work!

I made a list of tasks for the garden, and surprised myself by getting more than half of them done today. Plus a few other things that I just started to do while out there. Spent much of the day outside, it felt great though my muscles are very sore now!

Broke apart a straw bale and spread it over the garden beds. I had four bales and was surprised that one was plenty for all eight beds- and a good two inches thick, at that. That stuff is really compact! I already like this better than dry leaves as winter mulch- it doesn't blow off and around the yard again when it's windy. Got to figure out how to store the other bales to keep dry. If I don't have any problems with the mulch (mildew, or tons of wheat sprouts ugh) I will happily use more on the beds in spring, around the plants.

I cleaned up the smaller sideyard today. Cut back joe pye weed where the dead leaves had blackened (from aphids I think). Pulled out flopped over gladiola foliage that was going through fence into the neighbor's space. My black-and-blue salvia is so lush and thriving over there! It had spread to almost completely cover the lamb's ears (which are nearly all gone- or dormant- only one sad plant could I find) and somehow, I don't care. I trimmed the blue salvia a bit, and gave it leaf mold mulch, and pulled up vinca around it much as I could.

Moved some plants around in the front bed, under the house windows. I dug up and moved forward the two small newer azaleas, and moved to the back the one young beautyberry that's doing great, and put in the same row two more beautyberries. They had been in the back side bed flanking panicle hydrangeas, and must've got too much shade or competition, because just thin slender bits compared to the one that's been in front. So hope they will grow more here, and grace my front yard, I can just picture them draping lovely over the edging onto the lower bed (it's two tiers kinda). There's two very cut back little evergreen shrubs in between the beautyberries, maybe they will show some green when I cut the beauties back. Or maybe they will get overwhelmed, not sure how that will work out.

I pulled up and cut back more yellow salvia in front (not so fond of it anymore). Yanked out some sensitive fern- likewise loosing my admiration for that plant. It just looks dead half the year- from heat especially it suffers. I mulched the two young arborvitae- they're actually doing well! Dug up and moved a few pulmonaria, and dug up and moved (divided also, to spread it out) the calamint  that was in front right by the porch (an azalea has taken its place now). I put it along side bed 4 in the garden. Except- there was something else there growing up new sprouts already. I don't remember what else I took cuttings of and stuck in the ground here. Wild geranium?

Broke up the bottom end of last year's leaf pile- the thick mulchy stuff that's (just like my compost pile) full of tree roots. I did a rougher job of it, this just for feeding plants. Gave plenty to the black-and-blue salvia (two bucketfulls), a bucketfull spread around the new redbud out front, and half a bucket each to the young trees on the larger sideyard (redbud and japanese maple hybrid). Also fed one rhodedendron, the smaller forsythia, spicebush, all the plants I moved around in the front, the larger established beautyberry (I had to prop up trailing branches off the ground- it's going to need a good cutback later this winter!), the row of boneset, the oakleaf hydrangeas, and my three surviving ferns in the way back. There's maybe two bucket's worth left to break up and decide who gets it.

I also cut back seedhead fluff off the larger 'chocolate' joe pye plants and the boneset, and scattered in places where I would like more to grow.

Sorry no pictures. Maybe I will get some tomorrow to add in.

new duo

I told myself I wasn't going to go nursery shopping this season, to avoid the heavy work of planting stuff. But visited some friends of my husband, who have tons of azaleas in a beautiful huge shade garden. And when I admired certain plants, they gave me some (I turned another three down, because afraid the deer will just munch them). I'm taking chances on these, then. First, a nice large-leafed rhododendron, 'Solidarity'. Not sure what color it will bloom. I took out the sad dying bayberry, and planted this just uphill of it (my husband dug the hole).

Second, was this azalea 'Seigai temple red'.

It's a 'spider' azalea, I'd never seen one before. In fact, that's how I got it, on the walk through their garden, I pointed and said "what's that plant that looks fluffy?" because the leaves are so narrow and deeply cut, the whole thing looks soft and rounded from a distance. And the flowers (just one was open while we were there) look like little red fireworks.

I wanted this one close to the front of the planted area, to admire its delicate foliage (and to start moving our lawn edge forward). I put it midway between the pawpaw and the large straight oak tree.

I was just delighted with this plant, because it's so unique. It doesn't look like an azalea to me. It was really hard to get photos though, because it's small still, doesn't show up well against the background of everything else. Here from the side, looking at the oak (and you can see in the rear, eyesore of the blue tarp still covering the compost I need to finish putting around the perennials).

View of it from the rear, looking up towards the house. You can see how empty the garden beds are. And how the deer have eaten all the lower half of that bright euonymus shrub against the house corner.

Speaking of the pawpaw, here's a much better photo of it. Grown enough I can actually see it from the kitchen window, inside its little protective cage.

two things pink

My first bleeding hearts!

Small azalea by the front porch is really full of flowers.

A surprise- I thought this transplanted dusty miller was dead and gone, I was about to uproot the root mass and toss it. But there's young new growth in there!

Two days ago saw a horror- white clumps of mealy bugs all over my two boxwood shrubs by the front porch. I mixed up dishsoap water with a drop of oil, sprayed them heavily. An entire bottle to each shrub. Very satisfied to see white specks littering the ground- as if the bush shook off dandruff- the dead insects. After heavy rain that night, the plant looked a lot cleaner- still some sign of bugs so I sprayed it again the next day. It doesn't need a lot of trimming but I think I'm going to thin it out a bit to let some air circulation in- it's grown pretty dense.

I really need to get another photo of my clematis. More of its flowers have opened, the petals lie flatter now- and some are as large as my seven-year-old's face!

porch spot

These pictures are weeks behind...

The pretty ferny plant I moved from mailbox spot to area in front of the porch is doing much better.

Lots of pretty blue flowers.

They are leggy and tend to fall over, but fortuitously get propped up by the peony nearby- which I think actually looks nice together.

The flowers kind of unroll when they first start opening- see the little purple tube it makes.

Peony is done blooming. It had a lot more flowers this year. Typically attracted ants. Really I don't like the huge blowsy flowers, which always flop over and face the ground, and get ruined by rain within a day or two. So I cut them when still buds to bring in the house (sweet smell is almost too much)

and prefer the smaller blooms like this one.

Vinca I moved is doing nicely, grown quite a bit.

Mums are starting to come back. I only lost one overwinter.

I put a few marigolds here and they are flowering now, too.

The newer azalea is done. It was called "coral pink" so I was hoping for a kind of peachy color (no image on the tag and I bought it in fall) really they are just pink- only get the creamy look when fading and turning brown...

shrubs

My lilac is looking wonderful. It's doubled in size since last spring!

Forsythia has also taken off- pruned it for the first time this week. (Picture taken before the trim job).

Hydrangea nice big foliage growing lush. The second one has finally sprouted new leaves, too- but weeks later, and only on its top half.

I am really happy so far with the rhododendrons. The light glances blue-green off the foliage they hold horizontally, very nice can see it from the house window.

But the third one, which had poor roots when I first took it out of the pot, half of it died. I cut off all the dead stems, not sure if it will recover.

Summersweet is the last of all to leaf out, but I see a little green bits on all the stems.

My one little azalea has busted out pink flowers all over. This makes my five-year-old very happy.

new yard plants

Fall is the best time to plant shrubs. And plants are often discounted at the nurseries which are trying to move stock before winter. So for my birthday (last month) I splurged on a bunch of plants for the yard. Some I had always wanted to get- others were a bit of an impulse buy. We've seen how well that goes in the past! haha.

I always wanted to put some rhododendrons in front of the back fence. And now I did. I bought three specimens of 'roseum elegans' which is supposed to be a real tough variety, with pale lavender colored flowers.

Two of them had rather leggy spread, and were difficult to get out of their pots, the roots were so cramped in there.

But the third, to my surprise although it has nice-looking compact growth,

it practically fell out of the pot when I tipped it and gave a tug. The roots were very short, not even a fourth the depth of the pot. Ugh, I found the potting soil full of japanese beetle grubs. I bet they ate all the roots of this poor plant. I loosened all the soil off the roots in search of more, and gave it an extra helping of vermicompost in the ground. Then carefully sifted through all the potting dirt and squished to death every grub. There were over a dozen. Well the rhodies look natural, like they belong back there- but I am not sure if this last one will be healthy. I hope for it.

Summersweet- I don't know much about this plant but the leaves are pretty, it likes shade and dampness, and won't get too big. Well I have a shady spot that is continually damp in the spring and late fall- where our yard slopes down before a storm drain thing in the neighboring backyard. This one is the 'vanilla spice' variety and I am looking forward to its flowers (although they are white) because I love the scent of vanilla. Also, it is a native plant which is a plus.

I am not terribly fond of hydrangeas. I have never wanted to put one in my yard because honestly, I think their round masses of blooms look kinda silly, like giant colored poofballs on a shrub. But I discovered there are hydrangeas with 'panicle' style flowers, which I like better so I decided to try some. Plus their leaves looked nice and healthy with attractive reddish petioles, and they were on sale. The one in front here is 'pinky winky'

and this one is 'quick fire'.

I do think they will be nice- although these pictures were taken a month ago. Now they look rather sad with all the leaves turning color and falling off.

I bought two nandina, or 'heavenly bamboo'. I like the lacy foliage, and it's supposed to grow six feet which will help fill in some space on the side of the house I don't want to have to mow anymore. But it will take a bit of management- it can be invasive and I will have to cut off the berries each fall to prevent birds from spreading the seed around.

This is a plant I always wanted to have but never thought I'd find it sold as a perennial. It caught my eye at once outside the nursery greenhouse- these pots of winding vines with slightly sticky tendrils that were all grabbing onto each other. I read the label: sweet pea! I don't know if it will like the summer heat we get, but if I can see it flower in spring once, I'll be happy.

I got this aster free from the nursery lady because the bottom of it was all so dried-out, I think they were going to throw them away. It was a really tall one. The skippers zoomed in on it immediately, for the two weeks left that it flowered. I asked the nursery staff if it would come back next year for me, and she looked doubtful: "well, if you can get it to root out..." So I gave it a nice helping of vermicompost and have been watering it extra, to see if I can accomplish that.

I took this picture when the aster was in its spot, but I hadn't moved the joe pye weed 'chocolate' yet. You can see it sprawling at the base.

I found some mums I like- not yellows or orange, but pink hues. I got a few and lined them up in front of the house.

Its an area where eventually I want to take out a strip of sad lawn, anyway (I'm working on improving the lawn health, but that's another post entirely). There behind it you can see in a pot in front of the spigot, a new azalea which I didn't take an individual picture of yet. Between the bright green mound of nasturtium and the 'autumn sunset' coleus. The shrubs in front of the windows are boxwood that had never been pruned- I cut back where they were all crowded foreward overhanging the stone edging, but haven't decided what else to do with them yet. And on the left is the ubiquitous euonymus (I see it in lots of yards around here).

Here's a new plant I didn't buy. Someone in my neighborhood- a few blocks away- was digging out black-eyed-susans (rudbeckia hirta) and gave me a few clumps. I've planted them in the back bed. Foliage looks a lot like echinacea. Hope they both bloom for me next year.

rhubarb, azalea and a betta fish

I had to move my small rhubarb plants, even though this is better done in spring than fall. They were in front of a water spigot which drips, and I have noticed the crew working on our house at the moment are not particularly careful about where they put things. I had to rescue some hostas from metal sheeting about to get dropped on them, and my native lilies got flattened by a pile of lumber. So this spigot is due to get fixed soon, and probably the rhubarb would get damaged. I wanted to move it anyway to the backyard spot that was supposed to be a shade garden but now gets more sun. And I just bought a coral-pink azalea to go in front of the spigot.

I dug up the rhubarb and moved it yesterday. With a handful of my best vermicompost, a few shovelfuls of garden soil (rearranging part of the garden beds too, that's for another post) and a thick blanket of leaves. One little leaf is perking up already.

Oliver did not make it through the night. He is now at rest under the rhubarb.

The spot in front of the spigot is empty now, the azalea is waiting in its pot.

Here is a picture of Oliver hiding under anubias leaf. It was taken about a month ago, when I had first noticed the parasite on his side.

Showing off his good side, when I was trying to get a closeup of the spot.

Final picture. I know it's kind of gruesome, but I sometimes take pictures of my fish when they are dead. It's a rare to get a closeup of their scale and color patterns. I was trying to focus on the irridescent blues and reds in his tail, but the paleness and bloat shows too well.