From the Freezer to the Frying Pan and Other Weekend Notes

• This weekend it was 90 degrees, 2o above normal. A few weeks ago in April it was 20 degrees below normal. Plants were enticed to leap ahead in March, then flash frozen in April – now they are wilting under a hot sun.
• The heat brought on a need for mulching. First I used the leaves from last fall. It amazes me that you can accumulate what seems to be a huge pile of leaves, but when you use them for mulch the following spring they don’t seem to go very far, even if you’ve begged or stolen many bags from the neighbors. So I had to supplement my leaves with bagged mulch. For the first time, I tried cocoa shells. I like the look, and they are supposed to be ecologically correct. The smell of chocolate is a little disconcerting,  but it’s supposed to fade with time.
• I spent some time today trying to get ahead of the staking curve. I staked the blue false indigo, a bunch of smooth penstemon, and a couple other things. I’m trying what is supposed to be the technique used at Monet’s garden at Giverney. Basically, you stake roughly every third stem with a thin bamboo pole, and the stems are supposed to hold each other up.  This is supposed to give you a more natural look. Not sure how this applies to taller grasses that tend to flop, like silky wild rye.

Blue false indigo just starting to bloom.

The grass path between the flower beds in the front yard.

• The flowering dogwood is definitely dead, but I won’t give up. I’m ordering another.
• I like common bluestar. It has unusual star-shaped flowers in spring that are, well, blue. However, this is one of those plants where you have to be careful about placement. Once it matures, it shall not, it shall not be moved. It doesn’t grow fast, but it grows big. I planted one of mine too close to the sidewalk and now I must struggle every year to keep it from getting in the way of the neighborood pedestrians.

Common bluestar

Tardy Bloom Day

 I was out of town on the 15th on a business trip. (Work was absolutely brutal, but that’s another subject.) Therefore, I am granting myself a four day extension on the bloom day due date. Here goes, in no particular order:

Peony ‘America’

Second spring for this peony. There were four buds getting ready to bloom when I left town Tuesday, when I returned Thursday two were gone and the other two had only a couple days left. Gaaah! That’s why I don’t like to plant peonies.

 Brunnera macrophyla

Heuchera

Lonicera sempervivens

Lonicera ‘John Clayton’

Polemonium carneum

Polemonium reptans

Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’

Geranium maculatum

A bee visiting wild geranium.

We inherited this weigela from the last owners, and don’t know the variety. Some strategic pruning has perked it up considerably.

Rosa  ‘Sally Holmes’, many buds almost ready to open

Rosa ‘Cassie’

Rosa ‘Darlow’s Enigma’

A rambler, we are training Darlow’s Enigma on an arbor. This should be a good year for roses, all of ours are covered in buds.

The columbines were really bushy and floriferous this year. I love the flowers, like red and yellow chandeliers.

Allium ‘Globemaster’

Allium ‘Purple Sensation;

Allium Purple Sensation does pretty well in our partly shady backyard.

The Salvia ‘May Night’ and ‘Blue Hill’ are just starting to bloom (center). Golden Alexander is toward the end of the border.

 Corydalis lutea grows well in dry shade. The funny little tubular flowers bloom for months.

Achillea millefoliumm ‘paprika’

Nepeta ‘kitkat’

Nepeta kitkat blooms earlier than other nepetas. I use it to edge the hot, western border of a flower bed. Great for bees and butterflies.

 Geum triflorum

Prairie Smoke makes a good groundcover in a sunny spot. I like the unusual pink flowers.

 Amsonia tabernamontana 

Various annuals – cleome, cosmos, pansies, sweet alyssum, lobelia …

 Though it’s not blooming, an honorable mention for my ostrich ferns, Matteuccia struthiopteris. I’ve told the neighbor kids that when the ferns get big enough they will attract dinosaurs.

Live Orioles, Dead Dogwoods, Black Tomatoes, and Other Weekend Notes

• The Baltimore orioles – one of my favorite birds - have arrived! Also, for the first time, we have attracted indigo buntings to our yard. To entice them, I’ve been spreading millet on the ground for about two weeks. The buntings look like someone took a goldfinch and painted it an intense, electric blue. Unfortunately, Judy couldn’t get a good picture of one.  Her good camera is still in the shop being fixed.

Baltimore orioles love grape jelly. Also oranges.

• I got to Anton’s and Gethsemane to buy some plants Friday, then got them in the ground today. For my front yard island bed, a moist and sunny spot, I got three monarda “bluestockings,” two phlox “David,” and one obedient plant.
• It’s too early for cleome, I know, but I couldn’t stop myself from buying a couple. I intend to fill in all the empty spots in the front yard flower beds with cleome and cosmos this year. No bare ground!
• I also got my little front yard vegetable garden started. I installed the wooden tomato trellises I started using last year, then planted four tomato plants: Black Krim, Black Cherry, Black Prince, and Green Zebra. This will be the Year of the Black Tomato! I know it’s a little early for tomatoes, but what the hey.  Also planted bush pickle cukes, dill, and parsley. Oregano and thyme lived through the winter.

My small vegetable and herb garden is in the front yard, hidden from the street by a flower bed and a crabapple tree. I grow tomatoes (on the wooden trellises), cucumbers, thyme, dill, mint (in a pot), parsley, and oregano. The backyard is too shady for vegetables.

• The amsonia, the columbine, the starry solomon seal, and the cranberry bush viburnum have just started blooming. Plus, I have to say this has been a banner year for trumpet honeysuckle and Nepeta “kitkat” – in terms of both very early and profuse blooming.

Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is really big and bushy this spring. They always disappear where I plant them and pop up in various other locations. My policy is to let them grow wherever they like it.

Starry solomon seal (Smilacina stellata). White spring flowers and striped berries in summer. A tough plant that takes some shade and difficult conditions.

• AAARRRGH. That is my mature and thoughtful response to the fact that my new  ”Appalachian Blush” flowering dogwood, which I planted with such high hopes on April 1, appears to be dead. The stems are green, but all the leaf buds are clearly kaput. The April cold must have done it in. I have to decide whether I want a replacement from Forest Farm, or just buy something locally. But I REALLY wanted a flowering dogwood, and you can’t find one in garden centers around here.

Monet’s Garden at Giverney

To celebrate her birthday and our anniversary, Judy and I went to Paris for the second week in April. It was great! Neither of us had been there before. The food,the architecture, the street life, the parks, the museums … just a wonderful experience.

I’m planning three posts about the gardens. Judy took over 1,500 pictures, and I’ll write my posts as she sorts through her photos. First, I want to write about one of the most beautiful gardens we’ve ever seen anywhere: Claude Monet’s garden in Giverney, about 50 miles from Paris.

The main allee leading to Monet's house.

What struck me about the main garden was the combination of relaxed exuberance and the formality of straight-lined rectangular beds. Like a combination of cottage garden and parterre. I was also inspired by the mixing of perennials and annuals, and am determined to do the same in my own garden this year. There is just a richness and abundance of color that is hard to describe.

Lots of red and yellow.

Lots of arbors with grape, rose, clematis, and other vines - not yet in bloom when we were there.

Fences made of espaliered apple trees.

Lots of trees in bloom when we were there - crabapple, cherry, plum ...

Meadow-like lawn with white daffodils growing in the lawn.

Monet kept farm animals, and they are still around his garden. These look like a cross between chickens and French poodles.

The second part of the garden is built around a pond that Monet created by damming a small tributary of the Seine.

Monet painted this bridge with the wisteria vines in bloom.

The garden around the pond is influenced by Japanese elements.

Anyone who loves gardens should see this place if they get the chance. It is a joy.

Weekend Highlights

• It was cool and cloudy Saturday, cool and mostly sunny today. This should be remembered as “The Spring of Hurry Up and Wait,” for its excessive early warmth followed by downright chilly weather.
• Dug out six Early Sunflower (Heliopsis) from my front bed along the sidewalk. While these are nice plants, they’re just too big and bushy, even when I cut them back, to fit into a flower border along a sidewalk. Also, they were shading the Salvia. These were three years old, and had grown some enormous root masses. Fibrous, I grunted as I worked,  these are supposed to be fibrous roots.
• In place of some of the Early Sunflower, planted some Smooth Penstemon that just arrived from Bluestone Perennials. I wanted to replace the remainder with “Sunfire” Coreopsis, or one of the other varieties that has a dark eye. However, none such have yet to show at the local nursery.
• Looked in vain for signs of my Joe Pye Weed “Gateway” and “Little Joe” emerging from the soil. Fantasized about what I might replace them with if they died over the winter. In a similar vein, looked for my red milkweed plants to finish breaking dormancy. A couple have, but several have not.
• Wondered why my flowering dogwood “Appalachian Spring” has yet to leaf out. Just planted it at the beginning of the month. I can tell it’s alive from the color of the stems.  Leaf out, damn you!
• Put an edging of pavers between garage bed and the stone path to the backyard. The path is too low and dirt keeps washing onto it. I could dig and reset the path, but figured it would be easier to use the pavers as a dam to keep back the soil. Did about one third of the bed.
• Bought lots of sweet alyssum and blue lobelia as filler for my containers. A big improvement, reminding me of the fact that containers look much better when you cram in the plants. I planted pansies earlier, but they’ve been slow to spread.
• Gave the neighbors some columbine and wild geranium volunteers, along with some hunks of oregano from the herb/vegetable garden.

All in all, a fairly satisfying weekend.

Sunday in the Garden with My iPad

Judy’s camera isn’t working, so we’ve got to take it to the shop. In the meantime, we’ll have to make due with our iPad. We both took these pictures, mine are distinguished by their fuzzy quality.

Trumpet honeysuckle.

Bleeding heart and wild currant in the backyard.

Wild currant is an easy and attractive low-growing shrub. As you can see, it has dangling chartreuse flowers in spring. The small black fruit is edible and sour, but the birds are enthusiastic.

First peony bloom of the season!

The wild geranium have started blooming.

Brick entrance path into the backyard. We got the arbor last year. I'm growing two roses up the sides - Darlow's Enigma and Westerland.

Our back door. We inherited the wheelbarrow from the last owners. It was past its useful life, so we turned it into a planter. We're growing dwarf and low-bush blueberries and annual flowers in the containers.

The mighty ostrich ferns emerging from behind the bleeding hearts in front of the house.

There were lots of red admiral butterflies this weekend, and another species I couldn't identify.

 

 

 

My Problem Flower Bed

The bed along the east side of our house has always been a problem . It’s separated from the neighbor’s old brick garage by a stretch of grass about 8′ wide. These are nice neighbors, and I want my side of this side yard to look presentable but also consistent with my style of gardening. Unfortunately, I’ve mostly fallen short of this goal.

When we moved in almost 10 years ago, this side of the house was bordered by overgrown forsythia and a big dying yew. We had to take these out to fix a leak in the basement. I planted summersweet and a flower bed edged with woodland phlox, celandine poppy, and wild geranium.

There were two problems, however. First, the summersweet just weren’t happy, and they failed to live to to their reputation as fast growers. That meant there was even more open space between the edging plants and the wall of the house.

Newly planted columbine and solomon seal join the phlox, geranium, celandine poppy, and red elderberry on the east side of our house.

My solution was inspired by frugality:I would just fill the empty space with volunteers from among those wildflowers most enthusiastic about reproduction: Short’s and calico asters, anise hyssop, sweet joe pye weed.

The result was less than ideal. The sickly shrubs combined with the big rangy wildflowers to create a distinctly weedy look. So I came up with a two part solution.

First, I removed the summersweet and replaced them with some red elderberry (now in their second season) and a common lilac at the far end (planted this spring). The elderberry are starting to fill in and should make a solid hedge in a couple of years. I was pleased to see that they have already flowered and set fruit this spring.

 

Next year this bed will look really good, I swear.

 

The second part was just implemented yesterday and today. I dug out all the big wildflowers, except for the sweet joe pye weed standing right against the house. Then I planted a host of tidier, spreading wildflowers that should fill in around the open parts of the bed: wild columbine, lady ferns, and Solomon seal.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ve found the right formula at last.