I noticed this past weekend that although there is still a lot of work to do around the garden, and lots of plants are just barely starting to emerge, certain areas are looking quite good. For instance, the veggie garden.
I didn't think the rain was ever going to stop! The prospect of a weekend in the garden after a few days of rain turned into a Saturday watching TV and a Sunday working in the wetness.
You probably don't remember, but last fall I picked up a new ninebark on clearance.
Every year I seem to focus on adding one plant species or genus to the garden: groundcover thymes one year, mints another, bamboo for a couple of years. It never happens due to careful planning, usually starting with an idea for a single plant in winter or early spring -- then I get obsessive and buy several varieties.
Every spring I wonder when I should drag all of the plants out of the garage, where they've spent the winter dormant or semi-dormant. Or possibly dying, to be honest.
The calendar says it's here, but the thermometer doesn't really agree. Spring!
Back in January I asked for some advice on what I should do about an Austrian pine whose roots had escaped the pot and gotten into the soil below. I was sure it had done this because it really put on a lot of growth last year, and from past experience I knew that meant that roots had escaped.
This past weekend I tackled a project that I've been planning for months, if not a year. As you probably know I have a relatively large planting of bamboo (Phyllostachys bissetii) along the driveway. It provides a good deal of privacy and frankly, just looks great.
I was hoping to post today about my project that required creative thinking, but I realized I forgot to take a couple of key photos so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I'll post about something I did recently that could end up being a terrible mistake.
I don't know about you, but I often need to think on my feet in the garden. Lack of an appropriate tool, a cost-cutting measure, difficult access -- these all will make a job much harder than it needs to be.
In the past I've done detailed posts about cleaning up various planting beds in the spring, in fact, some of the first posts I ever wrote were about spring cleanup. I've since learned a couple of things: first, that reading about preparing a perennial bed for spring isn't overly interesting, and second, that stopping to document the cleanup process really extends the length of the job.
April has always been the pivotal Spring month where I've lived, warming up and seeing everything start to waken. The saying "April showers bring May flowers" is always in my head when it rains.
You know those posts I create that contain very few words and lots of photos? This is one of those posts.
Is it strange that somebody so fanatic about plants, tending a garden packed with so many different species, has only a single Clematis vine?
I tried an experiment this past weekend, one that was not particularly pleasant. Remember the bittercress that I photographed recently? I worry about this weed more than any other in my yard, as the ripe seed pods literally explode when touched, flinging tiny seeds in a 6-foot (2m) radius or more.
Continuing my recent inadvertent theme of exclamatory post titles, I found something interesting yesterday. I spent several hours cleaning up some of my beds yesterday, and as a "one last thing before I head inside" task I decided to trim a few remaining ornamental grasses.
A hawk finished its meal in one of the trees behind my yard yesterday and hung around for at least 30 minutes afterward.
Of the edible plants that I overwintered this year, kale is king...
After missing the last couple of monthly first-Saturday gatherings in the garden at Schlafly Bottleworks, I finally made it to April's last weekend.
It's spring again, and that means its time for a look at my early-season "alternative lawn" plants.
Remember a month or so ago when I visited the local nurseries and found dozens of different Heuchera varieties?
I tackled a fairly big project last weekend, one that should pay off for me in future years. It may even pay off early this summer.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I overwinter purple fountain grass indoors under lights every year. I take small divisions in the fall and end up with a dozen or more good-sized plants by the time spring rolls around.
Last year was the first I ever grew swiss chard in my garden, and I have to say that it's probably here to stay. Beautiful, nutritious, tolerant of heat -- it just did so well for me.
When I moved into my house over 20 years ago there were two things left in the basement: a very old refrigerator, and a metal paint bucket.
Even though temperatures dipped back below normal for the last two days, it seems that spring is finally here, which means I can safely remove some of the protection from the plants I overwintered outdoors.
Although this year we had a more normal winter than last year's super-mild one, it was still relatively easy. The coldest temps stayed around for only a day or two at a time, there wasn't heavy snow until just recently, and we didn't get any ice storms.
The solitary frog that lived in my pond last summer has returned! Or at least I assume it's the same one.
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