Making Great Progress

Cool again today, in the mid 50s.  Another good day to do hard work in the garden.

Six yards of soil plus compost arrived first thing this morning.

Nice!  I laid out two overlapping big blue tarps to catch it all

Really?  Were the tarps even necessary?

With a second day of cool nice weather, the list of tasks is getting done quickly.  Today I got all this done:

1. Fertilized all the containers with 4-12-4 to get the roots going (except the nasturtiums in the strawberry jars, they do not need anything).
2. Pinched the two dahlias in pots that have come up and added more potting soil.
3. Repotted a couple of the tiniest salvias (Lady in Red and Black & Blue?) that seem to be coming up.  Not sure how many survived... of all the cuttings I took, very few seem to have even tiny leaves.  Still early.
4. Completely redid the hose reel at the back patio.  The narrow moss green lightweight hose is unusable, it won't unkink or reel up.  We got a new reel station, I got everything as tightly fitted as possible, and put one of the old heavier hoses on it.  Used earth staples to hold the front in place so it won't tip.  All I want is a simple usable system.  Got new spray heads.
5. And finally, Jim and I got all the Golden Peep forsythias removed!  Except for one large, good looking one at the end of the row in front of the meters, all the rest are gone.

I also potted up the remaining sweetpea (Painted Lady) seedlings.  I am trying a small pot with a very small teepee, and I am trying a pot that allows them to trail down out of the pot in a cascading effect!   We'll see if that works.

Finally

Mid 50s, calm in the morning but windy in the afternoon.

Finally a cool but nice day to work outside!  I got so much done, and had to remind myself it doesn't all have to get done in one day.

Woodland Gardens has located a 7 gal. Cornus mas for me for $112.  I think I will get that to replace the tiny decapitated one planted last summer from Broken Arrow.

It's alive, and even blooming at the lowest branches, but I don't think I can save the top half even with the purple clip holding it together.

Planted the black gum out in the meadow, and the common witch hazel toward the front. Soil was too wet, and sucked with each shovelful.  But it's either sloppy wet out there or cement hard.

Moved two tiny ArborDay saplings (red oak and a pin oak) that I had planted last winter on the berm to spots on the hillside to fill in some gaps. 

Had a great time in the cool morning just wandering around gathering more rocks for the dry stream bed!

Removed all the 'Goldsturm' rudbeckias.  I'll need to keep any seedlings out, as the replacement rudbeckias I am planting in the same spots will look a lot like 'Goldsturm', and if 'Goldsturm' grows, I'll have the same bacterial leafspot problem.

Then I fussed with the side of the deck --birdbath, chair, I planted the Alberta Spruce from Pam in a container:

When the 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple leafs out it will be a nice little one person sitting area and it's the only spot that gets afternoon shade.

Planted the sweetpeas in a container.  Moved the clematis viticella to the hummingbird feeder.  I need to get a 5 foot tall tutelier for it to climb on. 

When the golden hops arrive I will put them in where the clematis was to climb up the side of the garage by the front porch.

My Heart's Not In It

bittersweet

50s, rain today.

During a lull in the showers today I went out to the back hill to cut back the multiflora rose and bittersweet and poison ivy.  It was cool and humid, not a bad day to battle with the tall stalks and weeds there.

In past years I have allocated several days in early spring to really routing out the invasive stuff, and have taken pleasure in getting the job done.

This year I kind of give up.  My heart's not in it.  I did pull down the worst of the bittersweet vines that were choking some trees all the way up into the canopy (despite my efforts of the previous year).  And I routed out a few new rose canes.

But meh... it's nowhere near as rewarding, the Vine X container leaked, my gloves and pruner got slippery from it and all had to be bagged and thrown away (the second container is not leaking, I can still use that for spot treatments.)

multiflora rose

In the open meadow to the east there are dozens of new roses.  I can't possibly keep that cleared, and I might as well let it fill in and become a big impenetrable barrier... maybe it will even stop the deer from using that path through the meadow.

On the hill I'll continue to free my new trees from any choking vines, but I can't really keep the area cleared.  Let it take over, it does anyway, and I'll just cut down the worst vines on the trees each year as I see them, and be done.

(When I came in a shower started and in the downpour all the VineX I had applied moments before was washed off I'm sure. arrrgh)

Still waiting

Cold rain.

Ordered 6 cubic yards of soil plus compost from Envirocycle.  Delivery Thursday.

Last week too cold to work on the back hill cutting back invasive stuff.  Or planting saplings.

This week too wet to dig up the rudbeckias for replacement.  Or the Golden Peep forsythia.  Or the amsonia 'Blue Ice' from under the doublefile viburnum's spread.

Still waiting to start major spring chores.

Still waiting for the 'Okame' cherry to bloom.  Waiting for the tiniest yellow bloom on the decapitated Cornus mas.

Still waiting.

New Garage Layout

Mid 50s today but very gusty, windy and raw.

We spent the day rearranging the garage.  Since there will be no shed (don't get me started...), I need some kind of set up in the garage for gardening materials that can't be stored outside on the potting bench.

We moved the car to the far bay, put the John Deere and trailer and wheelbarrows in the near side and set up shelving.  Here's how it looks now:

In the process we cleaned out a lot of stuff and freed up space.  Much neater.  The challenge will be to keep it neat.

It's been so cold, especially at night.  How cold?

• Still no blooms on the 'Okame' cherry.  Buds were all well open on March 27 last year.  It's now April 3 and nothing.
• The 'Blau Doneau' macrophylla hydrangea had leafed out in its pot in the garage.  It was getting quite green and leafy.  I put it on the porch where it gets more light, but repeated overnight temps in the low 20s have turned the leaves black and mushy.  I think the roots are fine and it will leaf out again.

In the wind today a garage item went flying and lopped the Cornus mas in two again.  Sheeesh.  There is just the tiniest strip of bright green under the skin of the pencil thin twig top.  I put the purple clip back on to hold it together.

At the very bottom of this little twig shrub a yellow bloom is getting ready to open.  But will the leader stem survive and graft back together?

A Start . . .

Cold and partly sunny, in the mid 40s.

Despite continued below normal temps, there is a definite cast of green in the lawn finally.

And I have made my first nursery purchases!  We were at Pam's today helping her sort and take stuff to bulk waste, and on the way home we stopped at Woodland Gardens in Manchester.  They had full stocks of wonderful woody plants out already!

Really nice, unusual plants, and I started scooping some up.

I got:

A very tall Black gum sapling to add to the back hill (or to the meadow in front).  I've had trouble finding tall saplings anywhere... huge BandB trees and little ornamentals, but nothing tall in a couple gallon pot that I could plant.  It was only $24!!!  Look at the height!

A large 'Tardiva' panicle hydrangea... I have several on order to form my new "hedge" by the curve of the walk, but I may cancel those and go back and get 2 more of these larger gallon pots.  'Tardiva' has been hard to find, supplanted by other hydrangea cultivars lately.

A native witch hazel (virginiana) to add to the meadow where the only other survivor still  grows.

April arrives

Really??

Goodbye March

Overcast, gray, in the 40s.  Rain and snow on the way.

I'm over the shed.  And I'm so over March.

Some tasks accomplished yesterday: One more dead vole.  That's three.  The electronic trap is working.  I also spread the castor oil based mole / vole deterrent all over the front walk garden.  It has a very strong smell.

I set up the hoses.  This year a different system.  I had such trouble reeling the long 150 - 200 foot extensions of hoses back to the house after watering the Birch Garden or Meadow's Edge, or out to the back hill.  This year I am going to keep just 50 to 100 feet on the reel at the house, and roll the mobile cart to any place where I need water out in the yard.... just hook it up to the end of the "house" hose.

ready to easily roll to each "house hose" connection where needed

I like the moss green color of this very narrow lightweight hose from Gardeners Supply.  But it is made of a "sticky" sort of material that won't let it slide as it is reeled over the cart.... kind of a problem to reel in.  We'll see how long this lasts!

like the moss green, but the hose itself kinks and is not easy to wind up

And we'll see how the remote station by the side of the deck works this year with two hoses, a coiled short one for watering stuff on that side of the deck and a longer one for hooking up to the rolling hose cart!

will this work?

I ended up not knowing what to do with the pair of silly triangle shaped white vinyl planters.  I put them by the boxwoods, since it's kind of a formal look, and I need to put something in... maybe the crocosmia bulbs I just got, in pots?  Yes, I think so.  A little mini parterre sort of thing.  Kind of.  I dunno.

seems like overkill for this simple gravel area, but what the heck

Unsettled, Unhappy

In the 50s, today, a little warmer.  And the wind was not so strong.

Despite the sunny relative warmth today, I felt out of sorts all day.  So much to do, but nothing can be done in the earth yet, everything is still brown and matted.  April is here Friday, but it comes with snow.  That's not unusual, but it's the waiting, waiting, on-hold kind of feeling right now that has me so unsettled and unhappy while I wait for spring.

And then in the mail: the association denied our request to put in a shed.  They didn't like the color.  Didn't think a $2,800 garden shed was nice enough... a maintenance problem, not anything the occasional walker down at this end of the cul de sac should have to look at.   Chumps.  I live in a neighborhood of idiots.

This is the Shed Not To Be:

Which would have looked like this with landscaping:

Moving on.

I will enjoy the view from the bathroom, which the shed would have obstructed.  I do like Bob's little windmill out there and find myself checking it out the window a lot to see how the wind blows!

I'll still take out the knockout roses, which are going gangbusters, but I never liked the flower color.  I'll put in a smokebush Cotinus 'Grace' I think, and keep it vertical and flower-free with hard pruning each winter.  Or maybe put the new Tardiva hydrangeas there and the smokebush along the curve of the walk?  Hmmmm  Check out Nancy Ondra's 'Grace' smokebush with drumstick alliums, which I have in that spot already:

from her post 3/27 on cut-back shrubs, check out the very end

what it looked like after her pruning

Jim will help me stage the garage with shelving and better organization to get at the gardening tools. 

I've moved on.

North Wind

Sunny, mid 40s today but still windy.

I finally got out there even though it is still cold and blustery, and I cut back the grasses.  The Panicun 'Northwind' (ha! how appropriate for the weather today) are tall and narrow and easier to get at, but this is the season I dislike grasses.  The cut-back is always a chore (sharp stalks hurt, the fronds blow all over even if I tie them, the semi-woody stalks are very hard to cut efficiently, it's a nasty effort).  There is no good place to dispose of the straw colored grasses... sitting on top of the compost pile or dumped in the meadow they are a bright beacon and they blow about.

Then, when the chore is over, you have a stunted blob of nothing in the garden.  But all is forgiven when they grow to screen the AC units and when they are so wavy and elegant in a breeze and when they stand through the winter.

ok, this is when I love grasses: August.  Not so much in March

A job that can be done in cold wind is the heavy duty task of turning the compost.  Our windrow of large garden brush and grass clippings really isn't compost...it's too bulky, but I did go out there and do some kind of job turning some of the layers.  Hard work, and I worked up a sweat in the cold wind.

 

Up on the back hill a large, 9 foot tall oak keeled over.  It was one of the earliest I had planted back in 2006 or 2007, and it was part of the screening that was filling in along the top to hide the road.  Gone, just knocked over.  On inspection, there were no roots:

It was similar to a pin oak that keeled over out by the road cut.  It also had no roots, and just died and fell over.