It’s the year

Looking the past few days at the space I have at the townhouse, what we can reasonably use at the historic cemetery, and all the seedlings, I decided I would buy a 3rd seedling box. It is on its way.

And my husband and I agreed – this is the critical mass year. This is the year daylilies need to start going up north.

Now, for newcomers, we have land up in far northern Minnesota USA. Along with black bears, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, foxes, of course deer, and a veritable plethora of small game – rabbits, grouse, some squirrels … oh, and a porcupine who seems to have moved on, thank goodness, and a woodchuck who was moved on. Plus a variety of very cool birds including owls. This earth mama, with all the tenderhearted earth and creature loving kindness just oozing out of me in our first year up there, tried a raised bed hugelculture set of gardens (money I sincerely regret spending). They were a wreck within months and such a loss by year two that we pulled them in year three and set the camper over the top of the beds when we built out our shed to cabin. And that was that. Except that I kept propagating daylilies here.

I am now solidly in year seven of this daylily propagation journey, and things are maturing to bloom all over the place. There is no more room after this year, and, truth be told, I now have 38 Molly Cowles seedlings in one seedling box, 14 Mahala Felton seedlings between two seedling boxes, and more coming up every day. We have reached our limit here, and we have perfectly good land for daylilies up north. So … I have picked out a spot on our land where we have good groundwater. I have been bringing my forced bulbs up north and planting them there for a few years. It’s just that when June comes and we are literally awash in in a sea of 4 foot tall ferns, my husband gets out the brush cutter and mows it all down there. Or we get awash in a sea of wood ticks as we walk around camp and to the outhouse. We have both gotten tick born illnesses. Not cool. So the brush cutter rules. Kind of like mouse poison rules after you spend a few sleepless nights listening to the mice skitch in the camper walls and run across your camper counter. Ugghhh.

What I need to do is get on my real world panties and get over my objection to landscape fabric, and lay a swath of it down up north and tack it to the ground and make holes for each daylily, and put a cloche over the top of each planting until we get it deer fenced, and let the leaves and pine straw and whatever wood chips and mulch I can harvest from sawing and splitting days cover the landscape fabric … and see what happens. Yep. Right here.

That’s it. Hard stop. Or I can stop propagating daylilies – and “that ain’t happenin’”. 😂

Happy 4th of July!

It is a rainy, chill out sort of 4th of July (American Independence Day) here. Here’s some red, white, and “blue” from our garden.

And a hint of which daylily looks like it is right on the verge of being the first to bloom in the garden this year. It will also be the first time it has bloomed in our garden. Full disclosure, I did not mark it, so until it blooms I will not be able to say for sure, but I believe it is Delicate Design.

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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 💓

Their fair share, continued

When you “contract” with the baby bunnies to start doing garden cleanup.

“Will work for food”

They are “trimming” the stalks left from the Asian lilies. The Asian lilies finished blooming a month ago. I deadhead (most) and leave the stems to build strength for next year and then die back. Hopefully the bunnies didn’t get at them too soon. Time will tell.

Another beautiful set of blooms

I am growing quite fond of taking all the pictures and then sitting out with no way to take any more pictures – just walking the garden, enjoying the blooms, and then sitting and relaxing on the patio and looking some more. It is a good discipline – to enjoy the moments, to take it all in, and consider the wonderful gifts.

Saturdays

Saturday – what a glorious day!

Wake up, check the gardens, make coffee, head outside. Wake up some more, look around some more. Think a little. Form a “day of” plan. An ambitious version. A minimal version. Avoid any longer term planning. Drink my coffee. Sit with the dog.

Take some pictures.

Get all the tools ready – clipper, gloves, bucket, maybe shovel.

Do some trimming. Do some weeding. Have some coffee. Sit with the dog. Chat with my husband – who is now awake.

Rinse. Repeat.

Saturdays are THE BEST!!! In any of the gardens. March- October.

Saturdays in the woods are pretty awesome too.

Here’s to Saturdays!

Winding down

The daylilies are winding down. There are less than a dozen Purple D’Oro buds left, and way less than that on almost all the others except Marque Moon. The cross I did this weekend from the Marque Moon to the South Seas did not take. But the Purple D’Oro have 17 seed pods – all created by pollinators. The (6) remaining intentional crosses we did are tbd. I think I will stop at that. I was starting to see blooms as potential crosses, and I didn’t like that path. I am in a place right now where I really, really, really just need to enjoy the small moments of peace. “Plans” keep reminding me that they are just that – plans. Gifts, on the other hand, like the pollinator creations are a special, abundant treat, at least at this particular time. I am not sure I have ever had 17 Purple D’Oro seed pods. But I will gladly accept them.

No pic today. I am going to walk out in the garden tonight without anything but a heart full of wonder at how beautiful July was, and thankfulness for what is winding up today, one day, as a gift of beautiful daylilies. And hope that the little baby bunny we have been watching will enjoy a few more patches of clover I have saved in the rock.

photo fatigue

Around about this time every year I get photo fatigue. I know – horror! But this is how it goes – The first daylily of the season has been so long anticipated I want to take a dozen photos, from every angle, to preserve it for “daylilyless” season. And to share.

The first set of multiples is like a bouquet – it is so wonderful together, and each daylily also has to be remembered for it’s individual joy.

The wide swaths of daylilies also absolutely have to be captured.

But then … I just want to enjoy them.

Yesterday I was in my office, and my husband said to me, “Do you smell that?” “Oh no!” I thought. “That doesn’t sound good!” But you know what? He was out on the patio relaxing, with our dog also relaxing, and the breeze was perfect. He was catching the scent of one of our few fragrant daylilies – his favorite, the “Just Plum Happy” daylilies. My husband doesn’t try to capture the daylilies in pictures. I don’t think he has ever taken a picture of a daylily. He just enjoys them.

And that is where I get about this time each year. There are so many, they are so wonderful, the camera just can’t capture the beauty. Time to stop thinking, “Oh, I need to take more pictures!” Time to throttle back and just enjoy.

In the front, the Blue Mouse Ears got their annual haircut today. I snapped off all the scapes, as they are done blooming for the year. 2 dozen Blue Mouse Ears hostas would be just fine by me – they require very little maintenance, and in fact, in the fall after they beautifully yellow, the leaves can be pulled out just like the undercoat of a chow chow when it is shedding. Believe me, I know that too!!!

That black lab puppy we adopted oh those many years ago??? Yah. But I digress. (She still has a super special place in my heart.)

Back to the picture –

The Just Plum Happy daylilies in the center are the ones that make my husband Just Plum Happy. And on landscape maintenance days he now sits out and greats the guys as they come through with their blowers. He says it is for me, which I partially believe … 🙂

The Touch of Class hosta (to the left) is, sadly, one of three remaining. Two died suddenly maybe five years ago??? One year they were huge, the next – gone. I can only guess it was the sunflower seed casings from the bird feeder we had there for about a month and a half at the end of winter.

The empty space is from things that have been moved up north or gifted.

Then behind there are the daylilies that need a new location – probably up at the camping land, but tbd.

Oh, and the Pink China Dolls to the right? They came to live here when the Touch of Class hostas disappeared. They have been cavorting with the Marque Moon daylilies. We introduced them to each other, and we hope they really hit it off. But more on that this week.

Hosta scapes galore!!

The hostas are really starting to come into bloom now. One of my favorites is First Frost

How it does so well in the afternoon sun is a tiny miracle to me. It took a few years to establish – years when there were four or five leaves and one scape. But is is super happy now in that spot.

It makes me wonder –

Before I started adding daylilies, I had A LOT of hostas. I seriously don’t remember them getting stomped on. Hosta scapes blown, but not stomped on. Maybe hostas, even littles ones, are more universally recognizable? I don’t know.

Another favorite is the Patriot hosta

I have one left here, one was moved to the little house up north, and one was gifted to our next door neighbor who moved this spring. Our new neighbor, to my delight, is also a gardener. Hooray! Patriot hostas grow and prosper!

We also had news this week about the townhome garden “refresh”. It is pushed to next year.

I have 7 daylilies that definitely need to move – the 4 out front that keep getting stomped on and 3 red ones that have been relatively safe all these years as they are up against the house. But this year they did not bloom. I think it is because we got a new, larger, grill, and they now have too much shade. Or they need to be divided. Either way, moving is planned. One of their offspring did bloom this year. It is a rooted offspring and very small. But beautiful.

And in Bunimous news, Bunimous has gifted us baby Bunimi (is that a word – haha!) who are adorable, and far more genteel. They are clearing a lot of the clover in the gardens. I scared one poor little one a little past dawn mid-week. I hope they begin to eat the hosta leaves as they get bigger and we move into fall. Less work for me.

In the spring the hostas get coffee grounds and ant-bunny treatment, so minimal destruction ;)A little, but tolerable.

Decisions, Decisions

This hosta is the first to bloom almost every year, and it loves to throw seed. Every year I have to decide – keep, or trim. Still deciding. Probably trim. I do like the look of the seed pods, but it also does pull energy from the plant. I have harvested the seed in the past, but have never been successful starting hosta plants from seed. Multiplication from dividing the hostas has always provided plenty to fill empty spots, and gift as well.