Will March Ever Be Over?

36 degrees, steady hard rain today.

I did not leave the pots out on the deck yesterday.  They could handle the cold temperature, but I wanted them in out of this heavy rain.

So everything is back on the porch, making it impossible to walk out there.  There are seed trays are to the right of the door too.

I really hope the rain is not washing the Preen away, or the hort oil I sprayed yesterday.  A light rain to water in the Preen is good; a heavy rain washes it away (and worse, could wash the toxins into the pond and storm drains). 

I didn't think it would be such a downpour all morning.  I'll need to reapply the hort oil later anyway.

I gave the big rosemary in the bowl a haircut to tidy it up a bit and encourage a fuller shape.  It's growing really well and the fragrance when you touch it is intense.

  

Pots

Overcast, low 40s today.  A little sun, but mostly gray.  Thick fog this morning, but it burned off.

I sprayed dormant hort oil today on both viburnums.  They had aphid damage last year.  I tried to cover all the tips of the branches all the way around.  It's the new tip growth that the aphids go after.

I spread 2 containers of Preen on the gardens.  We are expecting rain tomorrow to water it in.  That's 5.65 pounds each, or 11.3 pounds, coverage for 1,800 sq. feet.

I moved pots out onto the deck.

All of these are hardy and can stay out in below freezing weather, just not below zero all winter in drying winds.  So I may leave them out, they should be okay even if the temps dip or a freeze happens.

I potted up the red dwarf dahlia tubers.  They had been in bone dry peat moss all winter in the basement.

I put them in three pots in damp potting soil, just barely covered, and with only 1/3 of the pot filled.  As the eyes bud, and growth starts I need to add more potting soil over several weeks.  Also need to pinch new growth when there are 3 or more leaves.

Only one large tuber had any visible eye sprout.  But sometimes it's impossible to see the eyes this early.  I put several of the biggest tubers in each pot.  They need to stay in the warm indoors, not on the porch, to sprout.  We'll see what happens!

The idea is to group these blue and gray containers with the bright red dahlias around the cobalt blue pot with the Black and Blue salvia, if it comes back.

Here's what the dahlia looks like, in the garden last year.

I have forgotten the name of this dahlia, but it was bright red, very short and compact, and the foliage was nice.  Should be really nice in these pots.

I also planted the nasturtium seeds today.  I put one big fat seed (they are like peas) into each pocket of both strawberry jars.  I'll keep the containers on the porch to keep them out of frost or freezing temps.

Five days to SPRING.

More Winter Damage

The forecast said abundant sunshine today, but I'm sitting here this morning watching it snow.  It's 37 degrees, overcast and spitting snow.

The Cornus mas, my little sprig of a tree, was decapitated from all the snow this winter.  The tiny twig of a leader was snapped, but not all the way.  It was hanging, with a thin strip of bark still holding on.  So yesterday I got some velcro tape, wound it around the thin twig to hold it upright, then clipped it with a plastic clip.

Like the repairs to the trunk of the Japanese maple, I hope by keeping the twig's halves pressed together, it will graft back together.  It is certainly full of fat buds.

Spring Forward

Partly sunny, windy, in the 40s.  A typical cold breezy March day, not bad for working in the yard, but not all that pleasant.  We sprang the clocks forward for daylight saving time last night, and the day feels odd.  It always takes a few days to adjust.

I got out and did some late winter pruning.

I took off the leftmost stem of the paper birch.  It had felt soft and mushy at the base, and was leaning and didn't look healthy, but it was actually solid and hard to saw off.

I got it cut, with a good angle, but not close enough to the ground, so I tried to recut it lower and made a botch job of that.  Couldn't get it sawed through.

I also pruned the blackhaw viburnum in the back yard --- the one I nearly killed by violently transplanting it in the heat of summer last year, ripping it right out from the berm  But I think it survived.  I want it to be a single stem small tree, not a shrub.

Blackhaw viburnum has a very dense, twiggy habit, and after pruning it looks very contorted.  As it grows more, I may take that crooked branch off too, but for today, I had already taken almost a third, maybe a quarter of the branch structure off, so I stopped.  The branches are all gnarled together in the middle!

Other tasks on this windy March day:

> Sprinkled handfuls of lime on the clematis, redbuds and bergenia.

> Sprinkled handfulls of elemental sulphur on the blueberries, the sourwood tree and the zenobias under the tree.

> Cut back the mums... what immense woody stems, and they are spreading everywhere.

> Cut back the Albury St. Johnswort, it looks terrible in winter.  The other St. Johnswort in Meadow's Edge, 'Sunburst', never needs cutting back.

> Chopped back the winter damaged floppy miscanthus grass by the garage door.  That's a job!  The panicums will need cutting too, but they are much more manageable.  For now I like hearing them rustle in the March wind, and they are still adding nice tan vertical structure to the flat muddy gardens.

> Took out the Dusty Miller that was flopping on the northern walk.

Buds on magnolia 'Elizabeth

The grass and gardens are still soggy wet, so it's not a good idea to be out there traipsing around as much as I did today.  But it feels good to get started on chores and cutting back stuff.

Seed Planting

The torrential drenching rain has finally stopped, and today was partly cloudy, partly sunny, and in the 40s.  The day was nice enough, but the ground is still far too wet to be walking on, so chores in the garden must wait.

I started seeds today, each individually in cowpots or plastic nursery pots, rather than sown in a big flat.  I think this will be easier at transplant time

I planted:
Heirloom Sweet Peas - Lathyrus odoratus 'Painted Lady'.
I really just want one plant to put at the base of the hummingbird feeder and have it vine up the hanging post.  But of course there are many seeds, so I potted half of them up.  Not sure where I'll put so many sweet peas if they all germinate!

Zinnias - 'Exquisite'.
These are pink and red and rose.  Later I'll get some orange ones, I loved how the orange zinnias looked with the blue caryopteris around the patio and in the distance in Meadow's Edge.  I'll plant the nasturtiums later directly into the terra cotta strawberry jars.

I put some seeds in pots to germinate inside on the living room half wall.  I put others out on the porch.... no danger of frost out there, but the cool temps may make them germinate slower.

Planting was a pain.  There was still slippery icy snow mounded on the patio, so I couldn't get to the potting bench without having Jim shovel the patio first!

And all my tools are stored away in the garage, the water is not turned on yet outside... it's too messy to pot inside, but I had to keep going in and out of the house to get this small job done!

I'll be happy when everything is set up outside.  I'll be happy when spring arrives.

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.