Gardens 2026

[Harriet]

Experiment - crazy woman counting out loud in her garden holding a watering can. But it's so I can spend money wisely next year, that I've been counting petunia blooms in the mornings. All have had about the same soil, sun, water.

I'm pretty sure petunias won't be one I'll start from seed next year - they're hard seeds to start, seeds of the hybrids won't be true anyway, plus the plants are such a value at nurseries because one hybrid plant can end up looking like 3 or 4 seed-started ones.

Bloom counts mid-summer, per plant:

Cool Jazz's small bloom and faint lilac color gets lost among others, so, not a keeper
Hoopla purple with white edges get attention, but only about 5 blooms a day each, so... ..
Bordeau purple/white are down to 9 blooms per plant a day, but was best earlier in the year
Saffron Finch yellow, complete turnaround, averaging 20 small yellow blooms per plant per day
SuperCal dark pink (cross of Petunia with Calibrachoa) over 20 a day, largest blooms
Jazzberry purple has gone completely uncountable - 30-plus small blooms daily, lush plants
Bubble Gum pink is uncountable - 30-plus of second-largest blooms, has the butterflies' vote

Anyway, ya'll don't worry - I'm still sane I'm pretty sure.

[Kittykatt]

Harriet, to me it sounds like a very sensible scientific experiment! After all, the mind can play tricks over time.amd.if your have a written record of what worked best for you, you'll know what to spend your money on next year. My DDeparted FIL was a great gardener and grew lots from seed, including petunias, and always had a "good show". I, OTOH, don't seem to be able to make them happy - when I've grown them in the past, they go "leggy" quickly (not enough light perhaps? Strange though, as the geraniums (pelargoniums) usually do well for me).

[Nancy]

I was up early to let the doggo out to P.
Did some watering on the grass.
Also painted the bottom of a side table after turning it upside down.
It's on the out door counter workspace to dry today.
Got the lawn furniture on the patio for now.
So it does not get fireworks on them.
Also so I could mow did that last nite at dusk and saw the head lite on my mower on!
Glad I did that already so I could walk watch games or what ever today.
Barely any of the seeds I planted came up.
I just focus on what reseeds on it's own and grow those!
Hoping for some marigold seeds that do that.

I have green tomatoes smaller than a gold ball I bought smaller plants this year.
Last year I had at least one ripe one by July.

[Harriet]

"Testing 5 petunias so you DON'T waste your money" video on the Visit Our Garden channel just came out this morning. He spent two months on a careful test with plants that had cost him from 69 cents apiece at a grocery store to 11.99 apiece at a nursery. His point was making a flower garden accessible when people need to be sensible with their gardening money. Although he mentioned the Bubblegum, he didn't include it because he said it wouldn't be fair since it would win too easily, and I agree. Plus, he noted that some people literally don't have room for such a vigorous flower, or they only want a small flower to tuck in a specific spot. He also had a SuperCal that I have, which he said cost him 6.99.

The winner in his opinion was the Wave, which he said he was able to find at $2.22 if he would buy a four-pack. The 11.99 "Bermuda Beach" looked healthier, in my opinion, as though it could withstand storms, but that wasn't the test. And the 6.99 SuperCal like mine was just as full and pretty as his winner to me, but, again, his experiment was about value for price, and it lost in price, of course. He pointed out that since he could have planted several of the Waves in the pot for the same price as the most expensive, it would have then been too obvious that it wins for the money. And the 69-cent grocery store petunia, which strangely did have a name on it - "Clear Mixture" - did continue looking cute but didn't ever come close to filling up his pot.

Kittykatt, our geranium is still healthy but is blooming less. Maybe I didn't give it enough room or maybe it's stressed by the heat. Supposed to be very easy to propagate geraniums by taking a cutting, but how to keep them living all winter? Hmmm .... .. I doubt it would be worth it to me. I need more windows? lol

Nancy, almost no one around here has gotten any other than their tiny tomatoes to ripen. Ddolder still waiting. My truck farming cousin has tomatoes but he doesn't count, he works solidly on his crop for months and springs for a greenhouse, lol. There's a variety called July 4th because it ripens by then, they say, and I thought about trying that one next year. But I heard others believe it doesn't do any better than Early Girl, which folks around here have been swearing by since I was a young mother, I think.

[Nancy]

I had better luck getting the $25 three foot tall tomato's last year. For mothers day.
Got one on my own. But that's not really a $ saving thing! LOL!

I have picked the apples pretty much cleaned the tree.
Some for goats for neighbors grand kiddos.
Some in front for critters.
I took some to the field saw two big bucks eating on my walk
after I saw the doe with twin fawns.
Other people are putting out pop corn for the "birds".


Got my steps in the rest of the way except the last bit of em doing that.
It is just after nine here now.