Good morning, and happy Monday. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging After Hours.
Denver had some fine weather over the weekend — Saturday was a pleasant, if cool, 63°; Sunday was 10° warmer and perfect for working outside at 73°.
After having their buds frozen off last year, the lilacs are giving us a stellar performance this year — our neighbor claimed he couldn’t detect the odor of grilling over the abundance of lilac.
For those who missed it (and I did have some stunning tulip photos last week), here's Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 6.11
This tiny little blue mist penstemon (penstemon virens) was planted last year in one of the tiny little brick pockets leading up to our house. This is precisely the plant I had envisioned growing there. The one in the opposite pocket hasn’t done as well — but it has survived, so I’m fairly confident it will bloom by next year. Clear blue flowers are so very hard to find, and this little penstemon (only 8 inches tall) can easily get lost in my busy landscape. I’m glad I have a space for it.
But, of course, our fine weather could not last; as I type the next storm system is moving in, giving us increasing cloud cover and cooler temperatures. Tomorrow the forecast high is only for the mid-50s, and by Wednesday, down here in Denver we won’t escape the 40s while a rain/snow mix falls — and may have sub-freezing temperatures overnight.
And poor Nurse Kelley to the west of Colorado Springs may be facing a foot or two of snow from the same storm system.
Denver’s "average last frost date" is usually stated as today, May 10 (although I’ve seen several sources this year list it as May 5; and it used to be consistently listed as May 15 — go figure). This year... well, I think I’ll go with May 15.
In anticipation of the incoming wet weather, I did get a lot done yesterday. I planted my two baby Zephrine Drouhine rose bushes — after digging deep and amending the soil to give them the best conditions possible.
I mowed the lawn and thoroughly mixed the contents into the compost bin (hopefully the last time I’ll have to do that back-breaking chore; thanks to a tip from cvannatta I saved $100 when I ordered the tumbler-with-screen composter I’ve been lusting after for years).
And then I spread my yearly application of lawn fertilizer — the wet weather should sink it deep into our little grass patch.
Thanks to my neighbor, who is managing a Starbucks, I had an ample supply of coffee grounds with which to spread my few acid-loving plants; I’m sure the daphne bush will perk right up with addition of caffeine — and acid — to its soil.
And here’s a rare picture — Arwen the Terrible outside, and not complaining about anything. She’s very hard to photograph: she is rarely still when her humans are present (although she runs from everyone else), and generally is rubbing against everything while simultaneously purring and complaining.
I even managed to re-pot a couple of my indoor plants — the tea jasmine, especially, needed a larger pot. It’s been totally denuded of leaves as I forgot to water it as frequently as I should have, given its pot-bound status. Now it has a much deeper — if not much wider — pot within which to stretch its feet and I’m sure it will be much happier (at least it didn’t die — it had already put out a lot of new leaves).
By next weekend, we should be (cross fingers) into the warm-weather gardening season here in Denver.
The After Hours bar is open — chat away.