Yardening late May 2015

Cam---we are all drooling for pictures of all your finished projects.
Sounds like a busy, productive day.

SO! Give! G.

LOL... like I said, this first bed still looks pretty bare but, of course, have to leave room for stuff to grow. This is the Natchez, the 4 daylilies, 4 Gaura Gaudi Pink, and 6 Orange Rocket Barberries.

Second photo is the tricolor sedum.

Third one is the Calla Lilies, of course.

And the last one is the new bed that's only 1.3 done so far... will be finished in a few weeks I think.

Very nice!

What a gorgeous day. I got a few more things planted.

FInally seeing emergence of Swamp milkweed and Maypops vine.

Hey, CAMster, nice. The garden is one place I can really inspire myself, too.

Sally, my Swamp milkweeds already have buds and the common, butterfly weed (tuberosa) and tropical are not far behind!

My agastache 'Blue Fortune' and 'Black Adder' have leaped to 2 1/2 and 3 feet respectively in just three days! They were so cute as puppies last summer and now....egads!

So far--I have NO signs of my Tropical Milkweed seeds sprouting.....

Bummer! g.

Thanks, Sally and Coleup.... appreciate it. :)

Nice work, Cam! That 'Natchez' must have been a bear to move; it's pretty big already!

I would give the sedum a try in the ground if I were you. The worst that could happen would be that you will have to divide and share it next year (hmm....I wonder where you could find people who like to swap plants?). It got positive comments in DG plant files: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/3296/

Sometimes when I read comments indicating that plants are terribly invasive, I see that the people live in Florida or other zone 9-10 places where plants double in size while they sleep!

Cam, your Natchez bed turned out fabulous, and I really love the bird feeder you made; BRAVO!!!

I agree with Muddy, I'd bet dollars to donuts ('cause I love donuts and I KNOW I'd win) that you'd not regret planting that Sedum in the ground. I've noticed the same thing she mentioned, very often the complaints of invasiveness come from warmer zones.

Muddy, heehee, I wonder to whom you might be referring!? < =)

Muddy, yeah, it wasn't a fun job. Digging holes is not my favorite party of gardening and that one needed a pretty big hole both times... blech. Thankfully, Jill spotted that mistake just a couple weeks after I planted it the first time so the roots hadn't gone deep yet. And thanks for the advice on the Sedum. I have another one and I'm going to try it in a spot where it can go a bit crazy if it wants to. :)

Thanks, Speedie... never been a huge fan of barberries but I couldn't pass up on those Orange Rockets... great color to go in that bed, I thought. And thanks again in the advice on the Sedum... pretty little cultivar, the Tricolor. Only gets four inches off the ground. I was going to put them around the bird feeder I just put in but that's such a small bed, I decided against it but I will still enjoy them.

I can't take credit for making that bird feeder... I bought that at a craft festival about 8 years ago. I just had to put the 4x4 in cement, paint it, give the feeder a fresh coat of paint and presto. :)

Heh heh, cute typo

Ha... yeah, I wish digging holes was a party ! :)

Yeah, I one put a Pyracantha under window that would have been a prime entry spot for would-be thieves. Nice deterrent. :) Barberry thorns are almost as nasty.

Hmmm... that makes me re-think those Mahonia I've been eying up at work.

Hahaha. :))

FYI: http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_010260.pdf

Mahonia bealei is super prickly. For me it is very slow growing. For a wild area though, if you can find Aralia spinosa/ Devils walking stick, suckering somewhere, dig those up and plant them. In a couple years there will be no entry there- unless they are determined enough to stomp them all when they're little...why doesn't prickly native greenbriar grow where you most want it, lol. I hate them in my yard.

Speedie & Cam, My dislike of barberry comes from my childhood when many of the neighbors used them to keep us kids from cutting thru their yards or walking on the top of their stone walls.
I admit that they can be beautiful in mixed plantings with lovely color but I just can't get over my childhood resentment. LOL
We have just one at Ric's insistence.

yeah, greenthumb, I wasn't going to say anything...But for the next person considering them... That sheet is up to date, even mentioning the deer tick connection

Moving the Natchez was a great inspiration, and the sweep of the bed edge is great. Love the new bird feeder, too. How about little blue shutters on it to match the house?! The yard is looking better and better. Thanks for sharing.

I'm trying hard to get every little potted thing planted before I have to start pullin out overcrowded stuff everywhere
8 ^P

I agree everything looks great Cam, I am giving thought to digging up our crape myrtle and replacing it with a Natchez. I really wanted a Crape Myrtle tree but mine is more of a bush. Mostly in this area all you see is bushes and no matter how I try to train it the main branches all die off leaving new bushy growth. I believe mine is a Royal Burgundy and it sure is pretty but not quite what I want I may wait for fall or even next spring but that would mean another 5-10 months of growth. Only just mentioned this to Ric once and I don't think he commented on it. LOL Ric won a landscaping gift certificate and we haven't looked into it yet maybe that would be a good use for it.

I remember when you got the gift certificate, Holly. Do you think one of the new hardy varieties of crape myrtle would do better for you?

I love Natchez, but I ended up getting a vase-shaped crape myrtle for my backyard. I prefer the rounded shape, but it'd take up way too much room in my yard.

Cam, it's looking good! I have (or had) Tricolor sedum here somewhere, but I'm afraid it's been overtaken by its aggressive sedum neighbors, mainly Angelina and Blue Spruce.

I fertilized the roses, flowering shrubs, and rhodies yesterday. I'm now all out of Plant Tone and Holly Tone. I'm getting annoyed with all this daff foliage. :/ My fault for planting them in such prominent positions without planning to cover up their dying foliage.

Thanks, SSG.... guess the Sedum Tricolor isn't too aggressive and invasive. I will give it a try in one of my beds.

SS--I bit the bullet--and have been cutting all my Daff , and Grape Hyacinth,
and other bulb foliage down by half.

I figure that half of the foliage will still provide enough nutrients for them to
bloom next year. Don't they always--anyway?

The cut back foliage tends to sit erect and much more organized.
I love it!

G.

Well then Gita, that settles it; tomorrow I shall cut back ALL my already-bloomed-Irises as well; I will do just like you did with your Daff and Hyacinth and cut back by half. That Iris bed is a most horrendous looking wreck.

I believe I shall end up removing that dying Otto Luyken, which only leaves me 1 left; in the Iris bed. I will move it over to where the other one will get removed, leaving the Iris bed to be ONLY Irises... which means I'll want to dig those all up and spread them around better. When would be the best time of year to do that please?

Speedy

I am short on time right now. Will help you out later...

Gotta be at work by 8AM. Just so all the pretties get watered--
ALL day long...I feel like I have become an extension to a hose.

Meanwhile--let me know IF you really need help in HOW to divide iris. OK?
G.

speedie, I realized a few years ago that iris look really bad to me when the clumps get big after a few years. Because they leave a huge hole when the blooms are done. They are best divided in August, because they are somewhat dormant in summer, and then grow in fall. I would go ahead and pull out some extra small stuff now though, if you are just going to discard them. And get some labels in, before you forget what colors there are, if you have several.

I found several hearty Oriental Bittersweet vines in behind the Forsythia yesterday, arrggg. can't dig because the neighbor has a couple layers of wire fence along there, and veg garden on their side.

CAM, good choice on those barberry plants; they are quite beautiful!

Lots to catch up on from the weekend, looks like everyone was busy!

Thanks, Jeff. They bring good color to that bed.

Just ordered some stuff from Bluestone Perennials yesterday to fill in the empty bed to the left of my driveway.

6 Euphorbia "bonfire" (will go along the border), 8 Coreopsis "Sweet Dreams" and 6 Coreopsis "Sunfire". Should make for a stunning bed during the summer months.

Indeed, that should look nice.

It was a great weekend for yardening! Sounds like everyone was out doing something. I got quite a bit done too. CAM, you are making great progress on your projects! Love the birdhouse.

The turtle garden is now weeded - it only took about 2 hours with my sister in law Bonnie helping me. The soil down there is good and it had been mulched late last year, so the weeds were pretty easy to pull. That garden is really starting to fill in now and looks pretty nice.

I spent quite a bit of time puttering on the hillside garden. Weeding, pruning, digging, dividing, relocating stuff... Saw a big ol snake napping underneath a stand of mountain laurel. It was curled up and actually looked like it had a smile on its face, like it was thoroughly enjoying itself basking there in the sunshine.

I finally got Mike on board with the idea that the circle driveway should be planted, so a new garden area is in the works. On Sunday, he brought in four dump truck loads of topsoil and one dump truck load of compost to raise it up a few inches above the asphalt. It was enough to do half to three/quarters of the area. He was going to try to finish bringing in the dirt today, but I don't know if he'll get to it or not. He used the tractor to spread it around, but it needs to be raked out to finish it off. The manual labor part is heavy work, and I'm not looking forward to doing it. I'm hoping Mike and his brother Lowell will do it for me, fingers crossed, and I can just concentrate on the planting. I have several flats of perennial plugs that will go in there - anemones, tricyrtis, polemonium, bowmans root, violas, hellebores. I had great luck with plugs in the turtle garden and it is the cheapest way I found to get that kind of volume.

I'm back at work today, but mentally my mind is still in the garden lol.

Thank you, Aspen. Wait until that bed is done in a few weeks, should be a very gorgeous. :)

Wow, that must be a huge bed you're putting in if 5 dump truck loads only covered about 65% of the area a few inches deep. Can't wait to see what you have planned to put in that bed !

And haha... I know what you mean. Typical day for my brain while at the office.... work, gardening, gardening, work, gardening, work, gardening, gardening, gardening...... :)

I hear you about the mind being in the garden! I've found myself spacing out staring at the computer thinking about the landscape job I'm doing. Unfortunately I didn't get to do any yardening of my own over the weekend but did manage to mow the grass and spray a few weeds. It's a good thing you have Mike helping you out! That's a lot of material coming in for that new bed. I'm excited to see it next year after it has established a little.

I got one good day of garden work done, but now I am keeping it to potting up planters and some of the easier stuff. Ric on the other hand is really digging in helping me with the flower beds and started yesterday on the Veggie Garden.

We need rain badly I think I'll go do a rain dance, they're done painted and naked right?
Sally see if you can dig up a main root of the bitter sweet, cut it off long enough to stick in an old soup can 1/2 full of weed killer, just for a day, it should suck it up and kill the thing in a week or less. I've been doing it for awhile now, with great success, even on out of control wisteria. Nothing else is effected and saves a lot of work.
Cam, looks like the plan is coming together, I'll see it this fall.
My Grandmother depended on her flags (iris) and peonies for Memorial Day arrangements for graves, her rule was they could be cut back about Labor Day. We rarely cut back iris, but they may be divided about Labor Day, or later, Our peonies look usually look bad enough by then to chop them anyway.

Ric, painted, yes... naked, please no ! Hahaha

Yes, I think by this fall it will be a lot different than it even looks today and I hope it turns out like I envision it.

I think my next project is expanding the bed in front of the house, the part that juts out and has the high peak (if anyone besides coleup and Jill remember what my house looks like). Problem is, I have a couple of very thick tree roots on the surface that run through that area from an old tree the previous owner had removed. I'm going to call the people the just removed that large Juniper for me and see if they can grind those roots out in the area I want to do some more planting. Can't imagine why they can't.

After that project, going to put in the beds on the sides of the driveway.

Then the retaining wall will be the last big project for this year. :)

Cam, as I told Holly the year we retired, "You can't turn the whole da*n thing into a garden in on season!". That was almost 8 years ago and we're still at it. I did draw a plot plan, almost 40 years ago, and it's relatively accurate today.

Yeah.... I know you can't do it all at once. I'm going it at a pace my bad knees can tolerate it. :) And one thing I've learned over the years, we're never done. You always find something you want to replace or add. If I ever was "done", I'd be finding another house so I could start over again. :)

Sequoia, least you be too complacent as to the ability of Hesperis matronalis to spread, Pat and I were in the Berkeley Springs, WV area today, and there large drifts of the plant coming into bloom all along the roads. Though introduced, it is the primary species currently in bloom along rural roads in many areas. Far more invasive than "myosotis sylvatica or columbines".

Edited to add that in some states it is illegal to sell this species, and in others it is illegal to even plant it. In Ontario it is classed as a Category 1 aggressive invasive exotic species that "can dominate a site to exclude all other species and remain dominant on the site indefinitely".

This message was edited May 26, 2015 5:51 PM

Thanks for the heads up GT. I think I'll still take my chances. I planted some in the front yard garden and that is full of aggressive plants. If it is as bad as you say, I'll probably be pulling some out and giving it away or tossing it in a few years. No doubt that it sure is gorgeous though. I know these words of mine are probably making you cringe...LOL Hopefully I won't be regretting my Laissez-faire attitude a few years from now.

Sequoia, it is not just an issue of your yard, and giving it away. I post this because the more I pay attention while I am out and about, the more I am stunned by the displacement of our diverse native flora by a small number of alien species.

In our own yard it is a constant fight with Autumn Olive, Japanese Stilt Grass, Garlic Mustard, Mile-A-Minute and others, not to mention unfortunate deliberate plantings of Burning Bush, Vinca, English Ivy etc. If I were to let the yard go for 4 or 5 years it would be completely taken over by plants that others essentially decided for me by their choices.