across the front

My front bed has needed a lot of cleaning up. So many weeds and young volunteer trees to pull, mulch to spread, things to trim back. My clumps of clary sage have lots of bug holes-

 But I was pleased to find, next to this baby cranesbill, a new clary sage as well! At least one of them self-seeded (even though I cut the flower stalks back to try and get a second bloom).

A few catmint have popped up here, too, next to the brunnera. Those traveled far!

Even though I only pinched back the mums once, they grew quite thick so I hope flower without flopping over too much this year.

In the other front corner by the driveway, I've weeded and mulched around the daylilies- and you can see that little pink lily is still here!

Some of the lyreleaf sage I planted under the lilac are finally looking okay.

And this one is grown really thick and lush. I think it might be one of those ajuga actually getting a foothold now- it looks very much like the lyreleaf, I won't really be sure until it blooms in spring. Feel silly not recognizing my own plant, but hey.

I'm dismayed my lilac is still apparently dying. The right half is still bare, in fact the barren branches seem to be spreading. And there's very little bug sign on the foliage this year. I'm stumped. Is it the encroachment of the black-and-blue salvia I put in the corner behind it? Did I really overdo it with leaf mulch those early winters, and it got rot down in the root crown? I just don't know.

some things

around the yard: boarage is getting big leaves and filling in thick around the mailbox spot!

Some sensitive ferns are growing in among the lilies of the valley- I don't mind how it looks mingling, but probably will have to dig/pull some ferns before they go too far. 

My first cranesbill, that seemed to have died off earlier in the year, is doing just fine now! Although still half the size of the other one.

Spiderwort blooming. Looks taller and fuller this year.

All the joe pye I hastily dug up and moved to be against the house wall on the first sideyard, survived the winter and are coming back. They did much better here than the swamp milkweed (I still haven't found more than the first three clumps to move) so I think the milkweed wasn't really thriving here.

That one orange flower came up again among the bleeding hearts and hellebores.

Mountain laurel is starting to bud! Though it doesn't look so happy in this spot- still doesn't have many more leaves. Now I'm starting to wonder should I move it yet again.

Rumex. I always like seeing this plant in spring, though later in the season it always looks ragged from the bugs. . . 

my borage

have mostly survived their transplant operation. (The larger one against the rock wasn't moved, but the smaller one in front to the right was.)

The clary sage I moved from the back garden spot, also survived its transplant just fine. I thought I was going to have to cut the flowers off and wait for a second bloom, but no.

Cranesbill in the front bed looking nice.

Tulips just finished blooming- four pinks this year and only one red, on the other end of the bed and faltering. That's peonies to the right of them- they grow up so fast!

found

the identity of that plant I was wondering about just a few days ago, when it started to bloom. It's the clary sage, of course! I think a volunteer seedling. I dug it up and moved into the front bed. A little droopy now, but I've watered it heavily twice, the day became overcast, and tomorrow it's supposed to rain, so good prospects.

Also counting on the weather, I dug up and moved out of the garden (near these leaf beet chard)

a handful of what I think are black-eyed susans, put them on the larger sideyard. And cleaned up the mailbox spot- dug weeds, trimmed grass edge, reset some of the stones. Pulled out all the smaller borage seedlings, dug and moved some of the larger ones to space them more evenly. Have to do this when they're small or too much damage to the taproot to survive. Not a great photo but I'll take another when the plants are more impressive.

Worked on cleaning up the front bed, too- trimmed the small azalea (which is doing great now the larger trees are gone), pulled mock strawberry, trimmed grass against the bed edging and cut back stonecrop where it was sprawling and growing. Lots more violet seedlings! And glad to see my first cranesbill is alive, after all. It will probably just be smaller this year.

My pink clematis started blooming!

I guess one plus about not really gardening this year, is that I'm spending what time and energy I do have, on the yard plants. Paying more attention to them, getting more weeds cleared out by hand . . . 

Yesterday

I just did two of the many tasks on my list, and it was enough to wear me out again, sigh. Because I actually mowed half the lawn a few days before that, which got me really beat. Cleaned up a bit in the rear perennial beds- cut out older leaves from under the hellebores, and cut back all the dead stems of monarda from previous season. Pulled up some volunteer viburnums and japanese honeysuckle. Noticed that my spring beauties are a bit more numerous this year, and the mayapples are coming up!

Admired my little patch of lysimachia purpurea- it's hard to notice unless you look close- but the leaves do have a nice delicate blue-green edged with red. I hope these spread some!

the arum has got nice and thick

I love seeing the new leaves unfold on the oakleaf hydrangea. They make me think of candles when the light hits them in late afternoon. Hope next year the plant will be tall enough I can remove the fencing that's keeping deer from eating it.

From the kitchen window or deck, can actually see the younger euonymus shrubs I moved back there, finally filling in (to the right and behind the hydrangea). There's three more on the other side of that tree, but they're much smaller- eaten more by the deer, or don't get quite as much sun I think.

Under the panicle hydrangea, rumex is coming up again-

All the shade areas have yellow salvias growing back in thick and fast. I've gotten a bit tired of this plant and started actually pulling it out where it's spreading too far.

I do like seeing how thick the 'autumn joy' sedums come in though

Sad that in the front, I still only have one cranesbill growing in. The other shows no signs of life although when I push aside the mulch there's a little center shoot left, so I hope it can regrow eventually.

Ajuga is showing bright color under the trees- but in some places it's not staying in a tidy area, spreading out into the lawn. Just an opportunity to dig and move some.

more work today

I cleared more weeds, gathered up last years' leaf mulch (and respread it on the empty garden beds), and hauled three buckets of compost up to the front. Fed the daylilies (again, they didn't get much the first time around)

cleared up some and scattered compost over the black-and-blue salvia- no sign of emergence yet but I do see one gladiola spear coming up! and the lamb's ears on that side look particularly nice this spring

Out front I've more or less cleaned up the front perennial and flowerbed (I had to spread the work over two days). Divided a few allium clumps to spread out- I hope I haven't done this at the wrong time and ruined their chance of bloom. They stood up to the disturbance pretty well, haven't wilted much

these two are next to a tulip

Behind them you can see the fat shoots of peonies arising!

I also moved a few young columbines- they look pretty small yet!

To extend the row of older plants- it gives something to look at in the back of the bed when not much is growing yet, and then later when they're done flowering and died back, the plants in front hide the gap

I can tell now what things I do actually matter in the garden- my raised beds that didn't get composted and mulched properly in fall, the ground was hard, not all loose and soft and dark like other springs. I didn't come out and heavily mulch or cover plants against the cold (except the black-and-blue salvia and the lemon balm) and now I can see the usual mulch and leaf cover was enough for most of them. But I lost a few brunnera- here's one that did well regardless

There's only two mums showing new growth so far in the bed, and of the wild geraniums (cranesbill), one has revived, the other nothing growing. If I've lost it, that makes me sad.

Two or three of the clary sage also died, but I have enough left it's okay

My 'espresso' wild geranium in the back near the garden seems okay though

and next to it the hyssop in a container is doing great! 

I can also tell that scattering hair clippings and irish spring soap shavings was keeping the deer from eating too much of my euonymus and hostas. Because in fall I did none of that, and this winter the deer ate back so much of those shrubs against the house they look awful. I'm going to have to trim them back to reshape, and have started scattering deterrents again.

more pics later

end summer blooms

Last week with the cold, hummingbird quit coming to visit. The cardinal climber flowers lingered a bit longer.

Sharing space on balcony railing with cowpea vines again

Around the mailbox I've started trimming off the heavy heads of celosia, I'm sure there's already an overload of seed on the ground there. They were pretty good this year!

Joe Pye I also cut down before it could scatter too much seed.

Sedums are starting to look their best

Rear side bed is pretty messy, but turtlehead still makes some color

My black-and-blue salvia did well again this year,

but the lilac next to it appears to be dying. One half has no leaves. Overshaded by the neighbor's tree? Crowded out by the salvia? I'm not sure. Maybe it's just sick or attacked by some insect pest.

Cranesbill is starting to falter in the cold, less flowers now- but it was great just a few weeks ago:

Not sure how the mums will do, I didn't pinch them more than once this year so maybe they will flop over. But lots of buds right now!

And there's not nearly as much of this blue sage as I would like- the color is so stunning when everything else is beginning to go drab.