what's coming up

Actually, that was not so hot for April yesteraday. I suppose it just felt so. I looked it up- record temperature for this area in April was 97°. Doing more cleanup around the yard- clearing away dead stems and foliage that I'd left overwinter, spreading mulch (still have a good supply from the maples we took out last year). The oakleaf and pannicle hydrangeas are leafing out, and the rose of sharons just barely starting to. Lilac is nearly in full leaf- but oddly one side of the plant has hardly any. Insect damage? Too much shade from the neighbor's tree? 

 Cranesbill are all sprouting up, bleeding hearts are in full bloom and the columbines look nice across the rear of the front flower bed, where there's nothing much else yet. Later on they'll be obscured by coleus and more when they die back in summer neat. My peonies are putting up shoots, hosta and gladiolas are emerging, yellow salvias already in full leaf around the base of trees. Ajuga spreading bright color so nicely, and I'm very happy to see the ostrich ferns emerging- there seem to be a few more this spring! Beautyberry is leafing, which makes me very happy, and all the heucherellas are still here (not eaten up by rabbits yet). Joe pye weed is growing back. I need to tidy up the liriope and hellebores. I have not yet seen any growth on the black-and-blue salvia, milkweed or mums. And disappointing, there's no borage seedlings. I think a few had come up months ago in the garden, but I dug them out when preparing the beds for planting, thinking plenty would grow in the perennial spot, or around the mailbox. Nope. I wonder if they sprouted earlier when it was unseasonally warm, and then died in the cold again.

Here's a few hellbore flowers I cut and put in tiny jars on the kitchen windowsill to admire for a week.

Just now I planted out the mulberry seedling, mulched and watered it, fenced it around to keep off the deer. The young holly I moved to a spot just downslope of it on that hillside is still alive! The other two look dead but when I scrape a tiny spot with fingernail on the bark, still green underneath so I'm leaving them there in case they can recover. Dug and planted the two canna lilies in a spot near the ostrich fern where it gets pretty damp- water flows there from both the downspout on that side of the house, and output from our basement sump. I've been thinking of someday putting irises in that area, too . . . 

Lovage is thick enough to eat now, so I might strike celery off the grocery shopping list.

the big sideyard

I have to differentiate the two. The first sunny sideyard, which is narrower, I think of it as the smaller one. And the second sunny sideyard, which was in shade before we had those huge maples cut down, is wider and more open, so I think of it as the bigger one. I spent half a day out there, pulling crabgrass and the worst of the weeds. Left some things alone, like the wild violets

Found a few bugleweed (ajuga) that survived the tree-cutting

Yanked out a bunch of wild rose that was all tangled behind the beautyberry (those thorny stems had grown a lot thicker with more sun) and now it looks so nice! Anticipating the purple berries

Lungwort also impressed me how much it grew!

Ostrich ferns are doing way better now, too.

And the sensitive ferns seem to be reviving from the heat, and the bugs-

there's new fiddleheads under there

My shady 'purple corner' looks promising- I need more persian shield!

I like how the wandering jew has done, need more of that also!

Spiderwort is blooming again- floating above the green

final sowing

I started in pots today zucchini, cucumber, cantaloupe, bush green beans and cowpeas. They're on the lowest shelf of the greenhouse, door propped wide open so it doesn't overheat. Won't need a hardening off period, and really it's just to get the seed sprouted, then they go straight in the ground. So the squirrel doesn't dig up and eat the seeds immediately! 

Yesterday was a bit cloudy and today is due to rain, so I planted out: tarragon and salad burnet into the herb bed

Tithonias onto the empty sideyard, below where I buried the gladiola bulbs and above where I transplanted three wide-leaved common milkweed last week.

Two new england asters, also on that hillside, surrounded by a ring of stones so I don't forget where they are and step on them, they're so small yet.

Three hollyhock mallow aka zebrina flower, against the fence by the garden.

This purplish plant I bought on a whim and now can't remember the name of. Between the pots of limelight coleus, and the espresso geranium alongside the stairs.

Under the large holly bush, I tucked the persian shield plants in a few gaps between the dark heucherellas,

and a row of rooted tradescantia zebrina cuttings in front of that. Just for fun, to see how they do.

Edged that area with stones discarded from my husband's fossil-hunting. It's kind of my purple corner now.

And inside, I potted up some of my younger african violets. Most of these were still in those moldering paper cups, before.

done moving plants

from around the silver maples on the shady sideyard. First I dug and shifted a lot of yellow salvia- some went under the holly shrub

others finished a semicircle around the euonymus on the corner of the front flower bed. That shrub was seriously pruned by the deer this winter- they ate all the lower leaves, half the bush was denuded. I scattered bits of irish spring soap again, and started putting discards from my hairbrush in the bare stems. One or the other has kept the deer away (or they just have more to eat in the patch of woods now it's spring) leaves are growing back on the lower stems visible here.

Most of the salvias went in a curve around the back of another tree in the rear of the yard, where I'd rather have shade plants than struggling grass and moss.

This morning I checked on them after a night of rain. Some are perked up, others not yet.

Then I dug and moved some of the stinkin' hellebore seedlings. Into a little patch behind the two mature ones, in soil turned over and mixed with compost. 

There's about twenty-five of them (and I left a lot behind!)

One of the older stinkin' hellebores has a new flush of leaves

Then I dug and moved the rest of the pink turtleheads- these are in a new spot with fresh wood chip mulch

These are some I moved earlier 

into the same area around tree stump

It is well surrounded now-

Last of all I dug and moved the burgundy-colored heucherellas (I don't know their name)- in a front row under the holly- 

they blend in so with the leaves, hard to see

Hostas- one here on the left- haven't done so well in this spot, maybe heucherella will do better. And I still think that bit of dark strappy leaves is mondo grass- it might look nice spaced in with these dark heucherellas.

planted on the sideyard

the little pulmonaria.

Between lily of the valley (which is spreading!) and my giant hostas. 

Which are just starting to emerge. The ostrich ferns here are unfurling, but they always seem to falter later in the summer, in spite of the constant wetting (pump from our basement expels at the top of this slope). So I'm still debating where to put the new one.

I have a lot more digging to do, now. Our HOA insists that if we take out the maples on this slope, we have the stumps ground out. There were a bunch of plants around the tree I was going to leave in place- I have more of them elsewhere so thought: it won't matter too much if some get stepped on or crushed by a lowered branch, but probably many will survive. Yellow salvia, hyssop, stinking hellebore, heucherella, ajuga, hostas. But I've watched when the neighbors had a stump ground out. That machine will crush everything. So now I feel compelled to dig and move them all, a few at a time on rainy/cloudy days, to forestall losses.

Here's the newer hellebores I got, btw. Their names are 'ruby wine', 'cherry blossom' and 'amethyst glow'.

a bit outside

Not much to do now, except rake up leaves that get scattered and tuck them under the rue, or dump into the large leaf pile bin. So I fiddle with a few things. A yogurt carton got emptied in the kitchen so I made another slug trap (here beside the old one- not filled yet in these pics)

Protecting my lettuces, tokyo bekana and the two tatsoi-

It doesn't deter the slugs entirely, but reduces the damage that I can ignore a few holes-

I still can't believe how long the sweet alyssum has lasted- it's nice to be close while cutting a few greens, and catch the pretty scent.

Nearby off corner of the garden, heucherella is looking nice-

I cut back my hyssop in the container planter somewhat- to tidy up the dry stem ends.

There's still plenty of bold blue flowers-

which fade pinkish-

Since it was making seed I gathered those- see next post.

and kept a bit of the dried flower heads as a little arrangement