Mid May Flowers and Birds

We've had a fantastic assortment of birds in the yard in the last few days. An Indigo Bunting came to the thistle feeders several times last Friday, though I have not seen him since. There are Oriole's, Hummingbirds, and two male and one female Rose Breasted Grosbeak. Plus the usual assortment of finches and Cardinals and Robins, etc. It is a colorful yard these days.

Flowers blooming also add to the color. Difficult to include them all. Tulips of course. Daffodils are fading, but some still going. The Serviceberry came and went in the last week. Apple Trees, despite our hard pruning, are pretty now. The Magnolia still going strong. The white Iris on the west border is spectacular. Lilacs coming in. Prairie smoke at its best. Wild Geraniums, May Apple, Jack-in-the-Pulpits everywhere. The Shooting Star is perfect now. And the Astilbe is putting up flower spikes - thankfully not fully up as of Saturday eve, when we had a light frost. Most of the tree flowers are done, but a few still going. Generally unspectacular, but important.

Just beginning to show themselves, but giving hope for a beautiful June and July, are the Butterfly Weed, the Asiatic and Oriental Lilies, the Liatris. Peonies that I thought might be dead are now, two weeks later, over a foot high. I'm happy to see the Heuchera finally relaxing, and some are even putting up flower stalks. And I'm thrilled that the Hibiscus plants that I bought and planted late last year are showing signs of some growth. They certainly seemed totally dead until about a week ago, and even now I can't fully trust that they will come back. But it is looking possible at this point - they each have a couple of small sprouts coming from the very bottom of the old dead stalk. I don't know this plant, so I don't know what to expect. We shall see.

Robins, Swallows, Tadpoles, Near Fullness...

It never ceases to amaze me how fast things happen once the spring really comes in. We haven't had a night below freezing for a couple of weeks, and it doesn't look like we will for this season (knock on wood).

The toads singing in the pond joined together and produced an amazing number of eggs, which now are clumped up in the shallow end of the pond. I took a few into the house in a large vase, and those have matured faster, probably because of the higher temperatures inside. They are swimming around a little. Outside, the ones in the pond are still in rows, not yet emerged from their gelatinous casings. But I bet they will do better in the long run.

Bill was off on Monday, so we had a three day work week. We got a lot done. Friday I cut the lawn after a couple of hours of yard work. Saturday was cold and rainy, so we shopped some and found some Rhododendrons for the front garden. I had been to Fernau's on Friday, and already had broccoli and leeks and onions to plant whenever the garden was ready.

Sunday we worked very hard. In the front garden we divided the grasses, a huge job. Once all of them were replanted, smaller and ready to be vigorous, we put in the three Rhododendrons that we bought Saturday. That doesn't sound like much, but it took most of the day. We did find time to work on straightening up the stem of the corner Juniper in the evergreen garden. The view of it from the house has been distracting for some time, and I hope we can successfully straighten it up.

Monday, Bill revved up the roto-tiller, and to my amazement it started on the first pull (though Bill later told me he had been working on it and trying to start it for some time before I came to be the anchor weight for a full-out pull.) I don't know that it has ever started that well. I pruned bushes, tried to pull the dead stuff out from the Alpine Clematis on the gazebo, watered plants, took out dead branches from the Hydrangeas on the east side of the hou se. Once Bill was done with the tilling, I planted the broccoli, leeks and onions in the new garden. Bill brought out the outer hose, and we got it strung out under the yard t hrough the PVC tunnel out to the island. Then he brought out the screens and put most of them up, with a tiny bit of help here and there from me.

We won (bought) a very nice plant stand for the deck at the Rotary Shines event last Tuesday. I've got the cacti out on it right now, but I don't think they will be the final sum mer residents. It is very pretty, and I look forward to seeing it later on.

This week I brought the Rex Begonias up from the basement, and put them out on the front porch. The planters are ready, and I will put them in shortly, I think. All of the basement plants, except for a couple of begonias I'm keeping safe just in case, are up and out now. And most thinks are out of the kitchen and living room also.

Newly Blooming this week: Jack in the Pulpits, Rhododendrons, birch, willow, Tulips!, Prairie Smoke, Apples, Serviceberry, Choke Cherry, Lungwort, Trilliums, Violets, Potentillia, Grape hyacinth, Ninebark, Bleeding Heart, Forget-Me-Nots, Magnolia, Marsh Marigold, Primrose, geranium sanguineum, Bergenia cordifolia, ....

I'm so happy to find the Forget-me-nots, given to me a number of years ago by Marsha Dawson. They tend to grow where they want to grow, and not necessarily where I choose to plant them. These have migrated from the garden to the woods, but they are coming up each year somewhere. Never can count on them, but can't forget them either.

Sprouting newly this week: Liatris, Joe-Pye Weed, Japanese Maple, Hostas coming on big time, Butterfly Weed, Russian Sage, Dill weed seedlings, Cleome seedlings, Leaves of the ninebark, ash, and many other trees, Oh, pretty much everything is showing signs of life.

Things are speeding up, and now is the time I wish things would slow down so I could enjoy every minute of the changes. I do love the growing season.

Spring has Sprung

Don't even know what to take pictures of this weekend. Everything is progressing so quickly. On Saturday we couldn't find any sprouting Jack in the Pulpits, and on Sunday they were everywhere. I swear the Ostrich Ferns grew 4 inches high overnight, and Maureen told me that was the photo to take. And the Liatris began to show its shoots that I could not find at all on Friday.

This weekend was a big one for yard work. Gotta do a few of those in the spring. On Saturday I dug up some of the overgrown Hostas along the front walk, divided them and replanted enough to be as full as before. With what was left, and that was about 1/3 of the plants, I planted the entire new bed beneath the Willow in the back yard. While I was doing that, Bill was digging out all of last year's compost, sifting it, and storing the resulting wonderful soil in a couple of containers. After he was done with that, I took the wheelbarrow and spread a couple of loads on the original berm garden. That hasn't had any amendment for several years, and can use the organic content from the compost. Only concern is that since we do "slow" composting there may be a lot of weed seeds just waiting to germinate. With luck, we will find a musk melon or a watermelon or a tomato. But there are many weeds in this yard that could be what comes from the compost.

After all the work of the compost and the transplanting the last activity of the day was to mow the lawn for the first time this year. Many places didn't really need it, but many did, and we had to keep things even. Bill started, but I stopped him and asked him to do the raking and pickup of the willow branches while I finished the mowing. Took about an hour and a little bit more, but it did look good when I was through. Then just a few little tasks, watering in the new Yews on the west side, and the May Apple and the Russell Lupines I planted.

Bed was good Saturday night. We were both very tired. After a good video sleep came. On Sunday we rode our bikes up to Shopko to pick up some prescriptions, and then got home for the day. We brought out each large willow stem that we had piled up along the creek and hauled it out to the roadside to be picked up this week. I don't know why we did that pile, but it has seemed to encourage rabbits and probably other critters who wreak havoc on the gardens. Now it is gone.

Bill roamed the woods to find rocks that would be more useful in other garden places - he found three pretty big ones to embellish the new garden in front that I consider his to design. He also scraped out the chips that we used to fill in the space behind his most recent wall, and we found dirt and soil to fill in with a few chips on top. This is in order to be able to plant something there for next spring - the front isn't very attractive and needs Spring interest for sure.

Maureen came over to get some plants for her garden, and we found Purple Coneflowers, a Compass Plant, a German Statis plant, some Sedum that I can't identify, and a couple of Shasta Daisies. I look forward to hearing how they grow.

I did a little pruning of the Clematis plants that are growing up the gazebo, and tested the pond for pH levels. Did spot the two remaining goldfish that I had over-wintered, and also some of the little ones that Lee and Lin gave me last week. But the pond is cloudy, and I'm not sure why. Maybe the pH is wrong, maybe something else.

Emerging this week: Hostas, Liatris, Jack in the Pulpit, the Spring Beauties, Marsh Marigold, Pulminaria, Bleeding Hearts grew up to 7 inches high and will bloom next week.

Moved the Hibiscus plants out to the porch, but cover it with burlap over cold nights and sunny days. Moved the geraniums from the basement to the greenhouse, and continue to keep the cannas watered there. I did check the cannas that I planted several weeks ago in the deck planter. I was worried that no sprouts had emerged yet, and feared that the cold weather had made them rot under the ground. But when I carefully dug down, I found some nicely growing shoots and quickly buried them again.

There is so much more going on that I find it difficult to write about everything. Hard for me to understand why people leave Wisconsin at this time of year. January maybe, but definitely not April.

Spring Stars

The yard is really blooming now.  I keep trying to stay ahead of things, but once the spring really takes hold things just move faster than I can keep up with.  In the last few days I pruned the apple trees of the last few sucker branches, bought two new Yews and planted them along the west side of the house, moved the Lilies of the Valley that the Yews displaced out to the creek, planted 12 potatoes in the vegetable garden, fertilized a bunch of stuff, put blood meal on the lilies that something is eating every night, moved a catnip clump from the garden up near the house so Kate and Cleo can find it, cut back a bit more dead foliage, purchased leeks and broccoli starter plants, moved a bunch of plants from the basement up to the deck and the greenhouse.  I'm sure there is more, but I can't remember.

 

The stars of this week are the Darwin Tulips, the Trout Lilies, the one single Primrose that has been blooming for at least 8 or 9 years under the Willow at the beginning of the walkway to the creek.  Also the Pasque flowers that have planted themselves in unexpected places, and the beautiful Daffodils.  I'm also pleased at the progress of the Ligularia that we moved from the area around the old pond out to the first berm.  It is coming up beautifully.  Very early spring seems to be a wonderful time to transplant perennials if you can be sure of where they are.              

Well that was then...

The rains have come.  It is green.  Still cold -- except for yesterday when it was 84 degrees for a couple of hours.  Back down to 50 today, and likely going to stay there for at least a couple of days.  But the yard is greening up beautifully, and it has been perfect weather to dig, divide and replant perennials.  This is the time to do that.  Rarely have the time, but this year I'm "retired" and have all the time in the world.  Or at least all the time I'm willing to spend.  Now that the pond has been re-established, and we've gotten the area around it back to growing condition, I have time to look other places.  I dug, divided, and moved the one remaining original clump of Karl Forster grass a couple of days ago.  One clump became five.  Could take over the yard, I suppose.  

 

The green has really taken hold now.  The lawns all around the neighborhood are solid and bright.  The only things flowering are the spring bulbs and wildflowers, and you have to look hard or have planted well to find things.  But Forsythia, Daffodils, Darwin tulips, the Bloodroot, some tree flowers have taken the place of the early pioneers as stars.  Emerging in the next week will likely be the Pasque flowers, other species tulips and probably some of the hybrids,  the Choke Cherry tree that planted itself, maybe the Serviceberry. 

I've put the Canna roots out into the greenhouse.  And also the German Ivy that has been in the kitchen windowsill all winter, but which has developed an un-curable infestation of some sort of bug.  I'm hoping the Ivy can survive the cold, but he bugs can't.  Hope I'm right.  (Though I did take a few cuttings just in case I'm wrong.)  The Elephant Ears are out there too.  A big cold blast could be a disaster, but I hope it won't happen. 

The fish are well and happy in the pond now, though two of them have not survived.  I bought new basket planters for the water lilies and will try to do some further division of them soon.  Our neighbor's pond was alive with Spring Peeper frogs last night, and I am really jealous.  We've never had frogs evident in our pond, and there were many singing last night next door.  I hope the enlargement and overwintering changes will help us there. 

Oh, and this was the week of the "Red Death" display on the roads of the flower bud scales of the maple trees.  Always a mark of Spring for me.

Driest April in Many Years

We have not had measurable precipitation yet this month. I hope that isn't a sign of a long dry summer. Things are not progressing very quickly, though there is some change from day to day.
I was able find the Bloodroot sprouts yesterday, and today there are twice as many. They really blend in to the dirt and litter around them until the leaves unfurl, which has not yet happened. Today I also saw some Trout Lilies beginning to poke out. Crocuses are almost done, but here and there late ones that I don't recall planting are bursting out. One Daffodil clump is beginning to bloom, and others will likely be out within the next week. The Snowdrops and Aconite are almost done also, but there are Darwin Tulips to take their places. I planted some Pansies the other day to be sure there are no gaps in the flowering.
This year instead of planting the Cannas inside I just took them out of their winter storage and added a little water. This week I planted some of the ones that looked the strongest out in the deck planter box. It would be too early to put them out if the leaves had emerged, but they are underground and can survive a light frost I hope. Lynn next door has done it that way for many years. I kept some inside just in case my method fails.

Middle of April and All is Well

The second weekend of Pond work went pretty well.  Bill refined the clay walls of the pond interior, and since we hadn't had any rain since we began the project it was hard digging, but very stable.  He worked hard to make the perimeter as level as possible.  Then in late morning, too early for lunch, but after a lot of work had already been done, we started to fit the lining material into the hole so as to do as best we could to protect the final liner from punctures and intrusions of roots, etc. 

Once that was done, we unfurled the new black plastic liner, and brought it over to the hole.  The idea is to ease it in, not disturbing the underlayment, with enough to leave at least 8 inches or so overlapping the top edge.  Then begin to flow in the water and try to keep the folds as flat an smooth as possible as the water fills in.  We tried to keep the bottom as flat and smooth as possible, since it will be stepped upon every time we have to clean out the pond.  Any wrinkles or folds could be weak spots if walked upon. 

As the cold water filled the hole, the plastic which had become warm and pliable in the sun stiffened up, and the weight of the water held it tight to the sides of the hole.  The fuller the pond became, the more difficult it was to change the positioning of the liner.  It was pretty critical to have it in the right place from the start.  And we also wanted to waste as little as possible, so we started with it aligned as close to the edge in one corner as possible so that most of the eventual excess was on the opposite corner.

It actually worked pretty well, and once the water had filled to within a few inches of the top we stopped for lunch.  Then back out to begin putting rocks on the edges, 'artistically' - or at least in such as way as to be able to conceal the plastic as well as possible.  As that came nearer to completion, we added more water to bring the edges up all around, and discovered that we weren't as level as we hoped.  One side was at least an inch or so above the other, and the plastic would be quite visible there unless we moved the rocks and dug out some of the soil beneath the liner at the edge. 

Next test was to build the waterfall, using two flat stones, another piece of plastic liner and Bill's incredible intuitive understanding of water and gravity to place rocks in the correct places to direct the flow between the flat stones.  Make sure the back of the upper basin was enough higher than the waterfall to make a nice birdbath, then all it will take is to add enough stones to try to make it look 'natural'. 

Along the way the water lily had to be put into the bottom, requiring that Bill stand in the water for over a minute.  That was a long time in water that was below 40 degrees.  His legs were painful after no more than a minute, and we had to do the placement in three or four stages.  

By early afternoon, we had gotten the pump in, and t  he hose up to  the upper level.  A few adjustments were required, but it seemed to be able to hold water and make a nice fall down into the main pond.  The fine tuning will take place next weekend, and I'll spend this week trying to get most of the stones and rocks at least close to where they will end up. 

We were beat.  But the garden was full of the cut stems and leaves of all of the perennials that I had been pruning for the last two or three weeks.  We had gotten a burning permit, and it was a perfect day for a small fire that would allow us to dispose of all of that material.  Bill dug a 6 inch deep hole in the garden, about 6 feet across or so, and we started burning.  It is very dry now, there are actually burning bans in the nearby counties.  We made sure to have the hose out near the fire, and we even wet down the grasses in the neighbors field 10 feet away or so, just in case a spark was able to escape.  The burn went well, and within an hour and a half or so everything was gone.  Good thing too, because the neighbors had invited a bunch of small children over for an Easter Egg Hunt in their yard. 

Next morning, Bill went out and decided to spread the ashes out around the garden.  After a few shovelfuls, he realized that the embers were still glowing and hot.  The fire was still smoldering after more than 12 hours.  Amazing.