Category: Garden

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It has been a bonanza time for me in the various gardens. I have an oft-used saying – “Talk is not do”. I have soooo been in the flow of “do” I had no momentum to “talk” much. On the blog at least – lol.

The gardens at the townhouse are starting to approach their very full time. The spring blooms, even including the clematis, have wrapped up. The pine trees candled out, the linden is about to bloom, the weigelia is blooming, and the first hosta is blooming.

The “clover”, which I think is Yellow Wood Sorrel, has lived it’s usefulness as blooms for the bees, and has been plucked for the season. The bunnies do not eat those flowers like they do the white clover.

The Asian lilies are about to bloom.

There are now 20 daylily seedlings sprouted from last year’s pollinator created seed, all of which will need a home in the seedling bed this fall. The daylily seedlings from last year are all growing, and the 2-5 year daylily seedlings (that didn’t go to the little house up north we owned for a couple years) all need to go to the (camping/hunting) land up north, or to the historic cemetery fence garden. (The daylilies in the iris bed appear to be bunny food there.).

At the land up north, the camper will be moved next weekend to make way for trees to be cut, ground to be levelled, class 5 to be laid down, and the incoming shed to cabin conversion to be moved into place. Yikes! Here we go again with a build out. I am told that from the (shed) cabin I will have the view to the garden that I requested. I may have some thinking to do on a strategy to keep the ferns out. Plastic may be deployed. We shall see. One thing is for certain – the “I wish I had that money back” steel raised bed gardens with expensive black dirt on top of hugelculture turned to ferns 😂 is out. It has to be, as that is where the camper will be for a year or two while retired hubs builds out the interior of the (shed) cabin.

What else is going on?

The long fence garden at the historic cemetary is getting a rock to mulch makeover. The old rock is slowly being hand-picked and removed to a pile for donation, and bags and bags of beautiful mulch are replacing the rock. Sweaty work for all, and no lawn chair relaxing like at the townhouse, but wow! Looks awesome! Many hands are at that work through the week, which is absolutely heartwarming! We garden for fun, but also for our neighbors, and I seriously have lost track of the number of people who are complementing as they walk by. The other ladies have exactly the same types of stories.

Little by little. The hostas are all now protected, as well, and the work is beginning to finish and fill in the remainder of one side.

The iris bed at the historic cemetary will be a fall “stretch” opportunity. Those can go into the fence garden too, little by little. And we keep getting offers of divisions as donations. All in good time and proper sun/shade planting. That garden has such potential, with all the offers of divisions donations, to be a wall of beautiful season-long perennials.

We do have an unfamiliar to me weed there. I downloaded an app to try to identify it, but what the app is returning doesn’t seem right. It is a clumpy upright weed with bulblets. This coming week, on Juneteenth, a plant expert is coming to the historic mansion for the annual rain garden consultation, and I hear they can identify weeds. I plan to ask them. For now, we are plucking that harvest. I doubt they were intentional. See below for my rationale – this dandy is growing between the sidewalk and the base of the retaining wall.

What else?

We miss the front tree, kind of. The daylilies we transplanted from the shade to the sun last year are loving the full sun. We will wait to see what the association does – replace the tree or not.

And the rain gardens at the historic mansion are so full I have just put that on hold while I work on the fence garden at the historic cemetery. All that really can be done there right now is weed the perimeter, which a few of the ladies are doing when they have time. Those will be a next year and following deeper dive. They do have potential, but will be on more of a late fall and very early spring cadence for those opportunities.

The jalapenos at the townhouse had a bit of a squirrel issue which is being resolved, and I am rooting 3 wiegelia cuttings and some clematis cuttings just for kicks. We’ll see if they take.

So that is the “gardens all over” catch up.

Things may be a bit spotty as we are also on the one month watch and hang close to town ask before grandbaby two arrives. You know how that goes – grandbabies trump gardens for sure! Gotta keep our priorities straight 💓

Almost

The tulip, crocuses, grape hyacinth, and Blue Bells clematis are are done blooming. The pink clematis is holding on to the prize for current blooming,

but the weigelia is starting to take over.

That clematis used to have double trellises, but when we replaced the air conditioner (and furnace) in 2021 it had to be moved because the new box was much larger. The trellises went to the little house up north and stayed there when it was sold.

I like the trailing look in late spring, but I am considering a clematis re-plant option. Time will tell.

One more week for the clover to stay, and then it will be plucked. By then the weigelia will be in full bloom, with the hostas and Asian lilies not far behind, and the bees will have plenty to feast on after that.

In sad news, I made a recollection error when I thought the Tirzah x Marque Moon seed had sprouted. It has not. The pollinator created South Seas, Marque Moon, and, of course, Purple D’Oro have sprouted though. Still hopeful for the intentional cross. Time will tell.

Not “exactly” the look I was going for

Every year the clover comes up before the gardens really start to bloom. This year the clover is very healthy. It is not exactly the look I was going for, but there is nothing else for the bees right now, except the clematis. I will keep the clover for another week or so until we start to get some blooms elsewhere. That will probably be the Guacamole hosta and the Asian lilies first, and then the Elegans and Blue Mouse Ears hostas, before finally the daylilies.

That’s ok, Gramma still loves you

We are Grandparents to one sweet 2 year old, another on the way, and 4 very sturdy dogs. The kind of dogs where they do not, at all, get the “garden” concept – lol. When you are a dog, plants are targets, and, to be successful, getting the right footing to hit the target just right is pretty dog-gone important! Right? Sometimes they have to step on stuff. Sometimes it doesn’t spring back, and then later gets hits by the mower.

That’s ok. Around here we love our Grand-dogs wayyyy more than a hosta leaf. For absolutely sure! And now the baby bunnies have an opening to quickly identify a place to run and hide when the raptors visit.

All is good.

Mulch, glorious mulch

I have entered dangerous territory, going down a rabbit hole, contemplating rock vs mulch in the garden. For me, as an earth mama, rock is for accents, mulch is for plants. Landscape rock is supposed to be low maintenance, but in all reality, over time, it just looks gross, all full of non-rock stuff, as if nature itself is trying to cover it up. But … mulch requires maintenance, and if no one wants to do that, well then, rock, and routinely blow off the debris as much as possible, and call ‘er good.

Such is the dilemma.

I leave you with one of my happiest recent earth mama creations. This was at the little house up north by the shore of Lake Superior. I do so miss that yard. I loved to putz around there.

Garden cadence

The cadence of the garden continues. It is now tree seedling plucking time. Maples of different types, linden, and cherry. This year does seem lighter. Our Amur Maple threw a lot of seed, but not as much as I remember. I am thinking the squirrels harvested a lot. And now we will not have it going forward. We lost it in the big ice and heavy snow storm. I am tempted to save one seedling. We will see.

Usually I get seven buckets like this. I doubt we will have more than two this year.

Just about the time each year that I am plucking tree seedlings, the pines begin to show new growth (candles). I noticed today they are starting.

And the forget-me-nots are starting to bloom. They bloom on last year’s growth – they are biennial. I planted them the year my father-in-law passed, and they bring me great joy.

I am careful to keep them contained, as, like the joy they bring, they can take over a garden and move onto a lawn.

And today I moved the purple shamrock out from the protection of the patio, to it’s summer spot under the linden.

I am ready, and I know that after it goes through it’s normal transformation to being used to the outdoors, it will again look like this

Finally, it is time, I suppose, to cut the plastic back again from the base of the linden. She is so much bigger every year. I have toyed with moving to mulch in that area. Maybe next year. For a mulch garden spruce up at the historic cemetery is where I landed for my “all summer” project. But that will be a story for a different day.

Clematis bloom time

The crocus, grape hyacinth, and tulips have bloomed. The petals from the Mother’s Day tulip are on the ground turning to compost. The forget-me-nots are softening the stark rock look.

Attention now turns to the clematis blooms.

At the historic cemetery, the little clematis transplant is making itself at home. It is starting to wrap around the starter trellis. Made my plant mama heart very happy. I think it needs some mulch to keep the weeds at bay.

Sharing – chat style

I may have, from outward appearances, chosen poorly, and, I may regret the choice in the future, but I made a call regarding my planned PTO time this weekend, a celebratory weekend, to stay at the townhouse, even though it is going to rain, even though up north it is going to be beautiful clear skies. I should do “me time” up north, instead of only taking one day off and returning to working tomorrow on something that needs attention, but I just cannot seem to motivate to do all that is needed for a long weekend up north, and that tells me, I think, I need to go where the peace is right now, here. I think, if I am reading right, it is meant to be a garden sharing day.

Just so I don’t sound martyr-ish, full disclosure, leading up to this celebratory weekend, for a full six weeks, I gave myself permissions to choose my own gifts and have them show up at the house – glory!!! A cotton vintage floral throw I’ve been wanting, some peasant style tops, a pair of legacy style jeans, a set of toiletries, a wildflower scented candle, and 2 pairs of Walmart lounge outfits aka “jammies” – you know the kind with dog and coffee words as designs? That you can throw a zippered sweatshirt over the top and feel ok about wondering about the garden really early in the morning? Yah. Those. They are AWESOME!!! Regarding the “gifts” aspect, Hubs is totally cool with not trying to figure out what to buy me for gifts and having the charge alerts show up on my phone before the gifts do – always a weird thing, right? Been married a LONG time. Good with the “gifts” thing. We got this nicked.

So I have indulged. I am full, and good and apparently ready to garden share. Cuz that is where my heart landed for this celebratory day, and weekend.

I am sitting in my recliner, in one of those Walmart “lounge” outfits, having, as the lounge pants say “Coffee Time”, having a couple of the peppercocker cookies our DIL made me for my birthday (best gift, thank you!!! ❤️). I am listening to the squirrels alert about something or another. The birds started their morning chorus hours ago. Very loud today. I love it. I dozed off, dog on lap, and still, 90% asleep, was enjoying their singing. No need to rush into the day. A good use of PTO. A good day to share, and to share the garden, in a variety of ways.

Recently as a neighbor stopped by on her walk, she said she is looking forward to seeing what I do with the garden this year. Wow! It reminded me how we as gardeners go merrily along, enjoying the garden, its rolling cadence of fun activities, caught in moments, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, and not fully focused on the wider circle of joy the garden provides while we are enjoying it personally. Yes, we share because, well, we just have to share such goodness.

Sharing time is at a different level right now – that of sharing with other gardens. Two weeks ago I was wondering if I was going to have more empty space than I thought. This week as I watched the garden literally spring to life again, I saw that EVERYTHING was coming back. Even things I thought were gone. And some volunteers. To keep the garden pleasantly sharing joy, I need to share with other gardens – a clematis volunteer here, a cherry tree seedling there. Then, the view will be right, and right-sized, and the rolling beauty will continue, until, like vegetable harvesting in late summer, it is time to share at the giving away level again.

The giving away part is always a bit sad, and scary. What if next year’s garden really misses that, what if the new owner doesn’t care for the plant (and believe me, that happens), what if the new location for the shared plant is not conducive to continued healthy growth? But ultimately it does work out. I have a few regrets, I learn, but mostly I continue to believe in the beauty of sharing a garden. And volunteers are an easy choice to start with.

Sometimes, a “kid” comes home after a short stint in another garden. This beauty coming up is a Rainforest Sunrise hosta. One of my absolute favorites. Back when we thought we were going to ultimately move to the little house up north, I dug her up out of one of the townhouse garden areas and brought her up there. At first she seemed good, then “ok”, but when we sold that house, she needed to rebound. The no-see-um bugs were eating her foliage, and she was covered with ants. We dug her out, cleaned her up, and brought her back home, to the townhouse, to hang out again with all her peeps and shine.

Today, amid rain and thunder spurts, I think I will dig out a clematis volunteer that needs moving. She is, I think, the “child” of another clematis volunteer I need to find a trellis for. Her trellis went to the little house up north and did not come back. But the new volunteer needs new digs. Hopefully she will love the fence garden at the historic cemetery, grow, shine, and share joy there.