Planting Day

The first part of our order arrived, so today was planting day:

• 5 Ostrich Ferns under our back deck
• Black Mondo grass as a backdrop for our daylillies
• Bleeding heart collection to go under the buckthorn on our patio
• Gold mop false cypress to replace a very bad looking evergreen out front on the corner of the house

We also received some iris bulbs and some seed for our herb boxes.  Those will get planted next weekend most likely.

It was the perfect day for planting since we had a good rain overnight but not enough that it was muddy.

The rain came at the perfect time to activate my first application of weed & feed, as I declare war on creeping charlie in the back yard.

Garden Order

So I just got my major garden order placed for spring.  Here are some of the more interesting items:

• Ostrich ferns for under our back deck
• A couple of butterfly bushes including a color-changing one
• Some bleeding hearts
• Herbs
• Pampas grass to replace two rose of sharon plants that aren't doing well.
• Blue festuca
• Black mondo grass
• Onion sets
• Asparagus
• Gold mop false cypress

Trip to the local Botanical Conservatory

Witchhazel in Bloom

It's still very small, but very pretty.

Late Winter Chores

Sunny, warmer days in March always mark for me the time to get late winter chores done.  Today the sunshine made for a nice day of pruning.  Pruning used to take a mere five or ten minutes each year, but the number of bushes and trees are multiplying around here, so I didn't get it all done.

The two new river birch and the cherry tree got their pruning today.  Somewhat as expected, the smaller birch took the most pruning, since it seemed to grow the most last year.  On the birch, I took the bottom 8 or 12 inches of limbs off the trunk, and I'll probably take an additional 8 or 12 inches off higher each year as the trees grow.  In addition, the trees got crossing branches taken out to avoid rubbing injuries and increase airflow.

My buckthorn got a good pruning too, and I shaped it just a bit.  All these years I have been growing it as a bush, but it is now finally getting tall enough to start forming it into a tree.

A used my new sheep shears to prune the evergreens, holly, and boxwoods just a bit.  I mostly just evened them up and cut a bit of an angle in so the base would get enough sunlight.

Sarah helped my clean out the cutting garden a bit.  We cut down some of the dead foliage and I raked it onto the garden.  In a few weeks all of the compost from the winter and the spring raked leaves and dead plants will all get tilled into my garden soil.

I took a bit of a look at some potential projects today as I walked the yard.  We have flower bed edging to put in this year.  We have a mess of creeping charlie in the lawn to take out with a sod cutter and replant.  I think I will be planting some large ferns under our back deck.  I also have a couple of rose of sharon bushes to move into the cutting garden.  The red hot power we planted last year is going to need split, probably 4 ways.  I think this is also going to be a year for adding rolling compost bins and rain barrels.

I am still patiently awaiting the blooming of our 'Diane' witchhazel.  Unfortunately the front flower bed where I planted it is still covered in snow due to lack of sunlight.

Planning Time

Well' it is that time of year -- catalog season.

Lots of new stuff.

Lots of planning underway.

Desktop Terrarium Project

This was a really inexpensive project for dressing up my desk through the dreary winter.

Collected materials:

• Colored stones from dollar store
• Air tight glass jar for $5 on clearance at local hobby store
• Potting soil
• Plants (These were perennial hen and chicks that I had to dig out from under a snow bank)

1. Washed out the jar with water.
2. Washed the plants with a little water since they were bare root. Left them damp.
3. Placed stones around the outside of the jar in a colored pattern.
4. Added a layer of potting mix.
5. Placed more stones around the outside of the jar.
6. Added more potting mix.
7. Wet the potting mix until water was visible around the stones.
8. Added plants, patted them into place.
9. Placed the jar in a sunny spot.

Surprisingly these pictures taken a couple of weeks after planting show that the hen and chicks established nicely even though they were frozen under a snow bank. I also planned to add some irish moss, but I couldn't find it. Maybe I'll add it in spring.