So the mow-blow-and-go crew came, and unfortunately they didn’t just mow the lawns. They also decided to buzz cut the hydrangeas, which had just started to leaf out. I’m particularly bummed about the one in our boggy back garden which looks awful, due to the lack of sun back there. It still manages to flower late in the fall, but never gets very bushy or full. It has impossibly huge flower heads on spiky thin branches. I usually cut them since they just look so weird. It doesn’t look like a bush at all.
The sadder case is the hydrangea on the side of the building, though. The last two or three years it hasn’t bloomed at all. It was the only one of the three that wasn’t leafing out yet, as they had cut it back hard in the fall, although not quite to the ground like they did the previous years. So I don’t think they trimmed it again. It just doesn’t seem to have enough energy to get blooms out by the end of summer. It’s a slower starter and doesn’t really get that much sun either. But it usually manages to get bushy and full of leaves.
I’m also a big irked about the azaleas. Once again they trimmed the one that they always trim, and left the other one a ratty mess. They don’t seem to realize they are the same type of plant! It’s somewhat comical. I also have grown to dislike the round shape they trim it to also, just because it clashes a bit with the mid-century modern building. Those often had square-trimmed topiary. And indeed there are a lot of square boxwoods and some other azaleas in the back that have that shape. Oh well. I’m sure they are a very economical landscaping crew.
On another note, I got some flower pots filled up with pansies and herbs and primroses this weekend. They are massed around our front stoop, and it looks very cheerful. My sun put some plastic Easter eggs in each one.
The flower boxes on our balcony were falling apart. One of them was leaking soil and losing chunks off it periodically, so I tore it off. It was nailed on, but it was so rotten I had no problem getting it loose with my bare hands. I used some of the soil in the pots and still have a good amount left. I may dump it in the parsley patch, where the soil had turned rock hard. Or I may need it to fill in holes that the squirrels dig in the pots. That bugs me, but I’m not sure what to do about it that doesn’t look bad. Right now I have a hair net over one of the pots that I was sprouting spinach in. It looks quite silly, but I don’t want them to dig up those sprouts! They seem to leave alone the ones that have bigger plants in them.
I’ve also started some aji amarillo peppers from seed. That is on my windowsill at work. Three of them have sprouted so far. I’m hoping I won’t kill the starts. Those peppers are really hard to find. They sure taste great, though. I’m going to have to see if my parents can grow them for me, though, because we don’t get enough sun around our place to do it.
Officer Friendly? 