Where has the time gone?

Greetings from a very hot and very dry Oklahoma. I had great ambitions for my blog this summer, and while my garden is showing the fruit of my work, my blog is not. Between working up new beds and chasing teenagers I have not been online at all these days. I've made a promise to myself that I would be more consistant with updating this. I have fallen in love with gardening, right up until our latest heat wave. We had a heat spell last month where it was over 100 degrees for over a week straight. My normally curly hair went from frizzed out (which it does in the 80's) to plastered down limp. I did not know that was possible.

The heat wave came too early and my blueberries and Joseph's coat were not well enough established and I lost them. I watered every day, but the poor little roots couldn't handle the heat - even with covering.

Other things, however are doing spectacularly. I do want to show off one new bed.
This is my before shot after the icestorm.





This space on the South side of my house is my most recent conversion. It is still in progress, but for a first year garden, it's filling in rather nicely I think.

Hidden is my new Scarlet O'Hara plant in the back. Added to that are Gladiolias, Azalea's, blueberries and purple plumb grasses which I'm told are indigineous to Oklahoma. I had cut down a wild redbud when creating this new bed, however, it is showing signs of re-emerging. I have not decided whether or not I'll let it stay.

It was in this garden that I learned how to "make dirt", which is a nasty proposition all the way around. Oklahoma has sandy loam and clay. Bushes like azelea's and blueberries need dirt beds. They need rock, compost and topsoil mixed with the loam for drainage. Flowering bushes do not like wet roots, which explains why all of my other azaleas died previously. I was planting them in straight loam and clay.

Another lesson learned this year is how prolific my daisies are. I planted SIX plants last year in my front garden - and now I have this:



I had no idea they would do that. Daisies are lovely, no doubt, but these bad boys are covering up my spirea and my coral bells. They need to be somewhere else, and so I will be digging them up this week.

Jeff and I traveled to the Cumberland mountains a few weeks ago for rest and relaxation. While were there, I had the chance to take an awesome photo in our friend's garden. Enjoy.