First Warm Day

It reached the low 70s today and was quite warm and nice.  There was still a cool breeze, though, and it felt unsettled.  Rain tonight.

Got a lot done! 

Jim and I recut the small garden by the driveway to mirror the line of the driveway's edge.  Took out a ton of sod --- and it was hard work--- just to make it slightly bigger and straighter.  I removed the mums and planted them around the patio and behind the paperbark maple.

Unfortunately with the curve on the other side, it now looks like a giant footprint.

I'm tempted to cut 5 varying little gardens on the right and make it actually look like a giant foot.  Or maybe not.  I might just expand the left side curve a little more so the "heel' isn't so obviously foot shaped.

Here was the wiggly amoeba shape last fall:

I transplanted all the perennial foxgloves to the new east side garden.

While I was at it, I moved a sundrop from Meadow's Edge to the Birch Garden, I divided a nepeta and put it next to the bench under the birch, I divided one of the Husker's Red penstemons to fill in a spot nearby, and I moved and divided one of the Frosty Morn sedums to Meadow's Edge to "mass" with the others.  Fun moving things around and making more plants on a warm spring day!

You can see the grass is greening up, but still no forsythia or cherry blossoms yet.

Edging

In the 50s today, quite nice in the morning, but a cold sharp wind came up in the afternoon.

Another good early spring day to do hard work.  I spent the entire day edging and filling existing areas, and it took all day to cut, edge, remove the spreading grass (seemed like it was one blade at a  time!) and then fill with some fresh soil.  I only worked on the east side around the spruce and cotoneasters.

Jim and I spent a long time trying to figure out what to do with the area behind the top of the driveway. Design issues!  I want to create a secret garden with overlapping paths and multiple entrances... I think we can do it.

New East Garden

At last a lovely day.  Still cool, but it got into the low 60s and was very pleasant.  Just a light breeze.  Still the forsythia is just brown twigs, not quite ready, and the 'Okame' cherry has not opened up its buds yet.  Night time temps have been in the 20s.

I put out the hummingbird feeders for the first time, to attract the early scouts.  Last year I put them out April 2.

Jim did an incredible job of filling the newly empty east side today with the soil + compost from Envirocycle.  The strip is now raised up quite a bit (some undulations to accommodate the window well and the plants already there).

With the new level, the more expansive edged curve, and with the insulation along the foundation bottom now hidden, I like this a lot!

The plants by the porch (Rose of Sharon, Pieris, the small trellis with Actinidia climbing it) all look great.  There is a beautiful groundcover Deutzia gracilis next to the Rose of Sharon that I want to spread and surround the rock and the feet of the Rose of Sharon.  The Pieris will get much bigger (but check those blooms already!!)

In the long empty space I think I will plant:

1. Dawn viburnum, tall upright, vase shaped and narrow.  Woodland Gardens located a 15 gallon plant for me!  Can I even handle that?  It will go between windows to soften the flat expanse of windows and siding.
2. I'll take the Blau Doneau hydrangea out of the pot and put it near the gas vent (will it keep it warmer??)
3. The pale yellow perennial foxgloves will go near the existing round dwarf pine on the right.
4. Lilyturf.  I'll put in all the ones I dug up from the front of Meadow's Edge,
5. Should I add the Goatsbeard Aruncus diocious?  Too big?  Too wide?  Hmmm.

Other ideas?

Curvy Curves

50s again today, cool and overcast.

I spent the day cutting the edges of the strip along the east side, now that the Golden Peep forsythia are out.  It is so hard for me to make curvy curves!  I tend to cut S shapes that are like slalom courses, very tight and very unattractive.  I really want just a straight line under the windows, but I need very wide very gentle curves coming in from each side.

So difficult.

Still cool, and still very cold at night, below freezing.  No sign yet of forsythia blooms on the 'Lynwood' big ones out by the road, and no sign yet of 'Okame's' cherry blossoms.

Icy overnight temperatures.  Tweet!

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.