27 June 2017

While the Cat's Away...


This year's Ride the Rockies was just like the previous six. I came home to dead Stevia, and I lost all my strawberries, one rosemary and a couple of pepper plants, tomato plants and dahlia plants. I've replanted now, but look what else I came home to!!!




The volunteer sunflowers have become a jungle, and who says you have to wait until August for sunflowers???


Most of the poppies were done before I got home. I don't know if any blue ones opened up, but there were a ton of blossom heads the day we left.










Of course, hollyhocks mean time to dye once again...


So many flowers are blooming!












I stopped at the nursery to buy Stevia seeds because no one had any more plants. I'd fallen head over heels for a white spiderwort earlier in the season during a nursery shopping spree, but I couldn't justify $20 for a single plant back then. I had no such willpower this trip. So now I have a gorgeous trio of tri-petaled Tradescantia! (Plus one that hasn't bloomed yet, so I don't know what color to expect...)






I've been trying different methods of automatic drip systems to keep the indoor plants alive ever since we moved into our house. The most successful method I'd had so far was to place the terracotta pots into the overturned lid of a cake holder, filled with water.

This year I tried various watering spikes I purchased from the nursery and from amazon.com. We have no wine bottles, so I used bicycle water bottles. Because heaven only knows we have enough bicycle water bottles to supply the entire state with water for at least a day! (Just teasing, but we do have quite the collection; I counted 22 we didn't take with us on Ride the Rockies, and we each got a new commemorative one for this year's ride.)

Two water bottles tipped over while we were gone and didn't do their job but did a nice job of soaking the hardwood floors. The rest seemed to work satisfactorily. I like the terracotta spikes without the bottles when we're home, too. I just fill the spikes every two days. Eventually I'll have enough spikes for all the house plants, but for this year, it was more of a test to see if they'd work, because they aren't exactly cheap.

They pass the test; it will be worth investing in a few more.






Many of my delphiniums, probably my favorite garden flower, were top heavy and bowed over flat when I got home.

That means I got to cut them and bring them inside. I'm really enjoying a kitchen full of flowers this year!

2 comments :

  1. Getting creative to keep them watered, look at you go. Some sure can strive without the need for tlc, others are rather needy and don't want you riding any rockies haha

    ReplyDelete
  2. Splendid photos, really enjoyed each and every one. Thanks for sharing and best wishes!

    ReplyDelete


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