Bad seeds

Here's a list of good seeds that have gone bad in the garden in the 909:

Pride of Gibraltar--an interesting flower begun from seed that occasionally pops up again. Planted in 2007 and turned out not to be quite as attractive as they appeared on the seed pack. They get kind of rangy and brown but it could just be the heat here.

Verbena--planted these in a pot in Spring 2008 after seeing something similar in the Tuileries in Paris. Wind and rain spread them around the garden before I could transplant seedlings to back areas of the flower beds. They pop up every year all over the garden. I pull some and let others grow. They do well so I should try them again in the places I would actually like them to grow.

Poppy (Shirley Mixed)--bought for the name but nothing happened with them. I guess I should have tried California poppies.

Nicotiana--started in a pot but died upon transplant

Forget-Me-Nots--completely forgotten

Container Sweet Peas--hoping to bring back childhood memories but it was not to be.

Parisian Pink French Larkspur--supposed to grow in full sun and be 3 to 5 feet tall. I planned to put these near the back of the beds but again no luck.

Merveille de Quatre Saisons--should have been an ornamental lettuce that we could also eat but it was a bunch of nothing and certainly didn't look the vegetable garden at Villandry.

Foxgloves--tried in the front planter where they would have some shade. They did OK but not great. Perhaps worth another try.

Fine Leaf Chives--Started in February 2008 but again did almost nothing.

The garden continues to be an ongoing experiment.

Weeds!

This morning I spent quite awhile weeding the rose garden. I didn't get all of the weeds but made a good dent. We haven't seen hummingbirds in several days but I did hear them this morning while I was in the garden. I need to find more plants that attract them but I may wait until next spring.

The City maintains the area behind our back fence and some sort of vine has grown extensively and has begun working its way over the wood portion of our fence. It is doing some damage so I cut away as much as I could from our side. Mr. H. has trimmed it along the back and I think he was right to do so. At the time I missed the greenery but not if it is causing damage.

I also spread some Miracle Grow fertilizer over the area directly east of the patio. Need to do more of that.

Empy Nest

I went out in the garden this morning to peek at the nest and found our baby hummingbirds were gone. Last summer I had the pleasure of seeing one perched on a branch of the vine on our wall but today they are just gone. Here's the last photo of them from just a few days ago. We love having them and hope this turns into an annual garden event.

This weekend I'll have to start weeding the rose garden and deadheading the neglected bushes that surrounded their bush.

Getting bigger

Today I was able to capture a picture of the baby hummingbirds while the mother was off the nest. They fill the nest now and we can see feathers and their color is changing. Based on last summer's babies we think these two will be flying away in just a couple of weeks.

There are lots of weeds growing in the rose garden all around the hummingbird home. I will have my work cut out for me cleaning up the weeds when the birds finally leave the nest.

Two tiny beaks

This afternoon I was able to peek in the nest while the hummingbird was off. The babies are so tiny but I could make out two little heads and beaks with some fluff as they moved in the nest. I also noticed a lot of weeds around that rose bush that I'll be pulling sometime next month.

Southeast corner

So far the lantana that I transplanted and two new groundcover rose bushes are doing pretty well in the southeast corner. I had expected the lantana to grow faster as they did in their previous spot. Perhaps they need more time to recover from the shock of the move. The new plumbago seems to need more water than the established plant. I hate to use more water but hopefully once established it will be like the other. I also added a scarlet mandevilla vine that I hope will grow up the shade structure for color and greenery.

Two babies

The hummingbird was off her nest this afternoon so I took a look. There are now two tiny baby birds in the nest. I hope they do as well as the birds last year. I tried to get a photo but didn't want to disturb them.