Happy Holidays!

Can you believe it's almost mid-December and I'm still puttering around outside weeding and such?  We've had a couple of decent frosts but the ground isn't frozen yet.  There's still some green foliage in my garden: columbine, bergenia, male fern, hellebore, thyme, lamium, and yes, that awful garlic mustard and motherwort.

Male fern grouped with hosta, false solomon's seal, wild geranium, solomon's seal and enchanter's nightshade this past spring

I am still surprised about how tough male fern has been in my garden; it's weird to see them still green in December.

Actually, they're one of three fern species that have done well for me this year:  Robust male fern, maidenhair fern (a native) and interrupted fern (another native).  All are in soil with an alkaline clay base naturally amended with neutralizing oak leaves, lots of root competition, and part to full shade.

The first ferns I planted were maidenhair, deer and male ferns. The deer fern struggled right from the start and by the second summer I gave up on it. Happily, the maidenhair went ahead and made itself right at home.  What a dainty beauty!

The two male ferns I planted also went ahead and carved out a place for themselves.  They haven't gotten tall but their clumps have expanded, despite no supplemental watering, in soil that isn't always moist.

It's hard to see here but if you look hard you can see the
brown fertile leaflets halfway up the fronds of this interrupted fern

I did not plant my interrupted ferns.   I didn't even know what they were when I found them in my front yard.  (Note:  Ontarioferns.com was the wonderful resource I used to determine what the heck they were)  Perhaps the previous owner planted them or maybe they showed up on their own.  Either way I don't give them much water and they have to compete with a tangled mass of spruce roots.

'Ghost' japanese painted fern and my other athyriums
seemed to need more moisture than my other ferns this year;
they did not like our drought-y fall

Some other ferns I've tried did not make it, maybe because the soil is too dry, or heavy and alkaline: every ostrich fern I tried quickly died.  I've got a cinnamon fern that is struggling along and the jury is out on the japanese ferns and other athyriums I've planted.   I hope these make it in my yard; deer and rabbits leave all my ferns alone (so far) and that is an endearing trait if ever there was one!

A gift from the storm

(NOTE:  This post was started over a week ago but I forgot to post it.  Since I first wrote this, it's been hot and dry. That's WI weather for you.)



'Hummelo' in bloom



Hey!  It actually felt like summer today!  And the mosquitoes have finally arrived.  It's weird; others in our town have been complaining about the mosquitoes for weeks and weeks but we didn't really see any until a couple of days ago.  Probably due to the cold but I'd like to think there are additional reasons.  Maybe my organic gardening methods have increased my amphibian population and that's why we  haven't had many mosquitoes?  Or maybe the rotting cupola on our garage has a new bat family in residence?  Whatever the reason, I am very thankful for the respite we had from those bloodsucking pests!

We are also thankful for a gift from the storm that blew through last week.  Last year, the top half of an aspen was knocked over by another storm and got hung up in a maple tree.  It was just out of reach on a steep slope and it was going to be pricey to get it removed.  It was pretty darn scary weeding under it, let me tell you, as it creaked and groaned in the slightest wind.  Well, our latest storm took it down from it's lofty perch and laid it out on the slope <i>perfectly</i>, avoiding every plant and shrub we didn't want it to hit.  Yay!

It was supposed to rain again today so I decided to transplant some sweet cicely to one of my shade beds.  The woods is once again full of garlic mustard.  We had just finished bagging up what we pulled a couple of weeks ago.   Ugh.



Maidenhair fern with Sweet Woodruff
at its feet: both Wisconsin natives



On the bright side, my 'Hummelo' betony is blooming and its reddish purple blooms look so nice with the variegated 'Goldwell' veronica near it.  I've never grown 'Hummelo' so wasn't sure if it would do well especially because it started off so slow.   It's leaves aren't felty like regular lamb's ear.  I like it alot and plan on adding more.

 

Another plant that has me clapping in admiration is maidenhair fern.  Now that it is settled in, it's looking really good.  Of course, we've had a really wet growing season so how it will look in a droughty year has yet to be seen. 

 While clearing out some space in the back yard for a lawn I found a shrub that I had overlooked last year.  After some digging on the 'net I think it's an elderberry, specifically Canadian Elderberry.  It's actually kind of pretty, although I suspect it suckers.  I hope it's the edible kind of elderberry...

Could this be Canadian Elderberry?  What a nice surprise if it is!