This week the weather has been in the low 70’s and beautiful. Not until today have we had rain. All the windows in the house were open until yesterday when the temperature peaked above 80 and the house was getting too warm. The only downside to this is that with all sun and no rain even as mild as it was the plants still needed to be watered. There was a lot of lugging of hoses this week. The water we use in the yard comes from our well and has the distinct smell of sulfur – yuck!
In any event in the front yard the dianthus had finished blooming and needed to be trimmed back. The artemisia shrub that was behind them grew to such an extent that it covered over much of the dianthus, so I decided to move the dianthus. I split the plants and started to get them planted around our cistern top. The cistern top had been a huge point of contention because all the bulbs and corms I planted there last fall didn’t make it through the winter and weeds took over before I was well enough to go back outside again. It really did look like a jungle. That is gone now and I moved a few hostas there and planted the dianthus. I also have some vinca that I’d like to plant around it to brighten the area with some pretty blooms.
The decision to move the hostas to the front in full sun was a hard one. I had always learned that hostas do best in shade and don’t like full sun much at all. The more I look around though I am finding more and more plantings of variegated varieties in full sun and even some full green varieties there as well. The green varieties tend to bleach a bit, but I haven’t seen much in the way of burning of the edges. So, we’ll just have to see how they do.
My plan is to keep them well watered so that even on hot summer days the hostas won’t scorch. An idea I saw was to use old 20 oz. plastic bottles as watering containers for thirsty plants or container plantings. Just by punching a hole in the cap with a hot nail or a drill, filling the bottle with water, putting the cap back on and burying it cap side down up to the bottle collar close behind the plant you want to keep watered you’ll have a constant flow of water when it’s needed. I guess the concept is to take advantage of the vaccuum that is formed when the inverted bottle is buried in the soil. Water only leaks out when there is air from the soil to leak in. I’m going to give it a try and hope that they escape the husband radar :-).