Plant Talk's on vacation through June 7 - I'll be lecturing at Rancho La Puerta the first week of June, and will return home with photos of a supremely fragrant, glorious, drought-tolerant Baja cottage garden - expect some inspiring photos the week of June 8th....
In the hopes of ripe tomatoes, I've moved mine to pots along the house where the sun is hottest in the afternoon - but I don't have a drip system there. So I've resorted to "Plant Nannies" - not the fancy ones, just the ceramic spike and plastic screw-on thing to which you attach a bottle. They seem to work amazingly well, keeping the tomatoes well-watered right in their root zone. And they don't look too bad - here's the visual:
In the meantime, the allium are in full bloom and covered with honey bees - one of my favorite moments of the gardening year. I add more allium every year, and they never disappoint...I used to grow the basket-ball sized, lavender Star of Persia (Allium 'Christophii') but they are shorter and get lost in the burst of May foliage. So now I concentrate on the taller, willowy 'Globemaster' and 'Purple Sensation', growing here with orange wallflowers, the dark Ligularia 'Britt Marie-Crawford' and Spirea 'Magic Carpet'
Wait, huh, when did you start a blog?! I have been whining about wanting my favorite garden writers, you among them, to start regular blogging and only just today realized you had! I will have to go back and look in the archives to see what I've missed. I know you are a "celebrity blogger" but want to invite you to an event on July 19th out in Carnation. We have a little Seattle garden bloggers' group and one of our members, the amazingly talented Daniel Mount, has kindly offered to host us all at his farm out there. Potluck picnic, fun folks, should be hoot. Know you are busy but if you want to know more or would consider coming, we would be honored to have you. Happy travels and hope your elegant San Pellegrino watering system worked during the recent heat!
Posted by: Karen | June 07, 2009 at 09:55 AM