plant swap!

I made this bench on the front porch (some of the legs a bit wonky, it's not nearly as sturdy as I'd like, but it does the job of holding up whatever I need to set down for a moment)

and here it is with plants ready to go to the swap. I took two rue, four pots of echinacea, the mini geranium, some coleus, three potted catnip, and some aloe vera babies. But nobody wanted the catnip, I had to bring it home again. And I'd had it identified wrong all this time- I thought I was growing catmint, but it's catnip- no wonder it seemed too tall, and the flowers not-quite-right. I was corrected at the swap.

and what I brought home! Here's some, plus more pics below of individual detail- the one lower front left is buttonweed. Not even sure I'll plant that one now, having discovered it's considered a difficult-to-control lawn weed . . . 

The rest I'm pretty happy about. I got slender mountain mint-

'Shrubby' St. john's wort- Hypericum prolificum-

Elephantopus carolinianus or Elephant's foot (referring to the root) makes small purple flowers, in the aster family. Seemed interesting!

A sedum that looks different from the ones I already have-

Virginia sweetspire

Also a small rosemary plant, two New England aster (yes, trying that again even though every time they disappear. I think get eaten) and a wild bergamot (monarda, or bee balm) why do plants have so many names for the same thing. And- shining sumac! I have wanted a sumac for many years, although I was hoping to eventually find a stahorn sumac, this will do for starters.

American beautyberry!! Very excited about this one.

and a good-sized rosemary that someone had obviously just pulled out of the ground, so maybe I'll have one that gets through the winter at last. It's as tall as my hip.

Plus a few little houseplants- two little succulents, Haworthia and a dwarf snake plant, plus this one with purplish tint that wasn't labeled- it looks like another begonia variety to me, but I'm probably wrong on that.

and three bags of iris bulbs- 'Black Gamecock' Louisiana Iris, 'Pallida' and 'Victoria Falls' both a tall bearded iris. I've never grown iris before but I have a damp area I think they'd do well in.

time to joyfully plant stuff

around the garden

I've been doing some work on the garden structure- the bed edges and such. But too tired from that to write it all out now, so here's some incidental pictures from the past few days. More on the actual work tomorrow. Found an unknown caterpillar- black and spiky!- on the boneset plant.

Which is doing great- it grew so fast, 

already the height of my small camellia.

I want to get more of this plant, or the common one that blooms in summer. Near it is the yarrow- so thin and small- I really admired some yarrow in a relative's yard several states south this past weekend, where it's warmer- hers so bright and thick and feathery! I suspect now mine would do better if I move it to a sunnier location.

Funny though, the same gardener had arum growing here and there in her yard. She asked me what it was- they'd been pulling it out! I like the bright, exotic appearance. She thought it might be an objectionable plant. I shrugged and said: well, if you like it, leave it be- but if you don't want it around, you'll probably have to dig up the tuberous roots. Here's mine, regrowing in fall-

I dug up a few echinacea to take to the plant swap soon. Here with other potted extras on my little bench- several catmint, a few beautyberry, and two pots of the miniature geranium (which I've grown tired of).

Not sure I'm going to take the beautyberries to the swap, though. Half the larger ones I transplanted died, or look like they did. This one by the hydrangeas is just a few thin sticks with a few leaves- 

but it does have three clusters of bright purple!

The side bed it's in, starting to look a bit neater and more deliberate. I've dug the stones into their places in the ground, to make the edge. Pulled more grass from behind the edge, and transplanted some errant ajuga out of the lawn, back into the bed.

When I was doing that work (actually about a week ago) I trimmed a bit of the wild chrysanthemum, and just stuck the cuttings in the ground on the other side of the little ornamental cypress. Wasn't sure if they'd take- but not only did they survive, they're blooming! Hard to see in this photo, I'll get a better one soon.

all beautyberry

I've been all about the beautyberry yesterday and today. So here's a ton of pictures! Vivid color is beading the graceful drooping stems; of course I went out to take pictures.

I really like how it's growing over the fence on this side.

On the other side- facing the large sideyard, the drooping stems were dragging on the ground. I propped some up from underneath with sticks.

It was kind of smothering and crushing spiderwort here on the other side-

And then I was shoving leaf mulch underneath, and found all these straight stems growing up just under the skirt edge of the branches- the main clump of stems is way further back by the fence. These forward stems were there last year but I wasn't sure if more beautyberry or some other volunteer. Now I compared the foliage closely- it must be more beautyberries grown from dropped berries.

I was thrilled to dig up/pull out seven substantial young plants-

plus four tiny ones which I stuck in pots.

I promptly planted two on the other side of the holly, and two more further up the slope, flanking the euonymus (where I yanked out a ton of yellow salvia- that plant is going rampant everywhere I put it years ago!) - not pictured- and then another two here on the lower end of the bed alongside the back lawn. It's behind the second rue, between pannicle hydrangea (bare stems where the deer have been eating it!) and false indigo- and the pale artemesia behind. The beautyberry will fill all this space, so I'm going to have to move most of these smaller plants- but I don't mind at all.

The last one I put between a bunch of stuff- there's the other hydrangea on the left, patch of turtlehead on the right, 'autumn joy' sedums in front. And a hosta kind of buried in there too. My plan is to dig up and move the sedums and half the turtlehead patch in spring, to give this beautyberry room to grow. But for now I've just left it tucked in there.

Here's that space from a wider view. Most of that turtlehead clump I'll be shifting over to the right.

a bit of work

Spreading the compost. Yesterday I used two buckets-worth (well, not quite full, they each had three shovelfuls) and fed the rhubarb and all plants on the first sideyard- black and blue salvias, lamb's ears, gladiolas, daylilies, joe pye weed, milkweed. Some of those are still hidden belowground. Pulled more of the vinca away from the salvia and daylilies. They're flowering now- little pale lavender-purple stars. I do find them pretty, but don't want them everywhere and it spreads so.

Today cleared out dead leaves (the huge ones from the neighbor's sycamore) from under the holly shrub and mulched with compost just that one spot- the beautyberry, heucherellas and some yellow salvias. Also pulled some weeds against the fence where I've let (what I think is) shiso grow tall the past year or so.

I'm glad to see the beautyberry is spreading- there's smaller shoots coming up on the sunny side of the shrub. I wasn't aware it would spread like this. I don't at all mind getting a bigger clump of it in this corner, and then maybe digging up pieces from the outskirts to transplant to other areas of the yard . . . 

Tired out, ready for a break again!

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.

late summer flowers

 Found one last gladiola blooming on the second sideyard, and brought it inside. Lovely pink salmon.

Tithonia thicket is doing great. Sometimes when I go out to deadhead them, I crouch down in the middle so the plants tower over me, just looking at a wall of green leaves, flowers, insects droning, and piece of blue sky. Even though there's the road and another house just a few yards away, it feels for a moment like a secret place. Like the feeling I'd get the other year when pole beans grew up to the garage wall making a green narrow space behind, to stand back there felt secret and peaceful.

A few very new-looking monarchs have appeared. There's one in the middle here on a tithonia but I couldn't get close with the camera, it kept flitting up. The few stalks of milkweed here are bare now, but looks like at least one caterpillar made it to pupate!

Now the borage is all pulled out and celosia "combflower" is thick around the mailbox. I didn't plant them this year, they just came up on their own from dropped seed. There was one plant with yellow that I cut the flower heads off (I prefer the red, pink and cream ones). In gaps I've put cuttings of cuban oregano. I do like to think it keeps the dogs away- the scent is very strong, almost unpleasant even to me. Sometimes I sit at my desk upstairs and glance every time someone walks by with a dog. Nine times out of ten now, they don't pause, and if they do, it's brief.

Beautyberry is starting to show off- its glowing purple fruit like jewelry on the stems.

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

more spring greening

Behind the lilac shrub, one of my blue salvias already has plenty of leaves - I think it's 'Midnight'

Whereas the black-and-blue shows none- but if I pull back a little mulch, it's growing. The main black-and-blue salvia I moved last fall has tiny shoots under the mulch, too. So glad.

The older patch of ajuga is starting to make a nice blue/purple statment, visible from across the yard.

The blue-green weed I still haven't identified gleams in the rain

I was kind of afraid last fall that I'd smothered the mayapples under the leaf mulch pile. But nope- here they are!

although this one it was a very near miss

Rhubarb is growing leaps and bounds.

Funky flowerheads, which I just trimmed off.

In a pot on the deck, last of my mints to show green is the ginger one.

Not pictured: new leaves on the beautyberry! I've been anxiously waiting to see if it survived winter- and finally tiny bits of green are showing along the stems.