Saturday, September 25, 2010

Big mums, clean-up time

Returned from cool Rochester, NY and spent a good seven hours hand watering my Wilmington, NC front and back yard gardens. We're still desperately low on rainfall; down 5 inches for September alone.

Yet somehow, two autumn mums have managed to grow to mammoth size. I didn't get out the tape but they easily measure three feet across. I'll post a photo when they bloom. Already they're separating into clumps.

I'm officially in the garden clean-up mode. Trimmed the blue hydrangeas back far enough to allow a bit of sunshine to hit the tiny red azaleas surrounding the pine tree. Raked pine needles and laid them for mulch.

Drank a large cup of coffee in the sunroom afterwards and realized with glee that all I'll need next spring are another black-eyed susan, another tall Mexican petunia, a few red pentas (they grow tallest and most lushly) and lots of zinnias.

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