Kathy's Garden Journal ...and Musings April 1998

23 April 1998 - With the help of Diane and Karen, I lifted the rest of the sod out of the driveway bed yesterday and hopefully, today's rain showers will lift so that they can put bark down when they get home from school. I'm having to be VERY careful with the shoulder thing and am thankful for each day that I can get something done without it going full-blown. Will be seeing a physical therapist today. As hard as it was to get started, being outdoors was a delight! It SMELLS so good out there! The sweet and pie cherry trees are in full bloom and the apples are in bud. The Clematis montana rubens is opening and I forgot just how wonderful that scent is in the early evening. If you haven't already, you MUST get a sniff of this somewhere...it's delicious! It doesn't release its fragrance all the time, but at certain times of the day it is really heavy.

What's blooming now?

A few Iris pumila have opened in the past couple of days. One is a lovely soft lemon yellow and the other was a plant that was supposed to be red with some bronze and it's a kind of dirty butterscotch with brown markings. Not my favorite, but it is blooming its head off! The one I liked the best is so choked with grass and weeds that I don't expect to see a single bloom on it. I did notice a few iris leaves poking out where it used to be so I may be able to bring it back after moving it to a new spot. It increased rather quickly last time. Iris florentina has buds showing (the driveway bed) so it will be the first of the larger irises to open. Other perennials that are starting are Centaurea montana (Bachelor Button), Armeria, Ajuga, Bleeding Heart, Sweet Woodruff, Lewisia Cotyledon Hybrids, Anemone nemerosa 'Vestal' and various true violets (a few sprinkled here and there). Promising clumps of foliage are everywhere! I still haven't broadcast all-purpose fertilizer this season, but am adding amendments as I go in the beds I'm weeding. I should still fertilize and during these rain showers would be a good time. (Will put a sticky note on the computer monitor to remind me!)

Many rhododendrons are coming out. I just noticed that the 'Hallelujah' in the back has some florets open. 'Odee Wright' is out full in the front yard and the yellow color will intensify in the next couple of days. Two of my little 'FabiaxUnique' crosses are opening in the alley bed. One is slated for removal...it just isn't a very good plant. 'Unique' is out, as are 'Moonstone' and 'Ken Janek.' To see the rhodies, you get a better idea from going to the rhododendron page. The rose bushes have a lot of foliage and there are even some developing buds showing. They will not start opening until the latter part of May though (at least, that's USUALLY when I recall them starting).

19 April 1998 - Did some more work by the driveway toward the end of last week, but extra concert rehearsals and a very sore shoulder slowed progress by Friday. There's one more large spot of mostly turf around an apple tree that needs to be lifted. The soil here has more clay than in other parts of the yard and it's more work to shake out the good topsoil. After removing weeds, I'm sprinkling around mushroom compost, composted steer manure and alfalfa pellets. It could use more than I've applied, but when resetting plants, I also mix more into the dirt that goes back into the hole. I just walked by that bed a few minutes ago and moles have already crawled through the freshly reworked soil! They are so infuriating! Moles and ants seem to be prolific after the mild winter we had. Another bit of wildlife recently sighted (twice) right near our barn in broad daylight is a coyote. It appears to have no fear of the humans looking at it from the driveway. One time it was running around like it was after a mouse or something. There are some boards and stuff behind the barn where mice would tend to hide. We've always had coyotes in the area since we moved here, but only this past year have we seen them in our upper field (I could practically throw a rock and hit it from our driveway...this is CLOSE!) I worry for our two cats and we try to religiously bring them inside every night. Their mother disappeared suddenly in May a few years ago and I've always thought she could have been caught by coyotes while out hunting in the field. We'll never know.

14 April 1998 - I've temporarily abandoned the rose frontal in favor of the driveway bed (under the sweet cherry where crocus were previously blooming). This bed has a theme of red, white and blue in early summer with some oranges and a few other colors thrown in. It has gotten overgrown (along with the other beds in parts of the yard where I didn't mulch with bark) and I've been lifting grass and weeds off the top, shaking out what topsoil I can and adding amendments before having the girls put on the bark. Often, perennials will have to be lifted as well in order to get all the weeds out. The trickiest part is not damaging bulbs that were planted there. Today I ran into many tiny lily bulbs and a colony of Scilla siberica (partially in bloom). Those were carefully extricated from their sod prison by pulling them out the bottom. Then they needed to be replanted and watered in. They look pretty pathetic and wilty now, but they will be back another year with improved vigor, so it's worth the current unsightliness!

I've been trying to remember what used to be in this bed that is not longer apparent. The casualties are probably columbines and daisies. The Aster 'Prof. Kippenburg' and Crocosmia 'Lucifer' are very tough. The clumping habit of Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue' makes it easy to find amongst all the grass stems. A plant that is still there, and I'd vowed to move someday is a Thalictrum flavum glaucum. The flowers are a soft fluffy yellow and the leaves wonderful. They have great substance, form and color and stay pretty until late in the season. The main problem is that it gets to be around 4-5 feet tall and flops over. It would be better served at the back of a deep perennial or mixed shrub border in semi-shade. This bed is more of an island and it sticks out like a sore thumb, albeit an attractive one. Maybe when more space is opened up in the back, there will be a new home for it. For the time being, it will be a sore thumb for another season. It's occurred to me that after finishing the weeding in this bed, I'll have some gaps to fill! That should be fun.

This is the driveway bed getting reworked. The front portion is in fair shape because if got done last spring. The far portion is more grass than perennials, and there will be a few gaps to fill when I'm finished lifting the "sod." There are still some tiny bulbs and a shasta daisy hiding in there! (Also some lamb's ear& Crocosmia 'Lucifer.') The 'Gold Standard' Hosta that is pictured at the top of the spring page is starting to come up near the trunk of this cherry tree.

What's in Bloom Now? - I've been amazed at how quickly things are coming to life. The biggest surprise today was a precocious California Poppy that has one bud opening and a host more not too far off. It is on the south side of the carport so it may be getting reflected heat. Years ago I ordered a packet of cream colored CA poppies from Thompson and Morgan ("Milky Way," I think) and they have faithfully returned. Every so often, an orange one will pop up and I quickly (and regrettably) remove it before it pollinates with the creamy ones. I don't mind the orange poppies, but they would upstage many parts of the yard if I turned them loose. By themselves, with some larkspur, they would be marvelous! Also breaking bud are the Rhododendrons 'Ken Janek' and 'Moonstone.' Euphorbias of various kinds are sporting their greenish-yellow flowers in various parts of the yard and the Viburnums tinus 'Spring Bouquet,' 'Robustum,' and burkwoodii are out full as are several of the early rhododendrons (see rhody page). The pulsatillas in the back are all in bloom...most are purple with one clump of white. A few midseason tulips (only the diehards are left) are coloring now. Violets of several kinds are also in bloom. One of my favorites is Viola 'Freckles' but it's too early for that one. I'll try to get a good picture for the spring page when it opens. The Clematis montana rubens will probably be open by next week. Yum!

10 April 1998 - I'd like to thank Dianne Davidson for emailing me to say that she actually likes to read this garden journal! I tried to email a response to you, but it kept coming back as user unknown. Now that I know at least one person reads this, I'll keep adding things as I have something to say. (Tell Henrietta that I could use a few like her around here...but we have coyotes.) It's been icky outside the past couple of days so my progress has been slowed. The rhododendrons are about to really come to the fore and the big red 'Grace Seabrook' in the back is open now. Wow! See the new rhododendron page to look for her and others coming soon.

4 April 1998 - I sure got a lot of odds and ends done on my way to work on the rose frontal! I think my mistake was in taking the wheelbarrow around the North side of the house instead of going straight into the back. I had a reason for that, of course. My mother just gave me a miniature rose that she didn't want to fuss with in the house any longer and I decided to put it in one of the planters on the deck. If I put it in the garden, it will either be overwhelmed by larger perennials, or the deer will munch it down. I'm not sure how it will fare in the deck planter, but if it does okay, it should look very nice with the dwarf variegated lemon thyme that is growing beneath it. The rose is a nice clear apricot/coral color. Actually, before I even got around to the deck, I noticed a clump of Dianthus 'Charles Musgrave' (an extremely fragrant single dianthus that is white with a green eye) along the edge of the white bed that had a lot of grass growing amongst its branches. Grass can easily masquerade itself in the middle of a dianthus since the foliage is somewhat similar at a glance.Most of the white bed has been weeded and this needed to be taken care of! Fortunately, this grass was the lawn variety and it is much easier to extricate than the coarse running grasses I have in the back. "Charles" needed some shearing after I roughed him up a bit and I ended up with a few rooted branches that needed a home somewhere else. I took them to the deck with me and planted them in one of the barrels that had a gap. As long as I was working on the deck, I decided I should take some of the soil amendments I had brought in the wheelbarrow and top dress the container plantings with steer manure, mushroom compost and alfalfa pellets. Last year I had sprinkled alfalfa pellets in and I couldn't believe what a difference it made in the growth!

Well...I should be ready to tackle another section of the rose frontal...but wait! I had intended to dig out a large Santolina virens this season and replace it with small plants that had been rooted last spring from cuttings. That shouldn't take too long. Well...there was a nice lemon thyme that also needed to be rejuvenated. It had all died out where the santolina had shaded it and there was only fresh growth around the edges. That was done, weeding took place, and there were perennials in that bed that needed a bit of clipping with the hedge trimmers. After that, replanting was necessary for pieces of thyme, an Achillea 'Moonshine' that had a bit of life left in it and two other plants that I brought over from the flat where they had been languishing in little pots for the past two seasons (at least!). These were small proliferations that were taken from daylilies at the nursery where I worked when the flowering stems were in need of cutting back. One is a tiny 'Black-Eyed Stella' and the other I think was off a very LARGE plant that I didn't know the name of. I will probably have to move that one eventually if it's the one I remember, because the place I tucked it in will not be sufficient for a plant of that size. It's a great feeling to liberate these plants from the pots they've been growing in for so long and I still have at least three flats of similar plants, although most of them are in gallon containers. Once new space is opened up in the back after clearing out weeds, there should be room enough to get them ALL in this season! What a great feeling that would be! Then I can go to the nursery and buy more without GUILT!

What is blooming now?

In the past week, so many things have popped, that it's going to be hard to list them, but right now I'm noticing tulips that have been faithful about returning. Most of them are 'Purissima,' but I have a few others that are starting to color. For some reason, the deer don't go after the light tulips as much as the dark purple ones I have in the back and I try to spray them with repellent before they take a notion to eat them, but almost always wait just about one day too long! They ate about 5 'Attila' from the back ash bed. It could have been much worse and I'm grateful, but I wish they wouldn't like flower buds to much. It's very disappointing to come out one morning to be greeted by dozens of headless stems. There are more grape hyacinths up, including the double variety...maybe 'Blue Spike'? I don't have sweeps of these flowers like you see in some books, but they certainly brighten up any corner of the garden where they bloom....they are such a nice contrast to the other colors that predominate in early spring. I especially enjoy them near the 'Bowle's Golden' Grass and primroses under the Styrax tree. I need to echo that on the other side of the path so you can walk between two swaths of chartreuse dotted with blue accents in the spring. Love that spot! There are also some very nice looking Primula vulgaris there (soft yellow with prolific flowering habit...each flower on its own stem) and I'm noticing more tiny seedlings from the original three plants. They are so cute...the first true leaves are already puckered, there's no mistaking them for anything else.

The rhododendrons are beginning and I was shocked to see one open a couple of days ago without my ever noticing. I am not sure of the name anymore, but think it is called 'Buckingham Blue.' I bought it without seeing the flower because the foliage was indumented (covered with a soft fuzz underneath the leaves...something rhododendron nuts get all excited about!) and the plant was attractive even without flowers. They are very nice though and different than any other rhododendron I've seen blooming so early. The color is a soft lavender, lighter toward the center with a dark blotch deep in the throat. The trusses are reasonably large (will have a photo on the rhody page later). Most of the early blues are small flowered, and the larger ones tend to be later in the season. I don't know what the parentage of this plant is, but I'd be curious to find out. It even beat 'Elizabeth' (early dwarf red).

Okay, I couldn't resist putting in a picture of 'Buckingham Blue' (?) for you to see, even though it will be on the rhody page later. I just took new photos last week and if they are better, this one will be replaced.

'Grace Seabrook' is breaking bud and will be out full by next week. It is the most eye popping hot red you can imagine and is a real traffic stopper. I will have a photo displayed on the rhododendron page I hope to post between mid and late April. The lungworts are in their prime and the new leaves on the Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon' provide a nice touch of burgundy in the bed west of the deck. It almost perfectly echoes the color of the stems and buds on the Cistus corbariensis (white rockrose) next to it. The parent plant (euphorbia) has scattered its progeny all over the place and even into the white bed. I leave the ones I can and mercilessly pull and pitch the others. It was a "choice" plant when it was mail-ordered a few years ago, but anything that prolific can't be considered "choice" for very long!

There's one more thing I ponder...is anyone really reading this stuff?

If you actually enjoy reading this garden journal, would you mind sending me an quickie email to let me know that. If no one reads it, I should not worry about updating the thing! To make it even faster, just click here to send the email: timer@ silverlink.net.

1 April 1998 - I weeded a few more feet of the rose frontal this afternoon. Housecleaning had been on the schedule, but I got sidetracked making changes to the front page of the website and got out of the mood to run around with the vacuum. The weather got nice also and it's supposed to rain Friday (the next time I'll be able to get out). During the past week, things are really growing gangbusters. It promises to be beautiful in parts of the yard, but also makes my heart sink with the knowledge that I'm running out of time to accomplish the spring weeding and rework. It's harder later in the season when the ground gets drier and the plants get their height. I wish I could "freeze" the weather during the first week of April until I finish and then tell the plants they can grow now! Tonight we will go to Costco and pick up the last roll of film that I had developed and if any of the pictures are decent, I'll add them to the Spring page.

• Return to Kathy's Garden Journal
• Return to Home Page
• "Diggings"...Old Garden Journals from 1991 and 1997