Spring musings

A strange week, weather wise. After really nice weather last Saturday, Sunday broke cold and a bit windy. Then it progressively got worse until finally, it culminated in a 27 degree temperature that killed two impatience plants and three begonias, but didn't hurt a leaf on the petunias. I was delighted that a new petunia survived, as I had paid a bit for it. I think it's name is something like Lemon Zest. Petunias are amazing - last summer mine looked great even in the 100 degree- plus weather we had for a loooooong spell. Now here they are surviving the freezing temps. I also found a beautiful lavendar-ish purple one that I hope to plant soon.

Here are a few pictures, one of the Lemon petunia. I don't have it planted yet in this picture. Please excuse the horrible grass/dirt. We have a new puppy and this is his running area.


I love this pot of yellow tulips. It just says "Spring". I think it looks really nice with the muscari.
I like this color arrangement, too. Pink, purple, yellow and a little white...perfect!



Spring is just jumping all over the place. Won't be long until I can get some of the more tender annuals in the ground. I can't wait! Isn't it weird that there are no tulips blooming in the end of the garden on the right. There are plenty planted, but they haven't bloomed yet. I guess it just has a different micro-climate. I keep trying to get three groups blooming at the same time - middle and both ends. Oh well, maybe I'll plant some in pots next year and use it to fill in until they bloom.



Hope you are having a lovely gardening weekend.

Cleanup Day

Today dh took the day off and worked in the yard. There is so much to do and I know it may not look like much to anyone else, but to me it looks like he must have worked hard all day. Just the leaf pile-up was enough - and he removed all of the leaves from an area that was knee-deep in them. There also was an old potting table with way too many plastic pots laying about. He tidied that up too. Then he raked...and raked...and raked...well, you get the idea. The area on the right of the house is where he removed all the leaves and tidied up. You can see we are in great need of some grass. Never have been good at grass growing, but by September, it will be pretty, though weedy.

Next up is a picture of a pretty pot I planted with muscari. I forgot to plant them last fall and eneded up dumping them in this pot - old potting soil and all - and just look at them! They are so pretty. I love the little pots on this table. I found the vinyl tablecloth at Big Lots for about $2.00 and thought it would nicely hide the ugle plastic table. I can't wait for that big pot of tulips to begin blooming!

Hopefully I'll get some good time in the garden tomorrow.

A NEW GARDENING YEAR

And so it begins....and I am so excited. The garden is jumping to life. Today was really warm and nice, but we had devastating storms in the area. Thankfully, nothing serious here. The daffodils are done. The bi-colored ones are so pretty. 3 years ago I noticed hyacinths that I had planted in other parts of the garden were blooming at the same time as the bi-colored daffs. I actually made a plan and bought the pretty yellow and pink hyacinths to plant next to the daffs for the next years spring. Oh well, "best laid plan..." and all that.

February bleakness (my garden never completely goes away):

Beautiful snow fell on the garden in early March. It was so pretty. Just a very light dusting. Looked like fairies had spinkled the garden with sugar!

Today I planted the big urn, but my camera's battery gave out so I will have to save a posting of if it for another day.

Chores:

This week I finished putting out composted manure on the garden. I didn't have enough to spread all over, so I just heaped it around each individual plant - except for the bearded iris; I remembered reading somewhere that they don't like manure (or was it mushroom compost? - now I can't remember).

I made several notes to myself last year for this spring and I've been trying to get the list done.

I moved the phlox around. I am in the process of grouping some of the coneflowers that have come up from seeds - they are sprinkled all over the garden and I want to get them together. I moved one of my sedums over. I removed the alliums (time to replant with fresher bulbs I think).

I planted the big urn. They had the purple fountain grass out early this year. Usually it doesn't show up in the garden centers until April, so I was able to get it planted in the urn. I'm going for the same arrangement as last years - only for spring I'll plant alyssum to drape until I can get varigated sweet potato vine and coleus.

Lots still to do. I'll be having a week off work the second week of April. I can't wait!

IT'S THE END OF THE SEASON

And I couldn't be happier with the way things have grown this year! Here is how the garden looked in August:



















Because the garden doesn't get a lot of direct sun, I have to find plants that do well in shade. I decided to try and use annuals in the front of the garden for season-long color. I was so happy with how it turned out. Along the front of the border I have several impatience. They did okay until about half way through August. It got so hot (ten days in a row of over 100 degrees) that they had a hard time recupperating in the evening. I eventually cut them way back, but they never really bounced back.






















In the picture below you can see the urn. It's planted with Purple Fountain Grass, pink impatience and a varigated sweet potatoe plant. In the rear it has coleus. I love the grass with it's pink plumes. One thing I need to learn is how to pinch plants better. The impatience in the urn got very leggy. It's easy to pinch foliage plants, but I just don't quite get plants with blooms on them. I can't figure out if you're supposed to pinch the bloom off along with the leaves. Any advice???? Notice the pretty pink plant in the middle of the border - it's a pink caldium and it has been a powerhouse all summer. It never skipped a beat, even during the hot weather. I am going to try to save the tubers for next year. I want to have it in several places in the border. It looked so pretty with the yellow coreopsis that was blooming next to it.




















Here's a closeup of it. See how pretty it looks with the coreopsis. I like the balloon flower, too.


























Next up will be plans for next year. I've got a little shade garden that needs some cleanup!

JUNE GARDEN

Testing again. June Pictures

This year I planted annuals along the front, and I am so very pleased with them. They have brought some much needed color. Next I'll show you my urn.

Beginning Anew

Welcome to my garden journal. Just testing for now. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Early Spring. Money Penny in full bloom with the dogwoods. Shame on me for not having my urn planted!

I love the deep, dark woods, they add such mystery to my garden.

The money penny came from seed from my mom. I've been growing them for about 20 years. I think it is such a beautiful color with the spring greens. Tulips are usually in bloom during this time, but for some reason, mine didn't have a good showing this year. I spent a fortune on them too. I guess the weird weather got to them this year. you can just see the black tulips on the left there.


Next up are the bearded iris. I don't get much direct sunlight - about 2 hours a day. Still, I get a
decent bloom on the iris. Nothing like it would be if there was full sun.


I used to have some Thrift (phlox) and it looked really pretty with the iris. I need to think about buying more. It looks pretty haning over the rocks.

Next I'll post pictures of June and July. They were beautiful months.