Recently in In the Garden Category

Ed's sitting in the curve of my arms as I type this. If there's an unusual number of typos, chalk it up to my communing with my cat...

Yesterday, I spent about three hours in the gardens along my driveway. I saw some weeds encroaching on my peonies that I knew had to be dealt with. Several years ago I used the lasagna method to reclaim the center section of the garden along the lower driveway. That bed is probably 60-70 feet long, and has three distinct sections. The center area is still rather bare, but I've got rudbekia, perovskia and some salvia started there. I believe that I will be transplanting more plants into it fairly soon. The north end of the bed needs weeding to kill off an infestation of Bouncing Bet, a plant that I put in the gardens years ago and can't seem to kill off, but there are day lilies, daffodils, iris, lamb's ears and more salvia settled in there.

The south end of the garden is really in disrepair. I had planted physostegia and echinnacea over two-thirds of it, but the physostegia has died out, and there are places where I have sumac, poison ivy, grapevine and some shrubby volunteers that I really don't want. I think I may transplant some of the purple coneflower to the center part of the bed, and move one beautiful meadow rue plant to a more shaded area, and then ask Dear Husband if he will help me take the rest back down to dirt.

Which brings to mind.... I called a local gardening company which is just getting established. I asked if it would be possible to hire gardening muscle for either a morning or an entire day. I need just one man, I think, to help lift lilies in mid-June. When the owner called back to talk to me he told me that the best he could do was two men for an entire day, complete with truck, trailer and tools for $800.00! HOLY COW!! I COULD put two men to work for a full day, but the price is simply outrageous. I hope DH will take this as a sign that my garden time is really valuable!

I think I will try calling a few other landscapers to see if they are willing to spare a laborer for half a day. I need someone who understands about lifting the iris with as little damage as possible, and once they have been lifted and stored where I can work on them in the shade, I want the soil amended so that I can replant. I could put someone to work for an entire day, but not for the first price I've been quoted. I hope there will be someone who wants the work.

I spent this morning raking up the weeds that I'd pulled on Friday. I sawed down a few branches on the pear tree that had died, and I used the weed-eater to clean out an area that is getting infested with weeds. I used the weed-eater around the edge of the front lawn gardens, and along the south side of the house. It made me run a bit late for the Red Hat ladies, but it was worth it to get it done. The next time out, I'll need to cut down volunteer shrubs and mulberries, perhaps on Monday.

It was good to get some of the cleanup done while the grounds were still moist and easy to work with. There's a lot left to be done, but I'm glad I made the start.

We have several plants that are harbingers of spring. They bloom when all the others are still thinking about creating flowers, and are opening their leaves to the sun.

My father had a star magnolia outside the windows of his last office, what he called "the shop." The magnolia was planted on a rather steep hillside in Stone County, Missouri. You can imagine how difficult it was to water that shrub adequately. First there was run-off because it hadn't been set into the hillside properly,and second, the ground absorbed the water and it drained off immediately. I didn't understand these things at the time, and I thought this little plant was destined to be just three feet tall.

More than twenty years later, I bought a star magnolia, a tip of the hat to my Dad's choice of shrubs. It's planted just outside the window to MY office. This "shrub" has grown to be 18-20 feet tall and the blooms were awesome this year! As you can see from the picture, the entire plant was densely covered with blooms.

The CPA's assistant came to visit a couple of weeks ago when the magnolia was at its peak. I had the windows open, and a gentle breeze was coming in past the magnolia. The scent was amazing! Our heads swiveled in unison to sniff the air! *G*

Unfortunately, the blooms on our star magnolia last barely a week, less if the temperatures are extreme. So they have given way to the daffodils and tulips and other flowering shrubs.

We have one pod of very early tulips that I believe are the "Darwin" variety. Usually tulips die a quick death in the clay of my gardens, but these have lasted for easily fifteen years. For some reason, the chipmunks who live in that garden leave them alone. They seem to have the same protective scent or taste that daffodils have, and pests leave them alone.

I love the bright color. It's a shock to the senses so early in spring!

I've had a full day, today. I can recall as a child that I thought Sunday was a lazy day, but it's been a long time since I've frittered away a Sunday.

The CPA's assistant, who is also a CPA, is going to visit us tomorrow to help me with some accounting problems. I've been trying to clear things off my desk, and make a list of all that I need to have her oversee. I still have a stack of filing (don't I always), but I managed to clear the important things off my list, and I can get to the filing and a few less important things tomorrow morning.

My next big block of work was centered on the herb garden. It seems that when I have the time to work in the gardens the weather is foul, and when the weather is gorgeous, I have too much work that must be completed inside! However, we managed to get one of those rare spring days when the weather was beautiful, and I could get out to enjoy the gardens.

I started by pruning back the oregano, which took the largest part of my gardening time. I have six or eight mounds of oregano, enough to supply a small town, and I followed the current thinking and let the superstructure of the plants remain in place over the winter. The oregano is leafing out. If I had waited much longer to prune, I wouldn't have been able to avoid taking some of the new growth. I took a picture before I started. I'll try to get one of the pruned plants, and one a week later. You won't be able to tell it's been pruned by next weekend.

I cleaned out part of the chat walkway today. I left a few volunteer Shasta daisies, and some lamb's ears and thyme, but I pulled up the garlic chives that have spread. If you don't get those chives before they establish themselves, you have to dig to the other side of the world to get them out!

As I was working a bird sitting above my head started calling. I have NO idea what kind of bird I was listening to. For all my musical training, I find myself unable to read the call charts in the bird books, or describe to someone what the call sounded like. What was interesting about this particular call was that half-way through a bird across the grove picked up the call and imitated it. I don't know if the birds were looking for mates, or if they were trying to establish territory, but the timing of the repeat, and the pitch of the repeat were perfect!

I planted three Italian Flat-leaved parsleys earlier this week, and a bunny or a deer had a fine meal one night! There are still some leaves, and I'm fairly sure that the plants will come back. However, when I plant the spinach this week, I'll surround it with circles of hardware cloth!

It was a joy to be out today. I don't work as fast or as long as I once did, but I probably enjoy my time in the gardens even more.

As I sit here at my computer, I can see the star magnolia just outside the window, and it has just begun to open. All it took was a little consistent warmth. The daffodils along the east side of the house are doing well, and I can see oriental poppy greens at the turn of the sidewalk. The short, scruffy Darwin tulips are open, too.

The scilla or squill that I wrote about earlier is a mass of tiny blue flowers against a green background, and the iris and day lilies are coming along nicely.

The only off note in the news is that the forsythia blooms look spotty. Perhaps I need to give it a little more time. I know that it blooms after the magnolia has opened, so perhaps I'm just seeing the early color, and the rest of the bloom is yet to come. This is a Lynwood Gold variety which has not been pruned, so it has the traditional arch to the canes.

Sunday, I'll have to go out to check the shrub rose to see if there are any signs of new growth since we pruned so hard, and I want to check the peonies to see if there are any signs of starts coming through the dirt.

I love this part of the year. There's so much to watch for!

As I've run errands the past few days, I've been where plants have been for sale, and I simply couldn't resist making a few purchases. Elegante Mother can't pass up a pansy in the spring, so we had 29 plants waiting for some dirt.

Yesterday, while we were out, I picked up potting soil so I'd be ready when I had a few minutes, to get some of those plants into the dirt. We have a large coir-edged basket at the front of the house, and I filled it with gerbera daisies, a purple hyacinth, and purple petunias. I may change that planting during the summer, but I needed to see some color at the front of the house.

I alternated yellow and purple pansies in a wrought iron basket lined with coir, too.

I had two lavenders, two rosemarys and three Italian flat-leafed parsleys to plant. I had just enough time to get the parsley into the herb bed last night before I HAD to start dinner. As it was, I probably should have waited for this morning to plant them, but I was on a roll! *G* It's going to rain later today, and should rain through Saturday morning, so I won't have a lot of chance to work outside for a couple of days.

Dear Husband suggested that I look into the Haz-Mat suits made of Tyvek for weeding where I suspect I'll find poison ivy. That's not a bad idea at all! I don't have my half sleeves made yet to cover below my wrists when I'm in the gardens. Maybe that will be my rainy day chore on Saturday morning.

It was in the upper sixties today. It might have even hit 70. As I went out to call in Edward Scissorhands, I noticed that the daffodils along the east wall of the house have begun to bloom, and I can see the heads of the lily plants poking out of the earth.

Somewhere back in my archives there is an entry or twelve on Scilla, a tiny blue flowered bulb that blooms early in the season. Last week I noticed a sea of thin green leaves around the base of one of the trees in the grove, and today the flowers had opened. Here's a good picture of scilla thanks to the University of Illinois.

I went back through my archives, and was interested to see that the squill bloomed much earlier in some years than others. This must have been a tough winter, with all the snow and cold.

And, we have at least one Rufous-Sided Towhee! Welcome back little bird!

Okay, this morning I saw the first of the goldfinches to return, and this weekend I got my first case of poison ivy for this year. That makes it official. Spring has sprung!

You know....the WARM, SUNNY, DRY weekend that lets us know that it's not going to be winter forever. I won't be so rash as to say that spring has finally arrived, but the weather this week was exceptional, and I spent part of each day in the gardens, clearing off the spent plants and even pulling up crabgrass and poison ivy stems.

When your nose is within a foot of the ground you see all sort of things that you might otherwise miss. I realized that the dead stems of the purple fountain grass were covering a pod of daffodils and tulips, so I started there on Saturday morning, digging up the dead annual. It was covering some of my favorite daffodils, the Ice Follies, which are usually the first to bloom. This year they will loose the race to the traditional daffodils that are planted along the front of the house.

I saw fever few, sweet woodruff, crocus, the tips of Dutch iris leaves, a volunteer vinca that I should exterminate, and tons of iris. I have one pod of iris that is next to a downspout and I can see that I'll have to move them this year. There are four other HUGE pods of iris that will have to be shifted this year. I meant to get to them last year, and it just didn't get done. If I wait any longer, they'll die off for lack of good soil and overcrowding.

I didn't get everything trimmed, but I made a good start. I can tell that I'm not a kid any more. I can't work for twelve hours on my hands and knees and still get up and walk away. I need to be more careful with mulch to keep weeding down.

Dear Husband, super guy that he is, took a little time away from varnishing the boat to prune the old shrub rose for me. Following information from Bogie, he cut it back severely. This rose blooms on new canes, so we are encouraging it to put up new canes, while we get rid of the brambles. I hope it makes it. This was one of the plants growing on the grounds when we bought the lot 19 years ago.

Each day that is dry, I hope to put a little time into the gardens so that I don't have to devote entire weekends to weeding. I'm SO glad we had warm weather. It felt as though I'd been given a treat after a difficult week, and it was lovely to have some time outside. And, YES.....I wore a hat! *G*

Since the day before Easter the inside of our house has been filled with beautiful blossoms, but the outside is sadly lacking. We've had three little crocus appear near the front door, and we have about three or four inches of daffodil greens showing around the yard, and the leaves for one early blooming tulip (the name of which escapes me at the moment). I'm guessing that it will be a month before we see much of anything. We'll have to be content with magnolia and redbud and lilac buds swelling.

My knee has improved, but I haven't tested it to see if I can kneel on it. I'm desperate to get out into the gardens and clean things up. Wouldn't you know that the one day in the 50s that is supposed to be dry is Wednesday, the day I'll be chained to the office for an audit! How UNFAIR!!!

Well....soon. I'm sure I'll be outside soon.

It amazes me to step out my back door and see catnip, oregano and feverfew greening up. THIS IS JANUARY!! The plants are amazingly hardy in our cold weather, but truth be told, the weather has been incredibly warm for the season. We've had snow, and we've had a few days of deep cold, but we seem to be going through an unusually early warm spell

The wildlife is happy not to have to deal with brutal snow. It's easier for them to get to the seed that falls to the ground, rather than trying to dig through layers of snow to find the dropped seed. I leave a piece of plywood at the base of the feeder to catch the spill. Right now there's about half an inch of hulls littered over the board and ground. I've seen cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, blackbirds, a horde of sparrows, juncos and chickadees. I'm not sure we have nuthatches this year. Perhaps they are there, but have moved further away from the house as the trees have died and been removed. We've been enjoying the deer at bedtime. I've been putting out corn while they were short on forrage.

I shouldn't be surprised to see the catnip and oregano greening up. They are both members of the mint family, and mint is incredible hardy. I've sequestered chocolate mint, and pineapple mint in large plastic containers that look like clay pots. I know better than to plan a mint where it might spread! I have so much oregano that I gave away bunches of it to the ladies at exercise last summer. Oregano, any one?? *G*

I've laughingly filed this under "In the Garden," because that's where these will end up. I wanted to get a picture of the sprinkling of nuts from one tree. Our lot line is covered with these husks, each of which hold a rock hard black walnut. My Dad would have loved them! So do the squirrels! *G*

I've laughingly filed this under "In the Garden," because that's where these will end up. I wanted to get a picture of the sprinkling of nuts from one tree. Our lot line is covered with these husks, each of which hold a rock hard black walnut. My Dad would have loved them! So do the squirrels! *G*

I meant to get out to work on the gardens at the entrance to the house this morning. We have had a phenomenal growing season, despite the fact that storms have been few and far between, and it's quite a jumble of incredible plants and more incredible weeds.

Unfortunately, we are still in the grasp of a major heat wave. I think I heard that we were at least 20 degrees above normal yesterday, and the heat has been here for several days. We're supposed to get rain early in the coming week, followed by more realistic temperatures....in the upper sixties. So, I'm sure that I will be doing a LOT of gardening in the next three weeks. By the end of the month it's time to put the gardens to bed for the winter.

I suspect the family of chipmunks that has made it's home in my mulch pile is going to be TICKED!! I'll be using part of that pile on the front garden, around the new redbud, and more of it on the fern bed and herb garden. There goes their new condo! I bet I'll find black walnuts buried in the mulch.

Well, I've stalled as much as I can. I have to go to the grocery store. Normally, it wouldn't be an issue, but this is Sunday. The entire world will be there by now. Have a good day, all! I'm off and running!

If you haven't already divided your tall bearded iris by now, it's time to get it done. I live in USDA Zone 5, and my iris need the last of the warm season to get settled in to their new homes

Dig up the clump and separate the rhizomes by slicing them apart with a sharp knife. Disinfect the knife between cuts by dipping it into a 10% bleach solution (one part bleach, 9 parts water). Keep the rhizomes that are at least three inches long, have good roots and a fan of leaves. Cut the leaves back to about eight inches. Throw away any rhizomes that are shrunken, have holes or mushy parts. Dispose of the unwanted material in landfill rather than composting it, to avoid spreading disease.

Those rhizomes you choose to keep and replant should be briefly disinfected in the bleach solution and then left to air dry for a day. When you replant the iris, be sure that the top of the rhizome is just at the surface of the soil.

My iris tend to rise up out of the soil over the winter. I think the solution is to water well and press down around the rhizome to be sure there are no air pockets when you replant. If a rhizome still looks like it's riding a little high on the ground, I might side dress it with compost before winter sets in. Be sure not to bury the rhizomes in the compost.

I have been so busy this week, that I haven't had the chance to get out into my gardens. From the kitchen I could see that there were cherry tomatoes ripening, and we're having salad for dinner tonight, so I made the trek out to harvest a few of them.

Some rotten little rodent, or bunny or deer is taking one bite out of the bigger tomatoes. I doubt seriously that we will have more than the three we have managed to collect so far because they are just too tempting. Maybe I can find a strip of hardware cloth to wrap around the tomato cage. That might protect them from the livestock.

As I walked back through the herb garden, I brushed the basil, and its scent filled the air. I stopped to pinch off the tops of the plants, to try to keep them bushy, and to delay the flowering. Basil tastes better before it's energy goes into flowering and making seeds.

We've had light showers the past two days. The water has helped everything, but we need still more. We seem to be in a pocket of drought that has hung over us for at least three years. I know that friends in the East and in Kansas are worried about flooding, and can't wait for things to dry up. Send that water this way!

If it's not raining early tomorrow morning, I may have the chance to get into the gardens again. We can hope. The worst of the week will be over tomorrow morning, and working in the gardens would be a lovely way to wind down the week.

Soon it will be time to make "Farmer's Tomato Pie." I'm just waiting for the home grown, or local tomatoes to ripen. Yummmmmm!

It's summer, what can I say??

I had a lovely time in the garden on Sunday. Usually I go out early in the day, between 5:00 and 9:00, but I overslept last Sunday. I went out at 10:00 and worked for three hours. By the time 1:00 rolled around, I was more than ready to quit, but I'd had a very satisfying morning.

I went out this morning to take pictures to make it easier for you to understand what I'm writing about, and discovered the battery on my camera was dead. I prefer early morning for herb garden pictures because you aren't distracted by shadows and the colors are gentler. It just wasn't to be. Maybe I can get the pictures later today.

I finished cutting back the chives, and I'm halfway through the oregano. I clipped off the top of the basil to keep it from flowering, and brought the leaves in to make pesto, and I harvested the first of the cherry tomatoes.

I also cleaned out the east walkway inside the garden. If you wet the chat down first, it's not a bad job. I left one of the poppies and two other groups of volunteer plants that are growing in the walk, at least for now..

Since I never remember to take before and after pictures, I left the west walkway until I could get a picture. There's still some work to be finished from this Spring's renovation, but it's minimal. Eventually, I hope to add more chat to the walkway, and we might even consider laying the bricks that are supposed to cover the chat.

Once I've finished the weeding, I need to mulch the herb garden. It will help to keep moisture in and may save a plant or two if I fail to water regularly.

The chipmunk that lives at the back door decided he didn't like the rudbeckia that I had planted above his home. He burrowed around two sides of it, and it was in pretty bad shape, so I moved it into the herb garden. I have two lavenders to plant, as well.

I suppose when you look at the list of things I've been doing the word "WORK" floats through your mind. Well, it IS work, but the grounds look so nice once it's done that it seems like a worthwhile way to fill my time.

I have spent the past few months trying to get gardens cleaned up from winter, and getting the new plants into the ground. Then, we reach a point where peonies, iris, poppies and lilacs are in bloom, and we sit back and enjoy the view. At that point, there's another flurry of cutting back and cleaning up. I've been waiting for the daffodil leaves to ripen so that I can pull them out. We're just about there.

At the same time, everything in the herb garden has been growing like crazy. I SHOULD be cutting back chives and harvesting sage and oregano, but we're having a lovely rainy Saturday. Cutting back will have to wait until tomorrow or Monday. I plan to share some of the harvest with my friends at exercise.

I wanted to show you a picture of the overgrown herbs before we get to the mid-summer trim:

The chives and oregano are so wooly that you can't even see there's a center box in the garden just beyond them. St. Francis is in that center bed, and you can just see his head and shoulders. This year all that oregano will be shared, rather than going to waste. YEA!!

I plan to throw in a little catnip, too. NO, I won't mix the two together! *G*

I rolled out of the sack before six this morning so that I could deadhead the peonies before I had to go to exercise. The driveway garden looks better for a little trimming back. I carried rings of hardware cloth down to the driveway garden because bunnies have been at work. The wonderful orangey-red lily that I planted as a focal point in the long driveway garden was stripped of it's leaves and flowers, and the stems have been pulled from the ground. I set rings around the rudbeckia, because the bunnies were testing the flavor of the leaves. I didn't want to drive past and find them eaten to the ground!

When I got back from exercise I pulled the hose out from the area where it nests and watered the herb garden, the ferns and rudbeckia, the plants waiting to be planted, and the containers along the sidewalk. Watering is the perfect time to take stock of what needs to be done.

I haven't quite gotten everything planted yet, even though it's almost mid-June. I'd like to get the last of the plants into the ground and then start trimming back or harvesting some of my herbs. The chives all need to be severely cut back, and the oregano should be harvested. There are areas in the center box of the garden that need to be dug up, to remove weeds and get more things planted. I'd like to see if nasturtiums will grow starting this late in the season, and I'd like to get a little more dill planted..

Three of the tomato plants need either to be staked or caged. The construction debris in that section of the garden still needs to be removed, and I'll have to weed the walkway once the poppies stop blooming. I hope the guys will help me add more chat to the walkway.

It's time to pull out the spent blooms of the ox-eye daisy, and I need to unearth several iris that are having some kind of problem with rotten stems. I think I can save the corms if I do it soon. And, I have several iris to divide and share.

There are ALWAYS things to do when you are a homeowner, and a gardener. These lists are reminders to me that I need to get these things done, and a way to look back over the years to see how little things change. I bet I have at least one, or more likely MANY entries just like this for each year I've blogged. Sorry for the repetition. *G*

It was a good start to the week.

Each year I have volunteers in my garden. The chipmunks have seen to it that I have a steady crop of dill to be found in a number of the beds. One year Cleome took over half the sidewalk garden. Despite that, I'm thinking about sowing Cleome when I move the Dutch Iris this year.

Out in the herb garden, I've grown a number of things in the center of the center box. Some of those things are herbal, and some are just for color. The annual poppies have decided that it's their turn to volunteer.

If you can see the picture above, there are Ox-eye daisies (which have volunteered now for about 16 years), and the red poppies. The salvia is a perennial. I was thinking the other day that we almost have Red, White and Blue going on, if you overlook the purple-ish cast of the salvia.

The walkway of the garden is supposed to be covered with a very white "chat" or tailings, or screenings. It's a very tiny limestone particle. We had intended to settle brick into the chat to make a brick walkway, but we haven't gotten there yet. I like the look of the volunteers in the chat, but it's been so disturbed with the rebuilding, that I may have to dig things up, lay down more chat, and maybe even lay the bricks. Right now, in addition to a few weeds, we have garlic chives, fever few, lamb's ears, the poppies, ox-eye daisies and thyme on the walk.

I'm frequently of a mind to let volunteers grow. God's surprises can make for interesting gardens. I purchased a pack of wildflower seeds, intending to have DH rototill an area for me, where I could strew the seed. I don't think we're going to get to it, so I might strew the seed on the edge of the property where we don't mow. I wonder if we will see visitors and volunteers for years to come, or whether we will be simply providing appetizers for the chipmunks?

"Bloom where you are planted!" Is this the lesson of the day, or is my mind just absorbed with the gardens? *G*

At least we HOPE wet weather will becoming this way. We're supposed to have scattered showers over the weekend, and it should be overcast for the best part of a week.

My immediate goal is to work in the gardens at the sidewalk. Quilting Bee is tonight, and I'd like for the entryway to look nice as the ladies come in.

I think we have a quiet weekend ahead. I want to putter some more in the gardens, weather permitting, but I don't have any hard and fast plans. I might even check the paper to see if there is anything I want to see at the movies!

I hope you all have a great weekend.

We've been absorbed with counting the egrets and herons we see as we drive to exercise or to the grocery store. We're well into their season now, and we've seen groups of them congregating where they "fish" for food. Normally, both the herons and egrets are very solitary birds while hunting, but they must have a social side we've never seen before.

Elegante Mother pointed out a new bird at the feeder. We both thought it was a woodpecker, but it turns out it was a Northern Flicker. I checked Sibley and read the description out, and this bird fit it to a T. They have an interesting little black bib, and are larger than most of the woodpeckers we see here. I hope this flicker will become a resident. He/She is a fascinating bird to watch!

I hope to get in another long day in the gardens tomorrow. I have to make a short trip to the bank, and to the nursery tomorrow morning, but the rest of the day I can focus on the gardens. I planted several containers today, rather than pitching out the extra plants. I still have a few more plants that had been intended for containers, and Dear Husband says that I should plunk them in the garden, where ever I have the room. It could make for interesting gardens.

I hope to weed for two hours very early in the morning, run my errands, and then come home and put more plants into the ground. Things look amazingly good so far, but there's still a lot of work to be done. The 10:00 news just reminded me that we are on cicada alert, but the ground was cool last night, so that might delay their visit. Apparently, the ground needs to be 60 degrees or warmer for the cicadas to make their appearance. I hope that they stay dormant until I get all these plants into the ground! *G*

We did a little mowing, and Dear Husband spent most of his time readying the Arr!! for the trip to Lake Michigan. Boys and their toys. He's just like a kid! He'll be gone all day, and I'll be in the gardens.

I've been holding off using the air conditioning. I figured it was just May, that I didn't need it, but they are talking about some really warm weather coming up. We'll have to see how things turn out. Perhaps, with all the windows open, we'll be able to bear the heat.

Here's hoping for a cool evening, a good night's sleep, and a safe and productive day tomorrow!

I have had the most satisfying day!

We went to bed at 9:00 last night. I fought the urge to watch a little more TV or read another few chapters in my book. I hit the sack and slept soundly until about 5:45 or so. I was ready to wake, as the light was changing, and felt, at last, that I had gotten a decent night's sleep.
I left DH sleeping soundly, and had a cup of tea and some toast, before going to the office to work for an hour.

By 8:00 a.m. I was out in the gardens. I had planned to tidy up the driveway garden. It's the first garden you see as you enter our grounds. The peonies bloom there (or will very shortly), and there are some iris, perennial salvia, day lilies, bleeding heart, hosta and a lot of purple coneflower in that bed. I wanted to trim the edges of the bed, get one area ready for some rudbeckia, and pull a little grass that thinks it should live there. Instead, that work has been delayed until early tomorrow morning. Today, I worked on the north side of the house.

I have two areas of ferns on the north side of the house. The biggest bed really gets too much sun, and it's surrounded by brick on two sides, so it's probably too hot, too. But, the ferns have come back year after year. They have been spreading out into the lawn. I decided to dig the volunteers out of the lawn and replant them into one end of the bed that looked a little bare. Then I weeded most of the bed, and moved a timber over to create a finished edge to the bed.

I watered the ferns, and the herb garden, and then mulched around the ferns and watered them again. Then, I cleaned out a tiny garden box to the right of the back garage door. I'm going to try rudbekia there. It may like the heat.

And, I took a break!

When I went back out, I moved a chunk of English thyme, planted two silver thymes, a lemon basil, an Angelica (something new to try this year), and planted six tomato plants. I like the miniature yellow pear-shaped tomatoes for salads, and the Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes. I planted a good-sized Early Girl bush tomato, and a Better Boy (I think..).

By 2:00 there was nothing more important than my date with the shower! I'm feeling (and looking) more human now, and I'm VERY satisfied with the work I finished. (Pictures soon, just for Janet! *G*)

3 Homestead Purple Verbena
4 dark ruby petunias
1/2 a packet of Rose Queen Cleome seeds
1 purple calibracoa
6 sweet basil
1 purple ruffles basil
2 curly leaved parsleys
2 flat leaved Italian parsleys
2 upright rosemaries
1 tricolor sage
1 cilantro
4 lemon verbena
1 large fever few

As usual, I have loads left to plant, including tomato plants. May 15th is the last frost date for this area (Zone 5, Chicago suburbs), so I could have planted them today, but I held off for two days to let a storm system go through. It seems that all around us are getting rain, but we've just had a sprinkle or two.

I need to have Elegante Mother choose more pots to plant. As usual, she bought more plants than needed. Perhaps I can send a planted container to one of my sisters, when EM goes to visit at the end of the month.

I still need to find a Bridal Wreath shrub (spirea), annual purple fountain grass, Goldsturm rudbekia, Victoria Blue salvia, Bluebeard shrubs/perennials, and more Russian sage. I haven't planned what I want to add to the little garden across the driveway, yet. And, I'm waiting for Dear Husband to move the dingy so that I can plant the south raised box of the veggie bed.

Ya know....I'm glad I live where the snow flies part of the year. I don't think I could keep this up year round!

Yes....I have poison ivy in my garden. Woe is me. This morning I rose and donned clothing that I wouldn't mind throwing away: long socks, long pants, a long-sleeved mock turtleneck, and an old bandanna. I carried another bandanna with me to cover the lower half of my face, in case the ivy juice became airborne as I pulled out the roots. I wore two pairs of latex gloves.

At first I thought this was going to be easy. I should have known better. The root making its way across the ground was roughly half the diameter of my little finger. I should have watered before I weeded. I might possibly have gotten ALL of the root that way. As it it, I think I left some small suckers. The poison ivy had twined itself around and through a pod of Dutch Iris that I've been meaning to replant.

I got most of the root, except any that grew through the roots of the iris. After they've bloomed, I'll dig up the iris and re-plant them, checking for poison ivy roots as I separate them. For some time to come, I'll have to be careful when kneeling and planting and cleaning up in that area. The irritant (urushiol) from the poison ivy is likely to taint the ground and plants for some time. Luckily, I've gotten into the habit of wearing gloves when I work in the gardens, but I'll still need to be careful.

I had a great morning. I got two thirds of the outer bed at the front of the house cleared out of old plants. I was able to see what made it through the winter and what needs to be replaced. The Russian sage is coming back nicely, and I pruned away the dead wood. The two French lavenders didn't make it, but I was surprised to see that there were starts of Homestead Purple Verbena, which is usually an annual in this area.

I hope to do a little early morning gardening before we go to brunch for Mother's Day. And, there may be time in the afternoon, too. It's time to put plants into the ground! YEA!!!

I received a call last night from the nursery, to let me know that the Homestead Purple Verbena was in, and I had twenty-four hours to pick it up. Doesn't that seem like a rather short time frame?

At any rate, I wanted to return a clematis and pick up the verbena. I stopped at the checkout, and explained that the tag in the pot of clematis said "Nelly Moser," but it was labeled differently on the outside of the pot. I wanted to make an exchange. They told me to leave the pot at checkout and look for the "Nelly Moser" that I wanted. Of course, they were out.

So, I started working my way through the nursery toward the annual section. Along the way four little pots of basil, and two more of lemon verbena grabbed my arm as I went by. I rounded the corner at the veggies, coming into the stretch, when two pots of tomatoes jumped out in front of my cart. I HAD to rescue them.

While I was there, I thought I might pick up a morning glory that was already two feet tall, but they were out of that, too. This beautiful cardinal vine tempted me instead.

I FINALLY got to the annual information desk, and asked for the verbena. Neither of us could count. I'd ordered nine and came home with seven. BUT....while I was waiting, I found the morning glory I wanted! *G*

Some days ya just have to go with the flow. I've got a LOT of planting to do, and I'll have to make at least one more trip to the nursery. Do you believe that I walked out of there without any dill seed!??

I spent a large part of my day renovating a small portion of the NE wing of the herb garden. I've had a section of lamb's ears in this part of the garden for years. I don't know if lamb's ears can strictly be considered an herb or not, but I like the pale gray-green color contrasting the darker leaves of the thyme. Lamb's ears has a way of escaping and moving to other parts of the garden. It seems to really like the chat walkway, and I like how it looks there. I probably need to cut back some of the growth in the walk, but today I focused on the lamb's ears in the bed.

Unfortunately, it has become infested with crab grass. I started work, and realized that the soil was so dry that I was never going to get all of the roots. Dear Husband said, "Either you water, or you wait." He's really good at cutting to the chase. I didn't want to wait, so I hooked up the hose. I watered that section of the bed, and while it percolated through the soil, DH and I dropped a car off to be worked on tomorrow.

When I returned, the soil was ready! I used a shovel and lifted huge chunks of the garden out onto black plastic trays from the nursery. When I had grass and plants, and dirt removed, I ran my hands through what was left, to be sure that I wasn't leaving a nest of roots behind. Then, I separated the grass from the soil, put the soil back, and replanted the lamb's ears.

There are several areas in the thyme to the right of that area that will need to be replanted. I'm going to transplant one section later this week, and may find a few more crab grass roots to remove.

I think I may put lemon-scented geraniums in that spot, or perhaps lemon verbena. A good part of that arm of the herb garden is devoted to lemon scented plants.

The really healthy plant at the bottom of the herb bed is a perennial salvia. Just past it, in a terra cotta furnace flue, is Scottish spearmint. There are two small lavenders. (If they don't do well this summer, they'll be transplanted.) There's a miniature rose just past that, in a ring of hardware cloth. I uncovered the rose today and found very tender growth on it. I protected it from the sun (and will have to continue to protect it for a while till it hardens up), and left the ring to protect it from hungry bunnies. The lamb's ears are just past the rose. You can see the clematis at the arbor, just north of the bed.

I know, I know.....too much detail. I had a wonderful time in the garden. I quit before I was overwhelmed. I left enough time to clean things up and return my tools to the garage. Dear Husband cooked dinner tonight, so I got to come in and loaf. It was a fabulous day, and I'm SO pleased to have gotten a start on the gardens!

The past few years my clematis has been suffering. It's a wonderful jackmanii that is covered with deep purple blooms in the spring. Its leaves were loosing their dark glossy green color. I did some research on-line and decided that it needed chelated iron. I found a source and gave it a dose and the leaves looked better the following year.

We repeated that scenario, but this time the plant began to look really sickly. I read further and found that there was something contagious going on. I decided that I was going to give it one more shot before planting something else in that spot. I cut the canes to the ground and disposed of them. I pretty much figured that would kill the plant off, but I was very surprised to see it growing this spring.

I started my day in the gardens by creating guidelines for the clematis, to help it up and over the arbor. I used hemp twine, anchored on either side of the plant, and wrapped around one of the upper horizontal bars. I used one more length of twine to keep the plant upright, until it grabs onto the vertical lines on its own.

I have high hopes for this plant. If it makes it, I'll post a picture when it blooms.

At long last, I've had the chance to spend my weekend in the gardens. It got off to a slow start on Saturday. Dear Husband rebuild the sieve that fits over the wheelbarrow so that I could empty the sidewalk containers and sieve the soil. In some of the largest pots I use a layer of plastic shipping peanuts to lighten the load, so I need to catch the plastic as I break up the soil and remove spent plants.

The sieving and refilling of the pots took longer than I had anticipated. I moved the pots onto the sidewalk near the front door and Elegante Mother played with the collection of plants that we bought earlier in the week, working out combinations which pleased her. Rather than planting all the pots in an identical range of color, each pot has it's own personality. I know that's unusual, but it's what makes EM happy.

I think we filled seven pots with annuals. Elegante Mother was playing with plants the way she might sweep watercolor over paper. This container is a wrought iron basket lined with coir.

Supertunia Priscilla (lavender), Colorburst Melon Calibrachoa, "Peter’s Wonder" Coleus,
“Lemon Symphony” Osteospermum hybrid, Madeira Violet Argyranthemum. and
Red Snapdragons.

“Gay’s Delight” Coleus (Lime green with red-violet stems), “Happy Violet” Exotic Geranium, Dracaena marginata “magenta," and “Merlin’s Magic” Coleus fill a gray-green container.

Elegante Mother used the same coleus in this pot, with a different, lighter look:

"Gay’s Delight" Coleus, "Colorburst Chocolate" Calibrachoa (deep rose), "Needlepoint" Coleus (cut leaf with lime green, cream and scarlet), Ipomoea “Blackie," (dark sweet potato vine) and
“Snowstorm White” Bacopa.

And one more that I like for it's simplicity, and for the interesting pot:

I think I used Bacopa, with a dark red petunia, and a lighter coleus. I can probably look up the plant names if you need them.

So, the containers have been planted for the season. I have a couple more pots that are basically research. I've planted two small poinsettias that have carried over from Christmas, and another pot that has overgrown calla lily greens. I don't know if they will make it, but it was worth a try.

Dirt. I actually had dirt under my fingernails! (goofy grin).

If you are not familiar with the early spring perrenial called "Squill," please go to this link for a picture of what's growing in my garden.

http://www.twofrog.com/images/squill28.jpg

Google Images has a number of pictures of squill, but this one is the closest to what has volunteered in my yard. It's spread nicely over the past 15 years, and continues to move it's way across the grove floor. The chipmunks have moved some of it to my sidewalk garden, the herb garden and the grass on the north side of the house. The leaves are a bit darker and "strappier" than grass, so you can see the contrast.

Squill is well worth adding to your gardens for contrast with crocus, and the blue would be lovely mixed in with daffodils.

Speaking of chipmunks.....the little rodents are up and around and making themselves known. I saw two of them doing the "Oh NO I WON'T....Oh yes you will" dance earlier this week. You know, they must keep their babies in the burrows until they are almost full grown. I don't think I've ever seen a baby chimpmunk!

Chimpmunks and mosquitoes....two things I could really do without!

The forsythia is in bloom!

And the star magnolia buds are swelling, but it looks like a lot of the buds were killed off in the three weeks of below-freezing weather we had in February. Too bad, it's really a beautiful shrub.

Bogie responded to my comment about trying to get some bulbs planted last minute. I've had this terrible cold for a week or more now, but yesterday it was FIFTY DEGREES here! Normally by now our ground would be frozen hard, and I'd have to save the bulbs by planting them in containers, but I could hear the garden calling to me.

There's just something about early bulbs blooming in Spring that is so comforting, and I HATE to waste things. Those bulbs had been talking to me for the past two or three months, asking when I was going to make time for them. So, despite my cold, I bundled up, and headed out.

First, I fed the birds. Then, I collected the wheelbarrow, a shovel, my tool bucket and the new trowels the kids gave me for Christmas.

I have a narrow spot, the width of the garden, between two pods of iris that was perfect for these bulbs. I started shoveling the soil into the wheelbarrow. Then I heard this sound. The shovel was hitting something. NO.....it couldn't be!

A number of years ago, too many exactly for me to remember, I decided I would outwit the chipmunks, and planted tulips in a wire cage. Unfortunately, the tulips were short-lived, but the wire cage was still there, in great shape.

What should have been a twenty minute chore, ended up being more like 75 minutes. I couldn't dig the cage out, because part of it was sitting under iris that need to be relocated. The iris are more important to me than the bulbs.

So, I decided to cut the top off the cage, plant the new bulbs there for this winter, and then dig everything up next summer after the iris have bloomed. I went inside for the wire cutters and wire by wire clipped open about two thirds of the lid. I've promised myself that I will go back and dig the cage out next summer, so that no one will get hurt on the remains of the cage.

I got most of the bulbs planted. I even replanted some crocus that I inadvertently dug up. I think I killed off a tulip or two that was planted just past the end of the wire cage. I'm going to have to pull together Spring pictures into an album, so that I can remember what I've planted, where.

One of my favorite signs in Elegante Mother's collection of garden decorations, is a little medallion that says, "I don't remember planting that there!"

It was good to get out, despite the fact that it took longer than I had hoped. It was good to get the bulbs in. I still have my cold, but it doesn't seem to be any worse than it was yesterday, so the exercise and the chance to play in the garden may have helped. YEA!! Now I can stop feeling guilty about the bulbs!

I had a list of chores that needed to be done outside to put the lawns and gardens to bed for this year. Usually I start working on them earlier, but weather and other obligations have kept me from getting to them. Last week, we had a stretch of three days with temps in the sixties. You can bet I made use of that time to trim things back and weed. I pulled spent plants, and got rid of a few unwanted plants.

Today's work was more along the lines of cleanup. I needed Dear Husband's help, but it turned out that he had his own list of projects, so I carried on without him until lunchtime. Then I asked my resident StepSon to give me a hand. I got an early start, and the guys helped me the last hour or so of my time outside. By 2:30 I was MORE than ready to come in.

I tidied up the mulch pile, moving part of it off the grass. (DH moved the pile with the snow plow. I wouldn't call a snow plow a precision tool. Some of the mulch ended up on the grass, which bothered me, but not DH.) I mulched the day lilies in the herb garden, and the sidewalk garden. I mulched the clematis, and put rings around the two roses that are in ground. I raked the north yard, and then mowed part of it. I moved mulch to the southeast corner of the house and set in stepping stones to make a path to the gas meter for the meter reader, and I raked birch leaves out of the junipers.

SS moved compost for me, and covered the peonies, roses and iris with compost. (My iris are trying to grow over each other. Some are completely out of the ground, so we covered them for the winter). He raked up everything that I cut out of the driveway garden last week, and took it to the north end of our lot, and finished the raking I had started on the front lawn.

Dear Husband moved the timbers I wrote about, that looked like pick-up sticks in my herb garden. He set them atop the raised veggie bed so that water would drain off them during the winter. DH caulked the soffit at the living room cathedral window. He had to tear it out earlier this year to remove the bees that had nested, and was just getting around to caulking the replacement. While he was there, he decided to caulk the center panes of the window.

I had forgotten that my favorite painter was visiting this morning to do some touch-ups. Before he left, I asked him how warm it needed to be outside to paint trim. He said that today actually was warm enough, but that it was supposed to be warmer toward the end of the week. You all probably know that it's best to paint between 10 and 2:00 this time of year. Dear Husband and I agreed that we could put off the last of the trim painting until later this week, so the scaffold remains under my living room window. I hope that warmer weather doesn't necessarily mean wet weather or that scaffolding will never be down in time for Elegante Mother's Open House!

Dear Husband and I were running out of steam when it came to the last of the chores. He and SS moved the piles of leaves I'd gathered to the compost pile. I set rigid insulation on the floor of the garage and DH helped me move some of the plants into the garage to be wintered over. Then, I swept off the sidewalk, and fed the birds.

Elegante Mother put a beef roast in the crockpot this morning. I contributed roasted potatoes seasoned with Lipton's dry onion soup mix, and steamed broccoli with white cheese sauce. It was a surpisingly easy meal, and tasted good.

Are you tired, yet? I certainly was. I need a new body. Every time I sit still for a bit something hurts! I spent some time in the office this evening, and I'll need to put in more time tomorrow I have a punch list of things to be done inside tomorrow, but that's another post. *S*

I have an amazing star magnolia outside my office window. I thought they were small, shrubby plants, but this one is more than twenty feet tall, despite having been hit when a neighboring tree fell on it.

What's drawing my attention today is the color of the leaves. As the weather turned cooler, the leaves went from green to a warm gold. This tree would do a Tuscan courtyard proud! Today, it is much colder than it's been. I believe we were below freezing last night, and the leaves on the magnolia have taken on a faint burgundy cast over the gold. What a treasure this plant is: beautiful blooms to start the growing season, glossy green during the summer, and then glorious color before leaf drop. I spend my late winter days watching the swell of the bloom pods, waiting for the first to open. I couldn't have asked for a better companion outside my window!

Susan, I need some particulars about where you garden to be able to make suggestions about shade loving plants. I need to know what zone you are in. Instead of announcing the town where you live, you can tell me what state, and upper or lower half, and I should be able to determine the zone for you. OR... go to this site and clock your cursor where you live to determine the zone number.

There's a wonderful little book called "Taylor's Guide to Perennials for Shade," published by Houghton Mifflin, which I would recommend to you. It will give you basic tips for preparing your soil, and when to move plants into and out of your garden. There is also a companion book on ground covers that would be very helpful.

The following list of plants are hardy to USDA Zones 5 or 4, unless noted. Taylor's guide shows a picture of, and describes all these, and as many more plants that I won't mention here. You need to choose by height, season, and also by type of shade. Most of these plants will grow in partial shade. If you need information for DEEP shade, let me know, and I'll see if I kept the websites that might help.

Bugleweed
Lady's Mantle (I have one, and it sends out runners to make more.)
Anemone (Zones 4-6 depending on the variety)
Columbine (Spring bloomer)
Goatsbeard (a shrubby perennial that grows 4-6 feet. I want one!)
Astilbe
False Rockcress (a mat-forming plant for edgings)
Siberian Bugloss
Bellflower (dozens of varieties and sizes)
Leadwort (zone 6)
Lily of the Valley (This spreads nicely, and smells wonderful)
Bleeding Heart
Dutchmen's Breeches
Foxglove
Shooting Star
Leopard's Bane
Sweet woodruff (I've used these under taller plants)
Hellebore (I've never grown these....the Lenten Rose)
Cranesbill
Coral bells (I love the "Purple Palace" variety)
Hosta (Francee is my favorite....a creamy stripe down the center of the leaf)
Blue lily turf (The book says this is zone 6, but I grow it in zone 5.)
Blue Lobelia
Lupine
Creeping Phlox (beautiful at the edge of a garden or base of a tree)
False Dragon Head (This is a good tall plant for the background of a garden)
Chinese Lantern Plant (Very invasive. Grow it in a pot for dried arrangements)
Jacob's Ladder
Solomon's Seal
Primrose
Stonecrop (Sedum) I have "Autumn Joy" and one other
Snow Trillium
Violets (which will spread all over the place, if you let them)

I hope this list gives you a jumping off point, Susan.

Do you recall that about ten days ago I wrote a note to a nearby gardener to congratulate him on what lovely gardens he had? Well, today Elegante Mother and I got to walk through those gardens.

My gardening friend called when he received my note. He invited us to come see them first hand, so this morning I called to be sure that it was convenient. The day has been gorgeous, one of those beautiful, warm days with intense blue skies, and it was perfect for strolling through the gardens. We went to visit at 1:30, and were there for 90 minutes.

My note to my Gardening Friend (GF) came about because I had watched him create a shade garden under some pine trees over the last decade or more. I wasn't prepared to find that in addition to that splendid garden, he also had 90 varieties of roses, two kinds of raspberries (BIG beds), rhubarb, and tomatoes. And about a million other plants.

I didn't know that you could grow holly here! Or bamboo!

I saw plants I recognized, and plants I'd never seen. I saw plants that looked familiar, but the names wouldn't come to me. I discovered that there is a variety of lily in the valley that blooms pink, and found out that I'm not the only one who has trouble with beetles eating the leaves of the hollyhocks!

GF is 84. This is the first year that he's hired a lawn service, and had them edge the garden for him. I was astonished at the amount of land he has under cultivation that was 99% weed free. It seems we like the same plants and shrubs, but he's much more focused on his gardening than I am.

I asked if he gardened every day, and he shrugged a shoulder and said he got out when he felt up to it. He must put in 8 hours a day 7 days a week! His gardens are fabulous! We've been invited back to see them at their peak.

I can't begin to tell you the names of all the plants, but the variety was incredible, and GF mixes shrubs nicely with perennials and annuals.

I didn't expect to have such a pleasant afternoon as a result of writing that note, but I sure did!

It was a glorious day for yard work. It's been chilly for this time of year, but mostly clear. I've been looking out the north windows in the kitchen, looking over the herb garden. There's a little pocket yard there and it looks like it hasn't been mowed for two months or so. *G* It's amazing what a little rain can do for grass!

We expect to have scattered showers from tonight thru Monday, so I started my day by assembling a brand new weed eater, and trimming around the herb garden and the North yard. In about half an hour, I'm going to try to mow the rest of the grass. It was too wet this morning to even consider mowing. If I wait to mow until next week, the grass will be too wet and ten feet high!

Dear Husband has purchased cedar timbers to re-frame part of the herb garden. It's an ongoing chore. He replaced about five of them two years ago, and six more are disintegrating and have to be replaced. I'm not sure when he hopes to do the work, but I vote for this fall! I saw dozens of things I could work on, near him, while he worked in the garden. It would be really pleasant to share a few afternoons outside.

About two weeks ago I worked like a demon, cutting back offending volunteer trees and shrubs at the front and south side of the house. I want to make a pathway for the meter readers through the front garden, so things aren't trampled. I need to get stepping stones to finish the job. I pruned back the junipers and shrubs, and cleared a path. Now I want to set stones as a walk way, and then heavily mulch around them. This is the perfect weather to get it all done.

The need to weed is abating. I'm looking at the gardens and thinking about structure and spring blooms, and spreading compost and mulch. We'll let the season ease out with mums, Victoria Blue salvia, Homestead Purple verbena, rudbeckia and Bluebeard, and work on design for next year. Oh....and it's time to rip out the poison ivy in the front garden! Little kids will think I'm the Halloween mummy if they see me dressed up to ivy hunt!

I love to collect dried plants for fall decorations. I've been keeping my eye on several plants that are growing along the edge of the road, or the bean fields. I need to wait a bit to go harvest them.

There's a stand of milk weed at the edge of the field to the east of us. Once the pods split open, the plant can be cut and dried. They provide wonderful interest for a dried arrangement. My mother and I have spray painted milk weed pods gold to use in Christmas arrangements and package decorations, but they are beautiful in their natural colors.

Teasle is an invasive weed that gows in great clumps in our area. It has a wonderful, prickly head at the top of a tall stalk. You can make very dramatic arrangements with them. If you can harvest enough, you could bundle them together, rather the way you would make a bundle of corn stalks. (Check out the teasle in the basket at this site.) But, you have to be sure to use heavy leather gloves when you work with them, because sharp spines cover their stems.

There's a plant that we used to call "Indian Tobacco," when I was a child. It's real name is "Curly Dock." When it dries, it has a deep brown, seedy look, that contrasts the form of the other weeds, and adds more color to the arrangement.

I tend to suppliment what I find along the road with dried botannicals from places like Michael's and Hobby Lobby. One of my favorites is the dried lily pod.
You can see a wreath that uses the dark brown pods at this site.

It's almost time to harvest. I have several five gallon buckets in the garage, and as I harvest, I'll stand the plants in the buckets to finish drying. Before Thanksgiving, I'll create bouquets, tie them with twine, and then add raffia or a wide ribbon. Mother Nature sure gives us some lovely decorations.

I think it's safe to say that Fall is upon us. We haven't had the scent of burning leaves, or the crispness of an early morning yet, but you can see the changes just starting in the plants.

Our road has fields of soybeans on either side of it to the east. About a week ago, I noticed the very first signs of change of color in the field. It was subtle, but yesterday it had become more pronounced. Those particular fields must have had enough rain to make it through the summer. The plants were vigorous, so I think this is most likely not a response to drought, but rather, the end of the growing cycle. The field is mottled with dark green, and shades of lemon yellow to tan sprinkled throughout.

We have a tree that lines several of our streets. I don't know what tree it is, but it looks like it could be related to aspens. These trees are beginning to drop their leaves. Last week the dead leaves were dancing across the road as the wind from the coming cool front moved in. Tomorrow, they'll be glued to the ground from the rain.

We have black walnut trees that line the eastern edge of the property. The walnuts have begun to drop. I suppose you really need to wear a helmet to walk near them! *G* The leaves have been on the ground for several weeks. They are the first sign of impending weather changes, to me.

It's raining today. Should I count that as another sign? We haven't had the burning drought we had last year, but I suspect we are behind in precipitation. EVERYTHING says "AAAAhhhhhhhh" when we get the least bit of rain.

I'm ready for cooler weather, but I can't help wondering where the entire year has gone. Elegante Mother is correct when she says that the older you get, the faster the time flies.

I used a watering wand in the herb garden tonight. It's time consuming to do the job right, but it gives me the time to see things up close.

The volunteer day lilies are blooming. When I looked out the window this evening five small birds were resting on one of the stalks, waiting for their turn at the bird feeder.

In early May, I severely trimmed one half of my sage plants. I wasn't sure that I wanted to prune them that early, so I stopped halfway through. It's been interesting to see the results. The unpruned half is quite large, and bloomed early in June. The leaves are a rather sickly yellowish green, with spots that could be insect damage. The pruned half is more compact (and pleasing to the eye), the leaves are healthy, and the color is the true sage green. SO...a note for my garden journal: prune the sage!

I have one cherry tomato plant and one miniature yellow pear tomato plant in the herb garden. I've had the first fruit of each, and I'm eager for the rest to ripen. There's nothing like a homegrown tomato!

At the north end of the herb garden I've planted several lavender plants. Imagine my surprise when garlic appeared next to them. I thought I had harvested all the garlic last year, but I have a good stand of it. The garlic has gone to bloom. It won't be long before I can try, once more, to dig it out.

The yarrow blooms have all begun to turn brown. I never remember to deadhead to keep the plant blooming through the summer. The clematis that climbs the trellis just behind the yarrow may be dying. I've talked with the county extension master gardener without getting a definitive answer on what's happening. From what I've read, this could be a fungus, and the solution is to cut the infected canes at the ground. Unfortunately, I think all of the canes are infected. I'll cut them back to the ground this fall, but I don't expect to see new growth next spring. Too bad....it's been a lovely plant.

The mat of thyme is growing back nicely. The lemon balm is very fragrant, as is the scented geranium. The new apricot-colored small rose is not doing as well as I had hoped. The Scottish spearmint needs to have the flowers pinched off, to reshape the plant. The silver and gold thyme at the south end of that section have grown nicely this year.

The winter savory is beautiful! The plants are nicely shaped and healthy. I'm SO glad Nan questioned my instructions to dig it up last year! Thank you, sis!
The oregano got leggy, and I let her have her way with it again this year. This time she surprised me by trimming it back less than last year! *G* I know....I'm never satisfied! If you haven't seen my sister's blog entries about her garden efforts this year, be sure to go visit and see what she's been up to.

The chives are healthy, as usual, the basil seems to be going great guns. The Italian parsley tried to set blooms, and I trimmed the bloom stalks back. The rosemary plants are still tiny. I don't know why. The dill needs to be ripped out. It's going to seed, and we don't need any more volunteers. The purple coneflower is thick, and lovely. I hope the stand of yellow coneflower in the front gardens will be as vigorous.

And that's the herb garden news that's fit to print.

...to the quality of work I was doing in May and June that the gardens have survived so well with so little attention since June 10th. Before I hurt my knee the gardens had never looked better. In all fairness, the gardens are at their best in May and early June, but the weeding, mulching, fertilizing, and planting of new plants was coming along very nicely. My sister, Nan, helped that plan along by getting the last of the plants that I had purchased in May into the ground for me. The perennials have a nice start, and thanks to heavy mulch, there isn't a horrible amount of weeding to be done.

Today, was the first time I have been able to get into the gardens to weed. I worked around the edges of the garden at the front side walk, pulling out crab grass, trimming back iris and coreopsis, and pulling elm tree seedlings. I tried kneeling on my left knee with my right leg extended to the side, but that was uncomfortable, so I tested my weight on the outside edge of my right knee cap. With a foam kneeler, some Advil, and very judicious movement of my weight, it worked. I weeded for an hour or so in the morning, and another thirty minutes this evening.

I wear latex gloves when I weed. I took a plastic grocery bag out and used it as a barrier over my arm to pull a poison ivy plant that had taken hold in my favorite iris. I'll have to be cautious for the rest of the year, because it's likely that the iris leaves have traces of the oil from the poison ivy.

It seems that we are expecting rain off and on this week. The lawn has been grinning at us and waving. Soon we'll loose small children in it. Dear Husband has used his spare time this week to cut down the trees that fell over last week, so the mowing has gone wanting. I asked my stepson to fill in with an hour of mowing today, and I used the walk behind mower to trim the north lawn around the herb garden. I still need to use the string trimmer, but things are looking MUCH neater. It's satisfying to see these chores done.

We live on top of the mother lode of CLAY!

It's a lovely dark soil when it's moist, but when the heat of midsummer comes along, it becomes a grayish cement!

I was moaning about the clay across the front of the house, and complaining that I needed to amend the soil so I could plant the perennials this week. A good friend told me that his mother swears by "Clay Breaker," and I said, "What's that?"

Well....there are several varieties of this product, and it seems they are all produced and sold in either England or Australia. I checked at Google and the first two pages of listings were all from those two countries. Luckily, one of the entries talked about how to improve clay soil. Rather than searching for the clay breaking products, it told how to use sand, organic matter and lime or gypsum to improve the soil.

Dear Husband and Second Son spread sand, gypsum and compost for me last week. We had a good rain over the weekend, which made the soil easier to work. The next step is to incorporate all this into the top 8-12 inches of soil.

Sharp sand will improve the drainage and aeration characteristics of the soil, and encourage strong root formation. A good "grit" sand will have a reasonable amount of tiny pebbles in the 3-6mm range. These are sometimes called a "concreting" or "Horticultural" sand. It is NOT the soft, fine sand that builders use.

Organic matter also aids drainage and aeration, but it will also add to the fertility of the soil. Well-rotted compost, spent mushroom compost or well-rotted leaf litter are excellent choices. You do not want to use green organic matter, or partially rotted compost as it will feed from the soil to aid decomposition, rather than feeding the soil.

Both lime and gypsum (calcium sulfate) work to aggregate the clay particles in clay, to make it more permeable. Gypsum accomplishes this without raising the soil pH.

My information, and a great deal more, can be found at this site: Improving Clay Soil FAQ.

If you've been battling clay soil in your gardens, this site has loads of information about easy ways to improve the soil. When it comes down to it, grit sand and well-rotted compost in large quantities are the cheapest way to improve the soil. Good luck!

I'm NOT a failure. I discovered today that I have NOT been a failure for the past SEVENTEEN YEARS!

When we first moved here, and I started the gardens, I tried to grow morning glories, so that they would grow up over wild shrubs and give us more color during the summer. I scarred or cracked the shell of the seed. I soaked them overnight. I tried strewing seed in November so that they would start naturally in the spring. Nothing I did seemed to work.

I assumed that I had done something wrong. Not once in all that time have I been able to get morning glories to grow in my gardens.

Well, this year, I bought two pots of them, already started. One was a smaller plant, the other was a 6 or 8" pot that had several plants started. I took them out to the east driveway garden and planted them. Both had something to climb, and lots of mulch around them. I watered them every other day.

Today, as I drove by on the way to the garage, I looked over at the garden and something was missing. The supports were all there. The mulch was there.....
But, where there SHOULD have been two healthy growing morning glories.....NOTHING!

Some wretched furry creature has eaten seventeen years of morning glories right to the ground! Some miserable varmint had himself a great salad last night! There's NOTHING left....of about six plants.

I need to think about this. I wonder if there's anyway to get around the darned critter? At least now I know that I am not a failure as a gardener!

Well, the landscaper showed up this morning and took out the stump of the viburnum.

I was at the salon, and my mother called to say that the landscapers had arrived and were busy taking out the stump. They were originally supposed to have done it last Tuesday. It was rescheduled to Friday. No one showed up.
I talked with the landscaper's wife and told her that I didn't want them to work on the stump unless I was around. So much for communication.

So, when I got home, they were about two-thirds of the way done. I watched as they took out the rest. Unfortunately, I had to point out an arm of it they had missed, and you know that if I was able to see that one arm, there are others just below the surface that I missed.

I plan to add LOT of compost to the area, working it into the soil. Once the area has been cleared, I'll plant new perennials and then mulch everything. Can you envision Bluebeard, Russian Sage, Sunrise Coneflower, and Homestead Purple Verbena leading from the brick walls out to the edge of the garden?

The last thing the landscaper did before he and his crew left was to plant the new redbud. We agreed on how far forward of the house the tree should go. We have the species that has just one trunk, rather than the kind that grows multiple trunks. It's just a baby tree. It will be a long time before it fills out and shades the area again.

I've wanted a redbud for a very long time. Cop Car tried to help me out by transplanting several of the seedlings from her lawn, but we lost them over the winter. We'll have to hope that this one lasts.

..should be the word of the day.

This morning, around 6:30, the herb garden looked mysterious and very verdant, much as I think a secret garden might look. The shadows, dissipating as the light grew, outlined the leaves, and heightened the darker colors in the garden. The lighter lamb's ears glowed against the darker background.

Its cold and rainy in Chicagoland. We are not likely to see any sunshine today. But, the view out our windows is amazing. Everything has been responding to the cool, wet Spring weather. The chives are almost ready to bloom. The herb garden has gone from slowly waking up to looking almost mature in the past week.

The green leaves of the day lilies seem to be jumping out of the ground in their haste to grow. We won't see blooms until June, but the greens are full and tall. Almost everything has come back in the herb garden except two pods of thyme that I'll have to replace. I've never seen it die back like this, and I can only assume the mild winter, coupled with the drought, finally did it in.

Two of the iris are open! "Infinite Grace" and "Rare Wine" are the two along the brick wall of the garage that are the first to open. Most of the rest of the iris are showing buds, even the one which I know will be last to bloom.

The stump of the viburnum has STILL not been pulled. I think I am going to ask them to wait until next week, because I feel that it is important I be here when they pull the stump, and then plant the redbud. I've been told that the root system is as deep and wide as the tree or shrub was tall, so there's a whopper of a root to pull out. I'm concerned about the extent of the damage to the existing garden, and I don't see how they can avoid damaging the lawn, after all this rain.

Dear Husband gave the lawn it's first rough cut about a week or ten days ago. He's going to need to hire a fleet of mowers, the way the grass is growing! We can hear the grass calling to him at night....and the dandelions have a nasty laugh, rather like Peter Lorre in the "Maltese Falcon." (Heh heh heh)

To recap, the gardens are astonishing this year, there's a lot of work left to do, and DH gets to mow. Don't you LOVE SPRING??

...just weeding in the rain....

(sung to the music of "I'm Singing in the Rain.")

Yup....that's what I was doing earlier today. Dear Husband was going to work on the engine of his boat, but some work done at the yacht yard stymied his plans. I had finished with morning errands and chores, and was on my way down to the driveway bed when I found him collecting the dried material I had pulled from that bed last week. I had planned to hook up the John Deere mower and trailer to make short shrift of that cleanup job, but I was de