Lovin' the Rain

Storms today, and we got almost an inch of good soaking rain.  8 tenths of an inch in total. I love it.

Before the storms hit, we went down to Northford to Natureworks and I picked up an interesting Caryopteris divaricata 'Snow Fairy' --- neat, small shrub with variegated foliage that smells like green peppers.

And I got an interesting buddleia with pale green foliage and orange, very modest blooms, almost more like little lantana flowers than big butterfly bush spikes. It's called Marmalade. Yum.

Fixed This, Fix That

Hot and humid today, but it was hot and drier a couple days ago, and quite nice.

All summer I have been fussing over the wavy line of the garden along the edge of the patio.  I kept thinking "when cooler weather comes I'll get down on my hands and knees and chop out a nicer curve".  Sod removal, hauling the cut sod away, and edging on hands and knees is cool weather work.  Later.

But on Tuesday, at two in the afternoon, in the full sun and the middle of a hot summer afternoon, I got the edger, and cut a curved line.  I can't believe I just did it in the heat and sun.  It took all of twenty minutes.

Then I went back today and in another 20 minutes finished cutting the edge, took another 15 minutes to clean it up, and another 20 to spread a bag of mulch.  It was much more uncomfortable (more humid) today, but easily done. Fixed.

I need the ajuga Chocolate Chip to spread a little more.  The grass is a little trodden where I was working at the edge, but it is a much nicer curved line than before.

Some other needed fixes:
The thyme at the top of the patio looks terrible.  It gets some kind of rot in the middle and browns out.  Too wet there?  Even though it is on a sharply raised little berm?

I think I will chop it back, put up a low wall of staggered interlocking stones to edge the pavers, and let what there is drape over the wall instead of trying to hold the rise with the thyme plants.  I dunno.

Can I do this little project myself?  Home Depot has the wall components, they are small and meant only to make a low edging wall.

It had looked so great the first year when 12 plugs made a gorgeous carpet under the knockout roses.  The roses are gone now, and despite planting 18 more plugs, they didn't take.  This needs a fix.

This looked so good at one time

Some more fixes:
The plumbagos didn't do anything this year.  It's green and healthy and growing.  Even blooming a little, but overwhelmed inside the twig cage.

Last year the plumbagos were awesome towers, blooming a away.

One of the plumbago towers last year, 8/8/11

Clearly I don't have plants anywhere near as robust or flowery this year.  A disappointment.  But I can fix this next season with other climbers in these twig tuteurs that will scramble and vine and flower much better.  What to get . . . ?

Aahh, The Relief

Thunderstorms rolled through yesterday and it rained hard.  We got almost two inches of rain!!  The relief to me and to the plants is incredible.

The humidity broke, today is partly sunny and dry, and just lovely.  Everything looks good after a rain, although the storms did beat down the grasses and a few perennials.

It was cool and pleasant enough to plant.  I got a Ruby Spice clethra at Warner's over the weekend.  I had wanted to put one on the right side of the spruce berm where the white ones (mismarked? they were supposed to be Ruby Spice when I bought them) are.  So here was a big one, and let's hope it really blooms pink!  I put it in right behind the lower Hummingbird clethra.

Here's something that has been bugging me all season.  The two pots of gooseneck loosestrife that are nestled behind the yellowroot along the spruce berm are doing nothing.  No blooms.  Are they too crowded in those pots?

I thought the arching white blooms would be nice in between the low yellowroot and in front of the dark green hollies and evergreens.  Pffft.

I need to take them out and put something more interesting in the containers now.

Ideas from Lee May's Garden

Hot and humid for several days.  In the 90s.

Wednesday we went to Lee May's garden, always a treat.  Such an interesting place.

He had a striking southern magnolia called Bracken's Brown Beauty.  It has rich brown undersides to the leaves, and is dense, narrow and upright.  It may not be entirely hardy here, although his is growing beautifully.

The picture I took doesn't show its full impressiveness or rich, glossy leaves.

This one from an internet nursery shows it better. It's fuller -- Lee's is more open growing in shade.

Like the sweetbay magnolia, it keeps its leaves over winter, but they look bad.  Then it drops leaves in spring, and leafs back out.  Not the best look (that drives me nuts with the sweebay), but by late May it looks good again.  In the early years expect dieback and browning.  Southern magnolias will adjust to winter hardiness after a few years when the roots establish.

I could put it in the Drive By garden if the struggling spruce doesn't make it.

Fragrant white flowers.  Lovely narrow shape.  I like it a lot.

I also liked the Opuntia cactus he grows, and want one in my gravel garden.  A hardy cactus in Connecticut!

Lee's garden has so many wonders and interesting things. I'd like to duplicate the stand of narrow blue ribbons tied to spiral tomato stakes -- I have the stakes already.  The ribbons catch the wind in a breeze.

Where would I put them?

One last shot, apropos of nothing, and not from his garden, but from mine.  Black eyed Susans and zinnias in bloom.  Happy Summer!

Needs Work

Overcast and cool today, in the 70s.  Muggy, though.

The Drive By Garden needs a redesign.  The row of Tardiva hydrangeas doesn't really fit here.  They are too close to the doublefile viburnum (Mariesii, that Cyndy from Glastonbury gave me).  The spreading viburnum and large upright hydrangea are going to fight for space.

The look isn't right, the space under the big purple Norway maple isn't enough, and the plants will crowd each other.  The further end of this garden is witch hazels, and fragrant Gro Low sumac groundcover is underplanted beneath it all.

The Rose of Sharon needs trussing up.  The limbs are spreading (splitting?) horizontally and at an odd angle.  I want this to be upright, and I would love it if it got tall enough to see from the dining room window.  Can I tie these branches together?

And the Dawn viburnum needs some serious pruning, both for shape and to keep it upright and away from the house a little more.  How to do this?

The space under the guest room window where the Okalhoma redbud had been is still a little vacant looking.  Jim likes the open view from the window, so my thought of moving one of the Tardiva hydrangeas there might not work.  It will block the window, at least the lower half.

There is a low growing little dwarf corylopsis there, and I need to see how that fills in.  And the pot of begonias is TOO SMALL.  A bigger container amid the lambs ears would be better.

It all needs work.

Rain At Last

I despaired at the weather maps, with the rain storms moving north and south of us, but delivering no rain here.

I watered today, a hot, sticky morning of toting the 3 gallon can to the back hill to get the crisping and drying saplings that I could reach.

I did not think we would see any rain out of this system.

I was very discouraged.  And sweating and wet, and hot.

And tired.

At least every trip past the blooming clethra brought whiffs of incredibly wonderful spicy sweet frangrance.

Then, after lunch it started, and we now have almost an inch of soaking wet rain.

It's still sprinkling, and there is a system behind this one that might deliver more rain.

At last.

Drink up.

Summer Sights

There was a monster rain and thunderstorm system coming our way yesterday.  Torrential rain, high winds, severe storm warnings, we even got a call from Northeast Utilities about expected outages and responses to what was coming.

But absolutely nothing happened,  Not a drop.  No rain whatsoever, and we have had so little since June 25, over a month now.  Just some drips, a tenth or two at a time last week.

Even so, there are summer sights in the garden that are really nice.

Boltonia continues to be a happy camper

Nasturtiums are still climbing into the hollies

Bottlebrush buckeyes still bloom even though the leaves are a little scorched

The purple intensity of Forest Pansy redbud is finally washing out a little, but looks good

I love the clear red of lobelia cardinalis

Chiffon Rose of Sharon is awash in blooms and peeks up into the dining room window

Blue lobelia has been a bright spot in containers

What's Going On?

Today was a spectacular summer day. Cool, dry, breezy and sunny.  We spent it at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, always a favorite.  It was comfortable --- a little hot in the sun, but gorgeous and refreshing in the shade.

Queen Anne's Lace is blooming everywhere along the roads, in open spaces, all over CT and Mass.  And in the meadow out back.

What's going on here?  The little black gum by the dry creek bed in back has suddenly doubled in size. The whole upper canopy, above what used to be the saddle shaped lower branches, is new.

Remember how saddle shaped the deformed little tree was?  It was planted in 2006, and by 2009 the flat top was evident.

I trussed it and kept tension on the middle branches to hold them upright.  Just a year ago, in spring 2011 it looked like this, with that curved top branch trying to grow upright.

Suddenly this summer it is twice as big.  This is its seventh summer in my garden, and it looks like a real black gum, a real tupelo now!

Wow.

Surprises -- some good, one bad

The last two days have been delightful.  Dry, sunny, cooler.  The all day drizzle and half inch of rain made things look better, and the temps have been in the 80s, but it's been pleasant.

Even though we got a little rain two days ago, the soil is still powder dry just below the surface.  I moved the 'Nicky' phlox from the gravel garden, where it was crowded, to the empty spot in the middle of the Birch Garden, and when I dug up the tall, shallow rooted plants, the ground was dusty dry.

Don't the vivid magenta pink phlox look great out there?  They do fill the empty middle, and I have always fretted over the lack of color in this garden once summer hits.

They were too crowded, and were crowding other plants by the gravel garden.  This was too much.

They've turned out to be great plants --- a surprise.  I didn't expect much when I stuck them in last year.  They turned out to be tall, mildew free, sturdy, and real flower machines.  The color is strong, but I like it better out in the distance than I did up close.

The canna has also surprised me.  It's a gorgeous focal point at the back end of the gravel garden. And . . .

. . . . it's blooming.  It has a tall spike of vivd orange lily flowers, and it goes beautifully with the orange of the nasturtiums snaking along the edge of the gravel.  What a surprise.

The following surprise is not so welcome.  The poor benighted katsura tree is girdled.  The bark has come away from the trunk.  It survived deer rubbing, stripping of its branches in the October snowstorm, and now it just isn't going to survive.

Like the linden tree from a few years ago, the bark is actually separated all the way around, even where it still looks like there is a shield of bark.  But I can put my finger in all the way around, it is not attached.

The tree will die.  It still has leaves, although it is not looking robust.  I will need to replace it.  This is so discouraging.  It had been growing quite fast.  I need an anchor and some shade in that spot to the east of the house.  I'd like to replace it with another katsura.

All Day Drizzle

The forecast mentioned only possible showers, but I awoke today to a steady drizzle that went on all day.  It never got above the mid 60s.

It delivered about a half inch of rain.  It wasn't a soaker, but it fell softly for hours and hours, and that has helped freshen things up and wet the top layer of ground.  I'll take it.