I have spied a little brown bird, aka LBJ (“Little Brown Job”) popping in and out of my quince shrub. LBJ often has long dried grasses in its beak before popping into the shrub. Not only does the Quince shrub have a nest, so does a birdhouse and an arborvitae. In addition to the nests, I have a resident flock of gold finches enjoying the finch feeder as well. It appears I have quite a population in my garden… butterflies, birds, frogs, snails, slugs, hummingbirds. All are regular visitors or live in my garden and as a result, the garden is never still and constantly full of action.
New recent garden additions include 5 steps next to the fountain and some stepping stones in front of the butterfly garden. I also purchased a larger palm tree from Home Depot. The Fan Palm that I originally purchased for my tropical garden is small and needs to grow quite a bit though it is more appropriate and hardy for my climate. The Mediterranean Palm I purchased for $15 is a nice size to complement my tropical garden, however it is not hardy. I will attempt to bring it into the garage over the winter if not too much trouble. In the meantime, I guess it is “disposable” if it doesn’t make it.
I planted some luffa and nasturtium on May 4th. The kids have asked to plant corn and we are just waiting for a sunny day which has been hard to come by around here lately. Cold, in the 30’s at night and barely in the 50’s during the daytime. Definitely too cold for corn! In the meantime, the luffa and nasturtium have been hardened and are ready for planting in the garden- a project for later today.
I have also started working on a nature-themed summer cirriculum for my kids this summer when they are not in pre-school. I’ll post the activities online when complete as a reference for others. I will attempt to supplement my kids’ education with my passion for nature. It’s also something they are not likely to cover in depth in school either. I’m so excited to get started!
Finally, I had a wonderful idea the other day about a problem area in the garden. I have drainage screen in a couple places in the grass and one is in a trough in the middle of the main entrance to my garden. It’s always been a problem area for me not just due to the trough, but because the grass gets so much wear and is in partial shade, so it is sparse as well. This grand idea involves a adding a wooden bridge such as this one. Not only will the bridge be decorative, but functional as well carrying people and lawnmowers over the trough in the ground which I will convert to a dry stream bed with some river rock.
What’s newly blooming:
- All iris
- Pin cushion flower
- Weigela
- Delphinium
- Columbine
- Sweet william
- Saxifrage
- Allium
- Exbury Azalea
- Lady’s Mantle
- Strawberries
- Thyme
- Verbascum
- Lupine
This past weekend I added 5 steps and pavers to create a more easily accessed path to my cement bench overlooking my butterfly garden and fountain. I moved two sunshine blueberries to the slope and purchased a third at Molback’s that has a hole just waiting for me to plant it in.
I also prepared a trellis and hole for a climbing rose next to the fence to help keep the neighbor’s dog’s teeth from intruding into my yard. The dog english bulldog next door has completely chewed through the fence in a couple of places so that it’s mouth and teeth are now on my side and I am concerned for my kids’ and their friends’ safety. Hence the trellis and rose. I ordered the climbing rose from Jackson & Perkins since I couldn’t find any in the local garden centers. Hopefully it won’t take too much for the dog to get the message.
Otherwise, I planted the 4 roses I ordered from David Austin Roses. I ordered 3 Queen of Sweden roses and 1 Abraham Darby. The 3 Queen of Sweden’s are in the front yard and the Abraham Darby is currently in a large pot next to the driveway.
I also purchased two hanging fuchsia pots at Home Depot for my back patio, some stepables for the new steps from Fred Meyer and a new shrub for the left top of my slope where an existing shrubs appears not to have survived the winter.
Just today I was marveling at how fun gardening is. The weeding and cleaning of the spring and winter are behind me and now the fun part of adding to the current scenery is mostly what I need to be concerned with.
Other updates:
Berries are setting quite prolifically, all the crocus and grape hyacinths that over wintered in my refrigerator and were planted quite late all bloomed and a bird is building a nest in my quince shrub. The hummingbirds are frequenting their feeder and the peonies are budding nicely!
The garden is an amazing spring palette of colors and staring out my windows at the patterns of blooms creates such a mood of cheerful relaxation. But the lone little white butterfly that seems to flutter around in my garden daily adds the magic as it flits about. It makes me happy to know that my garden has succeeded in becoming a habitat for the little butterfly who must have found plenty of food and shelter here to keep it happy. It has been warm and sunny the past ccouple of days, but now it is no longer in the 70’s and 50’s sem to be the new high temps for this week. Hopefully the little white butterfly will be okay. I will be looking for it!
Otherwise, much has been accomplished over the past two weekends in the garden. The 3 hanging copper planters are filled with ivy geranium, verbena and creeping jenny. The 3 front planters that already contain euphorbia, heuchera, creeping jenny and primulae were joined by upright fuschia. There are now red snapdragons everywhere in the garden to complement the foliage for when flowers aren’t necessarily blooming all the time. The back planters are also planted. One with a leftover hydrangea from last year’s Mother’s Day along with ladies mantle, snapdragons and a begonia. The other two planters each have a spiky grass, a couple snapdragons verbena and creeping jenny. The creeping jenny in all the planters has been recycled from last year’s pots. Finaly, my two strawberry planters got a much needed overhaul. I removed all the plants from the two planters, added fresh soil and replanted the newly divided plants in the strawberry planter pockets. I toppped two of the planters with different varieties of mint which I don’t dare plant in the garden for fear of it taking over. The third planter is all strawberries. I had a dozen leftover plants which a friend now has in her brand new red strawberry planter. I love sharing plants!
I also finally planted my new tropical garden. New additions include a banana plant, windmill palm, dwarf canna and caladiums to join the already present clumping bamboo, hostas, daphne and purple clover. I found a great little cement native totem pole/tiki, a tiki lantern and bought a resin fountain made to look like bamboo stalks tied together with the top bamboo holding a torch insert and the rest, cascading water. The entire bed is quite a cliche, but I love hokeyniess of it! It’s fun to create and enjoy such a silly little oasis.
Finally, I planted a couple of digitalis plants that I recently purchases, moved a hydrangia and planted a displaced birch tree from the newly planted tropical garden. I planted two New Zealand flax along with some displaced sedum in my dry river bed-like setting by the side of the house mainly because I needed the rocks to edge the slope butterfly garden. The area looks fabulous and I love that I would never have come up with the idea had I not needed spare rocks for another project. It goes to show that gardening inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. All that planting and some weeding and a lot has been accomplished. Including the line cutting and mowing my husband did and the new bark mulch from a few weeks ago and the garden is looking pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.
Oh, I almost forgot, I ordered and received a new pump for my existing fountain which is again up and running.
Finally, here’s what’s newly blooming:
enkianthus
dogwood
azalea
Rhodies
Lily of the Valley
Poppies
Lamium
Jack in the Pulpit
Trillium
The complete list verified a few minutes ago!
Sour cherry tree
Goat’s beard
Tulips (species and cultivars)
Narcissus
Grape hyacinth
Flowering currant
Pulsatilla
Dicentra
Forget-me-not
Hyacinth
Foam Flower
Crocus
Pulminaria
Primula
Creeping phlox
Hellebores
Fritillaria
Wild Ginger
Hepatica triloba
Trillium (red and white)
Primula auricula
Yellow rhodie
Baden Baden rhodie (red)
Periwinkle
Anemone nemorosa (blue and white)
Heather
Various azaleas
Trying to get caught up in the garden is a job in itself, trying to get caught up on the blog is also a little tricky sometimes. Especially when one has house guests. My father was visiting for two weeks and as he has always been my gardening inspiration it was so much fun visiting various nurseries, admiring my garden, and discussing care and garden modifications for the future. During this time my landscaper also took care of spreading shredded bark mulch in preparation for the summer. They also did some weeding. Now generally, I am fairly good about weeding and especially took care to attack some problem areas before the landscapers came lest they become confused as to what’s a plant and what’s a weed. Anyhow, they removed 3 wheelbarrow-fulls of weeds!! I was so nervous watching them weed and stomp around on my planting beds. I actually had the binoculars out at one point. Yes, it was an emotional day for me, worrying about my little sprouts. All in all they did an awesome job. I had to rescue a couple plants covered in mulch, but the rest I will just let push through themselves.
They also removed a diseased pine tree and planted a cedrus deodora tree in its place in my front yard. The tree is beautiful and really works with the house colors and other landscaping. The yard is looking fabulous! Of course there is lots more to accomplish.
Next steps include adding steps to the slope, installing the new fountain pump, planting the new “tropical” garden. The tropicals all arrived from mail order and I planted the tubers in pots outside to give them a start. The hardy banana and windmill palm are are potted up indoors and I can’t wait to get it all started!
My father bought me some trailing nasturtium seeds which need to be planted as well as a shooting star primula that I want to buy a concrete pot for as they love the lime. I have quite a few similar plants growing very successfully this way in pots. So, a trip to the local concrete statuary store is required. The kids love visiting with all the animal statues. Perhaps tomorrow!
Otherwise, another new addition is a golden hops vine. It is the prettiest color and perhaps my husband will give the home-grown hops a try in some brew making this fall.
Finally, weather. It has been cloudy and cold, in the low 50’s during the daytime, high 30’s at night. The grass which had started growing has slowed way down as have other plants. My species tulips opened briefly for a day with a few rays of sun, but I haven’t seen their faces since. Just one sunny day and I think the garden would explode.
That’s it for this re-cap. Am going to try to get a nice “what’s blooming” inventory started for tomorrow. Happy gardening to everyone!