| Posted on Wednesday, April 05, 2006 - 10:07 pm: |   |
April 5, 2006
New house, new journal :)
We moved last June into a larger home with an acre lot. No fences allowed though, so I can't grow any clematis on them :( I brought a few of my clems with me but last summer was brutal and I lost many of them. We didn't have any grass or any sort of landscaping until late August/early September, and many of the clems just did not survive being in pots for that long.
I was able to get the following into the ground last year:
Duchess of Albany
Betty Corning
Polish Spirit
Triternata Rubromarginata
Nelly Moser
I am afraid I lost the following:
Blue Boy
Huldine
Pagoda
Petite Faucon
They are still in pots and I never was able to get the pots buried like I wanted to.
As of this afternoon, I was seeing growth on only one that I planted last year: Duchess of Albany. The rest are either dead or in hiding.
I was trying to get the "bones" planted last year. We laid out a few beds, used landscape fabric on them and then mulched. 30 yards of mulch. 30!
I hit the garden center sales and got a bunch of small shrubs, but fast growers. I picked up variegated redtwig dogwoods (20), some mugos (8), Goldmound spirea (5), Little Princess spirea (2), Neon Flash spirea (3), Dwarf Burning Bush..slow grower, but decent sized (1), and Golden Vicary privets (5). I also picked up some size 3 'Diablo Ninebarks (3) and some size 2 Fairy Roses (2). Let's not forget the $30 Redbud that I got on sale, too ;)
While this sounds like a lot of shrubs, believe me, it is nothing but a drop in the bucket right now. They are small and will grow. I have more time than money :)
So far this year I have also picked up the following:
Red Knockout Roses (11). These are small, two branchings at the most...starter plants. However, these roses are great growers and I expect to have some decent sized bushes by the end of the season.
I am doing a shade/moist garden by the downspout in the back and that consists of Joe Pye Weed, Turtlehead, Astilbe and Great Blue Lobelia. I also stuck a few rhizomes of 'Pink Horizon' iris in there just for kicks.
I planted clumps of tulips outside along the walkway and I will also be planting Stella daylilies and balloon flowers there. Ordered some bluebeard and also planted some 'May Night' salvia around the Mock Rock that is hiding the well head, and a batch of zebra grass there, too.
Whew, I've been busy :) I still need to get another trellis and a Jackmanii for the corner of the garage, but I will do that eventually.
The builder supplied some trees for us. I picked a 'Red Jade' crabapple for the bed next to the driveway, a 'Whitespire' birch for the corner of the house (and I want to add a fluffy spruce there, too...eventually), a 'Profusion' crabapple for the south east back corner bed, and two large white spruce in the back yard.
I think that's it for now.
Here's the new house in case anyone is interested:
 |
| Posted on Monday, April 10, 2006 - 07:37 pm: | |
April 10, 2006
Good news! I think that Blue Boy may actually have survived. I pulled the pathetic thing out of the container and while most of the roots were mush, there were a few good ones. Plus, there is a bud on the crown so maybe, just maybe...I have him inside now in potting soil and I am babying him. Cross your fingers :)
Spring is really getting a late start this year. It seems like winter has dragged on forever. We are finally having a spate of nice weather. Today it was in the low 70's and sunny. Very nice, and the plants are certainly enjoying it.
Out of the 11 started Knockouts I planted last Monday, most of them are showing some new growth already. This bodes very well for these roses...I hope they get to a decent size by the end of the season. No one has any of the larger sizes for sale yet, but I will be picking up a couple more as the season progresses. These roses are going to be the Stellas of the Rose Industry, but I can't blame people for loving them.
A few of the Knockouts are looking pretty bad though. Mainly the ones in the back of the house. Not sure why really. The stems are green, but the leaves have pretty much all died. I did notice a couple of swelling buds on one of them so that one will probably make it. I hope they all make it, but if I lose a couple I will be ok with it. |
| Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 12:42 am: | |
Hello Meig, beautiful house! I think we are neighbors, I live in an old cottage in Fox Lake, right off Lake Pistakee. Will be watching your gardens!
Arlene |
| Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - 02:01 pm: | |
April 11, 2006
I got the weeping cherry today. It's a small one, about 7 feet at this point. 'Snow Fountains' is the cultivar. Here's a link to the Missouri Botanical Gardens entry on it:
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?Code=U510
Some pics:
It should handle the hot sun there, but I am concerned with the winds. I live on a windy corner. I will probably have to stake it but hopefully it will be ok.
I dug up and moved the Ninebark 'Diablo' I had planted there over to a place near the birch that had a big open spot that was looking for a large shrub. I will eventually put in another Knockout rose there behind the cherry to fill in that spot by the foundation.
Good thing that changing around landscaping is just a matter of digging stuff out and moving it :) |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:01 am: | |
April 11, 2006
Staked the cherry. The wind is just awful today and the poor thing was literally rocking back and forth. I was afraid it was going to get ripped out at the roots. Looks good now except for the staking :P We only staked it on two sides so it still rocks a little...enough to hopefully grow some strong roots.
The leaves look a little wilted now, but the tree is totally stressed between being transplanted and buffeted by the 40 mph winds here. |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 12:16 am: | |
Hi again Meig,
Well, since we are neighbors, I thought I would show you what I inherited when I moved in here. It is either a weeping cherry or weeping pussy willow, I am not sure and guess I will find out soon! So this is what you have to look forward to, I am sure that is a sturdy one! It is so windy tonight!
 |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 10:03 am: | |
Hi, Arlene :)
We are indeed neighbors. How do you like living on the lake? I love this area. Thanks for the compliment on my house...I love it but I will love it more when it actually has some decent landscaping and gardens :)
It looks like you may have a weeping cherry...it really looks like the pictures of the same one I have when it's bigger. If it blooms white, it's the same :)
Thanks for taking the time to post! |
| Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - 10:05 am: | |
April 12, 2006
I have four hostas and five Great Blue Lobelia (all bareroot) that I have wrapped in wet paper towels. I need to get these things into the ground before we leave for the Dells today. Of course it is windy again, but at least the area I will be planting in is more protected than where I put yesterday's cherry. |
| Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 - 09:57 am: | |
April 16, 2006
Happy Easter!
Lots of yard work yesterday. I planted six Pieris japonica 'Mountain Fire' along the front walkway. These are small shrubs...1 gallon containers. HD had them for $3.99 each so I couldn't pass them up. I don't know how well they will do in that area, but if they don't grow fast that's quite ok since I don't want them huge anyway. I added rhody food to the hole when I planted them so hopefully that will keep things as acid as they like. The area will get blasted with wind in the winter, so that might kill them. I hope not, but I guess we'll see.
Cj spent the day spreading seed. Our lot was hydroseeded last year but it has a ton of crab/quackgrass so we are slowly trying to get better grass to grow. He put down about 125 lbs of grass seed yesterday and I mowed the lawn to help the mulched grass cover the seed. He also turned on the sprinkler, too. |
| Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 - 12:33 pm: | |
April 17, 2006
My bareroot, itty bitty Jackmanii that I picked up in the box from HD a couple of weeks ago is showing some life. I planted it in a 4" clay pot and have kept it inside to baby it, and I have been rewarded with some growth.
I also have some Chelone lyonii planted inside that I am hoping will increase in size a bit before I put it outside. It doesn't seem to have grown much in the past 12 days, but maybe it has.
 |
| Posted on Friday, April 21, 2006 - 11:33 pm: | |
April 20, 2006
Planted three quart-sized 'Autumn Fire' sedum today in the bed to the left of the garage.
Located my three catmint plants under the mulch around the redbud and exposed them so they could grow. Also located clematis 'Triternata rubromarginata' and uncovered her. 'Betty Corning' doesn't seem to have survived the winter :( and the 'Blue Boy' I was nursing didn't make it, either. 'Duchess of Albany' is going strong, but I haven't seen any growth on 'Nelly Moser', either. 'Polish Spirit' is up and running, and I am hoping that 'Pink Fantasy' made it as well.
I regret having to leave so many of them at the old house. I bet they are all going like gangbusters by now... |
| Posted on Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 01:43 pm: | |
April 25, 2006
We bought a good-sized honey locust from a landscaper that was trying to git rid of his excess trees before he headed back to S. Illinois (he was working on a large subdivision up here). Pikced it up for $150, and they planted it. I'm not fond of locust trees, but Cj likes them and they are pretty. I just hate all the damn leaves in the fall. We put it in the bed with the spruce where we had thought to put a River Birch or something. It looks nice there. The new growth is very yellow, so I am not sure what variety it is. Could be 'Sunburst'. If the leaves stay yellow, it probably is. Otherwise, I won't have a clue.
Took a drive to the Lowes in Kenosha this morning after I dropped te little one at preschool. I am pretty much dead center between the two nearest Lowes. One is in Lake In The Hills and the other is Kenosha. It actualy takes longer to get to the LITH store so I went to Kenosha. Lower tax rate, too :)
Anyway, they had red Knockout roses in 2 gallon containers for $15, so I picked up eight of them. I am going to put these larger ones in the front of the house and move the smaller ones to the back. The larger ones will have more impact in the front (until the smaller ones catch up) and look nicer earlier in the season.
I want to get out there and plant them, but the weather is just terrible today. In the upper 30's and very windy. Supposed to be back in the 60's tomorrow. I hope so.
I saw some good looking 'Comtesse de Bouchaud' clematis at HD last night for $13/gallon. I might have to go get one to replace the 'Betty Corning' that didn't make the move. Not sure though. I don't seem to have much success with the Comtesse, but I have only tried her from bareroot thus far. A larger plant should work out better for me. Hmm. A Comtesse and a Duchess on the same trellis might be fun, though.
Here is the Duchess:
And Comtesse:
I think it would be a pretty combo.
'Polish Spirit' is up and growing well, and I have seen new growth on Nelly, too. I shold take some pictures.
|
| Posted on Saturday, April 29, 2006 - 12:12 am: | |
April 28, 2006
The weather improved and I did go out and move the small Knockouts to the back of the house and planted the larger ones up front. These new ones already have buds so I expect some flowers within a week or two.
I got five 'Forever & Ever' hydrangeas today (gallon) and planted three them in the bed on the northeast of the house. I put one next to the a/c to block it a bit and one in the corner next to the shed. I need one more to put in the same bed as the first three. Hopefully these will live up to the hype and I will actually get mopheads that are hardy to my zone. One can hope. Even so, the foliage is very pretty, too.
Of course, a picture:
The front of the house is coming along nicely. Everything is very small at this point, but I think it will grow in well.
I still need to figure out what I want to do with the front porch. The door will eventually get painted, but I just need *something* on the porch itself. I need to think about it some more, as I don't necessarily want to do what everyone else has done and get urns with dwarf alberta spruce in them. I know I need something with height, so I may end up going that route anyway, but I am not sure yet. Meijer has some cool metal cranes and that might work, with a couple of smaller planters around it. It is one of those "I will know it when I see it" kind of things I think.
I have done a lot of overseeding in the lawn, too. Some places it is much worse than others, and for whatever reason, when Cj overseeded a couple of weekends ago it did not take. He changed the watering pattern of the sprinkler system (I told him I felt things were getting too dry between waterings) and this way keeps thinks more evenly moist. I think the seed will take this time. It had better ;)
Supposed to rain tomorrow...we need it. I hope we don't have a dry summer like we did last year. |
| Posted on Sunday, April 30, 2006 - 02:57 pm: | |
April 30, 2006
I am glad I managed to get those hydrangeas in on Friday. It started raining yesterday and hasn't stopped. We need the rain, so I am not complaining. I'm just thrilled that the plants are getting this good rain while in the ground, instead of putting out more roots in their pot.
Looks like the honey locust leaves are greening up, so I probably don't have a 'Sunburst", which is fine with me. |
| Posted on Tuesday, May 02, 2006 - 12:41 am: | |
May 1, 2006
I spent most of the day doing little things outside. It was kind of gloomy and damp, but the temp wasn't too bad.
A friend of mine from LJ sent me about 28 fans of the common ditch lily, and I planted those today. 8 of the fans were put around the utility boxes (admittedly over-planted, but around the boxes that's ok) and 4 fans each on the five parkway trees. Cj doesn't feel like maintaining the mulch beds around the trees and was just going to let the grass grow up to the trunks. I hate that look so I think the daylilies will be a happy medium. They will grow in dense and keep the weeds and grass away and still look nice around the trees. Of course, in the Fall I plan on putting in tulips as well. I want some daffies (thought I never seem to have luck with them) and squill, too.
The rain of the past couple of days has been good for the Knockouts I just planted and moved around. All of the 2 gallons I just planted have flower buds, and I can't wait to see them bloom. I hope these do as well for me as the Fairies have in the past.
I pruned the forsythias and spirea today. I cut off the terminal buds on the forsythia and just sheared back the spirea a bit. Hopefully the forsythia will branch off, and the spirea will have some good flowers in the summer. I also trimmed down the deadwood on the Fairies and the privets. The privets aren't looking very good, but they will grow in. The Fairies, being planted so late in the year last season, needed to be cut back pretty vigorously. However, I know these shrubs, and this will only cause them to come back with a vengeance.
I was really spoiled at the old house with all the large plantings my BIL put in that first year. Starting with such small plants (and a much larger yard) is a test of my patience. Of course, by the third year at the old place everything had grown in so much it was looking like a jungle. I want to avoid that here if possible because having to constantly cut stuff back is a pain in the rear. I don't mind a little pruning here and there, but to have to constantly cut down half the shrub every 3 months is a bit much. I can only hope that I have been making wise choices in plant placement.
Also, remind me not to go after the roses without my gloves on. I'm walking wounded :P
I think it's bedtime. I am falling asleep as I type. |
| Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 04:04 pm: | |
May 5, 2006
Ok, so don't tell Cj, but I just pulled up a bunch of the landscape fabric he put down last fall. It is in one of the areas near the patio and I had planted some astilbe there about a month ago. *Nothing* has come up, so I dug down to see why. Apparently, the new growth (what there is of it, anyway) had started growing *under* the fabric. So, in a fit of pique, I pulled all the fabric up. Yeah, so, I deal with weeds, but dammit, I want my stuff to grow. I hope the astilbes will come up now. Ugh. I am telling him NO MORE FABRIC.
I also realized that Cj put down WAY WAY too much mulch in many places. Yikes. I just spent the last two hours moving mulch and cutting fabric away from some of my shrubs and perennials. I don't care about the annuals so much, but I do want the perennials to come back larger so they obviously need a larger hole in the fabric.
Another thing that occurred to me as I was moving mulch was that once all this great mulch breaks down, it doesn't have anywhere to go on the beds that have the weed fabric. All that great compost from the bark...and it will be basically useless on the beds with the fabric on it :/ The next bed I do (and I will probably be able to do it with the extra mulch I am pulling from the damn beds :P) will have me laying newspaper then mulch. The newspaper will break down slow enough to kill the grass under it, but fast enough to allow the perennials to come back larger in a year or two.
I may start to pull the landscape fabric up from more areas that I plan on putting perennials in. The only issue is that when we were laying the beds, we told the builder not to put grass seed in the areas we had marked off. Yes, you guessed it, they did anyway. So we had lots of grass growing in these beds, but in patches. That's the reason we used the fabric in the first place. When I am pulling the fabric up in some of the beds, there is tons of grass under there still. I will probably leave the fabric down in those beds. We didn't know about the newspaper trick. Live and learn.
Anyway, chilly here today, and windy as per usual on the prairie. |
| Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 12:11 am: | |
Hi Meig,
You have a beautiful home! I'm in IL as well. In Woodstock, to be exact. I just bought 2 Forever and Ever hydrangeas and potted them instead of planting them in the ground. I've read good things about this hydrangea like the fact that they are more heat resistant than Endless Summer hydrangeas.
It looks like you like clematis as much as I do! I have several, but my all time favorites are Huldine, Etoile Violette, Madame Julia Correvon, Comtesse de Bochaud and Sweet Autumn Clematis. Talk about low maintenance. These are very easy to grow. I did have one die - Mrs. Chomolondoney (SP?). I'll have to get another one 'cause this is a beautiful clematis!
Anyway, good luck on your new home and garden.
Evelyn |
| Posted on Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 11:59 pm: | |
May 9, 2006
Rain! We finally got some good rain this evening. We really need it. Looks to be over for the night though we really need more.
This weekend was productive. I ran wire so the dogs can't get into most of the mulch beds. They were walking through them and digging in them so my plants were getting destroyed. There are still two beds that don't have the wire in them but I can't easily wire them up so they will have to limp along. Guinness keeps eating my roses just as they are set to bloom (he just eats the buds) and I am ready to kill him :( What a moron dog. The wire is working and keeping them out of the beds, though they are kind of confused because they can't go where they were used to going.
I also removed a bunch of weed fabric. In the beds that I left it in, I cut the holes around the plantings much larger to allow for the stuff to expand and grow. Cj is kind of annoyed, since he spent hours putting the stuff down, but the ground under the fabric was...gross, and the mulch doesn't get into the soil as it breaks down.
Anyway, I pulled around 6 wheelbarrows full of mulch off three of the beds Cj did in the fall. I decided to create the bed that I plan on putting a spruce in (eventually) and do it the lazy way: layering newspaper and mulch. Here's the finished product:
I want a decent-sized spruce there, so it will probably have to wait until next spring when we have five or six hundred $ to drop on a tree. Hopefully by that time the grass under it will be dead anyway. I hope. If not, I will be doing a lot of weeding in that bed :P
Here is pic of the pathetic little Snowball Viburnum that I picked up for $10 at WalMart last week:
When it finally stops blooming, I plan on cutting it down to half the size to get rid of the legginess. I think the grower basically ramped it up with fertilizer and that ugly thing is the result. I have seen nice bushy ones, so I know it can be helped :) Pruning can work wonders. Also, isn't that lovely mud awesome? that's where the dogs were going all winter and it killed the grass. We have put down seed there but it isn't coming up yet. The dogs are now blocked from the area so I really hope it starts to grow back in soon. I got some more flagstone and made a path there so we don't walk on the mulch anymore. Now I need to find something that is "steppable" and can handle partial sun/shade to fill in. I'd like to do phlox but I think it might be too tall. I should look into thyme or something.
Here is my gorgeous Seiryu Japanese Maple. It made it through the (mild) winter easily, and put on about 4 inches of growth. I think this is a lovely variety. It looks so fluffy, but it isn't as much of a weeper as other deeply cutleaf JM's. I certainly hope it manages to stay alive over the next 10 or so years because I think it will look very lovely once it gets some height on it. Two pics, one for location context:
I am still working on the "bones" of my landscaping so I have lots of bare spots. Gardening is a work in progress anyway :) |
| Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 10:18 pm: | |
May 11, 2006
Rain. Lots of rain. It's been a slow and steady rain and the ground has been greedily sucking it up. We are still inches below where we need to be but this rain is helping a lot.
It is chilly, though. Around 36F right now and expected to get a little lower. I don't think it will freeze, so hopefully everything will make it through the night.
Here's a more recent pic of the house just 'cuz I haven't posted a full view for a while. The lawn needs help...we're working on that.
 |
| Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 12:53 pm: | |
May 16, 2006
It's been raining and dreary for about a week now. I know we need the rain, but I'm starting to get depressed with all the drear. I haven't been able to go outside and do anything in the garden! :(
I have three Zebra Grass to plant around the electrical boxes. I have a flat of begonias and verbena to plant as well.
I am going to my mom's house and I will be thinning out her daylilies. I believe they are 'Hyperion', and 'Sammy Russel' but I am not 100% sure. Here is a picture of the mailbox bed I did at my old house using the daylilies from my mom.
I am going to do a bed similar to this on each side of my driveway here, again using basically the same plants. Free plants are good plants :)
Here's a couple pics of the yellow daylily blooms from my mom's place:
and
More later. |
