I spent about 4 hours on the slope this weekend. Too bad it was on a project that doesn’t look like much. Pretty much I dug up and moved a large bush into a new space that involved a large hole that I pick-axed at the top of my backyard slope. Then I planted a smaller shrub into the newly vacant area in my raised bed. I then put down landscape cloth across a third of the top of my slope and beauty barked the area. The new bush is happy and the area is looking good. I carried 4 bags of beauty bark and 1 bag of planting compost up the hill which was exhausting. Thank goodness I work out at the gym 3 days a week or I don’t think I would have made it! Eventually I will do the remaining two-thirds. I finished off the weekend’s work with the planting of 8 baby bear pumpkin seedlings that my oldest daughter started from seed. I planted these on the slope and mostly in peat moss as they will get full sun all day and the area tends to dry out quickly. I finished off by surrounding the seedlings with slug poison. While adjusting the sprinkler heads on the slope today to accommodate my new plantings, I checked on the seedlings. There are dozens of dead slugs surrounding each seedling. Truly disgusting pits of death. I hope the seedlings don’t mind all the slime. Today I also planted 6 impatiens next to the patio and beauty barked the area. A light day after all the hours I put in over the weekend.
Oh, and I almost forgot, my husband and I cleaned our fountain for the first time since we’ve had it running and installed a filter on the pump. The fountain was amazingly clean and wasn’t really due for a cleaning, but since were were dismantling the pump we did it anyway.
Next project for me is to figure out how to discourage a family of crows from hanging out in my yard quite so often. They are as big as chickens and can’t be up to any good though I haven’t quite figured out why they are here other than to periodically drink from my fountain and sample the climbing rose buds on the trellis. Not too many bird droppings in annoying places yet.
Newly blooming:
I planted a couple more annuals in the front yard and in some of my flower pots on the back patio. Mostly snapdragons and petunias. My patio pots are an on-going thing. I pretty much never completely empty them, just pull out the dead or out of season plants, keep what still works and so they are always growing. They all have New Zealand Flax in the middle which is pretty hardy and year round. Some pots have small daisies and the rest just rotates- snapdragons, salvia, petunia, bacopa, vinca… In the spring I sometimes do dump the pot contents in a wheelbarrow, recycle the soil in the garden, salvage what plants are viable, and start with new potting soil to keep things fresh, but not every year. This yea I did refresh a couple pots this way. Things are looking cheerful and bright!
My husband came home, I handed the kids off to him and from 6 to 8:30 pm I worked in the yard. Yard work (though hard work) is my way of relaxing. I moved an ornamental grass and two sweet peas and planted a fern, 2 containers of cosmos, 2 pots of pinks and 5 container grown dahlias. Then I spread a bag of beauty bark around the new plantings and put down some slug poison as well. I finished off the evening by mowing the lawn. For some reason, lawn mowing is so satisfying when you see the perfect rug of neatly trimmed green. It makes the whole yard look tidy.
Noted the following new blooms:
Memorial Day weekend saw much work being done in the garden. Thanks to Marenakos we found just the right rocks to build a little retaining wall for the final plantings around our new fountain. The solar fountain arrived from Silicon Solar Inc. and I already had the plants as relocations from my own yard or plants I had picked up at the local Lake Wilderness Arboretum.
I placed the rocks, poured in the soil, placed the plants, secured the landscape cloth for weed control and poured beauty bark. My husband assembled the fountain and pump and viola, the fountain is done! As a pleasant surprise, the fountain even came with underwater lights that turn the water silvery in the dark. We do have solar landscape lights on order as well, but for the time being we are very pleased!
Elsewhere, yesterday I planted some plants from my stockpile that every gardener always has such as a rhodie, a grass and some others that I’ll get the names of later. I also relocated a couple of plants that were being crowded such as one of my white roses. There is always more to do though. Next up I need more beauty bark so I can lay more landscape cloth around some trees and shrubs.
Here’s what’s newly blooming:
- Geum
- Exbury azaleas
- Columbine
- Iris
- Poppy
- Lupine
- Chives
The garden looks amazing after a weekend spent spreading 12 bags of beauty bark and installing our new fountain. Of course, the fountain includes new plantings thanks to my pick ax wielding husband and 10 new holes to welcome the plants. I also planted some annuals mostly in the front yard. These include petunias, snapdragons and impatiens. The fountain plantings include 3 hybrid tea roses, 4 Sarcococca (Sweet Box) shrubs and 2 clumps of Dierama pulcherrimum (fairy bells). There are still some plantings to add once I find some river stone to shore up the bottom of the planting beds as this is all on a slope.
Otherwise, the slug patrol continues and in addition to my ammonia dilution, I have resorted to slug poison around the newly sprouting dahlias otherwise there would be nothing left of the new growth. No shortage of slugs in my backyard!
Finally, here’s an update of what’s blooming:
- weigela
- lilac
- poppy
- saxifrage
- all rhododendrons
- species primrose
- blueberry bushes
- Fothergilla gardenii
