Officially Worried

Two inches of rain overnight, sparkling sunshine this morning. It rained hard. Everything looks wonderful now and the morning air is cool and fresh.

I saw a red fox for the first time. He trotted right through the back yard this morning on urgent business. I was surprised how big he was.

This is the first year I have not bought bags of bark mulch or ordered a big pile of it delivered. Instead, I have been spreading the unfinished compost I have.

Leaves and grass clippings and a lot of woody branches have been mouldering behind the berm for several years and since I have been turning it by hand, it is getting looser.

If I crumble it up, I can get a lot of rough, chopped material that works beautifully as a mulch around the gardens.

It looks better than the wood chips, darker and more woodsy and natural. There are sticks and whole leaves still in it.

The pine bark mulch I got last year from Envirocycle (rather than the dark spruce mulch) formed impenetrable mats and pieces of bark bleached out and got shiny. I hope my crumbled rough compost will stay fluffy and dark.

It probably has weed seeds in it -- that's a worry since this is not cooked, finished material.  And it may disappear quickly, which is a great amendment for the soil but I'll lose the moisture holding mulch effect. It's hard to get a photo of crumbled leaf litter, but here it is spread in the garden. Nice stuff. Free stuff.

Now that mid May has passed and we are entering late spring, I am officially worried about a couple plants.

The Forest Pansy redbud looks like it is struggling. There were just a few rosy flowers which Jim captured a week ago by going in very close for the shot.

But they were so few, and none were visible from more than10 feet away. Even silhouetted against a stormy sky before the rain came, you could not see the flowers.

The rain knocked the tiny flowers off and now, in the sunshine, I can see that there are a few --- a very few --- little leaves emerging. But not on all the branches.

I have had poor luck with redbuds. My beautiful 'Oklahoma' redbud was a stunner until it broke apart in the 2011 storm. This 'Forest Pansy' is the second one in this location and I don't think it's going to thrive. I won't replant if it goes too.

I am also officially worried about one of the blue beeches, Carpinus caroliniana, out in the meadow. Two of the trio (my attempt at a "grove") look good and leafy, like this one.

The third does not. It has a couple tentative leaves unfurling, but it's not good, and I'll probably need to take this out.

I'm also officially worried about one of the sassafras saplings. It's the odd one that has differently shaped darker, curled leaves than the others, and although it has buds, they don't look like they want to open, and some look dry.

It's a different sassafras, unlike the others, so maybe it's just very late to open. It doesn't look good, though.

The persimmons are late openers too, but I do see hints of leaves. A little more waiting before I get officially worried about them. The largest one is taking its time, but I do think it's ok.

Finally the sourwood is opening its buds, and the sweetgums. No worries there, just impatience on my part.

And the worry is over for a few things I lost, they are gone. My cherished spigelia marilandica, the pretty red flowered woodland plant that forms stands in part shade, won't grow for me and my one plant did not come back.

I lost both the dwarf potted Jelly Bean blueberries, one this winter, and the last one is not leafing out now.

But how can I stew and worry on such a clean, fresh, sunny day after a rainstorm in spring? How can I worry about a few losses when the ajuga is in full purple bloom, and the tiarella's spiky stars are open?

The woodland hyacinths have opened too, not very showy in the Birch Garden, but fragrant and cute. They are all a moody pale purple or cream, and hard to notice, but I love to see them.

Grace

Return to cool weather, in the 60s.

I am thinking about taking out the smokebush at the top of the driveway. It is Cotinus 'Grace', and it is beautiful in form as a mature shrub and lovely in leaf as it fills out. I still want one, but not here.

It gets cut back each winter to a few stubs, and then regrows beautifully and quickly in late May with nice foliage. But the problem is that it leaves a big empty spot until it regrows, and the table and chairs in the gravel garden are the things I most want screened from the street, especially in the early openness of spring.

This is as of May 13 and you can't even see the bare stubs. It isn't doing anything to define the seating area or shield it from the street and driveway, even as the landscape greens up and the weather becomes nice enough to sit there.

It is definitely ready to leaf out. I can see the bright red leaf buds forming. When it does start, it is quick, but this is mid May already.

The other problem is that in fall it is gorgeous, but its big upright form and complex wine purple color competes with the coppery paperbark maple next to it. I think some lower profile shrubs to the left of the maple would screen the area without overwhelming the paperbark so much.

My inspiration for putting a smokebush here came from a couple sources. One was Berkshire Botanical Garden, which had them in a mixed border along the side of the old house, with a low stone wall in front. See the sparkling red spires on the right --- I love everything about this composition.

The photo of this house at Berkshire Botanical was taken on July 25, at the height of summer. The smokebush is small, upright and almost tidy looking. Mine gets huge and ungainly by summer.

Another inspiration came from David and Sharon Mann's garden here in town. Their smokebush was such a nice undulating form with glistening purple foliage. Mine hasn't achieved that full rounded form yet. This photo was in mid June. Because it has the smoky plumes of flowers, I am assuming it does not get cut back.

At Chanticleer at the very end of June there were smokebush shrubs ringing a parking lot. A parking lot! But how beautiful those wine and green upright forms were.

'Grace' has a particularly luminescent look to its young leaves that is changeable with the light and variable at different times of the season.

Where could I put 'Grace' that she would shine like these examples? Where would it matter less that cotinus is late to fill out in spring and grows so upright and big?

I can't dig this big smokebush up, and sawing it to the ground stimulates regrowth -- I'll have to figure out how to keep it from regrowing if I do cut it down and replace it.

Replace it ---- ideas?

Maybe a couple 'Ogon' spirea shrubs would be tall enough, full enough and pretty enough to do what I want, but would stay well below the level of the maple. 'Ogon' spirea flowers early, leafs out early, and then holds its leaves and color far into December. No empty seasonal gaps.

The one in Meadow's Edge is nice, even on a windy day in very early May, being blown about.

Those wavy flowering branches would offer some early screening at the top of the driveway, and 'Ogon' gets much larger; this one is still young.

I really like the idea of big billowy spireas with fine, narrow leaves in the spot at the top of the driveway. They would screen, they would be pretty, and they would work better with the paperbark maple.

Cotinus 'Grace' may have to be sacrificed in this spot.

Why is everything in my yard planted in the wrong place?

Feeling Summery

Suddenly it feels summery. The afternoon temperature is in the 80s. Such a long, cold spring has ended quite abruptly and being outdoors is delightful. Windows and screen doors are open and there's a breeze, so it's nice inside too.

Sitting on the porch is delightful. It was remodeled late in the summer last year, so this is the first spring that I get to sit out here and have my coffee on a summery feeling morning.

The Rex begonia has been moved from the bedroom to the porch and I love the way it fills this corner and catches the morning light.

Hummingbirds showed up last week, or at least that was the first time I noticed one at the feeder. Now they visit regularly and seem happy to be back.

Geums are in bloom, and Jim was able to capture their warm orange color.

Their funny orange plays well with the clear blue of the forget me nots nearby along the dry creek bed. But the combination is so hard to photograph, especially from a little distance, even though both the geums and the forget me nots look wonderful near each other.

All the strawberries in the gravel garden have cute white button blooms on them. Blueberries are in flower too -- these are 'Northblue' in the yard. The blueberries out in the field are not flowering much yet, but maybe they are just later flowering types.

Now, with these past couple summery feeling days, it will all start to happen suddenly. Leaves are opening all over, some flowers are out, others are coming, and the weeds and grasses will soon take over.  Even if it gets cooler again, the season has begun.

Completely Perfect

Just one lone velvety black Queen of Night
tulip remains from all that I planted in 2008

Mother's Day could not have been more perfect this year.

After days and days of chill wet gloom, which only produced a quarter inch of rain despite endless drizzle and cold dampness, Mother's Day was a sunny, dry, breezy perfection of a spring day.

It's Wyoming air -- dry, sweet, cool in the shadows and warm in the sunshine. There's a whiff of smoke from somebody's wood fire somewhere.

Mid 70s, abundant sunshine, two wonderful phone calls and cards from my sons, fancy English muffins and jams from my stepdaughter.

And coffee in bed, waffles and bacon for breakfast. Steaks on the grill in the waning spring sunlight, the air a perfect pitch of dry breezy comfort.

God blesses.

The lawn is incredibly thick and green, but the garden is still restrained, much is opening and blooming and becoming lush, but quietly and reservedly, for now. A few more days and it will start to overwhelm, but right now it is all tentative.

Forget Me Nots are suddenly in bloom

The two Blue Shadow fothergillas I moved last fall are blooming.
Still a little sparsely branched, but they will fill in. I love the line of Tide Hill boxwoods.

The older fothergillas along the west walk are in full bloom.

The little red buckeye, Aesculus pavia, has leafed out boldly

The wood hyacinths, scillas, are all foliage, no blooms.
It's mid May already, and everything is late this year.

Orange Dream Japanese maple is a coppery color. Still kind of oddly shaped, though.

The chevron garden has robust ditch lilies coming up.

The Cornus mas at the other end of the chevron garden has stopped blooming and is putting on its leaves.

In just a couple days the Bloodgood Japanese maple has put on its
wine red clothes. It sparkles in the sun, very red right now.

The Ogon spirea was in wild arching bloom just a few days ago, one of the few things blooming just last week.

Now blueberries are blossoming (how I hope for a good crop again this year -- last year was awesome). Bright orange geums are blooming, but I can't get their happy color to show up in a photo.

The containers on the deck are filled with vegetables and herbs and they hold much promise.

But as always, there are plants in the garden that take forever to wake up. The black gums and persimmons and sweetgums are slow, and the itea is still just branches, as is the Rhus aromatica. But nothing beats the clethra, or summersweet. Really, they look so terrible right now:

Other than some slow to emerge things in the garden, the rest of the scene on Mother's Day was wonderful, the air was delightful, the temperatures just right, and my entire day was completely perfect.

Late

We've had a couple nice days, in the low 60s, with some sun and some clouds. On Monday Jim and I moved the remaining yard and a half of soil and compost from the driveway to the compost pile behind the berm. Shoveled it all, by hand, and then trucked it back with the John Deere trailer, and then shoveled it out. Hard work. Ow.

Leaves are starting to create a haze on the maples and viburnums and in the woods. But for some reason, I have populated my garden with a lot of trees and shrubs that are very late to leaf out.

This black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) looks like winter did it in, but it is just very slow to wake up each year. I have put two black gums in the front yard, paired to showcase the house, but they look just as dead at this time of year.

The black gums make up for it with green glossy leaves in summer and fabulous fall color, but spring is not their season.

Smokebush (Cotinus coggygria 'Grace') gets cut back each winter, and then looks like dead stumps well into spring. It will leaf out and regrow rapidly, but it is late to get started on that, and isn't doing a thing to screen the gravel garden from the street right now.

I also have Rose of Sharon by the back porch -- another very slow waker upper. And clethra on the berm will look dead for weeks yet.

The birches are always late to leaf out and I have so many in my yard. The winterberry hollies come in late, and their blackish colored stems make them look particularly ominously dead right now.

The fragrant sumac groundcover, Rhus aromatica, which blankets the driveway garden, is just bare twigs. It's another one that makes up for a slow start with glossy green leaves and great fall color, but it will be late May before that part of the garden looks like anything other than a brush pile.

This first week in May there are signs of wakening everywhere. Just not so much in my garden.

More Gravel in the Garden

I see a possibility here.

This is from Defining Your Home Garden & Travel

And this is the path between two of my gardens, leading to the dry creek bed and bridge.

I have always wanted to define the grass path between these two gardens, either with large irregular stepper stones placed in the grass, or now, seeing the inspiration photo above, with pea gravel and stepper stones offset along one edge of it.

I already have a large pea gravel sitting area surrounded by gardens. It's for sitting, not really a walking path.

Would it be too much gravel to add another, separate pea gravel area here? The flat stones define it more as a path than the sitting area is, and the shape is longer and narrower.

But so much gravel in the garden? Too much?

My original idea was to place large flat stones in the grass to make a walkway between the gardens. Here's an example I found at Fresh Home. I still like this idea too.

found on FreshHome.com

Pea gravel is relatively cheap compared to other hardscape, but it would still involve expense to install. Maintenance would be very easy once it was put in, though.

Stones laid in the grass would be much less expensive to install, but mowing and edging would always be a maintenance issue.

How to decide?

How Wet Did it Get?

It got plenty wet. It rained all day yesterday and all last night.

And it was a cold rain, in the 40s. The grass is brilliant green, but the trees and landscape in general still looks brown and dismal, with nothing leafed out yet.

There are isolated pops of color from forsythias and magnolias, and just a few days ago the cherry and pear trees around town started blooming. Daffodils are bright and cheery. Buds are swelling on everything else. But when you look out at the whole scene on the first of May, it is all brown.

The yellowroot is blooming. It is so subtle, and the mauve color from afar reads a little brownish, but up close on a sunny day the frothy blooms sparkle. This was just before we took out the hollies on the berm, and just before the rain came.

The seedlings I started indoors 6 weeks ago need to be planted out. It's only May 1, still too early for tender annuals in the garden, but there is no frost forecast for the next 10 days, so I think they need to get out of their pots. Here they are, protected from cold downpours on the porch, patiently waiting.

The zinnias are not really so patient. They took off in their pots and one is already blooming!

The morning glory seedlings got way too big for the little seedling pots. They were vining to three feet, looking for lamps or furniture legs or passing cats to wrap their tendrils around, and I couldn't find stakes tall enough that would stand in a shallow pot. So a day ago, before the rain, I planted them by the metal arbor entrance to the gravel garden.

Then three inches of rain came. Their skinny stems and big thin leaves are either going to drink all this up and they'll climb and bloom, or I killed them.