stinkin' babies

Year before last, when our big maples on the second sideyard were cut down, I moved a bunch of plants in a panic. Including the stinking hellebores, which didn't survive. Well, now I have a few new ones! Got from another gardener who was taking spring divisions.

I put two near the ostrich ferns (the smaller ones are coming up! but my photo was blurry)

and two on the other side of a tree from the solomon's seal

Hope for lots of babies in a year or two so I can spread 'em around! So far the deer have not munched my hostas yet- coming up strong now! - since I scattered the irish spring again. This is one of the blues (ignore the bird drip and the chewed on leaf, and it's perfectly lovely)

I peeked into the makeshift cages around saplings- I still have a few redbuds, just barely leafing out now, and the two spicebush also, and the one pawpaw (which I'm not as thrilled about since I discovered I don't actually like the taste of pawpaw- but one of my kids does so at least someone would appreciate the fruit).

Here's a photo of the mayapples- and the few I dug up and moved over under the edge of rhododendrons, did just fine too!

I'm also pleased to find a few seedlings of joe pye 'chocolate' around the backyard- happy to let them grow where they are, right now. Anxiously watching to see when the taller, regular joe pye comes up- those I moved in a hurry late fall because I thought our fence was going to get built.

But sadly, it looks like two shrubs I was hoping would do well on this damp, lower slope, are finally dying. The inkberry and the northern bayberry. I can't believe how lush they looked, back when I first bought them. Just last year the inkberry was like this- hard to notice at all- and now it's all bare stems. Either the deer are eating it down to nothing, or it's sick. Both of them. I'm kind of giving up on them now.

Another casulty of winter- it seems my rosemary is dead in its pot.

Today all I did outside was plant the four stinkin' hellebores, dig up a few dandelions from the front lawn (their numbers are definitely fewer, takes me far less time to get them cleared out now), and pull some weeds in the back. 

I broke all the dry monarda stems into short pieces for composting, but found they make very brittle, sharp fragments- got a few nasty little splinters- so I scattered them across the empty garden beds. For mulch, and maybe a deterrent to the squirrels and my cat. Seems to help, so far. It's been a few days and nothing has disturbed the layer. Trimming grass around the garden beds and pulling weeds in them, which I toss right back on top for more mulch layer. To at least keep the soil covered and a tad fed, while the garden rests. And to keep things tidy. A lot of the bricks are leaning, I need to straighten them out with rock or shims wedged under, but really what I should have done is dig a small trench, set them on a bed of gravel. Probably I should still do that, reset them all properly, but I just haven't got the energy for that kind of work yet.

yard plants thriving

Here is a happy surprise- since fixing that loose fence board, quite a few plants I'd given up on are proving they're still alive! Such as- the solomon's seal

Reappearance of my sensitive fern around another tree

All the little volunteer euonymus shrubs I planted across the back- some had just been bare twigs from the rabbit eating 'em. I was even able to remove the fencing from around them and no harm again yet-

same with the oakleaf hydrangea- the one I moved continues to do fine, it's leafing out well

Here's the hostas I moved from the shady sideyard. 

I had to cut the tops off the stinking hellebores because they kept falling over after their transplant, so don't look so great now-

Their seedlings up the hill have quite a few true leaves now. Will dig and move 'em very soon.

Nice to see my large hostas on the slope against the house unfolding their great leaves-

and the ostrich ferns behind them-

but I still have two pots of ferns under the deck in waiting

Tomorrow more pictures, perhaps. It's my last day to dig and move plants from that shady sideyard- rain this evening followed by a straight week of sun, while the tree crew might come then. If I dig and move right before the rain, some of the remaining turtleheads, yellow salvias and one hosta I missed earlier, might make it okay.

Along with better growth on the plants that had got eaten before- there's also way more japanese honeysuckle along edges of the yard now. In spite of it being kinda pretty, I have to go start pulling some out, before overwhelms other plants.

around the yard

Here's the lovage! I really hope it grows taller than myself this year.

Turtleheads are busting up in all three spots. I cut last-years' dry stems to layer under the compost (when I turn it), and scattered the seeds into a new area.

Mock strawberry on the edges of things

Why is it that every spring I think the echinacea looks more lush than the year before.

I really thought the solomon's seal wasn't doing well, but here it is again. I saw a very nice bunch of it in another yard on a walk the other day- if it does so well in that spot, surely it can do well in mine?

Here's a surprise- the false indigo! I really thought this plant was done for, last season it was so damaged by insects it had no leaves left. I'm glad to see it came back.

fed compost

to the plants: 'big boy' hosta

Solomon's seal. So sad, these are the only ones left. Something has been eating them.

Rhododendrons. Looking droopy- it's been so dry.

Heucherella and turtlehead by the garden

Yellow salvia and blue hosta just upslope of that. I don't know why this yellow salvia always looks great,

while the two groups out front wilt severely if I don't water them in this heat. Is the ground damper on the west sideyard? or it gets fuller shade so doesn't suffer as much. Here's salvia on top of the east sideyard, next to smaller patch of turtlehead that does a little better:

and yellow salvia in the back, where particolored hosta I moved this spring also fares better in the heat:

Speaking of hostas, I thought they'd do well under the holly shrub-

but only three have survived and one of those looks pretty bad right now. Here's the better ones:

Newer, narrow-leaved hosta

That shady east sideyard is slowly getting filled in. One view of it:

and the other:

slightly better photo of the joe pye-weed 'chocolate' (it only got a sprinkling of compost):

I was generous with compost to the young oakleaf hydrangea

Less so with the two nandina, which look pretty established now. Still feel ambivalent about this plant, though I like its foliage.

the big, light-green hostas against the house wall. I need something taller behind them...

Hellebores:

Volunteer viburnum I moved out of the back perennial bed, also just got a scattering of compost.

Coleus in the front yard. They're still doing okay as long as I remember to water every other day.

Alstroemeria on the front edge:

The hyssop kind of looks like rosemary, but with longer leaves, and a very different scent

I was generous to the peonies, too. They are starting to look dusty and pale with a bit of mildew...

Younger 'sorbet' one. Looks very different from when I first got it.

Chrysanthemum. I'm so pleased how these turned out with two pinchings. Just the right height and fullness. And not too much work.

Last of all, the rue. It got the leftovers when the wheelbarrow was almost empty- just a scraping of compost off the bottom. Doesn't need as rich of feeding as other plants, though I will mulch it thicker with dry leaves when cold really hits.

There's brown drips on its edging on one side. Almost oily-looking. I have been searching for an insect, but now wonder if it might be rue oil or sap dripping from a broken stem? can't figure

That's not even every plant I fed, just the ones I felt like taking pictures of. So you see why I was so tired yesterday!