Gorgeous day here in northern Illinois!
I pulled weeds & moved some more perennials.
So satisfying!
I love echinacea cone flower & black eyed Susan & blazing star…
I like bee balm too but the joke is “Do you want some?” — spreads & spreads!
@Midwest67, I have all three of those in my gardens. The deer love my bee balm. 
The worst spreader, imo, is spiderwort. I am constantly pulling it out, only to see it appear again. It takes over everything. I love how it looks though, when it’s in full bloom.
I seem to remember from Stephen Ambrose’s book about the Lewis & Clark expedition that journey was practically SPONSORED by the cottonwood.
However, I’m going off memory instead of looking it up … and that’s not always the best idea!
Today I signed up for a Home Gardening Certificate Course given by LSU. It is free, online only, and it is what they’re offering this year since they can’t do a full on Master Gardener course as usual. I was an MG in a previous state, and I loved it, but it is quite a commitment and was tricky to fulfill because there were so many MGs in that area. I’m excited to get back into the knitty gritty!
I’ve picked 2 of my Celebrity tomatoes and the plant is just bursting with green ones. I also potted a small Sungold. If I remember correctly they are quite prolific. Fingers crossed… Mine are in big pots in my driveway since that’s the sunniest spot. I have a few peppers there too but I can’t remember the names.
I can relate to Brian May shredding his glutes, lol. I’ve been raking magnolia leaves, weeding, and mulching, and my lower back is telling me to stop already.
Yes to your Governor! On my daily (and already boring) walks, the only interesting thing is seeing neighbors’ wonderful gardens blossom and grow, getting far more attention than usual.
And isn’t home grown lettuce THE BEST ???
So, the peppers I’m growing are Anaheim (I know that one), Lunchbox red, Hawaiian sweet hot, Murpi great, and Bod’e red. Anyone familiar with those?
The lunchbox red is not thriving, or else it’s meant to be a paler green, lol. The Hawaiian sweet hot is taking off and I’m a bit scared… there’s a pepper there that’s small and pointy. Definitely a hot pepper shape and size.
I have some of the lunchbox ones for the first time this year. The plant is so small that the place I ordered it from I just wonder if it will survive. I’ll bet the pale green peppers eventually turn red.
I planted 3 tomato plants in containers a few weeks ago (in N. CA). The Early Girl and Red Cherry plants in the medium containers are doing good (even a couple of fruit growing on one).
But the Celebrity tomato in the large container is a big fail. I think I neglected to water it enough initially and the plant is wilting. Although I’ve watered it a lot the last few days (probably too much), plant doesn’t seem to be absorbing the water. Should I just give up, rip it out, and try to put a new tomato plant in there? Or just give it up for this season?
I do not have a green thumb and am sad because I bought the bigger pot this month just for this purpose. With SIP, I am probably focusing a little too much on these tomato plants, lol…
Too little or too much water will stress a recently transplanted tomato. Does your pot have a drainage hole? If not, excess water is likely sitting in the bottom of the pot and drowning the roots. Stick your finger about 2 inches (to your second knuckle) deep into the soil to see if it feel damp. Damp is good, soaking wet is not.
If it’s wet, give the pot a couple of days to dry out before watering again. (Or if it’s really soaking wet, you can tip the pot to the side and let some of excess water to run out.)
I’d give the plant another week to start showing signs of recovery. If it hasn’t started to perk up by next Sunday, pull it up and replace it.
It’s not too late to plant another tomato, although, depending on the size of the new plant, you may not see fruit until mid-July.
@WayOutWestMom Yep, there is excess water in the soil and no drainage and plant looks even more wilted tonight. Thank you for the advice!! Looks like I will be heading out to the store later this week to try to replace it and will ask my son to put some drainage holes in the pot too,
Neighbor just dropped off two potted peony plants! Now I need to find a happy location for them in our yard. So excited!
Be cautious drilling holes into a ceramic or terra-cotta pot. They shatter easily. And large pots can be surprisingly expensive. If you do put a drain hole in the pot, be sure to get a saucer to put under the pot so the water run-off doesn’t stain your patio/deck.
You can grow plants in pots without a drain hole if you put a layer of gravel/pebbles or other coarse material in the bottom that will act as a reservoir to hold the excess water. This is how self-watering pots work. There are also inserts you can buy to put in the bottom of a pot that convert the pot into a actual self-watering pot. (See-- https://www.gardeners.com/buy/self-watering-pot-reservoirs/34-507VS.html)
How thick the reservoir layer should be depends on a how deep the pot is. Probably around 3-4 inches deep in a pot that’s 15 inches tall. Around 3 inches for 12 tall pot. Gravel should be pea sized or larger.
Or you can use something like styrofoam packing peanuts (I’ve done this with a very large/tall–25 inch tall-- pot to make it lighter/easier to move) anything that will hold the soil above the water in the bottom of the pot.
You can, of course, grow your tomato in a drain-less pot even without gravel in the bottom–you just need be very judicious about watering. Check the soil moisture about 2 inches deep with your finger before watering. Damp is OK; if it’s dry or very dry, water. If you want get really fancy, there are soil moisture meters you can use to check if a plant needs watering.
My husband uses his diamond-tipped drill bits for ceramic pots. Always with some water! We have not lost a single pot to drilling mishaps. 
I just checked the outside temperature. It’s 98!
I put small stones or broken pot pieces in bottom of pots that don’t have a hole. Can’t be bothered drilling holes.
I was out today in an relatively unfamiliar part of town and saw an ornamental pepper plant, just bursting with little tricolor peppers. It was the size of a small tree!
We’ve been doing a lot of gardening and yard work this spring. I got out there too until this week when the allergies just overwhelmed me. But we got quite a bit accomplished.
Veggie garden has been started. We have several tomato plants, some cherry tomato plants, cucumbers, peppers (thai dragon and habanero), some cilantro and mint. Now, we need to see if the bunnies will leave my plants alone - last year, they ate all the pepper plants!
We cleared out a badly overgrown area to the side of our driveway. Cleared out enough space for a small flower bed. Added rhododendron, azalea, lilies, irises and meadow sage there. Keeping my fingers crossed - there’s a lot of bittersweet out there and hopefully we can keep it out of this bed.
Backyard cleanup continued. We added some lilies to one section too, along with some raspberry plants that someone gave me. We’ll see if that takes.
Would like to get someone to hydroseed or seed our lawn edges, especially along the driveway and the front area near the new flower bed. Landscapers are so hard to get hold of though…
I ordered for curbside p/u today pots of flower, 2 hibiscus trees for patio, hanging baskets for pole and begonias/spikes/vinca for the window boxes and potting soil. It makes me happy seeing pretty flowering pots. Not my regular nursery but it’s fine for this summer.
Most of my flowering shrubs are really starting to bloom now and I expect the peonies should in about a week.
Have been eating salads made with lettuce from my deck lettuce box for a week now.
@BunsenBurner Lettuce from the garden is the best! What kind did you plant? My romaine should be ready next week!! I am excited!!
Caught off guard by the heat today! (NE Illinois)