Lists! Order Forms!

Gloomy, rainy, gloomy, in the low 40s.  Did I say gloomy outside?

A good day to make lists, draw plans and place orders.  I deliberately did not place any orders over the winter because my design plans are always in such a state of flux.

But today I put orders in totalling $745 to several mail order sites.  I plan to go down to Broken Arrow in early April, and I'll get more items I want there.  And there will be other purchases at the local nurseries too.

Okay, this is my journal, so here goes.  I need to document!  I'll list what I ordered:

Whiteflower Farm - $291:

6 Viola 'Rebecca' - shallow pots in front of the new shed

1 Basil 'Pistou' - under the birdbath

3 Coleus 'Redhead' - for a pop among grasses West Walk

3 Gomphrena 'Strawberry Fields' - fill in Meadow's Edge

1 Nicotiana alata - fragrance near patio wall

6 Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' - where purple coneflowers were

3 Astilbe 'Bridal Veil' - bright white under river birch on berm

Bluestone Perennials - $76.75:

3 Rudbeckia fulgida - not 'Goldsturm'! to replace

3 Physostegia 'Miss Manners' - to add more

3 Lobelia cardinalis - to add more

3 Carex 'Ice Dance' - to replace liriopes

Forestfarm - $205:

2 Hydrangea 'Tardiva' - see my Inspiration post

3 Rhus "Grow Lo" - add more under birches

2 Bergenia 'Bressingham Ruby' - black trough containers

1 Lysimachia 'Aurea' - black trough container

1 Aruncus Dioicus - try again

Lazy S Farm - $173:

8 Epimedium 'Frohnleiten' - to add more

8 Epimedium 'Rubrum' - to add more

And, at Broken Arrow I want to get:

Rosa Glauca - by shed

Comptonia peregrima - dry spot to right of garage door

Hamamelis - to add to witch hazel strip

Disanthus cercidifolius - add to witch hazel strip

Those are my plants and my plans.  They'll change again, but I had to make a decision and get some orders in!

Winter's Legacy

Still cold, in the 30s.  Rain coming, and we should have wet weather all the rest of the week.

I went out yesterday to check on what I could see of winter's legacy in the yard and meadow.  Vole damage was visible everywhere.

'Silver Cloud' redbud (you can see how high the snowpack was)

Jim and I had put hardware cloth around the buckeyes, and to get it around the wide low branches we had to make big circles.  The voles moved in, filled the wide circles with grass and nested inside the protectors!

Fortunately the buckeyes will be okay, damage is evident on lots of branches but not all of the multi stems.  Same thing with the winterberry hollies; there are enough suckers and stems that the bushes will survive.  Every single shrub and tree was gnawed somewhere on its stem.

the new Lespedeza, just planted last year

Winterberry holly

volunteer ash tree in the meadow (completely girdled all around)

Wet Knees

In the high 30s to low 40s today, and still.  Sunny.

It was a cold day, but with the sun on the south facing front walk, I actually got out and did some garden clean up.  I cut back the amsonia hubrictii, the 'Frosty Morn' sedums that were still standing, and chopped the new pink rose back.  Cut down the clematis vine, and as I did I saw the tiniest little purple buds at the very base.

I repacked earth around the plants that had been tunneled into and filled in the vole holes.  I am not sure now whether I need to dig up the whole strip or not.  I'll see what comes back.  I do think the rat poison has worked.  I hope.

I saw a few green tips of onions coming up... or are they tulips?  Just a half inch high, can't tell what they are yet.

I also pruned a few things on the east side where snow has melted: cut back the Korean spirea and trimmed the new pieris where snow had broken branches.  The boxwoods came through the winter with no damage!

All in all, a real day of gardening, the first of the season.  It felt sooo good to be out there, puttering and fixing and cleaning up and seeing my plants again.  It even felt good to be kneeling in the mud --- wet knees and all!

The snow drops have all come up, but boy do I need them to multiply to get clumps and something more showy than the little isolated bits sticking up out of the mulch.  No sign of the iris reticulata yet.

I like the idea of the kinnikinnik spreading further to cover the whole space, and the snowdrops popping up through the glossy evergreen foliage.

I took a tour of the yard, slopping around in the mud and sliding on the icy pack.  Even got out to the compost bin and put some lettuce from winter salads in the bin!  First time I've been able to get out there since Christmas.

The vole damage is extensive; I'll post on that tomorrow; today I just want to document how nice it was to be outside, how good it felt to putter around the yard and how much I even enjoyed having cold wet knees!

I noticed in the winter sun today that one of the junipers out by the road cut has tiny bright blue berries on it.  They are supposed to be a favorite of cedar waxwings.  They are really a startlingly bright blue.

Surgery

Sunny and very cold.  It was in the teens when I got up, and by mid day it was still cold, in the 20s.

Dr. Dirt got outside to perform surgery on the bisected Japanese maple.  It was sort of a botch job, but it's done.

First, it was cold out there, not pleasant to be working outside.  But if the two halves are going to fuse, I want them pressed together before spring sap starts flowing

Second, I trampled all over the kinnikinnik and the emerging snowdrops at the feet of this maple, pretty much destroying them in a circle of wet mud and mulch.

Third, every move I made in the canopy of the low little maple snapped off branches.  I had to get right in close, and wedge my body inside the branches to get any pressure on the two trunk halves, and I just kept snapping off branches and twigs.

It was really a two man job: one to hold pressure on the trunk parts to keep them together, and one to tighten the black plastic cord.  But I did it myself, using a vise.  The vise directly on the bark is not good, but when the weather warms up, I'll loosen them a little (the plastic cord should hold the pressure), then put some cloth inside the vise heads to soften the grip, and then re-tighten.

Maybe this will work, maybe not.

Despite the cold, the hydrangea macrophylla 'Blau Doneau' in the large pot inside the garage is leafing out.  It's way too early and way too cold; I'll still have to leave it in there for another two months.  The garage keeps it from freezing, but it's awfully dark in there.  The pot is too big to keep on the enclosed porch, where it would stay protected but get more light.

Shed to Be

Breezy and in the high 30s, low 40s, this first day of March.

We have a new addition to the homestead.  We went up to Kloter Farms today and bought an 8 x 12 garden shed!  On sale, it was $2,700 and that includes installation on a 10 x 14 pad of crushed gravel.  And it includes delivery.  It also includes a 4 x 4 wood ramp.  Much less than I expected to pay.

Here's what it will look like, including the transom windows in the doors, and with two small working windows on either side (or two together on one side).  It will be at the top of the driveway, facing the pavers, right next to the paperbark maple.  The color will be red with red trim and red doors, just as shown here, but with a light cedar-brown roof.

Now we have to get Board approval.  Jim will go to the town tomorrow to see what building permit we need, if any, and whether we need hurricane straps, since the shed sits on pressure treated 4x4s in the gravel, but is not attached to the ground.  If the town does require that, it will cost another $150.

If we can get approval from the association, it will then require that we prep the area:

• need to take out the rose bushes
• need to remove and replant the creeping thyme
• need to remove and replant the small penisetum grass at the corner.
• the daffodils there can be sacrificed

Some regrading and smoothing, then we are ready.  Alas, the ground is far too frozen and snow covered right now to do any prep work.

Split Japanese Maple

Warming, into the low 50s today and partly sunny.  As the snow recedes, the mess is revealed.  And the disasters.

The 'Crimson Queen' weeping Japanese maple in front is completely split in two from all the neavy snow this winter.  Not only was it buried by snowfall, but also by repeated piles from the snowblower as it cleared the front walk.  Shoveling off the front porch meant even more got dumped right on top of it.

I think I will try to bind the halves together with rope and see if they will graft back together.  I wonder if that could work.

Snowdrops are emerging under this damaged maple.  They are tiny and just coming up in the damp mulch, facing downward and not much to look at.  I really need big sweeps of these tiny clumpers to get any effect..

Sigh, I'm pretty discouraged.

Rain, and Lots of It

Pouring down rain today, very gloomy, in the 50s. 

This will wash away a lot of the deep snow cover, but what an ugly mess.  And what a dreary day.

Snowdrops

In the 40s today, some melting, but everything is still buried in deep snow cover.

The snow has receded a little bit under the Japanese maple in the front garden.  I saw a couple tiny green shoots... the snowdrops emerging!  But I did not get any photos, and the expected snow / sleet / rain coming tonight may rebury them.  In the next couple days we expect rain, but also about 1 to 3 inches of snow.

Weather Station Demise

Windy, in the 40s today.

I haven't seen the front walk garden since it was buried in deep snow after Christmas.  With warmer temperatures and some thawing over the past few days, that sun-warmed space melted, and the poor bedraggled plants are visible again.

The little bun shaped chamaecyparis are misshapen from heavy snow loads.  The Birds Nest Spruces are sturdier and flatter shaped and survived better.

Everything is still wobbly and "unrooted" feeling in the soft wet earth; the voles did so much damage this fall.  I sprinkled more rat poison in their holes and around the bushes, but they may already be gone from the first application back in December, I can't tell.

The weather station bit the dust. The 2 x 4 pole it was mounted on, formerly a birdhouse pole, broke off at the base and keeled over in the snow.  You can't tell here, but apparently the base was all rotted. 

It's now in the garage; we'll have to figure out a new arrangement for mounting the instruments.

Sharp Tools

Yesterday I finally took all my pruners, loppers and shears to Pfau's to be sharpened.  I have tried in the past to do my own sharpening with the small whetstone I bought.  I downloaded a video tutorial, I tried my best, but never got a good edge, and the process was awkward.

So for a few dollars per tool, I'll have them professionally sharpened in time for spring.  I even took my sewing scissors and garden snips in too.