The weigelia is blooming at our townhome. Every year it puts on a fabulous show. 16 years old and it just keeps going. It was a very long, tough winter and not surprisingly this spring I am seeing some bare spots. Hopefully they will fill in. After it is done blooming I will give it a good trimming. That should help for next year.
The tulips are done for the year, and now we move on to the next wave of blooms. This lovely pink clematis is usually one of the first, and this year was right in order.
Every spring I pluck out literally hundreds and hundreds of tree seedlings from our rock.
A lot of them are from the amur maple. There are also dozens of clematis volunteers.
This process is super tedious, but I don’t use chemicals so hand plucking is the option. Section by section I take my little weeding bucket and go at it.
Apologies little seedlings.
We’ve had quite a few gorgeous days in a row, and the landscape is starting to sing.
The cherry trees are starting to flower, and they smell soooo good!
The lindens finally leafed out.
And the tulips are starting to bloom.
Living in Minnesota, there are certain non-hardy plants that we bring in for the winter. We have two large shamrock plants and a very large, over 10 year old hibiscus.
About a month ago I got an inquiry – is it time to put out the shamrocks? The answer now is yes. When it is consistently above 40°F at night we put the hibiscus and both the shamrocks out. It will be sad this year because they are so full and nice indoors, and as you will see from the pictures below, the wind and sun beats them up almost immediately. We do keep them close to the house at first, but they have to make the transition. We have a small home, and everything has its season. And they do fine. As a bonus, the birds make good use of the dried stems and leaves for their nests. When they are done, the pots are very clean for the new growth. It is the circle of life, and nothing goes to waste.
With the large plants now outdoors I have space to start our seedlings for up north. Everything in its time.
Last year I saw what I thought was a daylily volunteer from our ‘Marque Moon’ trio. I pulled it originaly thinking it was grass, but then second guessed. I planted it in our garden and this spring I have been rewarded with – grass. Out it goes. Maybe the bunnies willl enjoy it on their nightly hop-through.
Along with the up-north plan comes my garden. Originally I envisioned at least a 20′ x 20′ garden year one, right in the ground, with no gate at first. Then I remembered we have abundant deer, bunny, and even some moose tracks on the land. They love to walk the established trail,
but they are all over the land, and new plants will be more yummy food for them to eat!
Next I thought about using a dog kennel to keep them out of the garden – and I still may do that.
Along the way we heard about Hugelkultur – using raised beds with layered organic material that slowly decomposes. Tree trunk pieces come first, then branches, then twigs, and finally soil. It sounds like a plan we can grow with!
For year one I bought two steel raised bed garden forms to try it out. We can put up chicken wire inside the forms to keep deer and hopefully bunnies out and still let pollinators in. I’m not sure about the moose. We will see.
Right now there is still snow in the forecast up north. It will be at least a month until we can get seedlings into the raised beds. But we’re ready – we have the materials and a decent plan for year one.
Just like individual plants in a garden sleep, then creep, then finally leap as they get established, so it is with this process – step by step, layer by layer.
This past weekend we “escaped” what was supposed to be a very rainy Saturday at home and headed to see how the thaw is going up north. We brought Sandy along to walk the land for the first time. He loved every sniff, and thoroughly wore himself out.
Afterward we drove to Duluth to check out how the big lake (Superior) looked. There is still plenty of ice and snow along the shore in Canal Park.
We also learned that Sandy is not a fan of seagulls. Little dog, big noisy birds … He was ready to be done with that visit!
Back home, it is supposed to be a rainy week. I have a tough call. Some time soon I need to get the (now huge again) hibiscus back outdoors so I have room to start my seedlings for up north. The nighttime forecast is calling for temperatures just shy of 40°F all week. It will probably be next weekend until I can make that shift. It’ll be tight on time but it should still work. Up north there is still snow/rain in the forecast this week. We’re looking at around a month, maybe more, until seedlings can safely be put out up there.
All in good time.
What a difference a day, and especially two, make at this time of year. Two days ago only the cherry trees had leafed out. Today this site was common.
Yesterday our ninebarks hadn’t leafed out. Today they looked like this.
Two days ago the clematis was inches closer to the ground. Today it looked like this.
The tulip are starting to show buds. The sedum are starting to round out. The daylilies are up 4-6″. The asian lilies are popping up in back. Even the new red asian lilies I planted in front popped up overnight. And a few hostas are starting to come up. Not as many as I’m used to this time of year, and that slightly concerns me. We lost some very healthy full hostas during the 2017-2018 winter and I was at a loss as to what happened. I’m hoping it doesn’t happen again.
But almost all the daylilies are up, including one from last year’s seedlings. And THAT is very exciting.
The tulip greens are, of course, well up now. I have a “love/expect little” relationship with our tulips. Many produce abundant greens every year, but no blooms. I leave them in the ground, ever so hopeful. They are tulips that bloomed beautifully one, maybe two years, but then just fizzled out. It seems they find it very easy being just green.
Last fall, once again, I planted a large bag of tulips. I do see some up already. They are the ones poking up in front of the taller tulip greens that look like they will not have blooms again this year. We’ll see how the new ones do.
There is, however, one large bunch of purple tulips that has bloomed abundantly for over a dozen years. They are so beautiful. I just love to see them again each spring. Many many years I have shared pictures of them and friends have loved their gorgeous color. They are just starting to pop up now.
I will keep you all posted!
Susan's Daily Garden 