The daylilies here are almost done blooming. With the exception of the Marque Moon daylilies, which are still blooming, I have trimmed all the daylily scapes that don’t have seed pods, so far. It was an easy job. Our pollinators have been very busy this year, on multiple varieties. Those seeds will go toward making more daylily blooms for up north pollinators, in 3, 4, 5 years. Patience needed.
Category: Daylilies
That’s not a weed
It might be time to move some more things if your association landscape maintenance company repeatedly blows the daylilies so hard the petals come off,
and even sometimes the flowers break off the stem,
and you watch one of the workers try to pull a mature daylily up as if it’s a weed.
This is what it looked like before – mature enough to bloom.
This is what it looks like now
leaves ripped to the ground
This is what the coneflower looks like now – stems broken, petals sheared off.
No question about what happened. I watched from inside as it happened.
I had planned to leave a bunch of the plants I have bought and raised from seed here, as they have thrived here and many people have enjoyed them, but they are just getting destroyed.
It is very sad. I may need a bigger garden up north.
Catch Up Time
It was a season of daylily abundance here. Day after day there were 30+ daylilies blooming everywhere I looked. An incredible treat coming out of a now mature daylily garden.
Up north at the little reno house, success! It doesn’t look like much in pictures, the front porch needs love, and the old shed needs paint, but the deer are now staying away from the new plantings. What worked? It could be that our dog likes to “leave his calling card” right outside the “entrance” to the two areas, or it could be the mulch. Time will tell.
So after so much trial and error with up north gardens in the past 3 years, how did I settle on what to do? It was actually a “happy accident”.
The association board at the townhouse (from which I am now retired), decided to have all rock gardens between the garages pulled out and replaced with asphalt. In the rock garden between our garage and the neighbor’s garage there was some history I decided to preserve. There were rocks from a previous neighbor’s parents’ farm that we had used to keep the landscape rock somewhat contained, and there was an alpine current bush that my father had given me 15 years ago that had thrived there, providing many a happy day for our neighborhood birds. The rocks went up north in two batches in big bins (which are now quite beat up from the weight but oh well, it’s for the new garden!).
For the foundation, because the soil at that little house is rocky and needs some gardening love, I chose to do a modified lasagne garden, putting a layer of heavy cardboard down on the very old lawn, adding soil where needed, securing the cardboard in place with the rocks, and putting a good 6″ of mulch on top of that. I worked the cardboard around the plantings. Then I trimmed the areas with the smaller rocks.
Because I was tentative on how well things would work, and because the results of my previous up north gardens were less than optimal, I built in sections. I brought up plants from things that needed dividing or saving from the townhouse gardens. The Rainforest Sunrise hosta needed to come out of one of the areas in the townhouse garden because it was getting crowded. The shrub start was from rootings off the alpine currant that was removed. The sedum were cuttings and divisions. The daylilies were from last year’s purchases and plantings, and the daylily seedlings were from last year’s Purple D’Oro seed harvest.
The plants I put in before I decided on the modified lasagne method took a bit of a hit from the deer, but since I put the mulch in the deer have left everything alone. Fingers crossed.
There is so much more that needs to go up in the next 8 weeks. Two trellises went up because we had to replace the ac at the townhouse. The new ac unit was bigger, necessitating the removal of the trellises. I cut back that clematis, and it will be moved next. Beyond that, the Blue Mouse Ears desperately need dividing, a Patriot Hosta has really burned this year in the landscape rock and drought and needs moving, and I should move some crowded hostas out of the area across the path from the weigelia. That will probably fill the current garden up at the little house, and then I will finish putting the rest of the mulch in. After that, sleep new little garden. Rest up for next year.
New daylily blooms this year
This year I have some new daylily blooms in the garden. A couple of years ago I bought 3 Pink Tirzah daylilies. Two were planted here and one up north. One of the Pink Tirzah daylilies got buds this year and is now blooming.
The name Tirzah means ‘She is my delight”. Indeed, another delightful addition to the garden.
A Tale of Three Gardens
There is something about an early morning walk in the garden that stirs the soul, makes the mind relax, evokes thankfulness. Wait, define garden.
Sunday morning, after having been up to the land that is now designated “camping”, I thought, “Why do I enjoy an early morning walk there, but not through our extended neighborhood in town?” I used to. So off I went, sans dog who declined the opportunity.
Once I got going, I decided to take an old route. That route is a tad bittersweet. It is past an area that used to be a beautiful long garden on an edge of one of the park areas. The original homeowner who was adjacent to the park area had petitioned the city to plant a beautiful garden there and invested quite a bit of time and energy. It was a delight to many, and I was one. When the original owner of that beautiful garden moved, the new homeowner did not have the same love for gardening. It began to return to a wilder look. For a while I spent time on the weekends trying to maintain it. In the end, although my mind wanted to save it, my body could not. Working away from the home during the weekdays, and having other weekend responsibilities, it was just too big of a project. I took time to heal my body after pushing it way too hard, nature marched on, and eventually I altered my walking path to avoid that garden. I remembered its prior beauty and had a hard time watching it return to wild. That was quite a few years ago.
This morning I decided to walk by that area. It has returned to it’s natural state. It is a different look. Not bad, just different. Whatever thrives, dominates. And the weeds and lilac bushes won.
Enter garden one – on our “camping” land. It is many years past my experience with the park garden. My perception has changed because my personal gardening experiences have broadened. Evidenced by tens of thousands of ferns that thrive and dominate the “camping” land, there is not much chance of keeping a cultivated garden without daily care. Goodness knows I tried! But I have made peace with that. We cut the living area back in May – September so I don’t (hopefully) get a tick born illness (again) and we enjoy the natural state. We bought it in a natural state, I tried to tame a small portion to exercise my hobby, and I lost. That trial.
Enter garden two – Back to the townhouse neighborhood. “Goodness!”, I thought on my Sunday morning walk, “Our lawns, our trees are looking mature this year.” Two weeks ago many of the trees were still budding. The cherry trees were blooming and a delightful treat. Now they are wrapping up and the maples and lindens are starting to shine. I cannot claim working on those. They are the work of hired professionals on behalf of the association. But I enjoy them immensely. A different kind of enjoyment than the “camping” land.
The gardens at our townhouse are also thriving. The hostas, daylilies and sedum are my daily effort, and are continuously cultivated. The large amount of rain we had this week, along with warm temperatures for a few days in a row made the garden flourish. Literally things tripled in a matter of a week. Including the carpet of maple seedlings, which I will also “cultivate” – right into compost.
It’s all good.
I would like to move more of the townhouse garden to garden three but … we have deer … bedding in the back yard … at the tiny little house we plan to retire to … some time … to be determined. Maybe it’s good that they don’t seem to like a little area where I hid a Rainforest Sunrise hosta? It is 9′ x 7′ there. Is that nature’s way of reining in my gardening endeavors for the future? Out front of that little house I lovingly planted sedum this spring. Morning one after planting, I looked outside to see if the deer had feasted overnight. “Success!” I tentatively claimed. Morning two? Yah. Not “Success!” And the same with the five daylilies we planted there. They will all have to move to the 9′ x 7′ area.
So that is the tale of my three “gardens”. I’m learning with each new experience. One could say I’m actually down to two gardens now. Except for the iris and daffodils that are naturalizing at the “camping” land, the rest remains wild.
I wonder sometimes – when we move to the little house, will the daily maintained gardens at the townhouse remain in a tended state? I hope they will. Time will tell. Time a little ways out yet. We just welcomed our first grandbaby. Gotta hang around the townhouse neighborhood for a little while yet.
Hanging on to summer
Last week it felt like fall, but it was still summer. This week it feels like summer, but it is now fall. And so it will go, as the days get shorter and cooler and the gardens here slowly begin their rest. For now, though, the pollinators are still happy – our sedum are in full bloom.
And at the little house up north, five daylilies have been added to a yard absolutely devoid of any plantings. A completely blank slate front, back, and sides. Only an old lawn and a couple trees. Mind is going, but for this year, while other projects are prioritized, this humble fall planting will have to do. A little sunny corner to make a start. Next spring I’ll pull the grass, the first bit of lawn to be replaced by the start of the gardens.
First daylily seeds 2020
Today was a garden workday. There was trimming and weeding to do, pulling gladiolas out and getting them ready for storage, even repotting an orchid that is languishing. And then I found it – the first daylily seed pod to open. Only 3 seeds, but there are many more pods on scapes getting ready.
And then there was one
The last Marque Moon daylily bloomed today.
It used to be the last of the daylily blooms in the garden, but this year there is one Just Plum Happy scape that has some buds left.
The daylily season is wrapping up.
Recycle?
As part of deciding to let our gardening “start” up north naturalize, I am trying to decide if we should pull the steel raised bed garden frames and use them in the garden at the new (to us) house.
There is currently no garden or landscaping at all at the new house. It is unusual for me to consider a no garden yard, but I’m excited at the possibilities. There are both sunny and shade covered areas so my current style of sticking mostly to hostas, daylilies and sedum is the plan. Some grading will be needed, as there are gutters but no downspouts – another unusual idea for me – but I have read that some folks think it is better to even forego any gutters and just grade and rock away from the house. For us, the gutters will stay, but whether or not downspouts will be part of the long-term plan is not certain.
During this interesting year, it is very hard to find contractors who are not swamped. People are apparently keeping quite busy with home projects. The earliest we can get a contractor out to grade and rock is mid-October. That means … no landscaping up by the house this year. What to do?
I have already ordered 9 distinctly different daylilies for the new house (couldn’t resist, and I want them in the ground this fall …). They are all ones I don’t have in our current gardens. My pending decision? I’m thinking of pulling the raised bed garden frames from the overgrown – ahem “naturalized” – gardens up north in September, and starting a border garden along the back edge of the lawn at the new house. Last year we also bought recycled tin (from an old barn roof) for projects up north, and I could continue the metal vibe in the new house garden next spring if I still like it.
So, being true to us, potentially reusing the unneeded frames, testing on a smaller scale before going wider, and using the recycled tin if we like the metal look down the road are all wins. Now we’ll see exactly how much work it is to implement. Maybe there could even be a “take 2” on the hugelkulture test?
All just on paper right now. Implementation is a month out. Lots of time to consider all options.
Meanwhile, here, the Rainforest Sunrise hostas (some of my faves) are starting to get their scapes, a lovely red with purple flowers. Out front they are overcrowded. They need to come out of there this fall and be divided. Maybe go in the corner of the yard at the new house, where it gets afternoon shade?
Right on the edge of crisp
August is one of those months – the daylilies wrap up, but the hostas are super full. The days are shortening, but the morning air is right on the edge of crisp – perfect! The crickets sing and the monarchs start showing up much more, but the robins are scarce again. The feeling starts to turn the corner into fall, but with plenty of warm days still on the horizon.
I have noticed once again I don’t have a lot of mid to late August blooms in the garden. I need to do something about that. I have also noticed I have plenty of weeding and trimming to do in the garden after a couple very busy past weekends, and I need to do something about that.
A few weeks ago I accepted a more challenging role at work, and at the same time we started to really think about how we want to downsize again and work on some more bucket list items. This whole year and all its events have brought priorities into sharper focus. So my thoughts are turning again to simplifying the things we can so we are able to amplify the things that nurture us. It is once again a time of both weeding out and filling in.
Susan's Daily Garden 