This summer our ac went out. The footprint of the new ac unit was a bit larger, necessitating the removal of a couple trellises and the corresponding clematis.
Truthfully, that poor clematis was traumatized long before. It bloomed late spring. Some years it was spared the wrath of the previous ac’s wind, but many years I had to make a decision – humans fade from the heat, or the clematis fade from the wind off the ac. Believe me, I held out many years. Every year I thought, “I need to move that.”
It might be time to move some more things if your association landscape maintenance company repeatedly blows the daylilies so hard the petals come off,
and even sometimes the flowers break off the stem,
and you watch one of the workers try to pull a mature daylily up as if it’s a weed.
This is what it looked like before – mature enough to bloom.
This is what it looks like now
leaves ripped to the ground
This is what the coneflower looks like now – stems broken, petals sheared off.
No question about what happened. I watched from inside as it happened.
I had planned to leave a bunch of the plants I have bought and raised from seed here, as they have thrived here and many people have enjoyed them, but they are just getting destroyed.
It is very sad. I may need a bigger garden up north.
It’s the second week of August. The Marque Moon is still blooming, one other daylily, and the hostas. Things are slowing down.
Today I sat outside and looked. What goes to the new gardens up north? What is crowded here? What is overdue for division?
#1 is one of the Patriot hostas. Poor guy. It got too much sun, it was a drought year, and I suspect the lawncare provider oversprayed weed killer – hint the grass is also dead along the pavers.
He needs some love. He needs a change. Maybe somewhere where there’s no need for weed killer. Somewhere where the yards are old and full of mini strawberries and wild daisies – if we let them grow. He might just prefer mulch to rock. We’ll see.
Pack your soil Patriot hosta. You’re moving north.
I would know them anywhere. Their spring flowers have a delicious scent, and their fall seed pods are beautiful. They are also invasive. The seeds, if they don’t get eaten by the squirrels, sprout seedlings each spring by the hundreds, maybe thousands – not kidding. I pluck them out of the gardens by hand each year. Each year there are 7+ buckets. Hours of work.
We have the one at the townhouse, and … we have an Amur Maple at the little reno house up north.
What to do? I think it needs to go. It is scrubby, about 4′ tall, and leans like crazy. Nevertheless, I will be sad on removal day.
The replacement will be birch transplants. MUCH more manageable.
It was a season of daylily abundance here. Day after day there were 30+ daylilies blooming everywhere I looked. An incredible treat coming out of a now mature daylily garden.
Up north at the little reno house, success! It doesn’t look like much in pictures, the front porch needs love, and the old shed needs paint, but the deer are now staying away from the new plantings. What worked? It could be that our dog likes to “leave his calling card” right outside the “entrance” to the two areas, or it could be the mulch. Time will tell.
So after so much trial and error with up north gardens in the past 3 years, how did I settle on what to do? It was actually a “happy accident”.
The association board at the townhouse (from which I am now retired), decided to have all rock gardens between the garages pulled out and replaced with asphalt. In the rock garden between our garage and the neighbor’s garage there was some history I decided to preserve. There were rocks from a previous neighbor’s parents’ farm that we had used to keep the landscape rock somewhat contained, and there was an alpine current bush that my father had given me 15 years ago that had thrived there, providing many a happy day for our neighborhood birds. The rocks went up north in two batches in big bins (which are now quite beat up from the weight but oh well, it’s for the new garden!).
For the foundation, because the soil at that little house is rocky and needs some gardening love, I chose to do a modified lasagne garden, putting a layer of heavy cardboard down on the very old lawn, adding soil where needed, securing the cardboard in place with the rocks, and putting a good 6″ of mulch on top of that. I worked the cardboard around the plantings. Then I trimmed the areas with the smaller rocks.
Because I was tentative on how well things would work, and because the results of my previous up north gardens were less than optimal, I built in sections. I brought up plants from things that needed dividing or saving from the townhouse gardens. The Rainforest Sunrise hosta needed to come out of one of the areas in the townhouse garden because it was getting crowded. The shrub start was from rootings off the alpine currant that was removed. The sedum were cuttings and divisions. The daylilies were from last year’s purchases and plantings, and the daylily seedlings were from last year’s Purple D’Oro seed harvest.
The plants I put in before I decided on the modified lasagne method took a bit of a hit from the deer, but since I put the mulch in the deer have left everything alone. Fingers crossed.
There is so much more that needs to go up in the next 8 weeks. Two trellises went up because we had to replace the ac at the townhouse. The new ac unit was bigger, necessitating the removal of the trellises. I cut back that clematis, and it will be moved next. Beyond that, the Blue Mouse Ears desperately need dividing, a Patriot Hosta has really burned this year in the landscape rock and drought and needs moving, and I should move some crowded hostas out of the area across the path from the weigelia. That will probably fill the current garden up at the little house, and then I will finish putting the rest of the mulch in. After that, sleep new little garden. Rest up for next year.
This year I have some new daylily blooms in the garden. A couple of years ago I bought 3 Pink Tirzah daylilies. Two were planted here and one up north. One of the Pink Tirzah daylilies got buds this year and is now blooming.
The name Tirzah means ‘She is my delight”. Indeed, another delightful addition to the garden.
Yesterday morning I went to go see the goats again. They have done a wonderful job of clearing the invasive buckthorn and I am told they eat the seeds, so next year their job should be lighter.
The babies who were primarily nursing last week are also now feeding on the ground foliage. The difference one week makes.
Today my friend sent me this picture
Clearly the goats are wrapping up what they are going to eat on the ground level right now and are looking for yummies at new heights. They will soon be picked up and brought to their next grazing site.
Thoughts will then turn to next year. If the historical site is able to raise funds again the goats will come back next year for round two.
If you are so inclined, donations can be sent to Hastings Area Historical Society at 104 Fourth Street East in Hastings, MN 55033.
For anyone who may think Minnesotans escape the heat in summer, I can without a doubt say, we don’t. Summers are prone to heat spells like winter is prone to long cold spells. We are in a heat spell right now.
During those times, I like to get out early to enjoy garden tending. This morning I did just that. It was time to pull the tulip leaves, along with the few stalks from this spring’s blooms. In that few minutes outside, carefully pulling dried tulip leaves (that didn’t bloom) in the back center of one of the gardens, I found myself thinking, “Why did I donate those big Aureomarginata hostas again? They used to cover up the drying tulip leaves so well!”
Today’s picture is from a few days ago when the heat first arrived. The clematis looked much fresher then. But all’s well. The first blooms on hostas are about to open, and the asian lily buds are starting to pink up. Soon we will have more blooms.
Susan's Daily Garden 