Monday, August 17, 2015

Late summer flourish of petunias

I seized the day and went to the garden center to see if there were any petunias to rescue, late in the season, I know, but I tend to have this urge to prolong the flowers.  The petunias I brought home a couple of weeks ago have been very happy, but their neighbors left behind at the center a bit sad looking. I picked out the best looking ones, and got a deal on it, late season.  

And brought them home, stripped off their withered foliage, planted them in new potting soil and they're in place on top of the fence, at least some of them are not yet, since I ran out of steam after a bit.  The established petunias I brought in from the outdoor place, figuring it was time I got to enjoy them, too.  I moved a pot of marigolds and lavender out there instead.


Extreme light contrast defeated my tablet's abilities, but you get the gist. The marigolds and other plants on top of the fence are looking tired and a bit ragged, so I put them down on the ground in honorable retirement, and now the fence looks cheerful again.


 
I got the natural version of a standing o as I worked on this - while I was still potting up the new petunias, a hummingbird clearwing moth started work busily on them, then once in place on the fence,  a pair of Carolina wrens, a monarch butterfly, a cabbage white and Mrs. Cardinal showed up to play among them.  My nature preserve seems to be doing well.



Since I was on a roll, the antibiotics are kicking in, feeling better, I dashed off a little drawing of the end pot of pink petunias, pilot pen oh, alliteration, on Bristol, and at that point sanity overtook me and I came indoors.
 
The heat index was nearly 100F.  so it was time to stop and come in to brag about what I did. And to remember that I'm still getting well, not totally there yet, and I should sit and read a good mystery.

My genius handyman artist friend is going to come over later and as he put it, "see what's up" with my shower faucet, meaning probably fix it in about 30 seconds.

3 comments:

  1. Glad you are on the mend, Liz!
    I am LOVING my perennial beds that I started working hard to create last year. More color and scent than I've ever had, ever, ever, I enjoy walking through a dozen times daily, as imagined a year ago, going from one chore to the next. I admit they are a mad tangle these days, because this year I wouldn't pull anything out until I was SURE it wasn't something that I want there...makes for some sudden massive yankings-out lately, as spiky burr-seeds appear overnight in the thousands, I can tell you!
    Good luck on the shower...I hope it's as quick a fix as you predict :)

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  2. Your garden sounds edenesque. The shower, well turns out it was not the correct handle after all. So Mike the Great took away the old one, made a few notes and is going to shop for the right one. Locally so he can see what he's getting. But he said no wonder I couldn't make it work, and agreed that I was um misguided in even trying in my current state of health. He's very tactful!

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  3. I was noticing the local Canadian Tire garden centre still had a ton of flowers available. Some of them look pretty sick, but others were really pretty. Too bad we don't have an area to plant any, if only to give them a chance at life.

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