Cross those scope creep items off that list

I remember the “mostly rock in the gardens” years – in the distant past, but nevertheless, they were exciting. Two times we had the gardens updated at the townhouse, back in the years when the lawn maintenance people were chewing up the bases of our very young deciduous trees while weed whipping, and we were coming up with “save the trees” solutions. Those were the blank slate days – trying out different things to see what worked – with partial/full sun/shade, with grow patterns, with what the birds and bees and butterflies liked. We built out a pretty robust garden, and then shared the template. Hint – templates for rolling out lush gardens to all in a townhome community do not work. It’s kind of like me at 11 years old watching competition ice skaters and thinking “how hard can it be?” Yah. Not so simple. Anyway, I digress. We continued our journey as the property matured. We adjusted to arriving squirrels and bunnies and the effect sprinklers have on growing plants. And then went whoa! Time to divide! And then whoa! This is fun to propagate and share! And then whoa! An abundance beyond what we can find homes for (where I was last weekend).
And then the “deep thinking” (more like maneuvering) starts. Maybe those daylilies SHOULD be moved farther into the sun, so maybe I COULD squeeze those last two spare hosta divisions in under the increasing shade the linden is providing …

And then the tree trimmers come, a bit of a surprise because they were already here this year, in late winter, but alright …. And suddenly, sun back into what was becoming a more shaded area.

Cross those daylily moves off the scope creep list.

I see a pattern here. The historic cemetery garden renovation has rounded the corner to maintenance, the townhome gardens are full and the sun/shade patterns are not requiring transplanting after all. We live in a townhome community where we pay for services and they get automagically scheduled and completed. Not really, but we have already done our board time served so yah, it kinda does 😂

I do kinda remember that thing called relaxation. I suppose I could see how that works out again. As husband laughs and says, “Yah, never in a million years.”

See those beautiful, newly planted Blue Mouse Ears divisions 🥰 And the shamrock that needs dividing this fall 😘

It is Transplanting Day

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.

What goes – #1?

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.

Saturday becomes Sunday

Friday and Saturday this weekend we visited with my Mom. Way more fun than Saturday morning clean-up.

Today, however, we made time to clean the windows, swap places between a sedum and an asian lily, and plant the tulips. The sedum needed more real estate and the clump of lilies needed more protection from the wind. While shopping with Mom on Friday, I bought an extra bag of tulips – 15 ‘Angelique’ tulips. They are some of my favorites. So including the bag of 30 pink and purple tulips I had previously purchased, we planted 3 spots of 15 tulips each today. Hopefully they will bloom at least one year ☺

Just as we finished up, it started to drizzle, so no new outdoor garden pics for this post.

Indoors, the hibiscus is not so happy. This happens every fall when we bring it in. A lot of leaves turn yellow and fall off. But we did get two buds begin to bloom today.

20181007_212606-1

On a gloomy fall day outdoors, that was a treat.

It’s candle time again, too, and an outdoor scent was in order. While shopping with Mom, I picked this up.

20181007_213824-1

On a cloudy fall weekend, it warmed up the atmosphere.

Because it started to drizzle today, I didn’t get the ‘Marque Moon’ and the red daylilies cut back. That will have to happen next Saturday.

It’s all good.