She is Tender Love, and has been added to my absolute favorites list. I would like a few more, but I am going to stay steadfast on my “no buy for the townhouse” decision. Things are far too unsettled. Maybe in the future.
Yesterday I also planted the new daylily seedlings bed. I have to tell you, it was a grunt it out experience and after it was done, I did not feel exhuberant. I felt a bit down. It was weird.
But this morning after it weathered a night (notice the hot pepper piece to deter diggers 😂) I am feeling much better about it. I planted the stunted coneflower in the middle to give it a year to grow. Then it can move, or not. (We have gotten a lot of donations for the historic cemetary fence garden. It is almost full.). But more on that in an upcoming post. Hint: I bought a bag of 50 daffodils to deter the moles.
I have one more potted transplant to get into the ground. It is a piece of one of the Elegans. I accidentally pulled it off when I was cleaning up a few weeks ago.
The two giant Elegans I was looking for a home for are eventually going to my Dad who is already making plans for them. Remember it is my Dad who got me into hostas? So I am feeling super good about them going to a loving home. He has space, and shade.
And I now have my plan to get more hostas more into the shade and more daylilies more into the sun. Next weekend. Because we are headed to 100°F this weekend. This girl has her water and watch hat on.
Today was transplanting day. I had thought about it long enough. It was time for “Do”.
First up, this beauty moved. Poor thing. Believe it or not, she is a coneflower. She needs more sun.
She will either go to the historic cemetery garden (pending approval) or to the new daylily seedling bed. (More on that later). In her place, initially, went the Praying Hands hosta, but later the Praying Hands hosta moved and the Patriot hosta went in the old coneflower spot. I didn’t think I would get to moving the Patriot hosta today, but Yeay! Now the Patriot hosta is in the shade most of the day, tucked in by the Weigelia and up front with the red daylilies, white-ish Marque Moon daylilies, and Bluebells clematis (which, by the way, do rebloom). Pulling out that Patriot hosta was very hard. I am probably going to feel it tomorrow, but It was burning up in the sun year over year, and, recently someone’s dog was finding it interesting 😞
Here she is in her new location.
Next up was an un-named hosta. I used to know the name but I can’t remember it off the top of my head, so it shall be named “un-named”. It was one of my very first purchased hostas. I bought it from a lady who was having a plant sale out of her yard. It has been in the spot I pulled it from today for at least 15 years, and probably longer. It was fading. It needed new digs, and some dividing. She went to the middle back of one of the patio area gardens, in back of the old seedling bed.
The Praying Hands hosta was there for a year, but did not thrive in that spot. Last fall, we moved the Praying Hands hosta back from the little house up north (that we sold) and plopped her there. Poor thing. She will do much better quietly going about her business in a less visible role, in the spot where the peach daylily used to be.
The peach daylily, poor thing, languished in the shade when we had our smaller Traeger, and this year she did not bloom at all in the shade of the bigger Traeger. She needed to get back in the sun. She got to go to the spot where “un-named” hosta was. I’m thinking she will think that is “just right”.
And … 5 year old South Seas daylily seedlings got her chance to have more sun. She now sits between South Seas and tall cream colored daylily, in the spot where Patriot hosta used to be. I hope she blooms next year. If not, up north she goes, where she runs the very high risk of being deer yummies. Just sayin’. Bloom please.
Still left is the potential new seedling bed. It would be here.
That area was supposed to be the pepper bed but believe it or not, the peppers didn’t like it. So daylily seedling bed it might be.
The other option is to put them in with mature daylilies. And give them one year to bloom.
(They are unintentional crosses, so that is less likely. Now that my intentional crosses are going to seed I may stop harvesting any other seeds, to keep the daylilies from expending extra energy. All up in the air this fall. First I need to see how the intentionally crossed seeds perform.)
And last year’s seedlings? They will be tucked into the front of the old seedling bed to see if they can get a bit bigger with more sun. They are still pretty small.
But that is for another day. I am being wise. I have to work tomorrow. The seedlings bed decisions can wait for another day, or week.
A few pics from the last couple days. The daylilies are winding down. The hostas are continuing to flower, and the sedum are getting ready for their showtime.
Hubs has a saying he uses to get me to log off work for the day, and keep a healthy balance. He simply and lovingly says “Time to shut ‘er down.”
8 months/year the gardens then provide a place to enjoy a beverage, chat away together, watch the birds and bunnies and bees and squirrels come and go. And watch the very big hosta leaves dance in the breeze at the edge of the garden while dinner cooks on the Traeger and neighbors and their four legged companions stop by to chat. Yes, a very good practice to keep the balance, and shut ‘er down. And a very good way to do it.
Work has been crazy busy, family stuff is busy, the up north cabin project is ongoing. Lots of stuff.
Thursday I was looking forward to some self-care days. It was such a treat to log off work Friday, shut ‘er down, and just breathe. No big weekend plans. A chill Friday night.
I was also really looking forward to gardening at the historic cemetery today. Thursday we found the remaining brown mulch we needed to finish the rock to mulch swap. It has been a challenge. A lot of the stores have sold out their open pallets and wrapped their unopened pallets to send back. My friend found some at, of all places, the nicer grocery store in town, and for an awesome price. Between my friend and her husband and my husband and I, we got all the remaining mulch we needed. This year. It looks awesome!!! It was not without a few challenges – like a downpour this morning, but we are there. When the iris transplants are done, I will take final pics and share.
When back at home mid morning today, I went about our gardens.
The raised, covered seedling planter – where I put pots with daylily seeds to grow unbothered by squirrels and bunnies – needed to go back into the garage until next spring, the forget-me-nots and clover needed paring down, the hosta scapes that wrapped up this week needed cutting back, the daylily scapes with no seed pods needed cutting back, and the shrubs desperately needed serious trimming. Back in shape now.
Today was the last bloom for one of the Just Plum Happy daylilies
I will need to get after cutting those scapes back.
But probably not tomorrow. Tomorrow is forecasted to be a rain day. All day.
Time for some non-gardening self care, decluttering, donation drop-off, putzing around the house, reading a book, doing laundry slow and relaxed. Just a non-gardening rainy chill day.
Gardens are an experiment. Things are constantly changing, growing, crowding, needing thinning, transplanting … Sometimes it requires patience, and sometimes we get very quick answers. So it is with the proposed woodland hosta garden at the historic cemetary. The deer have spoken. They, or their buddies the turkeys love them! It was a fun trial, but no woodland hosta garden will be built at the historic cemetery. What survives in the full sun of the fence garden will be it for hostas there.
It is also bunny time at the townhouse gardens. Thinking the last blooms on this hosta will be her dinner in the next few nights.
We think it is a her, as she had a very persistent visitor a few weeks back – that we have not seen before.
Sadly, we are thinking this was also the work of the bunny. Compost time. The daylily seedlings in that pot are ready to be planted so those will be a project in the next few days, along with the other potted daylily seedlings.
And the hostas that are done blooming are all getting haircuts. I made the “no hosta seed saving” decision a while back. We do not need any more hostas 😂
Many years ago when I started the townhouse gardens I was also helping my Dad with his gardens. After one of those gardening days, I was sweeping up from some transplanting. A few baby hosta corms were in the sweepings, and instead of tossing them, I brought them home and stuck them in one of our garden areas. My husband said he doubted they would grow. Well, he underestimated those little corms. Grow they did, and multiplied and were divided … And I bought more hostas then, other specialty types of hostas, like blue hostas varieties, which I fell in love with, and which, to this day I still have, and have divided and gifted – like to the gardens I made at the little house up north.
Gifting hostas is a thing.
Since starting to swap out the old landscape rock for mulch at the historic cemetary, we have had the fortune of lots of gifting. Kind of like, “If you build it, they will come”. And come they did. When mulch went in, plants would appear. Not sure from whom – more of an anonymous donor thing. Most of the plants are sun loving … except … the hostas. Those poor hostas are burning, and making me sad, and so I decided to begin a plop swap. The donations are “plops” – they just appear, and they need a “swap” – to get them into the shade and get the sun loving plants that are in another shady garden into the sunny garden.
I started the plop swap last weekend. Four went into this sweet area with this hollowed out tree stump – so beautiful! I love woodland gardens and things like that tree stump.
That garden, like the fence garden, will be a putz project – very slow gradual progress. Hubs said Yes, All the boulders I want to gradually haul from the land up north can be put into that new hosta garden. I want them to contain mulch and clearly define that area as the hosta garden. But hubs has emphasis on “I want to haul”. This is not his first time to the rodeo. Last time he was hauling boulders in totes in the back of his truck! Yes, one tote cracked. But hey, the gardens looked AWESOME!
So we shall see. I need to see if the deer use the hostas for munchies. And how it evolves for space. The left side of the fence garden only has two hostas left to swap. But the right side – oof!!! Lots of generosity in the hosta plopping department there. That will take a little longer, and I need to see how much space the swap really will take up.
Right now we are headed into the 90 degrees and up part of the summer. Not hauling boulders in that for sure. But maybe in late Sept. For a good cause – the hosta plop swap. And any future hosta plopping rescue efforts 💕
It all started with our now 2 year old grandson. I am not very schmaltzy and I never envisioned I would be utterly taken in by one very little person – haha – but it happened. Turns out grandparenting is WAY more indulgent then parenting. Who knew? Days where daycare backup was needed, events where he (absolutely adorably) sat in his wagon and charmed everyone we met while we shopped for vegetable plants at the University Extension plant sale, neighborhood walkabouts, and eventually sleepovers. And that first birthday where Grandpa agreed to make ribs for 40 people. What??? Grandma said Grandpa needed a much bigger grill for that! So here it came, on a delivery from the hardware store, in all it’s techno gigantic (to me) glory. Grandpa cooked those ribs and they went like hot cakes. And then it was time to incorporate that new grill into our patio area. Yah. But it is awesome, we use it a lot, and I love the smoky taste and even start-up ambiance. Hey, you do stuff to make great experiences, right?
So the new grill moved into the older smaller wood fired grill’s space, and I cringed a bit, but “it was worth it”. The features! It can be started from hub’s phone! Who wouldn’t love a grill you can start from your phone??? But a grill that casts a much larger shadow on the garden?
We moved some overcrowded daylilies that were now in much more of a shadow, and I made a daylily seedling bed. Seedlings need more protection, right?
I have had 4 garden season months to assess. I do not like the seedling bed at all 😂 Not one bit. It looks like a weed patch 👎 I like seedlings mixed among other more mature plants. Soooo … Enlist the help of hubs, reassess, and rearrange to fold in the requirements of our ever changing life. Weed patch (er daylily seedling bed) out – they need more sun anyways – and hostas that also need to move anyways, in, to that newly shaded area.
In a way it will simplify my life. Big, more maintenance free hostas close to the house, and daylilies farther out where I can enjoy them while sitting on the patio after a long work day, enjoying a beverage with hubs, winding down as the smoke from the grill starts up and our dog asks to come up and sit on my lap.
Yah, we can do that.
And on Saturday I will get after that clover – again 😉 But I kind of like the Linden leaves covering up the rock. Looks more natural, “path-y”, right?
Under the linden there is a wonderful garden of hostas and daylilies. The hostas are getting very mature and are encroaching on the very polite daylilies, who are saying, “Alright, here are some greens, but not many flowers for you. Get me some new digs, please. Or maybe just get that guy out of here, please.” Hahaha! I cannot decide on the message. Move the daylilies, or move one very large (5′ wide) hosta. Hubs says move the very large hosta. He may win out. But not sure what I would do with the hosta. No good shady place at the historic cemetary. Deer will eat it up north. It’s almost like I should make a new shade garden. But where?
Susan's Daily Garden 