surveying the damage, plus daylilies

I left the house super early this morning to get to the plant sale up by work. I got a flat of mixed color impatiens, a really nice wave petunia in a hanging basket and a 4 pack of sage, two of which I am giving to a co-worker. I thought about getting some more rosemaries, they had 4 packs of them as well, but then wasn't sure. I still want to do a sage, rosemary and thyme pot and put a parsley pot next to it. I am maybe going to try to grow some curly leaf parsley from seed, so that part might wait. I will buy the thyme and probably buy the rosemary as well, maybe a bigger plant.

I walked the yard today uncovering hostas and surveying the damage. First off, I seem to have misplaced one of the elegens. If it is doing well, I guess it should be able to push up through an extra layer of pine needles... Maybe I'll locate it this weekend, or maybe I just miscounted or something. I read on one site about frost damage that you should wait a week then prune off the dead parts. I will have a BUNCH of pruning to do next weekend. The big beautyberry seems to have benefited from being a bit behind, as its leaves had not started to open before the frost, so they mostly seem to have survived and are now starting to open. The small beautyberry's leave were open and they all look pretty dead now. The tea olive still does have a decent amount of exisiting leaves, so I'm hoping it will be okay, its new growth is gone though, same with both pieris. I think everything should recover. We are expecting rain all day tomorrow so that should be good for everything.

My co-worker brought me a big bag of daylilies, which I worked on planting along the road edge of the ditch. I got them planted all the way from the driveway to the walkway and about 2/3 of the way from the walkway to the area where they scraped my yard so badly picking up yard waste. Some of the daylilies split into fairly tiny pieces. I did plant 3 of the little pieces along the property line with Curtis. I still have some more little pieces I will try to plant up and I'm going to ask Beverly for a few more big clumps to try to finish out the part along the road. I think these will look great as they fill in. I actually did see orange daylilies listed as an invasive species today. Hum... they sure look a lot better than kudzu and you can dig them out.

We do have fewer plants indoors today. Most of the plants went outside today for some sun. It was still too cold to put them out this AM before I left for work (under 40) so I didn't want to put everything out at 6:30 PM after being inside all day and then leave it out all night, especially with rain coming tomorrow. I am going to take everything out to the porch tomorrow and work on getting as many of the small plants repotted as possible. Then I'll leave everything covered on the porch all day tomorrow and all night and they should be ready to go back into their normal positions on Thursday, when it is supposed to be in the high 70s, low 80s.

I also moved the last of the Chinese latern seedlings to larger pots. Many of them are a bit on the tall and floppy side, as they need more light. I was working on moving them outside part time when the freeze came. Hopefully starting Thursday they will be able to spend part of the day outside and they will be in the window in my house every day.

This weekend I am planning on starting some more seeds, probably in small pots, but I think with the warmer weather, I will leave the pots outside to get the sun and only bring them in at night.

dealing with the cold, plus hanging the gate

We are still having cold nights and fairly cold days. Even though I covered my azaleas, when I went out to uncover them this AM, the frost had gotten the blooms. The frost has also gotten new growth leaves on most of my camellias, the hydrangea, tea olive, both pierises and the small beautyberry. I am most worried about the tea olive and the small beautyberry. The beautyberry was just starting to leaf out and all those leaves are now dead. Hopefully it will be able to grow some new leaves. Also, the tea olive seemed to have dropped most of its old leaves and have gotten in almost entirely new leaves. Those are now pretty much done for. We will have to wait and see. The little pieris looks so sad with its little dead new leaves. I am depressed and worried about my little plants. Bobbie suggested not messing with those "little things" (all my 1 gallon shrubs) and just putting in some hollies that would get to be 6" tall after a while. Of course, the tea olive will also get to be that tall, and bloom and smell good and the pieris is just cool looking and will get bigger too. The dogs have managed to break off one of the stems of the tea olive, so I had to prune that off today. I am planning on getting two whiskey barrels to put in the border to protect the shrubs some more. I had wanted to plant flowers in that area and due to the dogs running, I could see that inground flowers would not work. So, guess I'll have some more containers.

I spent a decent part of the day today weeding the grass. Lots and lots of weeds. Once the weather warms up, I will AGAIN try to get some grass to fill in on the bare patches. I am about to give up. I had seen sod for sale at Lowes a few weeks ago and thought I might get some to try and establish some more grass around the forsythia, as the other grass clumps I had moved there this fall and winter seem to be doing well.

Finally, we worked on the gate today. We now have a working gate, but it ground stake doesn't have anything to fit in currently, so we have the gate wired shut so that the dogs can't get out. I think it will be SO useful once it is done. Now all I need is a lawnmower and I will really be in business.

I guess all my herbs are surviving indoors. They all got watered today and the try of little pots went outside in the afternoon for a little sun. When I brought them back in, I had purple basil 911. It was looking very wilty and it felt quite dry, so it got watered right away. I think it was looking a lot better tonight.

Tuesday it finally warms up at night again. Tuesday is also the first day of the plant sale at the school near work. I am going to buy a flat of impatiens to plant in my shady areas, as well as a hanging basket of petunias and some sage. Then, when I get home from work I will have some major potting to do. I will probably end up sending my mom out for some more pots while I get to work on what I have. I still need to find two more really pretty glazed pots, as I want to redo one of the big blue pots, the one I just kind of shoved things in before I went out of town. Right now I think the begonia is making it look crowded and you can't see the petunia at all. The begonia is going to get its own 12" pot and I am currently thinking I will put the petunia in with a verbena and maybe either a million bells or a nemetisia. I would like to get something in a blue and something in a white to contrast with the purple and white petunia.

plants tucked in

The remaining 4 silver scrolls coral bells were planted this evening, and the ones that I planted last night are already looking perkier. When I arrived home, I was very happy to see the Dragon still standing, hope it likes its new home in the shrub border (probably a tad shadier than ideal but I'm not exactly trying for a bumper crop of bitter oranges). Either the trashmen or the recycling took away all the big cardboard boxes, so the yard is looking much improved.

Got all the plants tucked in for the frost. The hostas and coleus that are in the ground were covered with pine needles, as were the daylilies. Everything else was brought inside. I have plants all over my kitchen and laundry room and some in the living room and my bedroom. Some I will put outside each day, others I'll just leave inside for the duration.

I guess I let the herbs go a bit too long without water (I guess it has been so hot the rain the other did did basically nothing). When I came home the oregano was not looking too hot and even the thyme was looking sulky. The pennyroyal looked really bad, and when I watered it, it looked totally pulped. I thought it might very well be a total goner, but now a few hours post watering, it is looking a lot happier, so I think it will make it.

Speaking of goners, I checked the big beautyberry and some of its leaves are even starting to unfold. I will have some pruning to do once everything leafs out, but for now both beautyberries are looking good and I don't think I will have any major dead branches.

I am not looking forward to 4 more nights of having to run around and bring everything in each night. Hope we don't get any freak frosts after our frost free date.

frantic planting

Cold night temps are on the way starting tomorrow, so today I worked frantically to get things in the ground. This AM before work (had to leave for work at 1 PM) I was able to get the dead nettle planted in the shade garden near where the possible one surviving bareroot bleeding heart is. It looks great and really does light up a kind of dark area.

After that it was off to the front yard side of the fence. I put the two potted bleeding hearts into the shade border along separated by a hosta. I also noticed that Jordan's family had cleared the weeds out of their little flowerbeds and had planted what looks like a few salvia and gerbena daisies. Good for them! While I planted the bleeding hearts, I also tried to do a little weeding, as the "grass" around the forsythia is basically weeds.

Next up, it was sun border time and in went the 3 stonecrops along the side of the house. First I pulled out all the weeds so the area looked a lot better. The dirt there was really nice and practically no tree roots so the whole thing went very quickly. I also worked to weed around the creeping phlox. Two of the native phloxes are almost touching. There is a little area between the stonecrop and the phlox where I have decided I will sow some of of the four o-clock seeds in a few weeks.

Once all that was done, it was pretty much time to get ready for work.

Since I didn't get to do anything yesterday due to the mess with the cars and all, I decided that maybe I would try to work in the yard tonight. I went to Target on my lunch hour and bought a battery operated lantern (also good for eating in the gazebo after dark) and some batteries.

WhenI got home from work, I decided to plant even though it was a bit colder than I had hoped (55 as I type this). I started by planting the flying dragon, because I think it is now too top heavy for its pot and I'm sick of always have to stand it back up and afraid it is going to get hurt. The whole for the dragon didn't take too long to dig (but apparently longer than I realized). While the water was sinking in from the part-way through watering, I looked over at the coral bells and noticed that the two that keep looking bad were looking bad again. So, I decided to plant these two coral bells while I was waiting for water to sink into the dragon. The main time consuming part here was just clearing the surface of the dirt in the area I wanted to plant. I had originally intended to try to plant all 6 coral bells tonight, but due to the dragon having fallen over again, it took priority. When I finally got done filling the dragon hole and had mom water it again, and got the two coral bells planted and came inside, it was 11:30 PM. YIKES!!

Tomorrow I should be okay with coming home from work and planting the remaining 4 coral bells. This will really reduce the number of little pots I have to move around. Once the coral bells are in, then it will be a matter of working on getting stuff covered with pine needles and moved into the house.

Today I planted:
1 dead nettle
1 old fashioned bleeding heart
1 native bleeding heart
3 stone crop
1 flying dragon hardy orange
2 Silver Scrolls coral bells

fence posts in

It took pretty much all day, but the posts for the driveway gate are finally in and the gate is sort of hanging out in them right now. The concrete still has to cure for a day or two before the gate will be usable, but at least we are making serious progress now. I might look into getting one more end post sunk in and putting chain link in that whole area. But, considering how long it took to get these two posts in... I might make due with what I have today.

I sent my mom off to the farmers market today to get some more herbs, and she got me 4 more mints (peppermint, spearmint and 2 chocolate mints). I also got a chocolate mint from Susie at work (mom had forgotten Susie was giving me a mint). She also got me 2 sweet basils, a purple basil, another pennyroyal, 2 creeping Jenny (one is going in a container) and possibly something else I've forgotten. I also found a 1 quart dead nettle at Home Depot today (only one they had) for $4.43, so I got that for the shade garden.

All this would have been wonderful if I had been able to do any planting today. However, I was stuck at work until 8 PM. I would have had to be about an hour late to work and I could have had my own car (mom had taken my car to get the gate and met me for lunch but my car was 6" too narrow for the gate to fit in, plus we didn't know she would have to take Tom home after he put in the posts). So, I cooled my heels reading magazines at work while my mom waited for Tom and Bobbie to finish up with the fence posts, then took Tom home and finally came and got me. So, no planting tonight. And I still have a bunch of lirope to plant as well.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, the really bad news is the weather report. We are less than 2 weeks away from our frost free date. So, what are we getting this weekend? Lows in the low 30s and even a prediction of 28 one night. It is currently 71 F right now at 10:36. So, I have coleus already in ground, tons of herbs in terra cotta pots and even more stuff to be planted.

The plan right now is not to plant any of the small pots that are going in containers until after the cold snap. They should be able to survive a few days in their little pots and they will be easier to bring indoors. The front porch things can move into the living room for a few nights. I think I will try to cluster all the herb pots together beside the side door in the little alcove there and cover them with a sheet or a bunch of newspaper or something. I'm getting newspaper to cover all the coleus in the ground and all the hostas.

I had thought I'd plant Margaret (the camellia) tomorrow and maybe even try to plant the flying dragon. But, I have decided I will work on getting some of the smaller perennials in the ground. The ground will give them more protection against the bad weather, I can cover them with pine needles and it will be less stuff to try to bring indoors. I think I will be very busy protecting everything on Thursday night as that is the first day it is supposed to turn cold. I hope the weather report is wrong at we don't get the super cold weather, but at least I am planning ahead and am pretty prepapred.

lirope planting

I did not go to yoga after work as planned and around 7 PM Bobbie brought over a bunch of lirope she had dug out from along her back fence. We worked on getting the big clump separated into smaller parts for transplanting and then she went home. I managed to get lirope planted clear across the front of my left hand foundation bed. I only went a tiny bit around the corner, as I plan to add another plant between the holly and nandina at some point and that will effect where the edge of the bed should be. I did add one lirope basically under the large holly to sort of turn the corner.

There also is a spot sort of behind the nandina that I had been looking for a ground cover for this weekend. But, as I had some lirope left, it is free and the area may eventually be hidden by another plant, I decided to go ahead and pop in the lirope. I then added a bunch of mulch in that area. By the time I was adding mulch, it was completely dark outside and I basically was working from my porch light. I really need to get a battery operated lantern.

Before Bobbie came over, I decided to plant out the two remaining snapdragon plants I had, which have been in their little for pack for oh, I don't know, maybe 2 months?? I had thought all 4 were dead, but closer inspection showed some new growth on 2, so I planted those two and threw the other two out. Realizing that it had taken me this long to plant the snapdragons got me thinking about the coleus pack I had purchased this weekend. So, BAD IDEA, I decided to go plant it in my shade border in the dark. I got three plants in the ground around stilletto hosta (hope they don't grow too tall and obscue stilletto), then managed to pretty much break the stem of another one, then did away with almost all its roots trying to get it out of the pack. I stuck that one in the ground and propped a lot of pine needles up around it. We'll see, don't think that one has a really good chance though. I finally came to my senses and decided to leave the remaining two in their packs at least until it was light.

I went out and looked at my daylilies this morning and some of their foliage was yellowing a bit, which did not make me happy. The ground around them seemed really dry (this is FULL SUN along the road) so I watered them.

I still have some lirope left, so I tossed it all the box of dirt and covered the roots with dirt. With the bare root plants I keep getting, the box of dirt is really coming in handy.
The only problem is that the box of dirt is in full sun and it is really just too heavy for me to keep moving. I think tomorrow night I will just plant the rest of the lirope somewhere. Maybe along the other side of the house, maybe along the drive, maybe who knows where...

This morning I realized that i still had one bareroot elegens hosta that I had never planted. I got it out of the bag and its roots seemed a little dry but some seemed okay. I never could figure out where in the yard to put it. Now that I have a bunch of terra cotta pots I decided to just stick it in a pot and see if it makes it. If not, I have plenty of elegens (I hope) and if so I can always give it away in its $.88 pot. In additonal potting news, after it was dark this evening, I decided that the tansy and lemon balm were looking crowded in their pot they were sharing, so I moved the lemon balm to its own 10" pot and recentered the tansy it its pot. This also took care of the even number of herb pots problem. Tomorrow I will send my mom to the farmers market for 2 more mints for me and a stevia for Jane.

planting continues

I was out of town for most of the week, so mom took care of the watering while I was gone. My big surprise was that I came back to find that both Miss Biloxis had a bloom. Unfortunately one of them fell off today, but the other one is still attached to its plant. I think this will basically be the end of my camellia season.

I went to the farmers market and picked up some more herbs yesterday and made several more herb pots, which I then ended up repotting today in slightly larger pots. I have now added a tricolor sage and a bronze fennel to the pot with the silver thyme (this pot is SO pretty). I also made an Italian culinary pot with purple basil, oregano and Italian parsley. Finally I made a medicinal pot which originally had tansy, lemon balm and pennyroyal in it. The pennyroyal was actually pretty big and the man selling the herbs said if I put the pennyroyal in its own smaller pot it would grow all over the top and down all the sides and basically make a green ball. So, I transferred it to an 8" pot and will get a rue to add to the medicinal pot. I also got a larger pot to put a couple of sweet basils in and maybe add another common culinary herb as well. I also planted a jalepeno pepper and a cayenne pepper today that I had bought yesterday. I did go to Twin Bridge yesterday to see if they had in their Thai pepper plants, but they don't have them yet, I will check back.

Yesterday I also went to the Lily Lady (Daylily andHostas Gardens) on her first day open. I bought 2 Mattie Mae Maxwell daylilys (the hostas I liked were all more than I wanted to spend). When I moved the Matties at home, they turned into 4 Matties. I still had two clumps that looked like they could be split further, so I divided one again and ended up with 5 Matties. I planted those along the inner edge of the ditch over near the driveway. I am supposed to be getting some orange daylilys from a co-worker and will plant those along the outer edge of the ditch and hopefully kind of hide the ditch.

I also got a scotch moss, which I planted in the hole in the cement cover in the backyard. It definitely beats weeds! Maybe it will spread.

I went to the native plant sale yesterday morning and it was actually pretty expensive and not too exciting. I will wait until Carolina Wild comes back to the Farmers Market to get anything else. Did end up buying a fringed bleeding heart. It will go in the shade border on the front yard side of the fence due to being poisonous.

I planted the balloon flowers in the shade garden near the side fence and they look good and I figured they would look ever better with some sort of edging. There is a decent amount of sun in that area, so first I thought impatiens, but there might be too much sun, then I thought petunias, but all the white ones I saw looked yucky. So, the area is just pine needles so far.

Today I started out my morning watering and weeding. They were calling for rain today, but the last time they said rain, we didn't really get much, just a few sprinkles and I knew my plants needed water. So, I watered and weeded. I got a lot of weeding done over by the creeping phlox, which is larger every time I look at it. I also worked on weeding out the area in front of my mulch bed, where I plan to put the lirope I will get from Bobbie.

After all that, it was time for lunch and then as it was looking like rain, I decided to run to Underwoods (as I had gotten an email saying they had all their spring plants in). I got a regular bleeding heart (mom sort of poo-pooed the one from the native plant sale) and three sedums to plant along the side of the house in the sunnier part. Just as I was leaving, the rain started. I went off to Old Time Pottery and got some more pots for the herbs (which I repotted into later in the day). Then it was raining WAY too much to go dig lirope at Bobbie's, work in the yard or much of anything else. So, after looking at plants at K-Mart (they look 3/4 dead) but they did have whiskey barrels stamped Jack Daniels. I need to get one and then figure out how to get some holes drilled in it so I can plant the Burpee herb garden.

Finally this afternoon I was able to get out and repot the herbs once the rain had stopped. Then, while dinner was cooling, I transplanted most of the Chinese Lantern seedlings into their own containers. They sat outside for about 1/2 hour and are now in for the night. I still have 3 seedlings with only 2 leaves so they stay in the starting tray for a bit longer to get a little bigger. The others will begin the hardening off process and will probably live on my front porch, where they will be protected from the dogs.

The biggest news of the day though is that the big beatyberry lives! After the little beautyberry began leafing out last week and the big guy was still totally dormant both mom and I thought he was done for. Then while I was gone, mom pruned him some more and didn't find any live wood. Today while I was watering, I did a bit more pruning and was getting dead looking wood. Then, I was looking at one branch closely and actually saw little leaf buds and saw a speck of green! I did a bit more pruning, pruning out a few smaller branches that were crossing each other and actually cut a green branch (oh well, maybe it will grow 2 branches from that spot). I am so excited!! I do still think I will have some dead wood to prune out, but that will be a task for May or something.

planting, yoga, gazebo, shopping, planting

Today I wanted to go to yoga at 10:45 AM, but that doesn't put me back home until 12:30 pM, getting close to the hottest part of the day. And, I really wanted to get the other yew planted. So, I headed out to plant it around 9 AM. Amazingly, there were no tree roots in the planting hole, just some rocks, so it was a lot faster and I had the yew in the ground before 10 AM.

Mom was going to go out and get some more terra cotta pots and do a few other errands and wasn't home yet when I got home from yoga. I decided that I wanted to eat lunch in the gazebo and set about putting it together. It was that hard to put together, just a bit tricky getting the right angle some times and definately not a one person job. Iwas glad mom got back when she did to help me out. Unfortunately, just as we were fininshing securing the canvas top, the step ladder mom was standing on collapsed and she took a really bad fall. It was in the 80s today and at this point I was pretty well overheated. So, we took a break and went to get ice cream and look at plants.

I had some coleus that I had bought at the farmer's market yesterday and I wanted to find something else to plant with them, plus I wanted to get a few more herbs to put in terra cotta pots that I am going to use to protect the area where I have the salvias planted. I ended up not totally doing what I had planned. I did get a thyme to put in one of the pots, also an impatien with rose shaped flowers, a begonia, a pretty purple and white petunia hybrid and a variegated sedge for the shade garden. Of course, this basically gives me some half filled pots. I wanted but did not get cross-wire vine, tri-color sage and tri-color sweet potato vine. I will get these later. Also stopped by Lowes and Home Depot but didn't find anything at either store.

When I got home, it was back to planting. I got all the coral bells planted around the water heater side yew. That area is looking pretty good. Then I got the sedge planted in the shade garden. After that it was container time. I planted the mint I got yesterday in its own pot. Then, I had the problem with the thyme, which really takes only part of a pot right now. I will get it some friends when I get back from NC. I was then going to pot up some more plants, but I ran out of potting soil! I was able to get the 6-pack of coleus and one of the 4" pots planted together in one of my blue ceramic pots I added one of the little coleus to my green pot with the sedge, pansies and coral bells for later, when the pansies have to go. I also removed the vinca that wasn't looking great and replaced with some more English Daisies that I had purchased yesterday. Currently the petunia, begonia and impatiens are all waiting for more potting soil. One coleus is waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. Plus, I have the other 6 coral bells for the other side of the perennial bed. All of these are in little pots, but mom should be watering them daily while I am out of town and the day I get back I will have some major planting to do. The weather is supposed to cool off over the next week, so that should help things out some. My yard is starting to come together. I will still need to sometime get that camellia planted and finally decide what to do with my flying dragon.

My Rose of Sharon has taken a beating from the dogs and I wasn't sure if it was still with us, but today I noticed little leaf buds on it. Also saw little leaf buds on the small beautyberry. The big beautyberry does not appear to have any little buds at all, so I am back to worrying that it just didn't make it. Time will tell.

big planting day

Today I got A LOT planted!

I started out by watering everything and doing a little weeding. I also rearranged the porch plants slightly, putting the two pots that STILL have paperwhite foilage with pansies peeking through down in the foundation bed on the ajuga side. Then I switched to doing some more weeding in the camellia bed. I am ready to add more mulch, but I want to put down a layer of newspaper first and I don't have enough newspaper. I'm planning on buying the Sunday paper tomorrow!

At that point, I decided it was finally time to tackle the yews. I spent quite a while with mom helping me measure out where exactly I wanted them to be on the corner of the bed. It took quite a while to get the hole for the yew dug, due in part to A LOT of tree roots. Of course, the whole perennial bed thing only came about because of how disturbed the soil was from me cutting down the two little trees and trying to pull all their roots out. After all the work planting the yew, I was quite hot (it was 82 today) and tired and it was definately lunch time. I did take the 6 coral bells I had and set them around the yew. The original plan was that I would use three on each side, but to really get the look I wanted, 6 is what is really took to go the distance. While mom was making lunch, I went ahead and potted up the marigolds in one of my blue pots I bought on sale last fall. I also finally planted the clematis, planting it deep in a hole near the fence. We shall see if it even comes up. I did have some leftover dirt from that and thought maybe I could find a few plants to plant right up along the fence.

After lunch, we decided it was too hot to work in the yard for a while and took a break and went shopping. I got some terra cotta pots for very cheap at Old Tyme Pottery. Then we went to Underwoods to see what they had and ask about a fatsia japonica. They were out of fatsias, but did say that they grew well (and we finally saw one in person as they have one growing along their fenceline). They didn't have very many spring things in yet, so we left without buying anything.

After that it was off to the farmer's market. I was very excited as they had a 6 back of colues! I also found two other large pots of coleus that I had to buy as well. I found some coral bells that I really liked, which were $3 or 12 for 30. Since I needed 6 at that point I decided that I just had to get 12 perennials. I had quite a hard time deciding what else to buy. I ended up getting a mallow to go in the little piece of the border that is right up against the water heater (hope there is enough sun when everything leafs out), 2 salvia to plant by the clematis and 3 balloon flowers to plant somewhere!

When I got back home, I got straight back to work. First up I planted the 2 salvia by the clematis, then I decided to finally plant the large Dale's Strain coral bell I had gotten a while ago. I planted it in the shade border, kind of in front and between two hostas. Finally I planted the mallow, but not before digging out A LOT of tree roots, including a big knot of a tree stump about the size of a baseball that I had figured I'd never get dug out. After planting the mallow, I realized the next step would be to plant the coral bells around the area, as that was all that was left to be done in that area. But, the area where some of the coral bells are to go was basically I wild onion field. So, I spent the rest of the daylight digging out wild onions and more tree roots. I got the area done just as the light was fading and then tossed some mushroom compost on top and mixed it in, then covered the whole lot with pine needles. I still need to do a little plant removal on the other side of the yew and then I can plant the coral bells and be done with that corner!

Today I planted:

1 Yew
clematis
Dale's Strain coral bells
2 Salvia (in the corner)
mallow

seedlings!

Yesterday I went to check on the Chinese lantern seeds I had started, convinced it would be a total failure and instead was in for quite a surprise when I saw that I have little seedings. So far, 9 of the 12 little pot things has at least one seedling in it. I know I need to let them grow a little more and then thin to one seedling per little pod. And to think I just too the "Success with Seeds" book back to the library because I was feeling that I most definately was not having success with seeds! At least this has made me somewhat hopeful that I will be able to get my seed-based herb garden up and running in about a month (we are just less than a month from our frost free date).

My irises are already beginning to fade, but a couple of the late bloomers are still blooming. The crocuses are still going, though I probably only got less than 50% of the bulbs I planted coming up. The garbage men also put the garbage can down on some of the crocuses this morning...

My ornamental pear or whatever tree is also currently blooming.

My yoga teachers want to have a house-warming satsang at my house, which would be great if the carpet wasn't a mess, between my dogs and all the stuff that came up later. I will have to have the carpets cleaned the AM of the satsang!!

I am switching what I am planning to do in the front foundation bed. Instead of edging with mondo grass, which I am afraid will grow into the lawn, I'm going to edge with lirope. Bobbie has some lirope I can dig up.

new brick borders

I still need to plant the 2 yews, but just didn't feel up to it today, hopefully this weekend. I am rapidly heading into a time when I will need to mow my yard though, so I decided to try to do something about the mulch that is getting everywhere.

So, today I worked on reworking the border to the woodland garden (I was having to step over part of the border to get to my tool shed) and making brick borders around my camellia beds. That went pretty well, and I used some more of the bricks from beside the shack. I did unearth a few yucky bugs while doing that. After I raked the mulch back into the general area and added the bricks, I realized I definately have a little weeding to do.

Despite my best efforts at seeding, I can't get grass to grow where it is not currently growing. The grass does seem to grow very well back in the area where the camellia beds are. So, I tried to eliminate some of that grass and dig out any wild onions. I got part of the one bed weeded out, the other one (with the three Toms) isn't a weedy. I also chopped out some more of the junk privet. I will put down newspaper along the fence line and then extend the mulch all the way back there. I think I'm going to go to Wal-Mart and pick up a few more bags of mulch for that whole area.

burr.... and weeding

After spring weather all week (in the 70s) we had a sudden cold snap just in time for the weekend, with lows in the low 30s and highs only in the 50s. Today it was also pretty windy. So, last night I went out and covered all the other hostas with fresh pine needles, and brought in the little potted Elegens hosta, the hanging basket of million bells, the fern and the pot with the licorice plant (since it was finally starting to look better after being crumped by the snow back in January).

It was pretty windy and felt pretty cold today, but I did spend about 4 hours this afternoon weeding my foundation beds. Especially the side with the ajuga REALLY needed some help as I was getting tons of clover. I also went around and cut down all the wild onions I could find growing in my lawn. My lawn doesn't quite need to be mowed yet and since I don't have a lawnmower or a gate into my backyard... I figured this would neater it up a little bit and put off any need to mow for at least a while longer. Plus, it helps the irises and crocuses show up better. I have more crocuses blooming now, including more purples and even a white now.

When I was weeding the foundation bed, I found foilage that I think must be the chinadoxa that I planted starting to come up. So, I may have some more blooms in that bed sometime. I am wondering if the mystery tulip in that bed will bloom.

I am hoping to possibly get the yews planted tomorrow. We will see...

More blooms!

Today as I was leaving for the vet, my mom pointed out that I had purple things by the mailbox. My irises, which have been coming up for a bit are now blooming. I kind of expected that their stalks would be longer, but who knows, maybe I planted the bulbs too deep or maybe that is just how they look. I also have a few more crocus up as well.

The panies are just going to town right now. I can't believe how many are opening. And, I might have tulips soon. I have two tulip buds in one pot and I think they will probably open soon. The apparent tulip in the foundation bed is still growing, as are the mystery bulbs in the foundation bed and yard. I also have one muscari that is just starting to open in another pot (that must be where the black tulips are). I also think I have some hyacinths coming up in another pot. Hopefully I have more spring bulbs to come!

I finally got some pictures of my yard this morning. Due to the vet visit, I didn't get any work done. Three of the Julie Mross hostas I planted and the one Elegens I planted in a pot have all started to green up. One of the Elegens in the ground also has a little green on it. Unfortunately, one Elegens that did have a little green on it now has totally wilted down and all the others look like there are no signs of life. I will just have to wait and see, but I am starting to think I will not get a great result from the bare root hostas. Don't know what the problem was, if they were planted too high up, had already started to grow too much in the package, got planted too early and were damaged by the cold. Don't know.

A quick tour of the yard before I left for work revealed some additional plants now in bloom. My small Pieris (Valley Rose) is just starting to bloom. It is also blooming white, though I had thought it would bloom pink. Oh well, it still is pretty and different from my other Pieris, as it has a more weeping shape. The scilla I planted by the side of the house in mostly shade have also begun to bloom. And, a big surprise is that one of the ajuga in the foundation bed has just started to bloom and the others appear to have buds. The one plant that it seems SHOULD be blooming that isn't is my hellabore and I didn't even see anything that looks like buds on it. On a bad note, the chickweed is also bloom, as are dandelions and a few other weeds.

in bloom

I was in for a real surprise when I went and looked at my big Pieris today... it is blooming!! Currently I have 4 shrubs that are blooming: the Margaret Davis camellia, the middle Tom Knudsen camellia, the forsythia and now the Mountain Fire Pieris.

I spent most of my yard work time today working on weeding the rest of the shade border, this time the part that is on the front yard side of the fence. It went fairly quickly and Jordan came over a helped me a little bit. I also planted 2 Elegens hostas in there. One didn't look too great, but the other one looked good. I now only have 1 Elegens left. I'm planning on planting it in a pot for later use in one of the shade beds.

I also found a hosta nursery in Spartanburg by following a link on the Clemson extension site. It looks like they have a lot of nice hostas and good prices. So, I will need to check the lily lady, JFS and now this place in Spartanburg if I need any more hostas. I still want to get the Penny Mac hydrangea to put in the shade border and then I would like to add a few ferns and astillbes.

I am planning on waiting on the fern front until the Native Plant sale (which I might miss due to being a collie nationals, but I can send my mom). I do want a cinnamon fern and at least one Japanese painted fern. I saw some pictures of lady ferns that made them look pretty nice too, so we will see. I did buy a big Boston Fern for the porch the other night. I think it looks good and I will place two pots by it with coleus or something once it gets warmer.

The other day I did finish up planting hostas, including the 3 Julie Mross on the back yard part of the shade border. I also planted the last few lillies of the valley, I really am not sure any of these are going to take. Then I went to plant the bleeding hearts. Two in the package looked moldy, so I tossed those. The other 3 looked okay, but I couldn't figure out which side was the root. I finally planted the big woody part into the ground, figuring that was the root as I've ready bleeding hearts basically disappear during the summer. The package was NO HELP as far as which side was up, and I tried to call Clemson Extension, but they were closed for the day. We shall see if I guessed right. I am kind of doubtful that these will come up...

Overall, I'm not sure how well I did with the bare root perennials. They are definately a lot cheaper than buying already growing plants in a pot, but I just don't know really if ANY of them will actually take. Now, only time will tell. I will just have to be patient and keep watering everything.

spending more money on the yard

Yesterday we decided that the only way we would be able to get some of the things we needed for the yard was to rent a U-Haul van to transport them home.

Today was the day to go get our things. We fell in love with the gazebo at Garden Ridge and for what it is, it is a great price. We do think we will use it and after spending the money, we had better use it!!

Yesterday I had spent most of the day agonizing about whether to get the long handled tool shed, the wheelbarrow and the drive gate now or wait until later. I finally decided that I really needed the tool shed and the only way I'd be able to get one home would be to rent a truck or pay for delivery, so there is no need to do that twice. I also decided to get the wheel barrow while I had the van and it would be easy to transport it, rather than wrestling it into my car (or not being able to) later on. I did decide to get the smaller 4 gallon wheelbarrow, with the idea that it would be easier to use. I did finally decide to hold off on getting the gate for now because I think I might be able to get it into my car and if not I can always rent a truck at Home Depot or maybe even get Bobbie to help me with her van.

We also swung by Underwoods and finally claimed our Flying Dragon, which is actually now taller than I remembered. I still don't know where I'm going to put it, but as it has survived this long in the pot I figure it can make it a few more weeks. I also ended up buying 2 Yews that will go at the back corners of my house flanking the perennial bed. So, now I have 4 shrubs to plant...

Luckily when we got home George was in his driveway and came over to help me move the big boxes the gazebo and shed were in over into my yard. We were able to get the boxes over the fence without damaging it by placing the boxes on the garbage can. The gazebo is still in its box and leaning up against the side of the house in the back yard. I loaded the shed in its box onto the wheelbarrow and wheeled it down behind the shack, which is where it will live for now. Mom and I were able to get the shed assembled (it just snapped togehter) and it is now ready for the tools as soon as I get them down there (maybe even after work tonight).

We are expecting rain this weekend, so the gazebo will stay in the box for now and the furniture will stay in storage. I am pretty much done spending money on the yard now (I hope) other than 3 remaining big ticket items: 1) fence gate, 2) lawn mower and 3) having the shack torn down.

I also noticed as we were leaving this morning that someone has taken away some of the old wire fencing that has been in my front yard. Now if only they will come back and get the rest and take away that drum as well, I'd be estatic. I also now have 3 crocuses that are up, 2 yellow and one purple. I will try to get pictures this weekend.

Weeding

The plan for this weekend had been to finish weeding all the chickweed out of my shade border area and to actually but in all the ammendments for my perennial bed.

Pulling all the chickweed by hand is quite time consuming, but I did make pretty good progress over the weekend. Unfortunately, on Saturday it was VERY windy which made it cold and hard to work outside, so I only worked in the AM and in the afternoon we went out to look at nurseries. I got a germander plant and two million bells at Garden Treasury, which is a nursery I haven't visited before, but I did like it a lot. I was also looking at and pricing hydrangeas. I want to get a big oak leaf hydrangea to plant in the far back right hand corner of the yard. They had a pink flowered for at Garden Treasury that definately tempted me. Don't know what I'm doing there.

I did cut down a lot of the little weed tree saplings, which has opened up the shade border more. I did discover that I now have a space that looks big enough to put in a hydrangea in the shade border, which would be great. I am considering a Penny Mac, as I saw some that were pretty large but not too expensive.

I also did not work the full day in the yard on Sunday, as it was only in the low 50s and I was pretty much frozen by lunch time. In the afternoon, we went out to do some errands and found a great garden furniture set at Big Lots and they were also have a 20% off sale. The furniture set is two chairs that rock a little bit and swivel and a little coffee table. They also had some little dining tables that were only $35, so we got one of those two as the chairs were the right height and that will allow us to eat outside if we want.

Earlier in the week, we had gone to Garden Ridge and found a great gazebo there for only $150. The main problem is that the box is 10 feet long and will not fit in my car. I finally realized that what I should do is rent a Uhaul van and get the gazebo at Garden Ridge and finally pick up my flying dragon at Underwoods (if they even still have it...). The plan right now is to do that on Friday.

I feel like I am falling behind on all I need to do as I still need to prepare the perennial bed, finish weeding the shade bed and planting hostas, lillies of the valley and bleeding hearts. Plus, I still haven't planted the Margaret Davis camellia (was going to wait until she was done blooming but now I'm worried about giving her enough time to get settled before it gets hot).

Plus, I really still need to paint the trim on the laundry room and finish painting the trim in MY room, plus redoing the crown molding in my mom's room...

And, I am hoping to have enough money and find someone to tear down the shack before it gets hot. I am worried about it harboring mosquitos and Jordan (neighbor kid) said there used to be bees in the shack. I am trying to get in touch with the scrap metal people to get them to take away the old fencing and will see if they are still interested in tearing down the shed and what they will charge. Otherwise, I will have to get a price quote for 1-800 Got Junk, but I think they will be more expensive.

garden roundup- end of February

Today I had a little time before work to work out in the yard. I had hoped to get some more lillies of the valley and hostas planted, but as it worked out, I only got some more lillies of the valley planted. I did however get to take a look at how some of my plants are doing as we are starting to head on into spring.

Lillies of the Valley: not doing so well so far, except one (who knows it might be a wild onion) that seems to have greened up and is growing. The others are all whitish. I did plant two more bunches today.

Elegens Hostas: not sure on these either, one has had its leaves green up a bit. Several others have lost the weird white leaves they had due mainly to dogs running over them and on two others the white leaves are kind of pulpy now. I did make sure I pulled the mulch back from the crowns and now that it is warmer, I removed the pine needles from on top of the hostas.

Other hostas: Stilletto is coming up, so I pushed back the pine needle mulch. Guacamole is also looking like its two ends that are above ground are starting to look a very little bit green so I pushed back the mulch there as well. As for the nameless hosta, I rooted around under the mulch in the area it should be, so who knows if it made it or not, time will tell.

Forsythia: Spotted a bloom on it today.

Camellias: Debutante still has no buds and one of the dogs broke one stem off, hope she survives, if not I'll get a bigger pink camellia next year. One Tom looks like it is getting ready to bloom again. I have decided against trying to plant Margaret Davis until after she is done blooming. Should still have enough time to get her in the ground before hot weather.

The other shrubs seem to just be doing their thing.

Backyard potted plants: one stem of the Rosemary seems to be dying and the vinca also looks bad and needs to be replaced with something else.

Annual Garden: Thanks to the dogs running, the pansies have pretty much had it. I also have two snapdragons that seem to be dying, one still in a 4 pack and the other in the ground. My goal for this weekend is to get those other snaps planted.

Front porch plants: Most are doing well, except the bowl. Two of the English Daisies in the bowl are blooming, one looks okay and two are definately goners and will be replaced this weekend. I also have one artemesia that is pretty much dead.

Bulbs:
- paperwhites- seem to be done for the year
- crocus- don't really seem to be coming up at all
- iris- starting to come up on both sides of the walkway
- hyacinths- starting to come up, but the dogs also have run over them quite a bit, so don't know how they will do
- tulips- saw the very beginnings of them coming up in the big white pot
- scilla- a total surprise when I went to plant lillies of the valley today, but the scilla seem to be coming up alongside the house. Hope there is enough sun for them to bloom.
Haven't seen any signs of my other bulbs, except an area that *might* be renunculus, either that or weeds...

I also need to weed my foundation beds again, especially the bed around the tree.

The plan for this weekend is to:
- remove dead plants from the bowl and replace them with new plants
- plant remaining snapdragons
- remove all damaged pansies still in the ground
- plant firewitch dianthus around edge of annual garden
- plant 2 Autumn Ferns behind the one garbage can
- continue planting bareroot hostas
- continue planting bareroot lillies of the valley
- plant clematis
- try to decide on location and plant bleeding hearts

To buy:
5 firewitch dianthus
1 white primrose for the bowl
something else for the bowl
2 Autumn ferns
1 bareroot Nico Blue hydrangea at Wal-Mart

I attempt to start seeds

Today we had rain all day as predicted, so no yard work.

I did replace the doorknob on mom's room, organize the purses and shoes in my closets and go through 3 large bags of shoes that had been on the floor. I tossed some shoes and decided to give a few other pairs to Goodwill. Now, what I really need are some plastic shoe boxes to store these shoes in my long closet, as there is room for shoe boxes. This will also work well for off season shoes.

I also finally got around to putting all my CDs on the CD racks and hooking up my CD player. My room is looking pretty good right now, no boxes or bags on the floor except a few bags of computer related things under the computer desk. Now I just need a computer that works in my room...

This evening I decided it was finally time to attempt to start the Chinese Lantern seeds. Of course, the seeds are tiny (relatively, a little smaller than sesame seeds). Actually getting the little pots set up was not a problem, but trying first to add the tiny seeds to the little pots and then get them covered with peat was a bit more challenging. Right now the little "greenhouse" is on top of the microwave, as they just need to be warm in this phase, not have light. Unfortunately, the greenhouse directions did not include any information about watering. I can figure that I should not allow the little pots to dry out. I'll have to check books for more info on seed starting.

If all goes well, the seeds should germinate in 20-25 days. Our frost free date is around April 15th, so by then my seedlings should be a month old if I get anything to grow. I figure one will be great, two will be exciting, three will be unbelievable and any more than that will actually probably be more than I need and would be great to share with friends.

fixed the fence

I have had to take a few weeks off due to being sick will gallbladder attacks and then having gallbladder surgery. Surgery was now three weeks ago and I am feeling a lot better. I had the entire weekend off this weekend, but they are calling for rain tomorrow (Sunday) so I decided that today was the day to finally fix the fence.

I spent from 9 AM until noon cutting out the old falling down field fencing along the one fenceline with my neighbor. I spent the rest of the day putting up new field fencing in the holes. I finished up around 4:30 PM and am hoping my right hand will soon function normally again. I am also hoping the scrap metal dealers come through my neighborhood soon as I have a huge pile of old fencing in my front yard.

The dogs now have a slightly larger yard and now that the fence is fixed and I'm not running fencing to the shack, I can have the shack torn down when I can find someone to do it for a good price and have money for it too.

I ended up buying 5' field fencing from my neighbor across the street (he had a roll he'd never used) so most of my one fenceline is now 5' inside of just 4' like the chain link is in other places.

Unfortunately they are calling for rain tomorrow as I still have a bunch of bare root perennials that I got at Sams that need to be planted.

I also need to replace the doorknob on my mother's room, as the old one accidentally locked when we had guests visiting and we had to remove the knob. The holes in the door that the lock screws into are pretty much stripped, so we are going to have to fill them in with wood putty before trying to install the new lock.

I also bought two seed starting trays and I am planning on trying to start some chinese lanterns. I would like to get a few small pots and try to start a few caladiums as well. I have NO idea if I have enough light in my kitchen, but I figured I would try after I saw that Bill had started seedlings on the table in his grooming shop where there is NO natural light at all.

snow!

Yesterday we had snow, but luckily not the ice they had been calling for. Today the sun came out and it got up to 49, so the snow is basically all gone.

Due to gallbladder problems (I had surgery to remove it today) I have not done much of anything around the house or yard lately. I did make two new container plantings last week now that the nurseries are starting to have something other than pansies for sale.