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The garden is shaping up

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Well, I finally managed to tidy up my garden and my arms have the scratches all over them to prove it!

Every rose I have has been pruned so now there are no more dead twigs standing up, visible over the new growth and blooms.

The garden looks so much better!

Chris and I went out yesterday afternoon and purchased 5 new roses, two clematis vines, three passion flower vines, a hibiscus, a blue Hydrangea and two fuchsia plants. Oh we got some more annuals as well. I guess that with all those vines, our existing cannas and jasmine plants that our garden will have a tropical feel to it this year.

My back ached each evening after I was done working in the garden but luckily felt better each morning. I thought I was going to get away without having any sore muscles but my legs are a bit stiff today. At least it doesn’t seem like I’ll be as achy as I was a month ago when I over did it in the garden!

Now I just need to get all the new plants planted – perennials and annuals, and get some mulch down too.

Does the work ever end?






Thin leafed poor blooming azaleas?

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How did your Azaleas, and Rhododendrons do this year? Did they bloom well? Is the foliage lush and full?

If you azaleas didn’t seem to do as well this year as they have in the past, or if the leaf coverage is rather thin you might want to be proactive and take some measure to help them get healthy so they’ll bloom well next season.

Apply azalea fertilizer in the spring. You might want to give your plants one light dose before they begin to bloom, perhaps just as they come out of dormancy, and another dose shortly after they’ve finished blooming. Fertilizing will encourage better growth and the plant should get fuller looking.

Lightly pruning blooming branches and bringing the flowers indoors or lightly prune immediately after the blooming season ends.

You’ll be cutting off some of the new growth, but when pruning takes place near the beginning of the season it actually encourages new growth. By pruning, fertilizing and watering regularly throughout the season your azaleas should be stronger the following year.

You might even want to thin some of the older branches after the blooms fade in order to shape the tree for the following year. It make take a few years to prune your azalea into a nice shape that shows off it’s fullness as you do not want to prune too much off at once.

Beautiful Fringed Tulip

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Fringed Orange Tulip

You’re probably starting to think that most of my tulips are orange, aren’t you?

Honest, I have tulips in many different colours. It’s just that the orange ones seem to interest me the most this year. I love the fringed tulips. As you can see in this closeup they are very ornate and have a lot of flare, or Zing. Whatever you want to call it, they give the garden a little something extra and I just love them.

Late yesterday afternoon I decided to do some work in my front garden. That’s where I found this beauty.

The front garden has been pruned and tidied up now. Hopefully I’ll feel up to finishing the back garden sometime later today. I really need to get the flower beds in the back yard finished.

BTW this photo, and the one I’m using on Tricia’s Musings is straight off the camera. No cropping, no adjusting color – just as is. Some people have been asking what kind of camera I’m using, it’s a Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 7.2MP.

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