Wild Areas

Our manicured landscape area is surrounded on three sides by wild areas.  This strip of weeds between the Viburnum Thicket and the west driveway is a good example.  It used to be the very edge of the mowed lawn.  After the driveway was put in we used to still take a pass down it a few times a year with the lawnmower.  

Once we actually tried landscaping it.  We planted some daylilies and iris and mulched it heavily.  For a few years I kept the blackberries, wild strawberries, ferns, goldenrod and aster beat back a good three feet.  Then I gave up.  I still whack it down in the fall, otherwise the goldenrod leans over into the driveway.  But areas like this are impossible to landscape.  Its a losing battle.  All woody thicket area need to be bordered by lawn or gravel.  And the gravel may still be a battle.  All natural vegetative species believe in Expansionism and Manifest Destiny.

Before I gave up on it completely I buried some Milkweed roots in there.  I had allowed a volunteer Common Milkweed to grow in the landscape bed along the house.  That's something you don't want to do either.  Common Milkweed spreads by roots and it is difficult impossible to get rid of.  Especially when it finds itself in loose, rich, fertile soil like a garden.  I dug roots for three years before I got it out of there.  But I always buried the roots in an area where I would actually like Milkweed to grow.

The first year three stalks came up and this year I have 20.  

There is a lot of insect activity in there in the morning.  And fresh, young Milkweed is actually pretty attractive.  Later on it will get ugly and I will harvest the pods, throw those somewhere I wouldn't mind Milkweed to grow and whack it down.

There were a lot of tiny snails this morning, and several lady beetles.  I have seen a Monarch Butterfly visit this thicket several times this year already.  Monarchs are very spare with their eggs.  They know that if one hatches, the caterpillar will need plenty of room to munch.  They can't be crowded by many competitive siblings.  There is a little egg there by the lady beetle.  None have hatched yet.  

On my morning walk I thought of a "faith in planting" example to show you.  Three weeks ago when my last perennial plant order arrived, the two Amsonia plants had absolutely fried in shipping.  They were about 8 inches tall and every leaf was brown and crispy.  But the stems were still green so I potted them up and stuck them in the cold frame.  After about a week they began to show growth at the base so I snipped them down and planted them out.   They are doing just fine.

Next year they will look like the one pictured below.  Amsonia is one of the first perennials in my garden to bloom in May.  The flowers are subtle and short lived but afterwards you get a nice shrubby looking plant that is very tough and will add nice texture to any garden.  I started with one plant and now I have six of three different varieties.

Another example of a quick growing, mail order perennial is this Cimicifuga (Bugbane).  This has been in the ground 10 days and look at how quickly it is putting on growth.  I killed my last Cimicifuga because I planted it in an area where it did not get enough sun.

I am looking forward to seeing how this one does.

Puttering

 Today I worked on getting a few more odds and ends out of the cold frame.  The first was the late seeding of the Candy onions.  First they got a haircut.  My camera wasn't sure what we were looking at.

Then I popped them out and shook most of the soil out of the roots.

I trimmed back the roots too.  Then you just get a pencil, poke a hole in the soil, stick the onion in there about half an inch deep and water them in.

I had a few spare Marigolds after planting the pole bean bed.  I just walked around planting them in any bare spot left by trimmed Daffodils or whatever.  I protected them with wire cloches until they can root in.  I planted four and still have two more to find spots for.

Here are a couple of updates.  The bigger grape vine is already tall enough to start training along the cables in each direction.

The replacement vine has some catching up to do but it is growing fine.

The combination pots near the fire pit are looking "decadent" just like the name of the Proven Winners recipe.  It is curious to note that the Black Cherry Supertunias are putting out a few blooms that are a different red.

The ones under the Pear tree are doing something similar.  That is something a hybridizer would consider a flaw and a sign of an unstable strain, but when I get variations like this in my garden they always seem just a little prettier than the rest of the mill plants.

Beans, Peas, Tomatoes

 Today I uncovered the second planting of pole beans and installed the trellis that they climb.  This stackable, expandable "pea fence" from Gardeners is a pain in the neck to set up but it works great.

I used to grow Wando peas on it because those crazy peas would just keep on growing until they outgrew the five foot fence and I was using a step ladder to harvest them.  I used to make bean teepees out of bamboo or conduit until I found that the bean plants would much rather climb this pea trellis

I am pretty sure I have confirmed that the culprit that was eating the bean leaves just as soon as they developed was the little brown locusts.  They are shy and elusive, but some of them were sitting on top of the row cover wishing they were inside destroying my crop before it grew.  They will be happy to eat the leaves now that they are uncovered, but the plants will outgrow the damage.  It is the beginning stage when all that is available to eat is the little growth tip that the bean plants are most vulnerable. I tried to get a good photo but they are classic "no-see-ums"

Anyway, the bean plants are doing well now and they will soon begin to climb up the wire fence.

I am pretty happy with my Durango Marigolds that I seeded indoors the first of May.  I have been growing this mix for years to fill in spots around the garden.  I dislike the Tangerine color of all  Marigolds so much (and they seem to be most prolific) that I buy the color sorted seed so that I only get the Yellow, Red and Bolero  colors.

Durango Bolero

I am counting the days until my Penelope Peas are ready to start harvesting.  I have sampled a few but they are not quite big enough to make a good harvest yet.  I planted four thick rows because I need to restock my seed inventory.  I have been saving my own pea seeds for five seasons now.

They are heavily loaded with pods.

The Tomatoes are also setting fruit.

My Orange Hat Micro Tomatoes are just turning,

I replated the Sweet Potatoes after the Racoon destroyed them.  One of the missing plants has reappeared.  See that little guy?  It really wants to live,

My Strawberries are still producing.  I have enough batches of freezer jam put away to last the year, and a few berries just in the freezer for miscellaneous uses.  These are for snacking.  They are so sweet!

It seems that I spend as much time and money (and brain power) in defeating the deer as any other thing in the garden.  The deer have been coming through, trimming the lower leaves off of the apple tree and then cutting through the Dahlia bed.  Hey! You don't need to be in there!

I drove some conduit in the corners and clipped some bird netting in a band around the Dahlia bed.  I didn't unroll it completely because all I need is a barrier to divert them around the bed and I am tired of trying to fold that stuff up after I use it.

While I was at it I expanded and re-netted the net room around the pear tree which has to stay on all year around until the pear tree improves in shape.  It is already filling out on the lower branches, but some of the branches were trying to push through the net and the deer nipped those off.  The shape is already beginning to improve.

And lastly the Triple Crown Blackberries that I planted last fall are blooming.  These only bloom on old wood, so only the two stems that each plant had on them last year when they arrived could produce berries this year.  I'll take it!

Waste Not Want Not ~ #freeplants

 Do you remember the little Coleus cutting that I broke off the day I transplanted them?

It was rooted under a grow light and has spent the last week or so in the partial shade of the potting bench hardening off.

In the background is the base of the plant it broke off of.  That poor thing looked pretty pitiful up until this week but now it is putting on some growth.  The cutting is large compared to the original plant.

Today it got planted in the border of the pink Dahlia bed.   The little plant to its left is a cutting I pinched off of one of my new Dahlias back in April.  The little Dahlia is about ready to bloom.

Free Plants!  Yay!

The Celosia Fire Pit

 One of my favorite displays of Annuals year to year is my Celosia firepit.  We had purchased this firepit with the intention of using it as a firepit, but then we built a larger one into the ground.  Besides, this one is too small.  My husband only knows how to build ceremonial bonfires, and this little firepit wouldn't hold them.  It was my husband's idea to use it as a planter instead.  The first year I planted Dahlias in it but then I landed on the idea of Celosia.  It took me a couple of tries to find a variety of Celosia that looked just like I wanted, but after that I was able to let them reseed themselves year after year.

They just got thicker and thicker, but over the years, the soil level got lower and lower.  Every fall when I pulled them out the root balls took more soil with them.  It got to the point where I needed to add two or three inches of soil to bring the level back up.  I have the fire ring filled half way with gravel, and the thin soil was becoming difficult to maintain.  Celosia do not require much water, but still, the shallow soil and little watering made their roots hotter and hotter.

Adding three or four inches of potting soil would bury the existing seeds too deeply.  The seeds are about the size of poppy seeds.  They need to be scattered on top of the soil to germinate.  But that's OK, because as you can see, the red color was beginning to take over.  The planter was due for a total reset.  So I ordered two packets of the Century Mix that I started with and decided to direct sow them instead of struggling with them under grow lights.  I just wanted to replicate what nature had been doing.

The thing about Celosia is that it does not transplant real well.  The root systems are small and delicate and do not recover easily.  Many times I have planted transplants from the greenhouse and had them do not too much.  I have tried starting my own seeds, and sometimes the plants do not make it to planting size for me.  But obviously, in a reseeding situation, the plants thrive.  So starting in March, I began sprinkling a few seeds here and there and I covered the soil with a polycarbonate greenhouse panel to keep it warm and prevent heavy rain from washing the seeds away.

I kept the cover on until mid-May when the plants got too tall, and I watered the soil lightly every time I was out there.    The germination has been slow and I have actually scooped up and relocated a few of them to evenly distribute the plants.  But in the end I sowed 100 seeds and I am getting happy plants.  And, just as importantly, they are not all red!

The seeds are still germinating.  After the last rain I counted almost a dozen baby plants popping up.

It won't be long until the plants are thick and blooming again and they can go on reseeding themselves for years to come.

Perennial Optimism

 Every year I lose a few perennials, and last year I did away with a whole bunch of Day Lilies and a few Hosta because I was tired of fighting the deer for them.  Most of this happens in our big Dry Creek Bed.  This area is pretty challenging to plant because it is both a hot, dry area and a wet area, depending on the season.   Below is an example of one of the planting spots vacated last year by a Day Lily.  The Day Lilies and grasses push a pretty sizeable root ball up from grade which seems to help them deal with the soggy season.

Because when it rains, some of these holes can really fill up with water!

When I first planted this area, I started with dependable plants like Decorative Grasses, Day Lilies and Hosta. Over the years I have also tried and failed to add some color with Blanket Flowers, Salvia, several varieties of Echinacea and newer Rudbeckias.  I tried some things that don't do well for me anywhere in my garden:  Candy Tuft, Sedums, Plumbago, Coreopsis and Caryopteris. I've planted four or five different varieties of Butterfly Bush.  Only one variety of these does well, but I am tired of replacing them every two or three years with volunteers I have collected up and groomed as under studies.  I tried some things that the deer absolutely obliterated like Irises, Asters and Marshmallows.  I still haven't gotten around to some of the brighter things like Phlox.  Some of the planting spots I have replanted three or four times and failed with every new idea.

Instead of going for colorful flowers I have switched to texture and colored foliage which brought me to shrubs.  Some of these have done well and some haven't.  I've discovered a few new to me plants like Amsonia and Penstemon which, so far, seem unstoppable in difficult locations.  When online perennials get discounted towards the end of each spring, I buy the smaller pots at half price, pot them up in larger pots, and grow them up to a retail size before planting them out.  This year, to fill the holes left by the murdered Daylilies, drowned Butterfly Bushes and finicky Echinaceas, I needed a dozen new Perennials and Shrubs.  I chose all new varieties concentrating on plants that look like they belong along a natural creek bed.  When searching through possibilities, I filtered for Deer Resistant and Wet Site Tolerant.

Physostegia Summer Snow (Obedient Plant)

Lobelia Starship Scarlet (Cardinal Flower)

Cimicifuga Black Negligee (Bugbane)

Aronia Berry Scape (Choke Berry)

Clethra Sugartina Crystalina (Summersweet)

I also got a few more Amsonia, Brunnera, Carex grass and Niagara Falls grass because I know those will work here and what I have is still too small to divide at this point.  I topped off the empty holes with fresh soil and got rid of all of the opportunistic weeds that had tried to take over.  Some of these new perennials were already getting root bound in the pots I put them in last month.  I hope this means they will root in fast and take off.

I love having a fresh new perennial in a tidy planting space.  So much promise.

Unless you were to walk through the creek bed, you really wouldn't have noticed those dozen empty holes.  What survives from year to year looks beautiful in June.  Here are a few shots from the last week.

Early Morning Sunshine

The Layered Look

Hosta corner in the dry shade of the Black Maple

Penstemon Onyx And Pearls (Beardtongue)

So now the vegetable garden is in, all of my annuals have been planted, and now all of the new perennials have been placed out in the dry creek bed.  I think I am, at last, done planting for the year.