Dreary Start to May

After all the weird warmth and unseasonable weather in March and April, May has started out cold and dreary.

We got half an inch of rain yesterday, and today was damp and overcast, in the 50s. I did not want to go outside, it was chilly, and I had no plan for what to do, but once I got outside, here's what took place:

On a whim, sort of, I removed the Elfin Pink penstemons from the edge of the Birch Garden.  They are not elfin, and they are too pink.  They flop, and they are too tall for the side edge / front of the border.

They hide the very striking Husker's Red penstemon, which I really like.  In 2010 (early June) you can see how crowded at the front they were, with the darker Husker's Red hiding behind them.  And they flopped.

So I dug them up (easily) and put them in the big empty stretch of the Drive By garden, on the far side, flanking the baby Rosa glauca (can you see the tiny rose in the photo?  It's there!!).  They can be as bubblegum pink as they want there, and as big and floppy as they want.  Until the rose and the nearby spruce grow, there is plenty of space.

Now, without the Elfin Pink penstemons crowding in front, the more refined Husker Red penstemon with its dark foliage and pretty white flowers will shine at that side of the Birch Garden.  I like it so much better, even before bloom.

What a great combo with the dark maroon foliage and the bright Orange Dream Japanese maple.  It's a better look.  The green clumps are coreopsis, which won't bloom until summer.

I edged part of the Birch Garden, I planted some cosmos seeds (no luck last year) in the back of Meadow's Edge Garden, and I put some dwarf sunflower seeds in the old orange pot which is now under the paperbark maple.

I also planted dwarf (2.5 feet tall) sunflower seeds in the empty parts of the persicaria Dimity patch, where winter  debris had smothered the foliage and a gap developed.  Also some dwarf sunflower around the patio, to fill in when the alliums go by.

Alliums, camassias, rosy garlic, all want to bloom, soon.

I planted the clematis Henryi in the front garden in front of the trellis.  I found out just recently it is one of the clematis types most susceptible to wilt.  Mmmph.

I planted the tiny male American holly, Jersey Knight, in the meadow, just behind the red twig dogwoods that I put along the dry creekbed (from cuttings of the original Isanti redtwigs by the front door).

And speaking of them,the Isanti redtwig dogwoods by the front porch are blooming. How full and lush they are.

The aronias are blooming.  So delicate, so pretty, and a very nice combo with the Orange Dream Japanese maple and the light green emerging foliage of the Iteas.

Hyacinths are blooming.  They are a subtle soft purple, and in the gray overcast light they look grumpy.  The whole Birch Garden is lumpy and moundy, and the hyacinths never show to good effect there this early in the season.

How nice to see the Viburnum prunifoliums with real flowers finally this year.  They are pretty, but still a little sparse, but it's exciting to see blooms.

The viburnum along the west walk is now blooming with white lacecap flowers, along with the white fothergilla, which is just going by.  How I miss the contrast of the saturated magenta redbud Oklahoma along that strip.  It would have  pumped this white and green strip up!  But look at the Blackhaw flowers from the little plant by the A/C units!

Planting Sunflowers

Sunny in the morning, 60 degrees and cool, but the wild winds of the past days have died down.  No frost forecast overnight for the next week, so I planted the sunflower seedlings.

It's early, but they are under the elaborate wire and bird netting cages I built last winter, and I can throw a blanket over all if it's expected to get into the 30s.

I could not get the wire tomato cages into the ground deep enough to have the lowest rung contact the earth, so I turned them upside down, with the prongs in the air, and used soil staples to hold them down.

I hope this works!  As they grow and the stems get woody and less susceptible to critters eating them, I think I can take the cages off.  This is an experiment in progress.

I used the cool early morning to turn the compost windrow with a pitchfork.  Hard work.  The grass clippings pile up into a solid mass, unaerobic and horribly slimy below.  The whole pile needs frequent turning and some brown material to break up all the green decomposition.

Such Wind

Yesterday was incredibly windy.  Too cold and unpleasant to work outside even though it was partly sunny.

The metal wheelbarrow, overturned on top of the newly delivered 4 yards of mulch, was lifted and sent flying down the driveway.

Today was sunny and cold, in the 50s, but less windy, and we spread the mulch.  A good crisp day to do heavy work.

At first it seemed like this additional load of 4 yards was too much and we couldn't use it all.  We spread it thickly on the back of the berm to use it up. 

But then we decided to add a thin layer to the driveway garden to freshen it, and there wasn't enough in the end.  It is spruce mulch from Envirocycle, very dark, and you can see the contrast in color where we spread it.  Not enough of a shortfall to order any more though!

Total volume of mulch we spread this spring: 12 cubic yards!

Frost??

What the?  No frost was in the forecast, but it did get down to the 30s last night and there was a sparkly coating on the grass and on the deck steps this morning.

I had brought the newly planted salvias and the seedlings into the porch, so they were well.

But one of the new sassafras saplings has black, limp leaves.  I think it will be all right, and will put out other new leaves.  The damaged ones were just coming out, not fully opened.  But it is so new, and I have such poor luck getting sassafras going, I just hope this unexpected hard frost did not do it in.

There is now a prediction for 31 degrees tomorrow night.  April.  Sheesh.

Blackhaws Blooming

In the high 50s today.  Sunny, cool and crisp this morning, but cloudy and breezy this afternoon.  Actually kind of chilly.

After all the rain everything looks good.

I potted up the three Black & Blue salvias in big containers.  Too soon --- they won't like the chilly nights and cool windy April days, but there is no frost forecast in the next 10 days, so they can get used to the garden even if they won't take off yet.

I am excited that the blackhaw viburnums are finally blooming this year.  The one under the bathroom window was planted in 2006, so after six years, it's nice to see a few blooms.  The newer one, in the small garden fronting Meadow's Edge, actually has more blooms.  It was planted in 2009, and transplanted in 2010.

The geums are still so cute, but hard to photograph.  Same thing for the spreading forget me nots.

Tiarellas are opening and look much better than last year.

Blueberries are laden with flowers, and are quite attractive in their new open location in front of Meadow's Edge.

Epimediums are filling out.  I really wish I had switched the cultivars!!  Rubrum, under the maple in back, is delicate light green and should go under the pink flowering dogwood.  The flowers, which come out a little later than the dogwood, are pink and magenta.

Rubrum, under the maple

Frohnleiten, under the pink dogwood, has red and green and bronze foliage, and sulphur yellow flowers that come out exactly when the dogwood blooms and they don't go together.  It would look better under the maple, where there is more of a golden and red thing going on with emerging foliage.

Would I even think about switching them?  Too much to dig up established patches?  Should I do it next fall?

The little tiny Ajuga Chocolate Chip plants are blooming a rich dark blue that will look good, when they spread, under the coppery zenobia foliage that still persists.  The new zenobia foliage is powdery green blue.

The ajuga is so pretty close in, but as you can see, they are still new and haven't spread, and can't even be seen in the mulch!  I ordered more, but these just have to mature and spread some.

And the Total Is . . .

3 inches of rain yesterday and overnight. 

A real soaker after all.

At Long Last

It's raining.

Planting Trees

Arbor day

I planted trees today, while waiting for a heavy soaking rain that is coming up the coast.  Should be here tomorrow.  Rain heavy at times.

It was pleasant, in the low 70s today and very breezy.  But digging the holes for the new trees was an exercise in cement demolition.  So dry, so compacted, so awful.

I planted:

A persimmon out by the road cut.

Three tuliptrees 'Little Volunteer' at the base of the back hill.

Another sassafras where the Arborday redbud was (and is no longer.)

And I planted six 'Ruby Slippers' lobelia. around the patio wall.

I potted up the violas we got yesterday in containers.

Planted the tiny 'Carolina Moonlight' baptisia in the Birch garden, in the front left side where nothing does well.  The drainage on that side is good, and  it gets the most sun in that garden.

Flower Power

Still so dry, no rain (other than 2 tenths of an inch) for six weeks, but the forecast for Sunday says rain.  And they used the term "soaker".  We'll see.

I scratched out the rest of the holes in the meadow for the sunflower seedlings.  It's so dry it was like chipping out cement, but I added compost / soil mix to each little plot and the holes are ready for planting after we get some rain.

Sunflower seedlings ready to be planted

Then Jim and I went to the new nursery on route 5 in East Windsor, Flower Power.  It is absolutely huge.  Lots of annuals and vegetables, the very common shrubs and trees and perennials, but lots of everything.

I stocked up on purple alyssum, found the 'Pretty Much Picasso' supertunias that I could not find at all last year, and got some sweet violas.  Some basil for a pot near the door, a hanging basket.  All good.

Yesterday I planted the new corylopsis goana 'March Jewel' that I had seen at Broken Arrow.  They didn't have it, but one was growing at the doorstep.  I ordered one from a place called Camelliaforest.  This is a dwarf winter hazel that stays about four feet high and wide.  Very pretty up close.

The low growing corylopsis may soften the now black urn

So Much Mulch

We made a dent in the 6 cubic yards of mulch.  In fact, Jim and I spread 2/3 of it today.  We worked so hard, and are so sore now, but at least it was cool today, only in the mid 60s.

I may still need more, we're only about half done with all the areas that need coverage!