No Energy

Another couple of windy cool days, with unsettled clouds and the occasional brief spitting rain. It got into the mid 60s today, but felt chilly and damp.

I am worn out. I am actually getting stuff done in this cool weather, but I thought I'd be more energized. I usually love to putter and dig and then come in after a whole day outside -- what a wonderful feeling. But not these past weeks.

The wind wears me out, and I have no energy.

I have to remember I am 63 years old and I am shoveling and moving dirt by hand in a garden cart. But I miss the excitement, I am very tired, and every day looks gloomy in this gray cold spring.

But here's what I got done:

Cut back multiflora roses in the meadow on the east side, and painted the stems with Brush B Gone. It's kind of delicate, slow work, being careful to get each stem and spill nothing. 

Moved one of the white pines from the meadow over to the east side to screen the two houses below. It's going to be too close to the red oak there, but. 

Moved the struggling persimmon from the road cut where it was too shady, out into the middle of the back meadow. The roots were pretty deep, actually, and I ended up ripping them right off. Poor thing. Will it make it in the new spot?

Dug and cleared three holes for the blue beech grove at the road cut, and hauled several cartloads of soil + compost out there. I'll pick the little trees up this Saturday.

Added some soil + compost to a couple of low spots in the gardens, and also around the sassafras on the hill.

Then I dragged sheets of cardboard and a tarp out the the compost windrow, where the rest of the soil + compost will eventually be carted. I'll store it there under another tarp for later use. There's about a yard or maybe more left.

It is a lot to accomplish, but it doesn't seem like it. And so much more edging yet to do . . .

I just got no energy.

Reluctant Spring

Another chilly, cloudy, windy day. It only got to 50 today. I waited all morning for the temperature to get up to the mid 40s to go outside, and then, when I put on my garden pants and headed outdoors, it was spitting rain.

But it stopped. I did get outside to get some cool weather chores done, but the chill and wind was uncomfortable.

It has been such a reluctant spring. There have been a few nicer days, but mostly it has been cold and dank, or bitter and windy, or chilly and rainy (we got 6 tenths of an inch a day ago.)

The forsythia just doesn't want to bloom. They should have been bright yellow out by the road cut a week ago. They are barely noticeable now, at mid-April. But look how green the grass has become!

There are blooms on some early shrubs and a few daffodils are up, but nothing looks like much. The winter honeysuckle is blooming on twiggy stems, and the fragrance is wonderful, very sweet but not overpowering. I spent some time by the dry creek bed just to smell it.

Golden Peep forsythia is reluctantly opening, but not fully blooming yet. Half of it has died back on the left.

The tiny pieris Valley Valentine has its gorgeous dangly blooms, but when you step back you see it is still just a foot high, with only a few blooms and yellow leaves.

Dawn viburnum is blooming. No fragrance that I can detect. It turns out that the pink flowers will be open when the pieris shows its pink blossoms, and when the yellow forsythia opens. All at once.  Should be colorful and springlike when these plants start to mature.

Anyway, despite the slow, timid spring, I got some things done over the past couple days.

I added 8 cartloads of soil + compost (ooof) to the new chevron garden, then planted the day lilies. I put 10 in -- 5 on either side, which will soon fill in, then put two more up in the rocky scree on the back hill where the lupines are. I bet they take off up there, which is ok.

I potted the Jelly Bean blueberries in two large containers. Love these! Jelly beans!

I planted the Niobe clematis under one of the Austrian pines, and will try to get it to climb up the pine.

I took out the clumps that remained of the liriope. It's a tenacious plant and hard to remove, but the soil was pretty wet and I got them out. I tried so hard to grow a long line of them along the front of Meadow's Edge, and bought so many. But they never did well, they look awful in spring, and what was left was random and unattractive in front. Gone now.

I weeded, I cut some roses back and lopped off some bittersweet on the hill (losing battle).

And I organized my new shed!

Neat, huh?

This Was Not so Easy

Cool today, in the 50s and damp. A rain soaker coming tomorrow, and we got another quarter of an inch overnight last night.

Well, we put it together and I now have a shed by the potting bench.

This was not at all easy to assemble.

Jim did a great job, but the instructions were very frustrating and unclear, the quality is chintzy. and nothing was plumb or fit together. It's a shed, not fine furniture, but I expected more for the price.

It does not seem very watertight, although I can caulk where needed perhaps. There is a gap at the top of the doors where they meet. The overhang will direct water off it, but I may try to put something there too. I like that the hinged lid lifts up to get at shovels, and the front doors open to get at bags of things on the floor inside.

The idea is to keep gloves, and pruners, and boxes of twist ties, and the mini-tarps and things that need to stay out of the rain in here. Right now I have to walk back and forth all the way around the house to the garage to get any small item, or my gloves, or tools.

The shovels fit angled into the corner. I'll add some shelves and baskets.

It smells wonderfully of cedar. The color will turn silvery by the end of the summer.

With some pots of flowers nearby, and my potting bench used now for empty pots and watering cans, it will look nice. And by the time I add shelves and hooks and baskets and clippy things inside, it will be sooooo functional.

In other news of the day, I dug holes.

I have three sweet birches coming and three blue beeches, and a hop hormbeam, all of which will go out in the meadow. The day was cool, the soil is moist, so I did the clearing and digging and hauling fresh dirt to each spot today. Then, when the trees come I can concentrate on planting.

I got four holes cleared from the still dormant weeds, and dug them out and hauled some of the soil + compost to them (actually I dug five, but I changed my mind about a spot in the middle of the flat meadow. Too wet, soil was very heavy and I didn't like the placement).

Three more to dig out by the road cut and then I'll wait for the trees to arrive!

Humid and Springlike

Today was cooler than yesterday, in the 60s, but with a springlike, almost summery feeling of humidity.

It rained a quarter of an inch last night, enough to wet the top dusty layer of soil, and thunderstorms are threatening for tonight.

I pricked out the seedlings from their trays and potted them today:
  Dahlia Black beauty -- almost a dozen and they look hearty
  Salvia Hummingbird -- a dozen, looking good
  Regatta Rose Lobelia -- roots weren't really developed and they were very dry
  Morning Glory Blue Picotee -- only three came up, but they look ok
  Butterfly Weed -- only a few came up, but they are good

I dug out the area where the twig towers are and settled them deeper in the soil so they won't blow away (I hope). Planted Variegated Queen nasturtiums in each, and also at the side of the new arbor, as the kiwi vine won't be big enough this season to climb much. This nasturtium is a trailing type, in mixed colors and I hope I can get it to go up the towers and up the side of the arbor.

I scattered the tiny Lauren's Grape poppy seeds.

I planted the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle next to the Japanese maple in front, and added a lot of soil and compost to the bare spots in the kinnikinnik. It had quite a bit of winterburn this year, which I cut off as best I could. Popweed is everywhere in that square and I need the kinnikinnik to spread more.

You can see some of the winterburn here.

The color combo going on in the front is wild. The heath is blooming bright pink and the Angelina sedum is bright gold.

The whole effect is a clashing color riot, but it's the brightest thing going on in early spring right now. I don't think the two gauras on either side  of the green sedums are coming back. They can be finicky.

The star magnolia is opening. Too early, of course. We have no frost in the next 10 days, but we are a month away from the last frost date, and the blooms will turn to mush. Unless the flowering is already over by then.

Dramatic Change

Sunday was bitter and cold, Monday was delightful and pleasant, and today, Tuesday, was too warm! I kid you not. It was in the 70s today and I got hot and tired working outside. What a change.

There was lots to do.

On Monday we took a ride down to Broken Arrow and I picked up a Parrotia 'Vanessa', a Styrax japonicus fargesii, a new St. Johnswort, and a zenobia, although it is not the blue-cast variety that I already have.

The new Styrax to shade the gravel seating area

The new Parrotia at the back edge of the Drive By Garden

Either the St. Johnswort or the zenobia will go where the (dead?) rosemary is now.

I also got one more Tide Hill boxwood to complete the row in the gravel garden.

Today, in warm sunshine I planted the trees and the boxwood. I'll hold off planting the shrubs for now.

I edged some more around the front, and more of the Drive By Garden. I moved the most forward camassias in Meadow's Edge, and divided them at the same time. This is not the right time to do that, just as they emerge and before bloom, but I did it anyway. It was just a few that were in the wrong spot.

And . . . we got 3 yards of soil + compost delivered this morning. After planting and edging and moving a few things around, I was too tired to shovel and spread the dirt where it is needed. And too hot, amazingly.

I don't know if it is the sudden warmth, but I had no energy by the afternoon. Nada. Pffft.

But what a lovely day to sit outside and look at my new (dormant) trees!

We need rain. It's surprising how quickly we went from the sogginess of March to a dry April. The soil is dusty. Some rain is expected tonight.

Blown Sideways

After two nice days we got two days of wind. Cold wind. Yesterday and today we were blown about. Temperatures were in the 30s until lunchtime, but then got up into the 40s and 50s in the afternoons --- but even at those temps the wind felt bitter and nasty.

I have to anchor these twig towers better, and then plant the trailing nasturtiums inside soon. They blow over every windy day, so I'll need a better way to keep them from toppling over.

Despite the cold, Jim and I went to Harken Stone in East Windsor and got another bluestone to add to the entrance of the arbor. Boy, they have every stone you could want. We got the exact size for $39 and braved the bitter wind this morning to install it.

Not as easy as I thought it would be! And leveling the one above it was worse. But we got it done. However, the creeping thyme that was so lush around the original two steps is now kaput. I thought I could save it, but it got trashed in the stone setting work.

So I ordered 25 more plugs from Whiteflower Farm and will replant the whole area and fill in the bare spots around the steps and on the berm at the top of the driveway too.  It is Thymus serpyllum 'Albus'.

Remember how pretty the thyme looked originally when it was strewn with rose petals and was blooming in June? That's what I want all over this area again, although the roses are now gone.

Remember this?
June 2009, when it was so lush and had spread so well. It bloomed forever.

Speaking of kaput -- I think the rosemary is as dead as a bag of hammers.

It always looks tired and brown by early spring, but this year every needle falls off when I barely touch a branch. The whole shrub feels like tinder.

Does this look dead to you?
Yeah, me too.

My wonderful winter hardy, beautiful rosemary did not make it this time. I will need to take it out. It did survive winters before, and I loved its mass and shape in this spot, but I was asking too much to have it carry on each winter.

I'm thinking of replacing it with a St. Johnswort. I'd like to try again with Hypericum frondosom 'Sunburst'.  Remember how nice it looked in Meadow's Edge a few years ago?

It had a real bushy rounded shape and blue green foliage. It won't give me the dark mass in winter anchoring this end of the garden, but in summer it will be nice and the flowers are showy.

I loved this St. Johnswort but it was too crowded behind the doublefile viburnum and got too much shade.
It was voles that did it in, though, in 2011.  I'd like to try it again.

There is so much to do outside. And pots to get ready and seeds to think about sowing outside soon, and on and on before all the plant shipments start to arrive. But I can't deal with the wind any more, so I'm staying indoors until it calms down and I'm not blown about so much.

Chevron Garden

Yesterday and today were beautiful days. The wind finally died, the temperatures were cool in the morning but up to 60 degrees in the afternoon, and there was sunshine. Oh my.

I spent both days outside edging, digging a new garden strip, edging some more, expanding garden areas, removing sod ... achy body!  Good feeling!

Here's the new strip Jim and I dug out. He helped me with it and it was hard work. It's a chevron shape that will be filled with Hemerocallis fulva, the common ditch lily. Just a narrow strip with tiger lilies in a row, angling out on either side of the birch tree.

You can't see the yellow blooms on the Cornus mas in front here. They are all over the little tree, but not visible yet.

I did not want the prettier, showier hybrid day lilies. This defines the back edge of our space, the meadow is beyond, and I wanted something natural to make the transition. Showy flowers are in the round bed in front. This chevron cradles the back arc of that garden and I really like it.

Plus I just love July's tiger lilies. They don't bloom long and the foliage is awful after, but they make me so happy. A pop of orange in early July in this far garden strip is what I want, then it can fade into the background for the rest of the summer.  The garden in front is the real show.

Common daylilies can spread rampantly. But we will be mowing on either side of this area and that should keep them in check.

I do like how it defines the back corner.

We will get a delivery of soil from Envirocycle on Tuesday - 3 yards - and we'll fill the strip.

I spent the rest of the days edging several gardens, fixing their shapes, expanding some areas, and you would not believe how much sod gets taken out with that work.

I dug several redtwig dogwood rooted runners today to give to Cheryl. It was not as easy as I thought it would be to find young runners that were easy to dig, but I got several dug and potted for her.

I added some lime to the clematises today. Buds are showing.

Now, late in the day the wind is kicking up again, but the light is beautiful, I can see progress on some of the harder digging tasks in the yard, I have a glass of wine, and my body is tired.
: )

I'm Pooped

Despite another day of bitter wind, I put on my parka, a hat and gloves and went outside to chop out edges of the gardens where we need to neaten up and where we also need to expand areas.

It wasn't as bad as yesterday and by afternoon it was ok. Cold, blustery, in the low 40s, but ok. I expanded the area under the first birch, and edged the entire Birch Garden. It was four wheelbarrow carts of sod, dumped on the back hill.

So much more to do. Both of the other two birches need a lot of expansion to tie them to the Birch Garden area. And all the other gardens need edging.

I also took every last brown leaf off the witch hazels, by hand. They look so much better now!

Doesn't the Angelina sedum look spectacular? It's a bright, rich gold. This is its season.

It just pops from afar and brightens everything up. Both heaths have a smattering of pink flowers, but not much to look at yet. Maybe they will bloom more fully in a day?

The cornelian cherry in back has opened its bright yellow buds, but it's not quite full yet. You can't see any blooms from the house, but maybe in another day or two we will. The Dawn viburnum is opening too, but I detect no fragrance. The pink blossoms are not quite fully open.

I also fussed with adding a bluestone step at the entrance to the new arbor. I moved the one from the patio opening all the way over to the arbor (heavy lifting even using the hand cart!) but it was a different size and didn't work. We'll have to buy a new stone the same size as the other two. So then I carted the stone back to the patio and reset it. Ooomph.

Now I'm pooped. Really pooped. It was a full day of physical work in the cold wind. But it kept my mind off both boys' troubles --- my heart aches for both of them as they work out their relationships and deal with separations and lost loves.  sigh.

Cold Tears

Today is cold and windy, the kind of day where being outside makes your nose run and your eyes tear up. It was in the 20s overnight, and at midday in the 30s, with a bitter bite to the wind.

Chris from Bartlett came today. The problem with the funny crooked leader on the spruce in back is due to prior damage from white pine weevils. They affect the top branches of spruces, not just white pines. In fact, all of the spruces on the berm have top growth problems because of pine weevil damage.

He sprayed for it today, but the lingering effect is that the leader on these trees gets distorted and overtaken by side branches, which need to be pruned.

Jim and I can do some work with the pole pruner, but Chris carefully explained exactly how to subordinate all the side branches, and I think it is too much to try to do with a pole pruner. You need to be up on a ladder to see what needs doing. Not us.

So I e-mailed Mike to ask Bartlett to come out with their tall ladders and do the pruning.

Just walking around the yard with Chris my eyes were watering from the cold wind, and tears were running down my cheeks. Wow, it was cold out.

Too Early

It's too soon for this.

A tick, embedded on my upper stomach when I came in from working on the back hill today.

It has been in the 20s and 30s overnight, no higher, and the days have not often gotten into the high 50s. One of the advantages to scrabbling around in the underbrush in March and April is that you can work out there in the cold without worrying about ticks.

Right?

I had on socks, long sleeves, long pants, a tight fitting camisole under my shirt which was tucked into my pants. And yet the tick was on me, under the camisole. I found it in the shower. Of course I had to check everywhere, all over. This is way too early to be worrying about ticks.

I spent the morning weeding the Drive By Garden, hands and knees work, pulling by hand.  The globe onions I transplanted from the patio are peeking up.

Then I fertilized some of the trees on the back hill, especially the male American holly and the white pines, which were looking a little yellow.

Rain moved in this afternoon.

I put out the small glass hummingbird feeder to attract the early scouts. I got a larger one at Moscarillo's and will hang that as the season gets underway.