I tell you what! I am absolutely delighted! The care the roofing team took was very evident. A few smooshes where I was not too concerned about covering, but given all they had to work around, amazing end state! Way way way better than I had even dared to hope for. Judge for yourself 🙂
Yesterday the kids all came over and helped put buckets and old plant pots on the hostas, daylilies, and sedum I really want to protect. Nothing else can be done now. We wait and see.
Here it comes – the best garden planting time of the year, some planned time off work, and ideas floating around in my mind.
The ideas mostly involve dividing hostas, but those are all really slow to show this year.
So far the daylilies and sedum have won the race over the hostas to begin to dot the garden with that fabulous color of spring green.
Last year was a weird year for home improvement projects. Labor and materials were an issue. At the townhouse there was no exception. Planned, and even marked, projects got pushed off and pushed off and eventually pushed to this year.
Yesterday my husband asked me if I had seen the landscape company come and spray our grass and flag an area in the front rock. I hadn’t. I went and looked. Sure enough, the area is marked for what looks like last year’s project – getting the gutter runoff diverted underground. It seems odd to me – the new roofs aren’t even started, and certainly the gutters that need to be replaced and re-angled aren’t on. But who knows? So I have a few decisions – Do I move the ninebark and a few sedum and a daylily from that newly marked area in front?
Well, the daylily and the sedum are probably a yes – I would spend energy on finding new homes for those. They do well at the little house up north and could go there. Even if they become deer food, that would be better than becoming landscape discards.
Digging out a shrub at the townhouse? Probably not. The landscape provider’s trimming is different from what I used to do – less rounded and more like a pillar. I might have replaced it myself in a few years with a perennial. That whole front area was actually on my list of potential projects this year.
More and more, however, I am convincing myself the time for significant landscape investing at the townhome is … not this year. Maintenance, absolutely. Puttering, for sure. But hard work and money investing – not this year. Whether this is a more permanent change in approach for the townhome gardens, or just this season, time will tell. But definitely all signs are pointing to a “sit tight” garden year right now.
Now, whatever will I do with my daylily seeds this year? Add to that “rookery” up north?
Besides the tulip leaves, just the faintest hint of sedum is emerging. More to come, but it is a very welcome start!
In response to me describing attempting to grow daylilies from seed and growing sedum from cuttings, I once had someone tell me I had “a rookery going on”. I wasn’t quite sure about a rookery. I thought that was for birds. I thought they meant nursery. I just smiled. Looking it up, I saw it also meant crowded, not so nice housing areas. Well, la-ti-dah! But you know how it is – things come back to mind and bring a smile. That comment comes back to mind this morning, as I am fondly, now that I have the freedom to do it, considering a nursery garden. But where?
Here’s the idea.
In the summer next year, if I have the energy – lol – start the build out of a hedge on the side of the house. Sedum rootings at first. Make maybe a 4′ x 5′ strip, plant 3 or so sedum cuttings, and see what happens. I know it is risky, that is on the apple tree side, the “deer highway” part of the lot, but it could work, maybe. If the deer leave them alone, I could add some pollinator created daylily seedlings from the 2021 starts that need to be moved, and maybe some coneflowers, which are supposed to be deer resistant.
Worth a try …
My own little “rookery”.
With the initial year’s build out of the little house gardens wrapped up, thoughts turn to fall monitoring and clean up. The new gardens now just need continual weeding as the mulch bed settles in.
There were no gardens at the little house when we bought it, only grass and trees. Year 1 (last fall), while we were doing the reno on the inside, my husband put 5 daylilies in a front grassy area by the sidewalk. That’s where I began the build out this spring, using sedum transplants from an overgrown area in the townhouse gardens. Here’s what that front area looks like now.
It looks like all five daylilies survived, and the three sedum divisions are doing well. I can’t do much more there until we decide on next step home improvements – front porch, siding …
Putting mulch in all the garden areas somehow stopped the deer from munching. I don’t understand that, but my latest theory is that the deer might not care for the smell. I’m just thankful. As long as that continues to work I will stay that course.
I had considered hiring for the landscape build out, but I kept running into roadblocks. I’m happy now that happened. I am enjoying a new process I hadn’t even considered before – the lasagne style build out. Cardboard right on top of the grass, plants in soil, cover with 3-4″ mulch. The transplants, rootings, and cuttings all seem to be doing well with that method. I make sure to give them a good initial watering, and then follow up with watering as needed.
Yesterday’s post showed the completion of the garage to shed area build out for the year. There is a tree that needs to come out yet, and then the rest of the shed side can be finished next year.
As is my nature in projects, I do a test, observe results, and build in layers. That’s what happened on a larger scale in the back gardens. It went from all grass, to a 4′ x 5′ area on the shed side, to a 2′ addition on that side, to a 4′ x 8′ start on the garage side, then hopped the sidewalk to the back of the house where I put in 3 weigelia rootings, and then back to the garage side where I finished up yesterday. Here’s a few pics of the progression.
In the little house gardens, I decided to use grass paths. That will be way less maintenance, and we can just do one mower pass through there. Plus, call me daring, but the lawn at the little house is old, and full of up north flowering weedy things I actually like, so a bit of that along the path is something I liked the look of this year. Reminds me of the wildflower nature areas along the shore, in miniature.
Next year’s plans are to start a garden at the back of the yard and move the alpine currant and the weigelia rootings there. That will free up the current weigelia garden area. If I then make a parallel garden up by the house along the second long downspout, those two garden areas would flank the area where we sit out. I envision hosta and daylily tiered hedges there. I love that combo, and there is just enough, but not too much sun there to nurture both. The mulch should also help.
There is also a thought floating around in my brain to start a sedum hedge on the side of the house, but that might have to be a “slow to go” project. I am no spring chicken, and a couple advil were needed after yesterday’s build out work.
All this depends on the deer continuing to leave the mulched gardens alone. They do seem to be eating the apples from the apple trees, and that’s great. Less for me to clean up.
So at the little house, year 2, initial build out, there is now monitoring left this fall, and at some point, daylily and hosta greens cutback. I plan to leave the sedum standing until spring, as a test, to see if the birds and bunnies enjoy that winter snack.
The weather up north is getting chilly. Fall is here. The window for transplanting is not very far out.
Before (Sandy, our dog, was supervising)
After
The additions were four Blue Mouse Ears hosta divisions (left front), one large Praying Hands hosta (center), a lot of cardboard underlayment, and seven bags of mulch.
The garden build out up north is for all purposes now done for the year, as well as prepped to receive 2022 daylily seedlings (pollinator creations) and sedum cuttings (propagation) next year. I may bring up a few more daylilies, a sedum or two, and another clump of Blue Mouse Ears to divide over the right side of the Praying Hands hosta yet this fall, but I’m happy as is if I don’t.
My husband is not keen on transplanting the clematis, so those are still at the townhouse. We’ll see if they make the shift.
The alpine currant is still by the shed. It’s a bit too late to move it now, so next spring that will move to the back of the yard.
The weigelia rootings are doing awesome! If they survive the winter, they may also get moved to the back of the yard. I’m now dreaming of daylilies and hostas along both long gutter extensions.
I honestly never thought the gardens would be this far, but I am very pleased the foundations are now in place to build on.
Rest well, new gardens.
The Autumn Joy sedum are exceeding expectations at the little house up north, and to my amazement, the deer are leaving them alone. I’m more seriously considering a sedum hedge now. In my mind I can see it along a mostly sunny side of the house, where bees on the sedum would not affect much. I could do a test run with sedum rootings alternating with irises. Deer do not like irises, so that could be a deterrent.
Pondering.
I have mixed feelings about moving the sedum. They are such a resilient plant, and super easy to propagate if they do get damaged. Literally if a stem gets broken, I stick it in dirt, it roots, and I have a new sedum plant.
I really like the fall color sedum provide as well as the 12 month interest. The pollinators LOVE them and the bunnies eat the unbroken stems all winter. When the bunnies do that, it also makes my spring cleanup easier. But for some reason, once the stems are broken, the bunnies don’t seem to have as much of an appetite for them. Very different from the sunflower!
I have already brought sedum plants and sedum cuttings up north and they are doing well with the mulch around them. I suppose where I’ll land is that if any of the Autumn Joy sedum get severely broken this fall, I’ll move those plants up north right away and let them sleep there. Then next summer I can take cuttings and start building a row to make a hedge – maybe on the farthest long gutter downspout.
Susan's Daily Garden 