Author: susansdailygarden

At the historic cemetery

Tomorrow is our spring equinox. Yahoo! True, that actually means very little regarding the gardens. We could still have a big snowstorm. But it is time to start doing garden cleanup, both here at the townhome, and at the historic cemetery.

Every spring, after I reconnect, and fall in love with the gardens all over again, my mind goes all Product Manager. At the historic cemetery, the fence garden is the Product. I have an analysis, and it is time for an action plan. And, frankly, to be the most efficient, I put a plan together so I don’t get over there and go into a dreamy state, which, of course, is the joy of every gardener ~ just looking at what’s going on, right? But there is work to be done so a plan is needed. Dreamy can happen at the end of a work session.

So what is the data telling me?

The ground cover needs to be under observation. I didn’t put it in so I am still learning its features and growth cycles. It does look like quite a bit of winter kill on the ground cover, but hopefully it will revive.

The birds did not do much with the black-eyed Susans I left for seed food. The stems just bent and broke and fell over, and are just laying in the garden. Black-eyed Susans set seed so easily, and although they are definitely a fan fave over there with those who walk by, as the Product Manager (the volunteer help lol) I am the one who has to maintain them, and they are … a lot. Yah, we will just say it that way. So, if the birds want some black eyed Susan seed next winter, it will all be in a pile in our compost area and they are welcome to it. 😂 For now, what I left stand for the winter needs to be cut back right away, and I need to watch for volunteer seedlings (scope creep).

The bunnies seem to have enjoyed most of the sedum I left stand, but there are some tall sedum they didn’t eat, and I need to cut that back to make way for new growth.

The last part of cleanup will be the iris bed, and any other remnants.

Then it will be time for the mulch topper. The mulch bed was GORGEOUS last year, very healthy, and rewarding me with much less weeding. Annual toppings should do it from here on out.

Here are some pics of early greens already popping up

Farther out ~

We do have the old overgrown weedy garden inside the gate to contend with this year. It is possible that garden will be dug up and moved to a historic estate in town. If not, this is the year it goes. It gets pretty nasty with bugs (think tall grass and wood ticks), and even snakes. I don’t mind snakes, they are beneficial, but I prefer not to cultivate an environment where they hide. Come out and sun yourselves, no problem. I will steer clear. But bottom line, maybe younger, more flexible, hiding bug and snake loving volunteers could do it, but this grandma? Nope. There is a better way. Lawn mowers 😂 This is the year it goes. Yeay!

Additionally, last year was the major planting year. The garden is fully planted, with no room left for additions. Another yeay! The space that looks like emptiness right now needs to be there for the new plantings to establish and expand. However … if things die off, new things can be put in, like daylily seedlings from crosses lol. OK, and maybe some carefullly chosen new daylilies. Yah, high probability stuff that dies will give their space to new daylilies. Already have a buying list. Just in case.

So that is the kick off point for the historic cemetery garden this year. There are also other projects there too, like removing a plastic border and putting in bricks, but that will be down the road, maybe in May when the wooded area ground dries out a bit so the bricks can be retrieved, as they are the remains of the vault. But that is another day’s blog. Hint – very little hardscaping gets wasted.

A lesson on daffodils

I use daffodils as a digger deterrent. Yes, they are very pretty, but even if they don’t bloom, diggers don’t like them, so they stay away from the daylilies and sedum and hostas I plant with daffodils.

Bulb forcing is pretty easy, and you can save a boatload of money by doing it yourself. Buying forced bulbs in a container like a plant pot or a glass forcing vase – oh so expensive. And I remember those days, driving to the garden store, maybe they aren’t out yet, …. Nowadays, I force daffodils, because I have them. If you are wondering about other spring bulbs, I don’t force tulips or hyacinth because I don’t have leftovers because they don’t do well enough to plant them here. But, suffice to say, experience from a while back has validated for me:

* tulips and hyacinth seldom bloom after forcing.
* grape hyacinth and daffodils, on the other hand, do quite well.

What to do when forced daffodils bloom? At first they look very nice ~ for a day or so ~ and then they start to fall over like this:

At that point, it is super tempting to cut them. Which is exactly what I do a lot of the time. There is an art to when to cut the stems with the blooms. The best time to cut the stems is when it still is in a gooseneck position like this:

After all the blooms are cut and spent, the bulbs can go outside. And then they can be planted as soon as the ground is thawed. They will not bloom again that year, but they should bloom the next. I bring them up north, and plant them in an area where all of our forest daffodils get planted. They do pretty well, even with the deer. No guarantees, of course, but if they don’t survive, then they add to the soil of that garden.

So, there you have it ~ daffodils as a digger deterrent around new plantings and for early indoor blooms when the ground is still frozen or thawing.

First bloom

I present to you the first bloom of 2025 (if you don’t count the shamrocks)

Well, yes, it is St. Patrick’s Day, and I do have a smidge of Irish, and I did marry an Irishman ‘o so many years ago, and we did have an Irish terrier (sweet Darby ❤️) so, for St. Patrick’s Day, a shamrock bloom. From the plant that is overcrowded (or so I thought) 😊😘

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone ☘️

The Mahala Project

Join me this year as I start the Mahala project, an effort to bring a daylily cross, from seed to bloom, that personifies the historic accounts of the bold, yet incredibly hospitable first white woman settler to our area, who, with her husband ran a lodge that was frequented by a variety of common people – trappers, travelers, and Sioux alike. A woman who not only cooked a hog for her guests, but harvested it. Whose lodge was a log cabin with a hot kitchen that leaked.

The seed from the cross below will be the first attempt. It is from a 2024 cross at the townhome gardens. It will be at least a three year wait til bloom. A long game to be sure.

Other crosses will follow.

The fun has begun

It was a long off-season for the gardens, but season 2025 is here!

The daylily seeds were put into the refrigerator on February 4, and they will stay there until after Easter. Partially because my office now doubles as a part-time fill-in 3 year old’s “school” space ❤️, and turning it into a gardening nursery would be a stretch, and partially because one of the sets of the seeds may go to the historic cemetery. We shall see.

The forced daffodils also came out of the garage on February 4th. February 4th was a big day 😊 It took them a while, but the first bud is now starting to go to bloom.

Much more to come. The sedum and daylilies are starting to poke up, extra stuff is happening at the historic cemetery, and I will fill you in on additional garden projects planned for this year.
Until next time ..

Sweet Dreams, Sweet Gardens

If gardens have dreams, I wish ours the sweetest.
Yesterday I cut back the last of our small hostas at the townhome, along with the short sedum, and a few daylily greens. It is now full slumber time approaching for those gardens. Today I cut back the remaining hostas, some irises, some very small sedum, and some daylilies at the historic garden. Again today, all the people who came by in the short hour I was there were so thankful and kind. Do gardens positively add to quality of life? Absolutely!
Tonight, I mostly have a sense of “well done”, personally and for all who helped, and I have very fond memories of a very full garden season. I am a bit sad. It will be six months until the garden pops again. But it was a wonderful good garden season this year. And for that I am thankful.

To have fun until the forced bulbs start to push up and until it is time to plant the well over 100 seeds from the daylily crosses I did this year, I have started an indoor garden, on either side of my office desk.

The purple shamrocks I divided and I thought I killed – nope. Back in full force. And the green shamrocks I thought I accidentally froze out and was going to divide like the purple shamrocks – back in full force. Tonight the shamrocks rest but tomorrow they will be back open. I am also going to try to get the orchid to bloom. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. Most sincere thanks to all who have served so selflessly. Your service is genuinely appreciated.




Crazy Good

It is the end of the gardening season, the middle of the fall, time to enjoy the turning of seasons, and time for a little reflection.

Of course, top of mind, I poured myself into two garden endeavors this year – the daylily crosses and refining and filling up the garden at the historic cemetery.
Of all the daylily crosses I did this year, a whim was the most successful – Pink Tirza X red daylily. 8 seed pods, 60 seeds! What I will do with 60 seedlings of just that cross, I have no idea. And that is just one cross of many this year. I ended up with well over a hundred viable looking seeds, “looking” being the key. The first three hurdles have been passed – successful cross, seed pod survived to maturity, and healthy looking seed. All the seeds are in storage now. But there is much more to go, and at least a few years to see what I got.

This is always a tough transition for me. Friends go south, gardens go to sleep, way more time indoors … but I could probably use a little rest.

And let’s not forget the cabin, yes the cabin. While I was crossing daylilies to make new ones, and doing year 2 at the historic cemetery, my husband was turning an Amish built shed into a cabin. What was just an idea 5 years ago – a brain child out of watching too many videos that looked way too easy, and a long time idea of “something up north” – is now a cabin. Not the Taj Mahal. Not a cabin on a lake – we are terra firma people – but nevertheless a cabin. Yes, crazy stuff. Still an outhouse. Still bears, and wolves, and coyotes, a porcupine, a bard owl, at least one bobcat, deer, bunnies, mice (sorry mice, saying buh-bye to you), red squirrels, grouse, lots of birds, even a nest on the shed porch this spring. But now also a cabin. Better be careful. Maybe a well is next. You never know the crazy stuff we might do.


And the garden at the historic cemetery! Wowsywowsywow! That changed me as a person! It renewed in me that people really do appreciate things. Not everybody – I’m talking to you dog owners lol. Cute as they are, that garden is not for Fourpeds! But by and large, the support has been INCREDIBLE!!!
And, 100% transparent, not absolutely every harvested seed is in storage. I could not resist harvesting one pod from the Stellas at the historic cemetery. For a friend. Not for me. So far. There are still pods that are maturing. Actually, there are still buds that are blooming. Probably because I removed the pods as they formed. We do have a good crop of pollinators over there so I suspect it will an ongoing discipline to remove the pods as they form so we get season-long bloom.

So onwards! No choice, right? The fall candles are being burned, the cozy home stuff is coming out, the garden is going to sleep, the shrubs are being trimmed, the hummingbird feeders are down, soon the garden pretties will come in and be stored, and the seedling box, and eventually the lawn furniture and firepit. But the pictures are available and the fireplace has already been started up, and there are adventures ahead.

For tonight, I started putting button batteries in the tea lights, and I lit a woodsy candle and drank hot cocoa. Fall is definitely here.

Harvesting daylily seeds, planting last two pots of seedlings, starting the fall cutback, migrations

The daylily seed harvest is wrapping up. This year I have eight different types that survived the bunnies, squirrels, and sprinklers. Two are self seed and one is an “unknown” after a save from critter curiosity. That leaves five, and the daylily seedling box fits five pots, so, whew! we probably don’t need to put an addition on the daylily seedling “inn” next spring. After discovering what looks like a self seed, self plant, seedling bloom (more on that at the end), I now have a much greater level of confidence that the self seeds and unknowns can go straight into the ground in May. Where they will go, I have no idea. We are choc-a-block full. Time will tell.

The “countdown to season end” planting and transplanting list is also done, and early at that, as the daylily shipment came earlier than I expected. That sprint was something else! Very rewarding, but very exhausting.

After the linden trimming brought a previously shaded area back into the sun, there was no more room for Blue Mouse Ears hostas. I ended up planting the two remaining Blue Mouse Ears hosta divisions into the historic cemetery garden. A little worse for wear after sitting in the garage for a week and a half, but better than to the compost pile.

I hope they make it. They are such a beautiful hosta, and it would be nice to have them in that garden.

All of the other plantings I have put into the historical cemetery, save the clematis that never bloomed and eventually died, are doing well. The sedum rootings are even blooming pink. And the baby daylily pieces are sprouting new fans. For all of that, I am thankful. They love the sun, and the mulch seems to keep them in enough moisture.

I also started the fall cutback at the historic cemetery – the largest patch of Black-Eyed-Susans, the remainder of the milkweed, some irises, and more hosta scapes.

At the townhome gardens, the garden is starting to look more like fall. I decided the little scarecrows would be fun to be put out again this year. I almost feel like they could use some little hay bales. But I don’t do hay (achoo!!!) so … Blue Mouse Ears will have to do.

Sadly, the hummingbirds are pretty much done coming through and we will soon take down the feeders. There are enough flowers for late travelers. They have really loved the second bloom of the Weigelia this year (below) as well as the late blooming Rainforest Sunrise hosta.

The huge flocks of small migrating birds have also wound down. We have been seeing quite a few butterflies now, so we are assuming that is also migration. And seagulls! I wonder if we just never noticed them before here. We had flocks of them at our little house in the mining town on Lake Superior, but never here.
I am thinking that soon the dark eyed juncos will arrive for the winter.

So time is marching on. But for today, on this beautiful fall day, a day of PTO from work, I will just putz in the garden, enjoy what looks like our last week before the cooler weather, and look at our newest addition – totally unplanned, unplanted, a full on surprise until I saw the buds last week and the bloom today – “Panache”. We are calling her Panache because she appears to be a reversion to the grandparents of Just Plum Happy, the daylily in that space. Welcome to our garden, Panache! You are the new latest blooming daylily here!