Saturday, May 6, 2017; Hornbeams

A beautiful day. Mostly clear with a gusty breeze and highs in the low 70's. Today, the hornbeams along the east fence line were the center of attention. These hornbeams are Carpinus Betulus ‘Frans Fontaine’, a variety of European hornbeam, part of the birch family. They are known for their columnar shape and are a favorite for those wanting to create a hedge. Our overall plan is to create a 12 foot tall hedge. Last fall, I began pleaching (interlacing) the trees. The trees are on five foot centers. While considered a columnar tree, if left on its own, these trees can ultimately grow to 50 feet tall and 20 foot diameter. However, it is relatively slow growing, reaching 25 feet tall and six feet diameter after 10 years.

They were planted in late November 2015 and were probably around 10 feet tall when planted. This Spring, they are up to about 15 feet and starting to look at little "leggy".

I've been reading several guides on the best time to prune these trees and how tall we really wanted them to be. The answer to the second question turned out to be pretty easy. They will be no taller than I can reach using an 8-foot step ladder (which turns out to be about 12 feet). As for when to prune, the answers ranged from early Spring to early summer to "whenever you have the urge to do so". I liked the later suggestion the best. All suggested that by pruning, you encourage additional branching.

After a coupe of hours, I called it good.

Friday, May 5, 2017; Grout

Yesterday we received three more inches of rain. The total for the last seven days is 10". Today (and hopefully for the weekend) it is sunny and clear.

Last year I noticed that the grout at the northwest corner of the chess board was failing. This corner has the widest joints due to the fact that the people who poured the sidewalks did not make the corner exactly square. The polymeric sand used as grout is supposed to be able to handle joints up to 1" wide. This corner is probably pretty close to that limit.

The chess board pavers are two inches thick and mounted on a sand bedding. My concern was that the rain water would begin to undermine the sand bedding. I have some of the grouting sand that the installer used originally so today, I dug out the failed grout and installed some new, following the bag instructions as closely as possible.

I first dug out the failed grout. The joint is wide enough that I could feel the lower edge of the paver. In one area, there was indeed a void going under the paver. I used the excavated sand to fill this void.

Incrementally, I filled the joint with the polymeric sand, stopping to compact the sand with a wooden dowl. Once the joint was filled, I followed the instructions to gradually mist the joint so that it would harden. Supposedly it will cure in an hour.

Don't know if it will last, but it has got to be better than it was.

The water iris in the lower pond is blooming. The two others (different variety), in the stream between the upper and lower ponds, show no signs of blossoms yet.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017; Rain

It has been raining lightly all day long. It is about 3:00 pm and we have accumulated another 0.75". It is not raining right now, but the forecast is for rain until 9:00 pm tonight.

I got a call from our east neighbor (Morgan) around 2:00 pm. He said a neighbor was wanting to get rid of a prickly pear cactus and wanted to know if I might be interested. I said "OF COURSE". We went over to the neighbor and brought home the plant. It needs some care, but lots of potential.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017: OKRA!

We accumulated 7" of rain over the weekend! It sprinkled most of the day yesterday (Monday) but little additional accumulation. Today is sunny and breezy. Tomorrow more rain expected with estimates of another 1" to 3". Lots of river flooding in the region, but we are high and dry. I got the lawn mowed between showers yesterday. The garden seems to have weathered the weather in fine shape. Even the succulent bed seems to have drained well.

All of T's roses are now in bloom. The four new ones are significantly smaller than the one she planted last year. All of these will supposedly reach a height of three feet. The hollyhocks, on each end of the roses are really thriving. Hopefully we will see some blooms this year.

While they did not bloom last year, the foxgloves are starting to bloom this year.

The Asiatic lilies I planted last week are starting to bloom as well.

Today I went once again to the Garden Heights nursery hoping they had received the okra. I could not find any and finally resorted to asking. Sure enough, they did have a few. The guy said it is still to cold at night to leave them outside and suggested keeping them inside until next week. I bought three plants and also got six jalapeno peppers. All of the peppers I started inside and put out about a month ago appear to have failed. Since none have survived, I obviously put them out too soon. None of the chard or kale has shown up either.

The Okra is a Clemson spineless. Not sure what kind we had last year, but we had two plants which generated a lot of fruit.

I am so happy the mayapple is doing so well. I will be checking it frequently for seeds for propagation.

Today I sprayed Roundup on the alley from our west boundary all the way east to the judge's garage. It looks like it may be time to reapply some Snapshot.