Author: susansdailygarden

Survival Rates

Last Saturday was a springboard to glorious garden time days. I could not resist being out in the front gardens. Sunday morning the gardens out back also got some love.

The snow melted very fast and is now gone – even the giant snow plow pile. A very odd feeling after such a LONG SNOWY winter, but it is time! We may have another snow or two, but just like early fall, they melt pretty fast.

The perennial survival rates are good so far.

All of the sedum made it through the winter, and have new leaf buds forming. The non-productive tulips out front are also up, as well as one daylily.

Out back, the Purple D’Oro and Just Plum Happy daylilies are poking up, the two areas with productive tulips, crocus, and on one side hyacinth are up, and … the Blue Mouse Ears are starting to poke up!

Under the Linden, the Marque Moon daylilies are coming up.

No asian lilies, and no big hostas yet, but that is super normal.

With the Amur Maple situation out front, whether or not they replace the tree, our shade will be compromised, so I am very glad I did not put any Blue Mouse Ears divisions in front where there used to be shade.

Look super closely. A few days ago these were the Purple D’Oro daylilies. Just a tiny sprig of green.

Here they are a few days later.

Two days ago the South Seas daylily popped up.

And the Marque Moon daylilies are starting to come up.

Things will start filling in and covering the rock quickly now.

Coffee Time

Every year, as the perennials emerge, they get a haircut from anything I left for the birds over the winter. Then they get a sprinkling of coffee grounds around them. Not to wake it up, but to keep the slugs away. I started that years ago, and it has served the garden well. The holes we get on leaves each year since then are usually after the Japanese beetles hatch.

Last Saturday I gave the sedum out front haircuts. Then I sprinkled them with coffee grounds. There were also the tulips and one daylily starting to pop up, and they got some coffee grounds love too. May as well. Can’t hurt, I don’t think …

The tulip and crocus areas out back also got the coffee treatment. Hoping it deters sir bunimous from chomping down. If not, I have an all natural powder I buy. It worked at the little house up north to deter deer and bunnies. The downside of that is it looks not so pretty, and it is only good through a couple rains. Hopefully the coffee grounds will work and it won’t be needed.

Tulips

The runner-up to the first green of the season was a clump of tulips out front, the one below I am guessing they are the ones that do not bloom, but maybe they will surprise us. Later on Saturday I found another tulip shoot up, and a tiny daylily shoot.

Then on Easter Sunday morning I found the snow had melted enough to uncover yesterday’s pics. So they got first sharing. Those will probably also bloom, if sir bunimous does not get them first. I have, hopefully, a solution for that. Post upcoming.

Last few days

My husband and I tremendously enjoy the dark-eyed juncos that come to stay in the winter. It is always such a treat when we see the first ones, and always a bit bittersweet when we realize they are leaving. They migrate north in the summer.

We are seeing much less of the big pine tree’s dark-eyed junco flock these days. Bon voyage, friends! See you next winter!

And the winner is …

The winner of the first “green” spotted in the gardens at the townhouse is …

a sedum!

More to come.

70s ahead.

The amur maple and broken off limb are still sitting in the front yard 😂 The birds and squirrels have been seen sitting around the broken off branch – easy seed eatings, right?

A volunteer opportunity came along today, for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. (Angels sing)

Sooooooo tempted!!! It is even one of those opportunities where I can use my 16 hours of paid volunteer time through work! (That’s how I heard about it 🙂 ) The date listed right now is smack dab in the middle of a busy work week next week though. Still sooooo tempted. To be even a tiny part of that glorious place and love on the plants and be around others who love it and share and learn from and with them? (angels sing again!) Please believe me when I say I love and have loved that place since the kids were very young and we lived 10 minutes away and took them there to exhaust them – lol. Work events there, church events there, anniversaries there. And oh how it has grown! Contemplating. Seriously contemplating. Last time we were there I was actually jealous of the people weeding and working with the plants! It is just quite a drive now to get there. But still contemplating.

Did I say I am SERIOUSLY contemplating? Maybe a Saturday thing.

Funny story time

I am constantly editing what is in our home. But believe me, I did not always have that time. Stuff collected – intended and unintended. I say my husband is a Leverite – puts something down and leaves ‘er right there – but believe me , I do the same. I just hide the stuff in storage cabinets – lol. Oh, and I have to give credit. I did not come up with the Leverite. I heard it in a sermon. Truly 🙂

Onwards …

Last weekend I decided it was time to go through the Easter “shelf” in the storage closet. Oh, my, goodness. About 1/2 had nothing to do at all with Easter. This sweet little candle holder is an example. Back in the day I started something with my sisters that we would trade off buying matching Christmas ornaments. One year I was more adventurous and bought this – not an ornament, but it does have a hanger, right? Love!!!

How this got on the Easter shelf? I think I remember keeping it out after Christmas, thinking I would burn it during contemplation time. But it was so strongly scented! So I thought I would use it outside on the patio, but it kept blowing out. In the cabinet it went, until this past weekend.

When I saw it I remembered the strong scent. But then I had a moment. I could remove the strongly scented wax and put in a taper. So I did. All went well. Until I thought, whoa! that flame is high! And the wick is not reducing. I put it out. We trimmed it. But the taper got so hot in the glass I put it back out.

Still, I love the way the holder looks. Maybe I can get a flameless, very short, batter-operated candle.

Not giving up. Not yet.

So what about those seeds?

So much has happened in the past 6 months. We decided the little house on the north shore, although a long-term bucket list experience, was not a long-term option, we condensed all the things we had up there and let go of a lot of that as well. Soon after, my husband went hunting and came home with a really bad case of influenza A that laid him up for weeks. In Feb we went on our first ever planned “down south” vacation, had an absolutely fabulous, peaceful, relaxing time – and then came home with COVID immediately after. I have heard it said, and it seems to be true, the “stories” are in the unusual, the unplanned, the whackadoodle.

Now it is spring, and it is time, once again for outdoor time. Thoughts turn again to the gardens. I am going to try out the whackadoodle theory with the daylily seeds.

Last year I once again harvested our pollinator created daylily seeds. Hundreds are viable and have been in the refrigerator for many weeks (for stratification). At the end of April/early May I will sow them directly into soil in pots, where they will stay, and hopefully germinate and grow, for the summer, in the covered seedling planter – because we have cute little diggers with grey furry tails. In the fall, whatever did well will graduate to our tiny little seedling garden here, and whatever seedlings from last fall made it through the winter and spring and summer will go — up north.

I know, I know. But they are bird and butterfly created, and I have decided I do not want to leave them in the townhouse gardens. So up north they will go, in a sunny spot, that gets a decent amount of natural watering, and hasn’t seemed to have attracted deer munching – at least on the bulbs we have planted there so far. The deer have plenty of osier, and we also have hundreds of pictures from our trail cams of the deer eating the abundant wildflowers. They LOVE them! I do have daffodils to deter eating in that area in spring, and I will plant other deterrents as well. If I can, I will see about a fence with a gate. But that may be down the road a bit. Short-term, I am letting them go, to blossom in their natural environment with woods floor mulch.

My joy with harvesting seeds is in the activity. The seeds, if left unharvested, would have become bird or squirrel food. They are progressing farther. And if something weird, or funny, or just plain whackadoodle happens along the way, I will share 🙂