May

2021

Fertilize: Organic/natural fertilizers often use alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, or fish emulsion to provide nitrogen; bone meal or rock phosphate to provide phosphorus; and kelp meal or granite meal to provide potassium. 

• Nitrogen (N): Promotes lush foliage growth
• Phosphorus or Phosphate (P): Promotes blooming and fruit formation
• Potassium or Potash (K): Develops healthy root systems

2020

What a month! Thanks to Bethia Marie's new gardening zeal, I've been to three new nurseries and she's bought me many beautiful new plants! My front yard looks like a crazy quilt of flowers and my backyard is starting to shape up.

First outing after coronavirus to Willow Tree:

passion vine, passiflora incarnata

purple fountain grass

cosmos -- so frilly and pretty. GET THESE NEXT YEAR
zinnias -- not blooming yet

5/14 Marty helped me plant the purple fountain grass today. Still not sure about where to put the passion vine. The Virginia creeper is so happy on the fence, but then, it would be, it's an uninvited guest.

5/19 Went to Sweet Bay Nursery with Bethia, just lovely.  

Bahama Cassia: 3 to 9 feet, 3 to 5 in sun, fall flowering, drought tolerant, sandy soil OK.

Bee Balm

5/29 Bethia's generosity and new gardening schemes sure are great for my garden. Many new plants. Very purple vincas, never saw anything like them.

Gazania. Helped her put in her front garden yesterday. Many plantings, cocoplum bushes, cassia, firebush, firecracker, etc. etc.  She only likes yellows, reds, oranges. Absolutely no pinks.  Funny because I don't like reds. 

5/30 Finished off the bed by the garage: cranberry hibiscus (still very small), purple fountain grass, whiskers deep rose gaura, and then a couple little iresine to finish off.  Kind of good.  

2019

Since it only rained once while we were away, the yard wasn't too too awful, just pretty awful.  Much weeding to be done, and of course it's very hot by 11:00, but luckily my winter habit of lolling around in the morning was broken while we were overseas with much to see so that I can now easily hop out of bed and head out of doors to put in a few hours.

Cheltenham was full of parks with beds of tulips just at their best.  So when I come home to find the caladiums in full leaf, I'm very happy. 

Thinking of weedeating front yard to tidy things up and keep ganges primrose down. They've been blooming nonstop since November. I keep waiting for them to calm down so I can clip them and it's just not happening.  
To-Do list when coming home from England.

• visit the garden up the street at about 6th Avenue and 38th street for ideas
• visit Wilcox nursery and buy buy buy.  Cassia to replace the spindly plants in front yard. 5/15 bought Florida porterweed, maypop passion vine, gallardia, two pots of yellow cutleaf coneflower
• work on your beds
• propagate the Persian shield -- it's a perennial and looks great with the Ganges. done 5/13
• dig up the asparagus fern and other invasives

Very early planting calendar

Area	Upkeep:	New plantings:	Plans & Dreams
Zone 1 Kuan Yi garden	Some weeding. Pruned a tiny bit. sedum morganianum or Burro’s tail name of hanging cactus. Passion vine & monarchs. (Trim after blooming.) Bougainvillea. Macho fern or Fishtail fern nephrolepsis biserrata.	Hung orchid outside window. Put coleus in planters there	Ladder? Clean up? Planting outside window
Zone 2 Left garden Bench&tree	Weeding. Daylilies bloomed all month beautifully in peach. “Sapphire showers” Duranta by door. 10 to 20’ tall. Bloom spring-fall. Foxtail fern	Caladiums & coleus coming up. Purple duranta around door doing OK.Bloom Time: Late Summer/Early Fall	Bare center strip?
Zone 3 Right garden	May 23 weed ate the tops off the mimosa. Looks nice. Orange tree OK. “Sapphire showers” duranta by door.		Beds messy
City strip	Weeding around mimosa. Golden dewdrop ‘Cuban Gold’ Flor Celeste is holding its own. 2-4’. Blooms spring-fall? Butterfly cassia,10-12’. Fall bloom.	Vincas pooped out totally. Butterfly cassia OK. Society garlic struggling. Duranta struggling.	Mimosa fill in.
Zone 4 Sunflower garden	Keep that sunflower hacked back.	Sedum rupestre	Maybe plant some purple queen there? Or blue porterweed?
Zone 5 Backdoor path, lemon tree & roses	Blue porterweed coming back. Daylilies bloomed nicely.	Coleus. Sedum rupestre
Zone 6 sunny backyard	Blueberries struggling along ago. Green beans & peas perished. Dark angel dahlia, dahlia hybrid. Blooms summer to fall, full sunn, 12”. Dark angel dahlia:heather on each side; coleus on each side; purple queen on each side.	Incredibly beautiful hibiscus in center. Very nice little garden coming along: dahlia, heather, coleus & purple queen. Sweet. Sedum rupuestre underneath hibiscus.
Zone 6 Shady	Cardboard fern? Zamia furfuracea. 4”. Making come back. Sanseveria trifecta (mother in law’s tongue)	Caladiums coming up. Set up birdbath	?????
Garage mess			Solidify?