working in the yard

Today the high was in the mid-70s, so I was looking forward to doing a lot of work in the yard. However, it is still a bit early in the season and I don't have any shrubs I'm planting so...

Last night at Lowes I saw they had a bunch of hydrangeas out. Turns out they are new versions of Forever and Ever, which is a rebloomer. I got two, 'Double Pink' and 'Peppermint'. Looking on the Forever and Ever site, I think these hydrangeas at least some of them, were part of the You Me series, that includes 'Romance'. In fact, I believe that my 'Double Pink' is in fact a version of 'Romance'. These are claiming that they rebloom and bloom on new wood and are good for northern climates. Time will tell about that. I seem to remember that one of the criticisms of the You Me series was that they were beautiful but tempermental and I don't remember reading about reblooming. My current plan for them is to plant the 'Double Pink' in the front yard at what I think of as the mouth of the tunnel. 'Peppermint' might go in a pot for a while. I think it is probably another version of 'Harlequin'/'Buttons and Bows'. My current 'Buttons and Bows' is alive, but I am not sure if any of the old wood made it through the winter, so I might not get any blooms.

I started the day by repotting some herbs. The rosemary in the pot with the thyme and sage has really grown and was crowding out the other plants, so I replanted it in its own pot. I think repotted the thyme and sage into a new 14" terra cotta pot that matched the rosemary's new pot. I'm going to get a baby rosemary at the FFA plant sale up in Greer next month and will add it to the pot with the sage and thyme. I've put these pots on either side of the baby lorepetalum to protect it. I moved the pot with the licorice plant over to the perennial bed area. I'm planning on planting out the licorice plant once I get the other half of the perennial bed dug in.

After that, I wasn't sure what else to do. I spent most of the rest of the time in the yard either pulling chickweed or picking up sticks. My yard is covered in chickweed and sticks! I want to get Mark out to mow, but I have a lot of stick picking up left to do before it is safe to run a mower. During my weeding, I unearthed some of the irises I planted out last year when I moved them from the side of the house. I accidentally uprooted a few small ones while pulling the chick weed but tried to get them replanted. The whole area around the daylilies is looking a lot better now that all the chickweed is gone. I also weeded out the whole area where the ginger lilies grew last year and even found one ginger lily that is sending up a shoot.

One thing I did not find today was any sign of the lilies of the valley I planted last year. I got these from Mrs Phillips and they hung on nice and green until frost so I figured they would be fine. But, so far I have not seen a single sign of them. I am going to spend a bit more time in the side yard tomorrow trying to see if I see any signs of my bleeding hearts. They have been absent from the scene as well so far. I have seen signs of life on almost all my hostas, which is great. I am missing one marker back in the nursery bed, so I have two of the Diamond hostas that I will have to wait until they are up and hope I can figure out which is which then.

I made brief trips to Lowes and Home Depot closer to home today but didn't see anything I can't live without. I think the nursery selection is much better at the Lowes out on Woodruff, and I expect they do quite a lot more business.

We are expecting lows under or around 40 for the next three nights, so I will have to bring the tomatoes in each day. I forgot to set the fern out today with such nice weather. I may wait until it warms up a bit more then try to get it used to life outside. I need to start bringing the spider plant outside as well.

Tomorrow the high is only supposed to be 60, but the forcast rain has now been called off and certain places in my yard felt dry enough that I think I will need to water. I plan to do that tomorrow afternoon when it is at the warmest.