Wet and Wonderful

It's been raining all week, the ground is soaked, the grass is growing like there's no tomorrow and the perennials, shrubs and trees are happy, happy, happy....... and, come to think of it, so am I.

I took a walk around the other morning on my way to work.  The light was perfect and the plants were shining and dripping with rain drops.



Caragana Aborenscens 'Pendula'


This weeping Siberian Pea Tree resides along the front walkway and is just starting to bloom.
In another week this 4 1/2 foot zone 3 hardy tree will be loaded with yellow blooms and likewise with buzzing bees happily doing their thing.

I love this little weeper and so do all the birds that visit the feeder just a couple of feet away by using it as a stop over to the feeder or to crack open their seeds.




All the crabapple trees in town at the bottom of the hill are in full bloom but here at about 300' higher elevation the crabs are just starting to 'show face'.

Malus 'Red Jade'

This crabapple is loaded with 'cherry bomb' buds and looks as beautiful now as it will in a few days in full bloom.
(by the way; be sure to click on the photos to see the larger view)
Once buds break on the crabapple tree's branches, the growing season for the tree begins.


Hostas grow from rhizomes or 'shoots' where each shoot represents a leaf.  Grown for their foliage there are thousands of different varieties in size and foliar diversity.

This is Hosta 'Loyalist' unfurling along the front walkway surrounded by 'John Creech' Sedum.

Hosta 'Loyalist'

A sport of the famous H. 'Patriot' with reverse variegation; leaves have deep green margins and nearly pure white centers.
While the plant prefers part to full shade; this one does just fine out in full sun.

Fothergilla Gardenii

Meanwhile, dwarf fothergilla is just beginning its show.
I only wish I could upload the soft feel of the flowering stamens  (white filaments and yellowish anthers) as well as its fragrance.

Phlox Subulata 'Blue Emerald'

The creeping phlox in the perennial bed in front of my vegetable garden creates a carpet of color about 3' wide each spring.
The flowers are five-petaled (with each petal notched at its apex) and varieties come in vibrant shades of pink, red, lavendar, blue-purple, or white.

Each flower measures just under an inch proving once again that good things come in small packages. 
The biggest challenge with this easy to grow perennial is weeding.  It's thick matted nature makes it difficult to get to anything growing up through the matt.  What I try to do is lift the plant up from underneath to get to the encroaching weed.  Sometimes it works...sometimes it's impossibly tedious..and sometimes I just give up ("resistance is futile").

Under Clear Skies; Prepping the Beds

The end of April brought clear skies and cool (hovering around 50℉) temperatures which I find perfect outdoor working weather.
The light was perfect and the rhodies sparked color that is always too fleeting.

Front entry

This 'pjm' rhododendron is shown here in full bloom off the southwest front corner of the house and has since then, with the rains that followed this week, started dropping her blossoms.



Tackling the 4 yard pile of mulch I had delivered a couple of weeks ago,  I grabbed my straight edge spade and wheelbarrow and started the process of 'finishing' the planting beds.

The first part of the process began weeks ago with general clean up; clipping back the remnants of last years perennial organic matter and lightly raking out the debris.
The next step I take is accomplished with a variety of hand tools to remove any weeds that have taken root since the last round of weeding which ( as every gardener knows) is never ending.

Unlike the majority of landscaping projects I've been involved with on a professional basis, my gardens do not have any black plastic edging seated to create a permanent edge and help with the encroachment of grass into the bed.

This is where the straight edged spade comes in and requires simply 'cutting' into the sod a clean edge, or separation if you will, where the mulch will meet the lawn.  While this may create that extra step each season that is skipped with permanent edging, it does provide the opportunity to reshape or expand your bed as plants mature or your 'whim' may take you.  Since there's nothing static in nature, to me, this makes the most sense and I really don't mind the extra work.

The other notable difference is the obvious natural look created minus the plastic edge.   Here in the north where the ground 'heaves' with the extreme temperature from season to season, I can recall countless hours repairing (or re-setting) the plastic edgings used in commercial applications that were literally 'pushed' out of the ground.  As you can tell by now,  for me personally, I'm not a big fan of the plastic but do recognize that for some, it's the most practical.   

The icing on the cake comes with a thin broadcast of mulch.  In my established gardens I do this by handfuls at a time since all of the beds have been mulched in past seasons and only need that 'dressing' on top to give them a fresh look.  In newly created beds I dump the mulch by the wheelbarrow into the bed and then evenly rake it in to create ~ a 4" layer.
And that's all there is to it!   

This is also the perfect weather to start stacking the woodpile in the shed that will be used for heat next winter.

It's always a good feeling to see the wood under cover.  Each time I do this my mind always wanders to calculations of how many cord is stacked = btu's = warmth :)
As the saying goes: wood heats you several times over;  once when you stack it, again when it's moved to the woodfire and again when it's burning.

Here's my little 'helper'.

Bud Update

It's been cool and wet (we do need the rain) preventing much of any activity in the gardens other than snapping a few shots to check the progress of any budding plants, unfazed as they are by the coolness and loving this rain.
Of course, our northern weather is not done yet and the snow shovel is still set propped and ready on the front porch.

In the meantime it's fun to get 'close up and personal'.

Paeonia

This established herbaceous peony of unknown variety is a beautiful little red bloomed peony; the first peony I ever purchased over 10 years ago and now graces several different areas of the yard.
This plant is located in a raised foundation bed on the east side of the house and much further along than the 'Sarah Bernhardt' peony just inches away.
It must really love it there because it's always the first of my peony to bloom each year.




You got a peak at 'Jane' Magnolia back in the buds and blooms post and this is how far she's come since April 14th when I took the first photo.

So far the buds have eluded any deer nibbles but we're not out of the woods yet.
With any luck, we'll be coming up magnolias before you know it. 

Let the snows come; can't hurt this northern hardy beauty.
Can't wait to show you what she looks like when she opens up....gotta have patience.






Oh deer..... yes I mean deer.
One of the biggest challenges I face here in my northern garden is not the weather, not insects, blights or digging dogs....it's my four legged friend the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

deer nibbled hosta

 And one of their favorite meals is a nice hosta salad.
Yumm...
The deer love hosta so much that if I didn't spray them with liquid deer fence ( a natural, stinky deer repellant ) I would never see a single hosta all season. 
I'd best get on it soon!

Earth Day 2012

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on everything.
It looked beautiful.

Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filefera Aurea'

This goldthread cypress resides right next to the front entry to the house.

Love the yellow and green of this evergreen and the snow is a real nice touch.

Rhododendron 'PJM'

This mature rhoddy resides as a front foundation plant.
tip: best time to prune is in spring, after it flowers....and after it stops snowing..  







One of my favorite crabapples is the weeping Red Jade crabapple.  

Malus 'Red Jade'

White iris's are coming up under the crab and the hedgerow is 'Charles Albanel' rugosa rose.








I call this the wagon wheel bed which was created ~ 5 years ago off the front side of the garage.  There are 5 Russian Cypress which, at maturity, will create a low ground cover for the majority of the bed.

Microbiota decussata

This plant is a great alternative to the more commonly used blue rug juniper (and not at all 'picky' to handle) for the purpose of evergreen groundcover.
The 2 yellowing deciduous shrubs behind the cypress are Ninebark 'darts gold'.


Meanwhile, the bird feeder's been filled and besides the usual Chickadees there's White-throated Sparrows and American Goldfinch.

Whatever it is that you see or do on this day, please do so with love and respect for Mother Nature and take the time to reflect on all she has given us.
It is by no small measure the responsibility we bear for our planet.
http://www.earthday.org/

Say Hi to Harry

We all have a tendency to connect physically and emotionally with the lush, green landscape during the times of the seasons when our experience of 'outside' includes gardening, playing ball, swimming and picnics. 
But that time of the season when the shrubs and trees are bear of the foliage that covers their framework is also a time that offers the opportunity to appreciate their shape and substance and how that enhances the general garden design from a different perspective.   Hence the term 'winter interest'.

Corylus avellana 'Contorta'

Meet Harry Lauder's Walking Stick.
The twisted, contorted branching characteristic of this specimen plant is grown more for it's 'defoliated' seasonal interest than anything else.


Also referred to as corkscrew filbert and contorted hazelnut,  there's not another single plant in my garden that looks as 'cool' in winter.





I planted this specimen about 12 years ago on the back side of the vegetable garden to 'heal' it in till I had a more prominent place in the landscape but, what can I say, it liked it there.

It grows 6' to 8' tall as wide and flowers a yellowish catkin in spring.   Once it leaf's out there is nothing special that draws your attention to it.   But in winter....... it's the eye catcher.

Safe to say that in nature there is no 'off' season.
 How 'twisted' is that!

Buds and Blooms

It's almost difficult to keep up with the spurts of growth I'm seeing daily.  These past few days have brought sunshine and happily budding plants.

 

JANE MAGNOLIA

Magnolia liliflora

This is my only magnolia planted about 5 years ago as a decent sized balled and burlap.  'Jane' magnolia blooms a lovely pinkish bloom in spring a bit later than other magnolia varieties but hardy for my zone 4.
I'm lucky if I see 3 to 4 blossoms each year as the deer do a good job of 'pruning' her back on a regular basis.
Here a few buds have escaped the nibblers and, with any luck, will show off in a few weeks.  If you look close enough, you can make out the nibbled tip of the stem in the background.  Yummy.



One of my favorite shrubs is dwarf fothergilla.  I have 2 of them; one by the front walkway and the other in Whitney's garden out back.  This plant is a show stopper early spring when it bursts with fragrant white bottlebrush flowers that are so soft to the touch I find them irresistible.  These early buds are a promise of good things to come. 

Fothergilla gardenii

This particular photo is of the fothergilla in Whitney's garden.
The conifer on the right side of the photo is Swiss Stone Pine  'Pinus cembra'.



 Pulmonaria is the first perennial plant to bloom in the garden.  
I brought two little clumps that I dug up from the overgrown perennial display bed at the garden center where I worked probably 10 years ago and it now occupies the entire west side of the house.  

Pulmonaria 'Lungwart'

While I don't know which variety; this lovely shade loving plant shows off flowers that range in pinks and violets.  And who could resist those spots!
The plant has been used for centuries as a medicinal herb.   I just look at it and go gaga.




I took this photo of this tight yellow clump of daffodils in the front yard by the stone wall.
 I immediately imagined a race to the finish..

                        "And.... it's Daffy's Delight by a nose"

April Showers...

Following a brief and unseasonably warm snap in March (oh how nice it was); we returned to the chill of early spring and all the plants which responded with the sunny seventies that occurred that unusual week laid dormant, until now...
And so, my account of spring begins.
I was thinking that the daffodils were  possibly not going to open but, thankfully, I was wrong.

Daffodils

This lovely clump of narcissus lives under the canopy of a thornless hawthorne cockspur located on the back side of the house.  Behind you can make out part of the little wee wooden fence that surrounds the vegetable garden.

'Toka' plum

The two plums trees that I'd planted on the pond lawn 5 years ago never did well (frankly, I was surprised they were still alive).  I finally had a eureka moment when I found a place to transplant them.  I did this during that warm snap in March and today, I can confirm, that they are budding out.

  Starting to hear the tree peepers at night and the 'croakers' in the pond.   The pond always looks best in spring when its at its fullest.

Veratrum viride