Shooting Stars, Warm Weather, Invasions

It is still hard to do much of anything in the garden, because I’m tired a lot, and I can’t lift more than 10 pounds at a time.  So I have to ask Bill to do the heavy work, and he’s already pretty busy preparing and painting the house, foot by foot. 

But the yard has a lot going for it, and as long as I can keep things from getting away from me it will continue to reveal its beauty. 

Today, the fish are showing themselves in the shallow parts of the pond – the Great Blue Heron of last fall finally has escaped their memory it seems.  The Water Lily leaves have broken the surface of the water finally, and it won’t be long now til they cover a significant portion of it. 

The Shooting Star plant has made one bloom, and will soon make more.  Seems late, considering how far ahead most things are.  But the native plants tend to be more careful than other things for sure, emerging later and not being as responsive to the oddities of the particular year.  The Pasque flowers are pretty much right on schedule.  It’s hard for me to be so disciplined.  I’ve moved several plants outside, perhaps earlier than usual.  Have to keep an eye on them, but I hope it will be OK.

Today we planted Cannas, earlier than usual,  but in fact a week or so later than last year.  I still have quite a few in the basement, and will have to find a place for them soon or they will be wasted.  My favorite tulips are the Darwin varieties.  The yellow ones that I planted in the first year or so in this yard have spread and I’ve moved them around, til there are great clumps in several places.  Very beautiful for a week or two in spring.

The big event of today was finding a clump of garlic mustard along the creek.  They were blooming, but not yet seeding.  This is an invader that I really don’t want to gain a foothold for sure.  So we spent some time this morning pulling up the plants, making sure to get every one, and putting them into a black plastic bag in which we can bake them in the sun and then toss them out.  Keeping the creekside free of loosestrife, garlic mustard, buckthorn, and other invasive plants is a constant challenge. 

Another week with no rain (or very little...)

We still have been missing all of the good rainstorms here.  10 miles south they got soaked the other day.  And farther north the rain has been regular.  But the Appleton Gap has persisted, perhaps even expanded.  All of the big weather systems seem to split at about this latitude.  And we are still very dry. 

The creek is still running, and I do remember summers when it was dry by this time.  It is difficult to know if this is unusual or if dry summers are the norm for these parts.  Must consult the record, I guess.  One thing I've noticed is that there really is a "microclimate" effect.  Our yard has about a one or two week shorter growing season than the yard we had in the city.  We are low here, and we get the first and the last frosts of the season.  And there is not as much thermal mass (streets, sidewalks, roofs, etc.) to keep the heat on a close to frost night.  It's better since we have more trees.  

This week the daisies and blanket flowers are declinin g, the coneflowers are at their peak.  The hydrangeas are coming into bloom, and the hardy Hibiscus is making nice looking buds -- I hope for something spectacular in another week or so.  The Monarda are lovely, the Gooseneck Loosetrife is blooming.  The Ligularia are beginning to bloom nicely.  Dahlias all over are blooming.   The Butterfly Weed is perfect as usual, and the Joe-Pye Weed as well.  Cannas are gorgeous, though I have to water them daily and they haven't begun to flower.   Annuals are coming into full bloom and giving the yard color. 

We had the first couple of tomatoes from the garden last weekend, and we've had jalapeno  peppers for a few weeks. Raspberries are coming in strong, we've had at least a pint a day and sometimes more for the last week or so.  There is a nice looking zucchini out there, and the onions and leeks and potatoes are maturing.  We pick broccoli once or twice a week.  Summer is good.  Even though we love to ride down to the farmer's market every Saturday, there isn't much we need to buy.

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.

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.

Fall Glory

It is really beautiful in the fall, even though things are dying and other things are shedding their leaves to prepare for winter.

There is much work to be done, digging the cannas is a huge task, as is cutting back the stalks and stems and then pushing them through the chipper/shredder. Some years we burn things, but when it is possible we prefer to shred them so we don't pump a bunch of smoke into the air. 40 years of asthma makes Bill sensitive to particulates.

Even with the diminishment and death that is going on, the colors are beautiful and the afternoon light in the fall is gorgeous. Most of these photos were taken a week or so ago, but I'm just now getting around to writing. This is a busy time away from home, and then there is so much to do here in the few hours we have.

Yesterday and Saturday we had a charitable event to work on, and spent probably a total of 12 hours since quitting work on Friday. But we also had to dig the cannas, cut down and shred tons of spent perennials, cut the lawn, haul a bunch of ceramic pots to the garage, clean up dead plants below the bedroom, outside of the atrium, in the kitchen garden, along the vegetable garden, in the evergreen garden. Also, used up the leftover herbicide on the last of the flourishing weeds, cut down the sunflowers, and a multitude of other small tasks.

But it is beautiful out in the yard and I love being out there even when I am dead tired.

I don't want to count on it, but....

But this year has been amazing with regard to the amount and timing of rain. Just when I start to think it is a little dry, it rains. And rains well. Yesterday I felt gypped. I left for work in the early morning as usual and it was setting up to be a hot and sunny day. At work, I spent the day, as usual, in the dark and moldy basement. I hardly knew what was happening in the real world. People said it was raining, and I could walk out an see that it was. And back in the network services "data center" as I was discussing the latest big project, the power blinked briefly, indicating to me and our network administrator that our investment in UPS devices for our servers was worthwhile. And I did take a look out through the atrium a couple of times, and noted that there was real rain falling. But that is the total awareness I had of the rain.

Then I got home, and it was beautifully sunny and warm and the road and driveway were dry, but I looked at he raingauge in the front yard and found that almost two inches of rain had fallen there. The roadside ditch was full of debris that had been washed out of the culvert. And all of the other rain gauges were showing over an inch - from 1 and 1/2 to over 2 inches, depending on location. I have no certainty of exactly how much fell, but it was enough to be significant, and enough to make all the plants happy for sure. And I didn't see it happen. <sigh>

Blooming for the first time since the last post: Cannas, Summersweet. We had the first tomato from the garden over a week ago, and now they are coming in strong. Gaga's favorite, Jetstar, produced a beautiful, large, ripe specimen for tonight's dinner. Ah..... The peppers are coming on, I have more cucumbers that I know what to do with, broccoli is abundant. The potato plants are beginning to decline a little bit, but it is too soon to dig them up. I'm not sure about the onions this year. They seemed to get blown down early and I hope they are still growing. The raspberries are about done. We had about 10 pints all together over the season I'd estimate. Today at the farmer's market downtown, raspberries were going for $4.50 a pint. I think we paid about 6 or 7 dollars for the plants we have - and we get 40 or 50 dollars worth of fruit a year from them. A good investment.

Hail Damage

Last evening's rain finished with a flurry of hail. At the time it didn't seem to be very damaging - small stones that were not overwhelming. And I couldn't see any apparent damage to the plants outside from the window inside. But tonight I can see what damage it did. I think it is likely similar to the snow load damage that is done in the winter - i.e. not of great consequence and the plants recover. But my guess is that the leaves that were damaged will never be quite the same, and that the plants will need a little extra energy to cope with the damage.

Planting Week 2008

The last three days have been pretty much nonstop planting and finalizing the Summer of 2008 look for the gardens. The frost on Wednesday was the last hurrah of the winter, and now I am confident that the weather will hold. I'm still seeing damage from the frost, but I trust that the things I plant out now will survive.

Finished the basic planting in the garden: tomatoes, peppers, cucumber have joined the broccoli, onions and potatoes that went in three weeks ago. I even put basil out into the herb garden. The flower gardens are evolving: put out the wave petunias, some alyssum, planted the pots for the deck. Finally decided what to do with the tall, green cannas, and put them out into the garden in front of the deck. Finished weeding and chipping the beds around the back yard, and am ready to finish tomorrow with any luck.

The dogwoods are blooming beautifully this week. Also in bloom: Bachelor's Button, wild geranium, swelling buds on the viburnum along the creek. Finally got a shot of the mother duck and her ducklings. Very cute.

The last tree to break leaves and begin to create shade is the Mullberry that I got from our friends Tom and Bea about, oh, ten? years ago. Took home a two foot sapling from their yard and planted it at the edge of the woods. Now it is 30 feet tall, and at least 5 feet inside of the treeline. I guess, as my father urged us when we first bought this property, we have let the treeline e dg e out into the yard,. It's not like we don't have plenty of lawn still. Less each year, perhaps, but still a large amount of monoculture to keep up and mow. Some day this will all be gardens,with only a tiny bit of lawn to create paths between them.

There are very interesting formations on the Austrian Pines that I've not noticed before. I think they are inflorescences, may mostly fall off with a few becoming cones if they are fertilized. Never noticed them before.

Cannas Grow while Iris and Clematis Struggle

The cannas went back out to the deck today, and also a couple of pots of geraniums. I sheltered the geraniums under the patio table because the new shoots were very tender. The cannas hadn't gotten far yet, so they can take the direct light.

We're expecting rain again for the next several days, though it will be a warm rain. The creek is back down to reasonable levels so we can probably take a couple of inches without terrible flooding But I'll have to watch the trays of cannas, which don't have drainage holes. Cannas in the wild thrive in boggy conditions, so they will be ok, but I don't want them to float away.

I still can't see any sign of growth from any of the clematis vines, and it feels very late for that. Every time I walk around the yard I find one or two or more abandoned vole nests dug into clumps of plants. They completely chewed down last years growth on the siberian iris clumps. That is probably a good thing, those can get totally out of hand and impossible to deal with.



Nice to see a tiny pansy peeking out between the stepping stones near the pond. Always hope that one or two make it through the winter, and this year this one looks strong and is growing in a good place. I can leave it right where it is and it will probably be beautiful for the next couple of months.