And Colder

It just keeps going on.  Colder and colder. It was -8.6 degrees at 5:45 this morning.  Eight below!! We haven't had a winter like this in years.  It's well within our zone 5 limits, but we just haven't seen such frigid temps for so many days in a long time.

My hope is that this will knock down the deer tick populations for next summer.

While it's below zero (and it was windy yesterday, creating a special kind of misery), the snow cover is so deep that plants are snugged away, sleeping comfortably and well protected.  An ideal situation for this kind of winter.

In these cold nights, the porch stays in the mid 20s.  Freezing, but not close to zero.  The plants that I have stored there should be able to take these temperatures, out of any winter wind.

Still Frigid

Another 6 below zero temp at 5:30 a.m. today.  Windy, cold. 

Was I really complaining last summer about the endless 100 degree temps and drought?

Garden Blogger Meet Up

Ice storm last night, thick coating on all surfaces, the driveway is impossible.  But today the temps got up into the mid 30s and a chilly rain softened things up.

I was able to get out and drive down to Hamden to meet a group of CT garden bloggers for lunch:

Cyndy Cromwell from Gardening Asylum (she lives in Glastonbury!)
Debbie Roberts of A Garden of Possibilities
Joene Hendry from Joene's Garden
Scott Hokunson who runs Blue Heron Landscaping in Granby
Colleen Plimpton, a writer from Bethel whose blog I haven't read before.

Only Cyndy and I are non-working, the other four are all garden coaches, speakers, landscapers, and writers who freelance for papers and magazines.  Most of the discussion was about publishing, writing conferences, developing business contacts and leads, speaking dates, clients they have dealt with, and garden renovations they had done.  Colleen had a book published that she passed around and is trying to sell, obviously.

It was interesting, but I had hoped to learn more about each gardener -- a little about their families and history and gardens and interests.  It felt more like a business networking session.

But they were all very nice and the conversation was spirited.  I enjoyed meeting them, and will go again if there is another meet up.

Below Zero

Coldest temps of the season so far.  At 5:48 this morning it was MINUS 6 degrees.  The snow cover is so deep that all the plants are pretty well insulated.  In Wednesday's blizzard we got about 22 to 25 inches.  Entire shrubs have disappeared below snow cover, with not a ripple in the snow above to show that a whole woody plant is buried below.

The temps on the porch are below freezing for the first time this winter, at just under 30 degrees.  While that's a freeze, it should not do any harm to the tender perennials (the salvia coccinea and others) that are overwintering there.  The potted rosemary 'Madeleine Hill' is hardy to well below freezing, but keeping it on the porch protects it from winter wind.

Boy, it's cold!

Blizzard

Pam's Garden

Snow.  Temps in the 20s.  We got 5 inches of light silky snow overnight.  It is clinging to the garden making it all look wonderful, but it's really not heavy or wet.  A very unusual texture and very pretty.

I've been thinking.  Yesterday at Pam's I said to her "who's going to take care of Bob's gardens?"  "You are" she said to me, joking (perhaps).  Got me thinking.

I could do it.  I could go over there next spring and spruce up the gardens and do some planting.  It is the complete opposite of my conditions here and would be good to experiment with: she has sandy, dry, acid soil, and lots of shade.  Opposite of this garden here.  I could take some of my dry-loving sand tolerant plants over (or buy more of the same kinds).

In her driveway garden I would take out the peony and digitalis and astilbe... they need way more water than they get there.  That corner does get some sun at midday.  I'd put in:
Baptisia: big and full and leafy, a filler
Asclepias: it will like the dry... nice orange pop
Yarrow: mine just don't like the heavy garden soil here, lovely colors
Caryopteris: should do very well in lean soil, another filler
Agastache: for some height
Rhus aromatica: let it spread under the plants as a sand loving groundcover

By the driveway walk under the bedroom window where hydrangeas are planted now, I'd put in more rhus aromatica --- to balance the other side of the driveway and to cover the bare mulch under the shrubs that are already there.

In the back yard I would add large rhododendrons at the far edge to screen the compost area some day and to define the edge of the shed.  Rosebay rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) is faster growing than other screening plants, and can get up to 15 feet tall and wide. Trusses of rose, purplish-pink, or white flowers appear in the summer.  I got mine at Rarefinds Nursery.

At the edge of the deck where there is shade I would put in tiarellas mixed with heucheras, they're no-fuss.  Mix in some epimediums.  Keep that a low band of plants to step over.

The front walk?  A problem.  The hollies have to come out.  Denser evergreen screening is needed there.  I would need Jimmy to help pull out the hollies when he comes for the summer.

Japanese plum yew 'Duke Gardens' might work along the front walk

Possible: Japanese plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Duke Gardens’) is one of the most shade-tolerant and garden worthy evergreens available. Soft, black-green foliage is less appealing to deer than yews. ‘Duke Gardens’ reaches a height of  4 feet at maturity, so it's a short screen. 

I might have to amend the soil in that strip for a little more richness.

Might get too wide, like the leggy shrubs that are there now?  Would Sky Pencil hollies be better?

Pruning the Paper Birch

Cold, in the teens at night and in the low 30s in the daytime.  Snow coming tomorrow... I skiied at Sundown today.

While I was in the guest room the other day sipping coffee and designing my new hydrangea hedge (see last post), I got a good look at the birch trees from above.  And it looked like I really need to remove the leftmost trunk of one of the birches.  Bartlett had suggested removing it when they pruned.  It really isn't healthy, it feels soft at the base.  But we left it up.

Now I think it needs to go.  Here's a picture from last October that shows just as clearly as my view this winter that the furthest trunk should be removed.

There will still be a decent shaped clump even after pruning away the leaning stem.

Inspiration

Cold, in the 20s.  Snow cover from the December 26 monster blizzard is uneven; some areas are blown bare, others are drifted high.  Deer tracks in the snow crisscross the yard in all directions!

Sometimes you need a new perspective on things.  I took my morning coffee up into the guest bedroom in the loft to see the deer tracks from above.  I sat in the chair by the window and studied the little curved garden that I've had such design trouble with ever since I cut this arc by the west walk last summer:

I wanted to add an "anchor" tree to complete the allee look along the walk, but couldn't decide on anything or on placement, and I didn't want another mixed border with random stuff in it.  

My idea this morning: put in a hedge of 'Tardiva' panicle hydrangeas, in a gentle curve mirroring the curve of the walk and the garden along the walk.  Nothing else, just the hedge.

I love the look of this, but didn't want a hedge up against the house, or any more lines of plants ringing the perimeter of the yard.  I already have one Tardiva in this curved bed, to complement the limbed up "standard" one by the hatch door.  Just add more and I'll have the look of the soft fluffy line of hydrangeas, with more cohesion along the walk.  The west walk right now has jumbled plants -- very nice-- but this will add soothing repetition and a clean line.

Maybe extend the curve a little, move the iris and veronica that are sitting there now, and put in a single curved line of panicle hydrangeas.

Here were a few at Farmington Valley Nursery last spring, just lined up in pots, and I liked the look so much I took a picture of them.  I forget which cultivar.  I guess I don't have to repeat the 'Tardiva"... I could get another.

Hmmm, really loving this idea right now.  Simple.  Elegant.  No jumble of mixed plants.

Nor'easter

After weeks without snow, and no white Christmas, the day after Christmas hammered us with a nor'esaster.  A true blizzard.

Howling winds, metal gray gloom, snow blasting sideways, bitter temps.  The whole northeast is a disaster!

We did not lose power thankfully, and Jim got us snowblowed out, with help from Tom who did the hand shoveling, and even seemed to enjoy it!  Tom and Joanna got outside and she got to experience snow.

Greg had headed down to NY on the 26th just before the storm, assuming he could get his 6 p.m. flight to Denver.  We took him to the train in New Haven, but even before he got to Grand Central, his flight had been canceled, and rebooked.... to Tuesday!  He spent last night in a hotel, and now, with the storm abated, Tom & Joanna drove down to NY and connected with Greg.  So he'll stay with them at her apartment until he can get his flight on Tuesday.  NYC is  BIG Mess... not only canceled flights, but subways and buses and trains all stopped and stuck.  A real blizzard show stopper, compounded by everyone traveling after Christmas.

But at least we had a great Christmas... lots of food and wine, and both boys here, and lots of talk and future plans.  A great holiday.

Wails and Laments

Very cold, in the single digits and teens at night, getting up to the 20s or low 30s in the daytime.  No real snow yet.  The midwest has been blanketed by blizzards and virtually shut down.  Upstate New York and part of VT have been clobbered, but we are snow free.  Just very cold.

I am beside myself with the voles in the front walk garden. The tunnels are huge, and there are about 10 entry and exit holes.  The ginkgo is wobbly and tipping with the soil excavated below it. The beautiful new iteas are also sitting on nothing, and half of the itea on the right has been completely gnawed off... the branch (literally half the little shrub) is on the ground next to it.  The false cypress balls are excavated beneath.

So far I have used several bags of sharp gravel, peppermint oil, and strong smelling tea tree oil spread around the area and in their tunnels.  I have used baited mouse traps.  They ate the peanut butter but left the traps unsprung.

Last weekend I poured rat poison down the tunnels and left small bags of the poison near their trails. But it rained torrentially over the weekend, and I'm sure the poison washed away.  I will reapply more today.

I wail and I lament.  I think I am going to have to take all the plants out of the strip next spring.  Fortunately they are small (and probably dead).  I'll dig up the area and put several inches of gravel in, then cover with chicken wire, then with soil and replant.  I don't know what to do about the bulbs... the tulips can go into wire cages I guess, if any are left at all.

I was finally starting to like this strip, after fussing over what to do with it.  The tulips and alliums were really nice.  The iteas, just put in this year, were the perfect small accent.  I had such hopes.  Grrrr.

Last spring, and I added pink & green tulips this fall.  And colchicums

Spring 2010

Alliums last spring

Itea this fall before vole excavation