low as 40 degrees F. and does not translocate."

The active ingredients are clove oil and citric acid. Makes my flower beds smell good! It works really well, and we are most likely customers for life.

I'm hoping I'll find the energy to divide all my day lilies this fall. When we bought our house 20 years ago, there was nothing in the beds and the soil was terrible. We've added a lot of lilies, and now they're definitely overgrown. Hoping to split them and give them away to others who are looking to fill ample spaces in their gardens.

What a beautiful overhead shot of your garden! I need to top my indeterminate tomatoes too. I never seem to do an adequate staking job. It's always like a wish and a prayer around here!