Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ville de Lyon Clematis

Ville de Lyon
My new Ville de Lyon Clematis bloomed for the first time a few days ago.  It doesn't have many blooms because it's not well established and it's in shade, but it's so beautiful!   Even from the house I could see those big bright blooms down at the bottom of the hill!

Henryi
Its blooms aren't quite as big though as my Henryi Clematis, which is also a lovely clematis. It's also new to my yard-I have that one on my lamppost and I love that one too!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A home-made tuteur from scraps

Had some fun yesterday making a tutuer for a clematis I transplanted to my front foundation.  I had some really nice mulberry branches that were begging to be used and not tossed in the burn pile.  I tied the branches together with some bits of copper wire left over from our basement remodel and wrapped a grapevine around. Fresh grapevine is so pliable and easy to use.  Dried grapevine needs a soaking before you can bend it into a circle.
The bees and butterflies approve of my allium addiction
Oh, and there's so many butterflies!  I saw whites, monarchs, swallowtails, admirals, an angle-wing, a dark-winged butterfly I haven't seen before, and a hackberry butterfly.  I wonder if this butterfly party is courtesy of home gardeners and their penchant for lots of different plants?

All my columbines are in bloom now
Those were the only good gardening events yesterday.  The rest of my day sucked.  I found out that I have a massive common asparagus beetle infestation on my asparagus.  Every spear is just loaded with eggs!  Now I'll have to spend my afternoons squashing the adults and larvae.   

I also found out that there's some patches of poison ivy in my woods.  Normally I avoid herbicides and pesticides but not for poison ivy.  It's getting the brush killer treatment!  Luckily, I was able to rinse off in cold water right away so the oil wouldn't seep into my skin.  Thank heavens for that!

Finally, I found out something shocking.  There's a big patch of bishop's weed  that I've was planning on pulling out in the future but wasn't in a hurry to do so.  Everything changed yesterday--while working in my asparagus patch I noticed a bunch of seedlings I didn't recognize...hundreds, maybe thousands of little sprouts, every inch of open ground was covered.  I took a closer look and realized they are bishop's weed.  It self-sows!  I had no idea that stuff could set viable seed; I thought it was listed as invasive because it's such an aggressive groundcover.   

Not sure how long this tuteur
will last but it was fun to make!
Well, you can imagine that my plan for the day was immediately revised.   The mature plants are just starting to flower so I had to do something quick.  I've had some success with digging out the roots but this time I'm going to try smothering the patch with black plastic film first.  I've heard that smothering doesn't work but this patch is on a super steep slope and the plants are so tall it's hard to tell where the ground is. I don't need to plant this bed anytime soon so I can wait out those little monsters and once the foliage withers, I can dig out the roots easily.  (At least that's how I'm hoping it's going to work!)

Hope you enjoy your day!





Saturday, May 12, 2012

My Not-So-Sunny Garden of Eatin'


My Garden of Eatin' is a work in progress-currants, cherry, peach,
raspberries, strawberries, chives, onions and herbs-
but is there enough sun for veggies?

Worked hard the last two days to get the veggie garden ready for planting.  I call it my ‘Garden of Eatin.’  It’s the only place in my yard with full sun other than right outside my front door.  (OK, full sun is a stretch.)  I’m worried tomatoes, squash and peppers won’t do well there.  I’d hate to limit my veggie production to beans, peas, and leafy greens.
 
Future veggie garden-no herb bed and an ugly compost pile with no bin
When we moved here this section of the property was just a bunch of buckthorn, garlic mustard and Virginia creeper.  We cleared that out and I put in some raised beds. (OK, my raised beds were just some mismatched logs from the woods, with no rhyme or reason to their placement.)   Now I’m trying to make it look more domesticated and have started replacing the log beds with more orderly-looking cedar boards.  In true Cary style I planted fruit trees and bushes before coming up with a real plan so I can’t make it as symmetrical as I’d like.  Sigh.  I guess this particular garden area will be a genuine reflection of who I am…haphazard.

Right now it's a bit busy-looking but
once there are plants in the pots, it'll look better
Anyhow, to get to the meat of this blog post, while trying to scare up some full-sun space to use for growing veggies, I ended up clearing out the section behind a rotting tool shed.   Sounds simple right?  Well, it turned into quite the project.  I had to shore up the steep slope behind the shed to control soil erosion, even out the ground, re-lay some flagstone that was under several inches of dirt from years of neglect, and finally, remove all the garbage the previous owners had piled back there, including a corroded metal garbage can.  Turned out there was just enough space to put a compost bin and some containers for plants.

I initially planned to take the garbage can to a metal recycling place but on a whim, I put it over my well instead, using the garbage can’s strangely pristine lid to cover up the rotted can bottom.  Surprisingly, I really like the rusty metal and have decided to keep it there for the year.  It can go to the recycling place next year when I hopefully either have some money to buy a nice trellis or the time to build one.  I’m thinking some kind of edible vine, like a maypop, might be nice there-hiding the well from view and providing yummy treats too!

Same spot as above, a year ago-I was using a plastic rock to
cover my well but it took up a lot of space
I've started putting in cedar board beds (top left) to
replace the old beds made from logs
and split-rail fencing I found in the woods (middle)
The compost bin is also temporary-- old metal wire--rusted, twisted, and UGLY (years ago I accidentally melted all its plastic fasteners).  Its purpose is to buy me time to come up with something more ascetically pleasing.  See, behind the shed is a great location-easy for me to get to from the house, hard for the neighbor’s dog to get to, and away from my oak trees.  (I think I mentioned in a previous post that spoiled fruit attracts picnic beetles which are a vector for oak wilt disease.)   The only down side is that it’s in full view of my neighbor’s kitchen window, so to hide my ugly bin I also made a “decorative” screen out of landscape fabric and a pallet that our new shower stall came in (we’re redoing our basement so that’s why there’s no extra cash for fun garden stuff).    My neighbor will only see the screen and some cannas I planted in front of it.  I, however, will have full access to the bin from my side.

So, to sum up, I’m worried about my lack of sun, feeling happy about reusing crap I found laying around, excited about how much better my veggie garden is looking now, and hopeful that I’ll have a successful harvest this year.   Worry, happiness, excitement and hopefulness-gardening is just so emotional!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Rainy Days


I love the papery texture of tree peony blooms

Another gloomy gray day-thunder is rumbling and there’s a bit of lightning too.  I hear we’re going to get buckets of rain this time.  I’m happy for the soaking-even the nearby ponds were drying up, but it’s made my yard work extra stressful because I'm running out of time.  I’ve been pretty busy trying to get the remnants of my garlic mustard and dandelions before they set seed, and hauling cut-up buckthorn and honeysuckle to the curb for next week’s brush pickup. I don't like wrecking the soil by walking on it when it's wet but we haven't had many dry days recently and these chores won't wait.

The garlic mustard is a particular challenge.  Now that I’ve got most of it out of my yard, there’s just the occasional plant that was missed, sometimes only a few inches tall.  It’s easier to spot these little monsters when they are blooming because their white flowers stand out amidst all the other green plants.  Because of our weird spring, my garlic mustard is already going to seed so I’m in a big rush to find them all before they stop blooming. 

Buglossoides with Goldmound spirea in the background
I tried to get a bit of weeding in this morning before it rained.  It was rather challenging.  The wind was blowing tiny white petals from our black cherry trees all over, making the garlic mustard flowers harder to see.  It’s pretty though, seeing the ground covered with delicate flowers. 

The rainy weather really makes white stand out but also all my chartreuse foliaged plants like ‘Gold Heart’ bleeding heart and  my spireas look awesome on a gray day.  That yellowy-green really pops in the gloom.  I planted two more spirea in front of my stand of spruce.  All that dark brooding green needed a transition to the lawn and I’m pretty pleased with the color combo.  It’ll look great once the shrubs get some size to them.  Also, it turns out the intense blue of the  buglossoides and ‘Caitlin’s Giant’ ajuga look lovely paired with the spireas.  I wish I could say I planned it all, but it was just a bit of serendipity.



Wishing you some sweet serendipity too.