Got a Gap

60s today, cool and partly sunny.
Isn't this pot of violas beautiful?

There's a gap in the Birch Garden where the gaura is slowly coming in... but I think I'll take it out.  It's too slow showing up and just leaves a big hole there as everything else fills in.  What to put in there??

You can see what a big bushy filler it was late in the season last year.  Photos from May 31 last year show it had filled in and was getting bigger... not so this year.

A lot of dark purple in the early May Birch garden:

Freeze Overnight

Rain today, 40s.

Yesterday when I went out in the morning there was a solid sheet of ice covering the birdbath (I had turned off the heater).  Thermometer says it got down to 30 degrees, and it must have been there for a while overnight.

When I looked at the new hydrangea serrata, the leaves were black and crispy.  There are flower buds that I can see; I wonder if the freeze nipped the buds too, and there will be no flowers (if it even survives).

The newly planted Sheffield Pink mums also looked crispy and frost stricken.

Yikes.  After all those days of 80 degrees, when it seemed summer had hit full blast, I can't believe we had a freeze.  I'm so looking forward to the new hydrangea and the mums... will they be ok?

On Monday Hope's Mothers Day gift arrived: a new antique birdbath:

I put it under the maple in Meadow's Edge.  We'll see if birds prefer the openness of the one right by the patio, or if they like more protection from the maple above the new one.

I finally put up the fairy house that Greg gave me for Christmas.  There were no tree trunks big enough for the door, so I made a condo under the deck stairs.  The fairies seem to like it (the little lantern really does light up at night:

10 things

Thunderstorms rolled in at 5 a.m., and the power went off until 10 this morning!  Rained almost half an inch, which was really needed.

I thought I would take inventory today, and list what I am liking about the garden and what distresses me as of Spring 2010.

Ten Things I like:

1. The back hill is filling in and growing.  Trees are leaping up.
2. Finally like the right side of Meadow's Edge, with camassias and Ogon spirea and the happy  geums next to the stump.  Love the stump.
3. Dry creek bed.
4. Doublefile viburnum bloomed this year and looks ready to fill out and grow.
5. Paperbark maple is growing and getting some shape finally.  Love the stewartia monadelpha next to it. And the Bloodgood maple, and the Crimson Queen too!
6. The little cabin and gravel walk whimsy under the redbud, so sweet.
7. The whole west walk, nice composition when the grasses grow.
8. River birches, wow.
9. Love my sourwood.
10. Glowing burgundy heuchera at the edge of the Birch garden, seen from afar, and the geranium wlassovianum too.

Ten Things that I don't like:

1. The gaura Whirling Butterflies didn't come back.  Try it in pots? And lost all the crocosmia, except maybe one.
2. The sweetbay magnolias always look iffy in spring, but they fill out much later.  Need to be patient, they look skimpy and unwell at this stage (May)
3. Witch hazel blooms are nothing to look at.  Maybe with time and maturity (and having replanted Diane to the new bed?)
4. Spicebush plants are not really thriving... they're ok, but slow growers, both in the field and the ones on the berm.  They did bloom this year, slightly.
5. Lost both persimmons.
6. Holes in the low dwarf forsythia hedge, I'm losing entire central branches (voles?)
7. Don't like the pinky purply clematis planted under the hummer feeder.  Get something with prettier color next year.
8. Bayberry was beautiful and a strong grower all summer, but got winterburn and is still brown looking even in May (new buds, it is coming back, though)
9. Front walk is still not pulled together, but better now with the itea and bulbs.
10. Epimediums are slow taking off under dogwood (Frohnleiten)

Two more cartloads

A little cooler today, sunny, breezy, in the 70s.  The first 6 days of May all hit 80 degrees or more.

I took two more cartloads of soil up to the top of the hill, that's 16 bucketfuls in total.  I planted 3 of the rhododendrons, covered them up with leaves, and we'll see how they do in that deep shade.  The fourth rhododendron looks like it has a snapped stem, but the roots might recover.  I'll keep it potted maybe till next year.

Jim and I removed half of the remaining pile of dirt and put it behind the spruce berm, on a tarp, and covered by another tarp.  There's still a small pile in the driveway!

I planted the 5 mums, Chrysanthemum rubellum Sheffield's Pink.... 3 in the new extension garden at the top of the driveway, and two in the new garden alongside the driveway.  The rubellums can be floppy, so be sure to pinch them.

Pinch mums in late May or June when shoots are 6 inches tall.  Pinch again when 6 inches tall.  Continue pinching until July 4.  

Or,  for the simple version, wait until mid June and then cut plant back by half, cutting just above a leaf node where the leaves join the stem.  This will reduce staking.

Two cartloads

80s again.  Sunny, breezy.  Just beautiful, except we need rain, and I need to get some stuff done in the yard when it's not so hot!

Nevertheless, I loaded up two cartloads on the John Deere and drove out into the meadow and hauled the dirt up into the woods where I want to plant the rhododendrons.  I have obsessed all spring about getting this done.  Hard work.  I use 4 buckets... they don't hold much, but I have to schlep them up that steep hill one at a time.  So, two tractor loads, 4 buckets each... I now have 8 buckets of dirt up there to plant in.  Maybe tomorrow I can get 3 loads done.   The idea is to smother the weeds and vines on the floor of the woods, get these rosebays planted in the fresh dirt, and then let them go.

Planted the aruncus behind the dry creek bed.

Divided a few of the Epimedium Frohenleiten under the dogwood.  I want them to spread.. can't find any more of this variety, although nurseries have lots of other epimediums (planted alpinum Rubrum under the maple in Meadow's Edge.

I am not liking the liriope in front of Meadow's Edge... many didn't come back and the ones that are coming in still look ratty and are struggling a little.  Might rethink the idea of an edge of liriope, and just have a few specimens, but not a row.

Cloisters today

80, sunny, breezy, beautiful day.  Took the day off and went to northern Manhattan, to the Cloisters.

Great trip.  Saw a venerable old corneliancherry dogwood... will the one I planted by the driveway look like this?

I loved the interesting gnarly twisted quinces in the herb / food garden.  Their bark was all mottled.  I later read up on making quince jellies and paste.  These are not the Japanese quince bushes, these are Cydonia oblonga:

Yesterday I planted a pretty purple alyssum around the blueberries where there is an empty spot (the gaura didn't come back).  I still love gaura, but this is the third time I've had failures with it coming back after winter, try it in pots maybe?

Almost all the crocosmia failed to come back.  Only one has any shoots at all.

The four Rosebay rhododendrons that I want to plant in the "saddle" depression up at the edge of Wadhams Road arrived today.  Poorly packed (from Rarefinds). one has its stem completely snapped off.  Now I need to get the dirt up there to build up some planting areas.   Also got a Goatsbeard, Aruncus dioecious, from Rarefinds, which looks good.

Camassias are blooming.  I really like them with the orange geum, and the whole right side of the Meadows Edge garden is now more to my liking.

And tiarella are blooming in an increasing drift:

No Rain

Stormy, hot and sticky, but it finally broke late in the day, down to the 70s.  But we got no rain from all the storms passing through.  Less than one tenth of an inch.

I feel so out of sorts ... had wanted to get more done, move more dirt, add more fill and cut more edges in all the gardens before summer.  And put in herbs, and some additional perennials. Divide some.  But summer is already here, and it's too hot to do much.  I know the temps will get more reasonable, but I have the mid-summer feeling now in spades!  And I don't want to do much heavy work in the yard.  I feel like I really missed spring.

The aronia look so much bloomier than any other year... lovely.  And the doublefile viburnum is going great.  Tulips are now gone.

I'm melting

High today in the 90s, very expectant, humid, threatening weather, but no storms yet.  It's 82 and sticky inside the house!  We're putting the a/c on.  Forecast is for severe thunderstorms, but they're not here yet.  We really need rain.

The aronia are blooming.  Very delicate and nice.

Camassias are up and ready to open.  The deep purple salvia May Night are opening.

Everything is so early.

The doublefile viburnunm is starting to bloom:

Both of the Blackhaw viburnums (West walk and Spruce berm) have aphids.  I cut off most of the affected branches where the leaves had curled and withered.  It's not a severe infestation, and they'll be ok, but still.

The Blackhaw by the a/c units has one lone blossom in the rear, hard to see!

Windy windy day

Gusty, windy, some gusts up to 17 mph.  Blew the chairs and umbrella and everything all over. Temps in the  60s.

Pruned the Lynwood forsythia out by the road cut, but really, I couldn't find many older canes to chop out, even though some have real rangy growth.  They're still young plants.  I moved 3 big rocks from behind the forsythia to the Meadow's Edge to add as accents.

Moved the Worcester's Gold caryopteris to the Birch Garden.. the gold foliage was right in line with the new Ogon spirea, so I needed to separate them.

Went after roses and bittersweet on the hill, took a lot out, but my goodness, there's just so much, and poison ivy blankets the entire forest floor at the top.

It was impossible to do much more in all the wind.

Cold snap

Cold today!  After all the record breaking heat that has made everything leaf out two to three weeks early.  Today was chilly, in the 50s, and very very windy.

I planted the three new Home Depot saplings on the hill, a Shumard oak and two red maples:

Look at the tuliptree this year:

And look at how leafed out the whole yard is --- this was taken April 23!

Changed the hummingbird feeder nectar today.