I Did It

Much cooler today, an overcast, chilly day in the 40s, no breeze.  Perfect for doing hard work outside.  And perfect for transplanting.

After worrying all winter about my plan to move the sourwood away from the patio and replace it with a river birch, I did it.  It was not so hard at all.  I started mid morning and was inside for lunch, my pants dry and relatively clean because of the chaps. 

Sourwood in its new home

Jim had to help me wrestle the sourwood into its new location, it was quite heavy.  I dug up the three zenobias (I put the non-blue leaved one in the strip in front of Meadow's Edge).  Then I dug all around the roots of the sourwood.  It came out ok.  Shallow rooted, and not very wide (although I cut some long roots to get it out).  But still, it's a five foot tree, and a lot of soil came with it, and it was heavy. 

Oxydendrum does not like any kind of root disturbance.  So this may have been fatal.  

But it moved ok, Jim got it positioned next to the gravel garden, and I filled in with soil.  It is standing straight, there wasn't much maneuvering to get it upright.  All in all, pretty easy.

Then I moved the small river birch into the spot by the patio, put the remaining two zenobias back in, and planted the new zenobia from Woodlander's.  Not a bad project, and I like it already.

Young river birch and zenobias by the patio wall

Here are the pros about this move:

• The river birch is as tall as the sourwood was, but will quickly grow very tall, and finally make some shade for the patio, and that should happen in a season or two.

• The sourwood just looks better next to the inkberry hollies by the gravel garden.  It's better as an element of a woodsy planting rather than the focal point of a patio corner.  And it was just too small next to the patio, not providing enough shade.

• The sourwood might actually do better away from the less acidic stone wall and walkway.  That is, if I haven't killed it.

Some cons about this move:

• I pretty much destroyed some of the alliums I had carefully planted around the patio wall last fall.  Some were starting to come up, but got dug.  I tromped on others.

• The transplanted Mara des Bois strawberries that I wanted to spill over the edge of the gravel garden got destroyed too as I wrestled the sourwood into place.

• I'll get shade on the patio from the river birch, but it will also dominate the view out the kitchen window now.  I won't have such a clear look into the back yard when all I see are leafy birch branches.

So . . .  was it worth it?  Yes.  It was easier than I thought, and I got it done.

Please, please let the sourwood thrive, and may the birch grow quickly without overwhelming that spot.  And let a few strawberries and alliums come up after all.

Feeders are Out, Seeds are Up

Just beautiful today.  72 degrees, sunny, only a light breeze.  But so dry.  The top inches of soil are very dusty, and all the pots left outdoors needed a good watering today.

It's only March 14.  The tulips in pots have fat buds.

I hung the hummingbird feeders today for the early scouts.  Normally I would wait until the very last days of March, but it has been so unusually warm the advance males might be coming through early.

I cut back some more perennials, including the epimedium foliage, but I am leaving the grasses for now.  They still look good, and their tawny waving forms are the only bright spots around right now.

As I have been digging around, I noticed little tiny leaves on the oregano 'Kent Beauty' that I planted out in the soil last year.  I think they made it through a winter here, although this was a mild one.  Each one was in the wrong place for what I was doing, so each got moved, and I hope that didn't do them in.

I set up and organized the potting bench today.

Moved and divided a few of the geranium wlassovianum from the very edge of the bluestone walk back a little (into the open space now vacated by the blueberries).  With the blueberries gone, there is more room, and they were reaching over the walkway too far.

I put out the windmill and the direction sign.

And --- there are seeds popping up under the grow lights in the living room!!  Only five days after sowing, a few sunflowers are peeking up and the linaria (very, very fine sprouts) are up.  Now I need to leave the lights on for 12 - 14 hours every day.

Blueberries Moved

70's today, hot, sunny and still.  Lovely late winter day, unusually warm.

Seeds were planted on Friday 3/9 on trays under the grow lights on the half wall.

Yesterday we went to Logee's and I got three little begonia 'Bonfire' 2 inch pots.  They did not have plumbago or the plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' that I want.

Today, in the nice weather I pruned the blue hollies on the berm into more pyramidal shapes.  Only the one on the far left is the shape I want.  It gets the most direct sun.  The others are smaller and not as well shaped, but the idea is there.

I took the green plastic mesh trunk protectors off the trees today.  The ones on the back hill had been on for two years, and were so tight.  Meaning the trunks have demonstrably grown!  And the linden in the cul de sac was bursting out of its mesh cage too.  That's removed now.

And ....  ta da .... I moved the blueberries, which has been on my list to do for a while.  They do so well in spring in Northern Exposure, but get overtopped by the rampant, rangy amsonias in summer.  The blueberries then languish, too shaded and too wet.  I moved them to the strip in front of Meadow's Edge.

They are shallow rooted and easy to move, but it was a job.  I am feeling my age.  Lovely day, satisfying project, and I wanted that rich experience of coming in at 4 in the afternoon tired, a little sunburned, and happy.  But I am still sick with the awful cold I got in Hawaii, still coughing, nose running, and it was hard work.  Hack, hack.  Wheeze.  No energy.  Wish I was younger.

The poor blueberries --- they do not like root disturbance, so we'll see how they do after transplant.  I watered them well.

Conditions in the garden are SO DRY.  The top inches of soil are dust.  No snow cover to wet the land, and no rain for ages.

Aren't these little iris reticulata so cute?  They are popping up through the kinnikinnik, just as the snowdrops and a lone crocus do.

I like how the groundcover hides the failing foliage, and I really like how the purple iris looks with the red tinged kinnikinnik.  But as with the tiny snowdrops, I need a lot more.  A lot more. They aren't much to look at spread so sparsely by the walk.

Thank goodness they are right by the front walk where I can see them.

Mukdenia

Love this plant.  I really need to get it, and see how it does for me.  I could try it in pots, and keep it in shade that way.

Mukdenia rosii 'Crimson Fans'

from Terra Nova Nurseries

Real Chores

I got some real work done today, digging and planting!  It was near 70, breezy and so nice.  It feels like it will never be cold again, that we are on a straight line to spring.  Ha.

I moved the little 'Tide Hill' boxwoods into an angling line on a slant with the gravel garden.  One actually is in the gravel nestling up against the rocks.

For some reason, I really like this, just like I enjoy the line of four boxwoods to the east of the deck.  I like the way they bisect the edge of the gravel.  Hopefully moving them now, in March, didn't hurt anything.

I also moved some of the irises that needed to be removed from the front walk garden, and put them in the Birch Garden.  We'll see if they do ok there.  There are more to move.

And I took out the nandina that I didn't like.

I wore the chaps for the first time, and they work!  Really comfortable, just need some hitching up now and then, and a little quick adjustment as I kneel.

The key is to keep the straps loose.

And I moved the big pink urn to a more hidden spot under the guest room window, where the redbud was.  Away from the brick wall it is not so pink, and it looks nice tucked in between the grasses and the other plants.

I had planned to put a big leafy baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight' there to fill the empty spot, but maybe not.  The redbud stump is still there, which could make planting difficult, and I could use the baptisia out in a sunnier spot I think.

Another shot of the four Tide Hill boxwoods in their little angled line.   I like it.

And I like the way the big gray whale-rock looks now, with the smaller ones scattered off to its right.  I don't think I need any more.

Got It Done

Warmer today, in the high 50s, breezy but very nice.

I did it.  I got the willows cut back.  I really hope this was worth it and they will resprout and come in full and lush with all the variegation of prior years.

It was really awful work, no job for the loppers.  The larger branches were so thick I needed the pruning saw and it was difficult.  And I am still feeling so sick since getting back from Hawaii.  My cold and cough won't go away, and I had no energy.

I hope this coppicing will work.  They really were lovely colored arching shrubs last year.

Timing: Taxes and Seeds

Taxes got done today.  Not good.  A switch in the timing of our real estate taxes meant that a second installment of last year's tax was paid the first of January of this year, depriving us of fully half our deduction for 2011.  Timing.  It made a big difference.

Friday morning, March 9, after book group is here on Thursday, I am starting seeds under the new grow lights on the living room half wall.

It's time.  8 weeks till last frost in early May.

These can be sown outdoors in May: 

Nasturtiums (Double Gleam Mixed and Moonlight climber)

Sunflowers (inside the netted cage towers I made)

Zinnias, and dwarf sunflowers (under soda bottle cloches)

These need to start in flats under lights on Friday:

Salvia Lady in Red

Lobelia Crystal Palace

Petunia Baby Duck

Pansy Clear Crystal Black

Linaria Fairy Bouquet

Will there be enough room under the two small table top lights?

No, no, no. No.

Sunny and cold, in the 20s this morning and in the high 30s with the sun out this afternoon.

The big Umbrian pot that I dithered over and convinced myself could work in the front garden has faded to pink in the sun.  Icky artificial pink.  Already, after just a month in the weak winter sun. 

No, no, no

I did a post on my main blog about integrating this into the re-design of this strip, and noted that it all required "softening" --- that is, blending in with plants and holding an aged terra cotta look.  Not pink.  This is not going to work.  It already stood out because of its size (I wanted visual heft there), but it is now screaming pink.  No.

So I took it out.  It was an expensive resin faux terra cotta pot, and I now have a big pink expensive mistake.  It is under the guest room window for now.  I may try it in Meadow's Edge under the maple, with lots of perennial foliage around it.

We'll see.  It needs to go somewhere, and it might work deep in the larger garden, not out in the open against the brick wall.

Meanwhile I moved the old orange clay pot into the strip next to the strawberry jars.  Mmmph.  The little blue juniper in the red glazed pot is back in its spot on the right side.  It's not big enough, has no visual weight, looks wimpy.  But it's not pink.

Meanwhile pale lavender crocuses are up and blooming in the kinnikinnik.  But here's the thing . . . despite my careful record keeping, I don't remember planting them.  Seriously.  Did I?

I did put in fall crocus (Colchicum) but those were white and obviously bloom in the fall.

Did I pick up a bag of generic crocuses and put them in when I planted the snowdrops?

Unbelievably, I can't remember and I didn't document anything.

Nevertheless, they are cute peeking up through the green foliage of the kinnikinnik.

First Sunshine

We got back from Hawaii and LA late Monday night, and now, five days later, we are finally getting a glimpse of late day sunshine.  It snowed heavily for two days, it rained, and it was overcast and spitting all week since our return.

Bird of Paradise in L. A.

But it's okay.  We have both been so laid up with nasty colds, that it didn't matter.  We sleep, do laundry, and wait for the week to pass.  The sun came out late this afternoon.

March is here.  I expected to return from our travels tan and energized and ready to finish projects (the curved wooded bridge for the dry creekbed!) and start seeds and putter outside even if it's still to cold to garden.

But.

Icky weather, bad cold, no oomph.

I'll get there, just not yet.

(PS, Hawaii was wonderful and our weekend with Tom was a treat!!!)

Google +

Gray and overcast, in the low 40s, kind of damp and grim for the last few days.

I joined Google + and added my 2010 and 2011 Picasa web garden albums to the photo page there.  I love looking at a year in time, from winter to Christmas, through the seasons.

My Google+ Photos