Weeds-(written, but never posted from last Fall)

I have a fascination with weeds. Not so much known ones like pachysandra, liriope and the insiduous one from my front bed, but the unknow variety that could turn out to be something good. Of course, they rarely do, but I still can't keep myself from waiting a while to see what it will become. Of course, this Spring that meant a weed that threw seeds at me everytime I pulled it--you've got to admire the ingeniousness of it, don't you? The lesson there was o pull them BEFORE they set seed. There's one in my kitchen garden now that has pretty flowers and threatening leaves; I think you'll agree it's pretty amazing.

This Weekend

There were a couple of family engagements, more useless attempts to fix Archie's electric fence, and some work to do inside the house. Hopefully, knowing all of that, you won't think me too lazy when you read how little I've gotten done on the outside over the course of this 3 day weekend.

1. Deadheaded the butterfly bush.

The butterfly bush is huge; the tallest I've ever seen at 8-10 feet. My Garden To-Do list told me that I was supposed to cut it back in the Spring and so I did--part of it. I was curious though, would cutting it back make that big of a difference for bloom?, so I left some of the tallest branchest alone. The result--I don't see a difference in the amount of bloom between those I cut back and those I didn't. One obvious benefit is that the shrub isn't as leggy and that it's easier to deadhead the lower branches. The dead flowers look much uglier to me on the white flowered variety than they did on the purple one at the old house so I tend to deadhead this one a little more; perhaps I should cut it back more severely next Spring.

2. Weeded the front bed.

Oh, the dreaded front bed and its weeds. In one sense I find weeding soothing, however a person can only weed a bed so many times...The biggest culprit this summer has been liriope. Not the variety I moved to the front, but some that was removed from the bed before we bought the house yet keeps reappearing. Those insiduous weeds with the thorn were back too, in multiple locations which led to my next small project...

3. Cut back the insiduous weeds from the front and small tree volunteers in all established beds and painted on Weed B Gone

The small trees came with the gardens, mostly small oaks. I had cut them back previously, hoping that would take care of it, but no such luck. Their close proximity to the plants I want to keep in the bed made it risky; hopefully the basting brush I used did the trick without damaging anything else. A couple of the beds look much more open now that I did this little piece of housekeeping.

4. Contemplated the shrubs in the front bed--can I count that?

Oh, the shrubs in the front. You can see that they've already started stretching in front of the windows again (and almost to the roof of the garage) despite being pruned this Spring. They are just too big for the area and should never have been planted where they are! This is a prime example of why one should always consider the ultimate size of a plant before putting it anywhere. I will prune them again this year and probably several more, but I truly feel I am only delaying the inevitable. Why not just go ahead and get rid of them now? Besides having hope that maybe I can figure out a way to severely prune them without killing them thus minimizing having to do this twice a year, just look at this trunk. They were probably planted when the house was

built in 1978, making them almost 30 years old. How can I contemplate anything, but a lifetime of pruning them?

Two weekends ago...

I have plans for this boxwood which currently resides at the back corner of my house by the air conditioning unit. At the far end of the front bed, there are smaller versions or varieties of this encircling the white Crape Myrtle. At the other end of the front bed, by the driveway, is a yucca; my plan is to dig out the yucca and replace it with this boxwood from the back. I am hoping it will provide some design continuity and tie the two far ends of the bed together. We'll see when I actually move it. In the meantime I followed the advice of Paul James from HGTV's 'Gardening by the Yard,' affectionately known to me as "The Goofy Gardener Guy." He recommends doing the following if you have time before you move a tree or shrub; I included how I handled the steps with this tree.

1. Measure 1 ft up tree, then measure the diameter at that spot, multiply diameter times 18 to find size of root ball to dig.

It was hard to get into the middle of the shrub and I was too lazy to go inside and get my measuring tape so I used my favorite folding yardstick to guesstimate. I think I came up with 1/2".

2. Cut inside branches and stems back 1/3, don't do top b/c it ruins natural shape.

I didn't cut it back at all. I know, I know, but being evergreen and naturally globe-shaped I was too nervous.

3. Dig a trench at the root ball distance, slicing thru roots as cleanly as possible.

Ever have completely inpenetrably, dense moments? The day I was doing this, I couldn't figure out how to do this to save my life. Did it mean depth, width, what? Finally, I plunged ahead and started digging approximately 9" out from the trunk. I think that's what he meant.

4. Fill trench halfway with compost or shredded leaves.

I used some of the shredded leaves I had gathered last year.

The result for now...

I'll move it in October or November. In the meantime, I'm watching it and planning to repeat the treatment for the two lilacs placed on either side of the deck steps; it's too shady for them to bloom there.

Thirsty Birds!

I was sitting on the porch, talking on the phone and saw that the birds were going nuts. A couple of them landed on the edge of the pond and made efforts to reach the water. They couldn't, it was too far down. I saw other birds landing near a wet spot in the yard, that's not wet at all right now. I can't believe it; how did I not think of the drought's impact on birds!

Not having yet found the perfect cobalt blue bird bath for my kitchen garden, I have nothing set up for them on a regular basis, but I could improvise! I took a plastic saucer, put a rock in the middle to stabilize it and filled it with water. The next day about ten birds were queuing up for a turn! If you haven't yet found the perfect bird bath for your garden consider at least putting something together. The birds are thirsty!

Attack of the Cicada Killers! Not!

My family thinks I'm nuts, but I was very happy to have a gigantic bee fly at me when I walked across the deck a couple of weeks ago. I know, now that you've read that you think I'm crazy too, but there's just something about cicada killers.

They're scary looking at more than an inch long, but they rarely use their stingers, more content just to give you a warning fly-by, much like those Maverick enjoyed in Top Gun. Luckily I wasn't drinking coffee. Unafraid of challenge, I have seen them wrestling with cicada's as long, but twice as wide as they are. Plus, and I know this is only my 2nd summer with them, they have already come to mean late summer; the time of year when it's too hot to use the porch anyway so it's okay to share it with some oversized bees. They nest under our porch and their eyes are frequently bigger than their stomachs, or at least the cracks between our decks. Every day we find multiple cicadas stuck like this. They're not dead just paralyzed an intended larval meal. I don't know yet if they ever wake up from their slumber and wonder how they got wedged in our deck. Maybe I'll pay attention this weekend; if I find out I'll let you know.

For some actual, factual information about cicada killers:

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef004.asp

For some just for fun and funny information:

http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com/2007/07/return-of-cicada-killers.html

Is my Garden Half Empty or Half Full?

Lately, between the deer and the drought, I've defintely been feeling all of my beds are half empty. My neighbors warned me that the deer would be devestating and discouraged me even trying. Never one to let someone else tell me I can't or shouldn't do something just because it didn't work for them, I persisted. As I watched my tomatoes and peppers be eaten again and again, I told myself that at least the herbs were all right and came up with strategies to try for next year. Nonetheless, somewhere along the line (I think when the cranesbill I planted in the spring was pulled up and devoured) I started to forget all of my positive thinking.--half empty they were!

Then, one of my neighbors came over. I was ready for her subtly crafted, "I told you so" having rehearsed my response and practiced it on my husband, but do you know what she said? "I can't believe the deer haven't eaten more of your garden, it looks great." I wasn't ready for that, I had nothing to say, but I looked around and I saw that she was right; parts of the garden were thriving. My rosemary is growing, my lemongrass is shooting skyward, my sage has never looked so good and my scented geraniums are sprawling! I can breathe a sigh of relief--half full after all!

Hypothesis: I Need a New Camera

I was sitting on my stoop when out of the woods across the street came a young fox, slightly larger than a cat. I watched him for a while and then noticed a doe coming out of the forest. She and the fox ignored each other and actually stood quite close. Then the buck arrived and while he seemed okay with the fox at first, he apparently changed his mind and began crowding the fox until it got the hint and headed over to our yard. It was amazing and I couldn't get any of it on film!

I knew this because the doe and the buck have been hanging out across the stree every evening for several weeks now. Occassionally, a fawn emerges from the grass as well, but usually it's just the two of them. Our dog, Archie, fierce hunter that he is, looks for them every night and just lies there gazing at them. They will occassionally, look up at him, or me if I'm out there, and then go back to grazing. They never seem bothered by Archie, but if I get too close they will stamp their feet until they've decided they can't let me get any closer and one of them, usually the buck, will give a whooping cough-like bark and away they go. So a few nights ago, thinking of the blog, I tried to take a picture of the deer and Archie watching them. This is the best of them.




and now you see the conclusion is clear: I need a new camera!

Pond Renovations

I couldn't take it anymore!


I hadn't wanted rocks all the way around the pond. I thought draping plants would be a nicer accent and I'm sure they would have been eventually, but in the meantime the black vinyl was just plain UGLY. There was also a tiny problem with those two uncovered sides; they were uneven so when it rained (not something I've had to worry about recently) some of the water drained out on the right side.

So last Tuesday, I began the renovations. I didn't need a lot of rock so I called my favorite dealer, Cortney's, and asked if they had any pieces available. They happened to have a broken pallet they let me go through to choose what I needed and gave me a great deal! At first I thought I could just raise the sides by laying the rocks. You can see by the big wet spot in the picture to the left how well that worked (of course, I completely laid out the right side in the heat before I thought to check!)

The second time around, I put inexpensive pavers under the liner first; putting some effort (but not too much) into making them level. If I had to have rocks all around I didn't want it looking too perfect and scream"landscaping!" Once the rock was laid, I climbed around applying cement while Mike handed me the supply. Finally, I could backfill and on Sunday, Simon and I lay newspaper in the bare spots and mulched everything. It looks much better!


The biggest obstacle in all of this was not the horrendous heat, but the dozens of tiny baby frogs surrounding the pond. I had to walk on tiptoe and wave my hands around the ground to shoo them out of the way before I knelt or laid any rock . Here's a picture to give you an idea of just how challenging this was; there were a couple of times I almost took a head dive to avoid a last minute jumper!


Oh yeah, and if all of that wasn't enough, one of the new rocks had a great shape that Simon recommended we incorporate into the waterfall. Fine-tuning the waterfall has almost become an addiction for me so I was certainly game! While we were working, we finally solved the flow problem we had been having. The waterfall would pump perfectly for a day, maybe two, and then the flow would slow to a trickle. It turns out we had a major leak in one of the plastic tubes! We put that part of the tube into the pond itself and the problem is solved! A perfectly flowing waterfall completes our newly refurbished pond! Now if only Fall would arrive so I could do some more landscaping...Of course, now that I've added the picture, I'm noticing how the top rock doesn't quite cover enough of the rock on the left...

Shhh...Don't Tell the Deer

Some new asiatic lilies have appeared; note the deeper pink raised part inside.

The Kitchen Garden

The one thing I missed from our old house more than anything was my herb garden, only this time I had the room to not only expand my herbs, but grow vegetables too! I knew I didn't want a traditional row garden and I definitely wanted herbs, vegetables and flowers grown together. Not only would it be pretty with everything combined, but it would also let me practice companion gardening. Once the spot was picked it was so close to the house that once again its colonial style dictated part of the design. Of course, for me all of that combined meant research, research and research.

Eventually, I put my design to paper; a 36' by 16' rectangle on the "inside" with four 4' by 16' beds on either side of the "gates" (fencing to come.) The interior beds are mirror images with one exception. On either side of the main walkway the beds are 8' at the back, 6' wide on the sides; the two beds together form a sort of hexagon in the walkway. Behind each of them is a rectangular bed and at the back another long rectangle. The only fracture in the mirror comes at the far end from the house, where the long rectangle is broken in two, leaving room for a future trellis and bench. The bench you see now is strictly a placeholder.

The inside is mainly devoted to vegetables and their companion plants. The outside beds closest to the backyard holds edible herbs and the ones facing the front are old-fashioned herbs of the kind Brother Cadfael himself would have grown.

Creating all of this was, well, horrible! I learned a technique from The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith for "easily" making right angles--"The Magic Triangle." Apparently it was first developed by the ancient Egyptians about 4,000 years ago and the formula is: if one leg of a triangle is 3 units, the 2nd is 4 units, and the hypotenuse is 5 units you have a right angle. Got it? Okay now repeat it approximately 40 times and keep your sanity! I began sometime in April and finished the end of May. It was a little late in the growing season for planting vegetables, but after all of that I still had to try. Things are growing slowly and as you know I've had some challenges from the deer. The crows too. I came home one day after planting seeds over the weekend to find the straw removed from the beds! Oh well, we're plugging along!

Surprises

Tonight my nightly garden walk had nothing to do with deer, instead it was much smaller creatures! Moving a branch of my climbing rose so it draped on the brick wall I discovered this...Looking at all of those spines, the message was clear, DON'T TOUCH! To protect it from birds, I un-draped the rose so it was hidden again.

This proud Mama was in the crawl space. Note the newborns

leaving the egg.

Pulling up some stray liriope in the driveway bed I discovered this guy hunkered down in the mulch. Something about the expression on his face reminds me of the toad from Pan's Labyrinth, a testimony to the special effects folks.

Finally, just when I'd decided it was getting too late to see anything else, this spider was on my front stoop. Simon says those are babies on her back!

What Deer Eat

I was away over the weekend and the deer came over to play! Even on the patio!
They ate:
Asiatic lilies

Daylilies

Dill
Echinacea
Hosta

Parsley
Peppers
Scarlet Runner Beans
Sedum
Tomatoes

They didn't eat (so far):
All of my other herbs
Chrysanthemums
Coreopsis
Geranium
Hydrangea
Liatris

Lilac
Malva
Roses

Spirea
Verbena

Some asiatic lilies

I once received asiatic lilies in a flower arrangement. They were beautiful, but gave me such a horrendous headache I had to throw them out. That experience alone made me never want to grow them, but I inherited some with the house and they're exquisite, I'm thinking about persuing others (as long as I can always plant them behind roses or something else to hold them up--no staking!). These red ones (the stamens are almost purple)are by the patio and since they don't coordinate with my color scheme, I'll move them down below in the fall; now I've just got to come up with something to hold them up! The beautiful cream colored ones are also around the patio, but they can stay where they are. My only concern is the deer of course; they've devoured my day lilies.

So much for organic

Remember these? The insiduous weed that develops huge thorns located in my front bed? What I failed to menti0n previously was that while trying to remove these roots and all, I discovered a huge trunk complete with roots that had been buried with an inch or two of soil right in the middle of the bed! The weeds are either suckers from this trunk or their roots are tucked under the trunk roots; I can't figure it out. I have cut them back several times and covered them with several inches of mulch and they keep re-growing. I could keep fighting this battle or pull out the bottle of Weed-B-Gone my father had given me. I chose the latter. Of course, this meant pulling back the mulch and the dirt to expose the stems as much as possible before cutting them back. I now have to leave them in the open for several days meaning I have several large "holes" in my garden. Wish me luck that the poison was worth it!

The Garden Pond

We had always wanted a pond; my dad had one and every time we visited part of our time was spent sitting next to it and feeding the fish. Once we moved, Simon in particular was ready! Unfortunately, we moved in May which quickly became HOT. By July, we had picked our site, but what fool would start digging a pond then? A determined fourteen year old one.

Ground was broken July 3rd. Simon would dig a little, get the hose, hose himself and the hole , then dig some more. It was actually quite an effective way of doing it. Digging continued over the months and everyone helped out, even our dog Archie. By the Fall, our hole was ready and with my parents help we installed the liner, built the waterfall and lay the flagstone. This spring planting began and on May 23rd hundreds of tadpoles could be seen! Of course, many also disappeared, but over the past couple of weeks several batches of frogs and toads have magically appeared! We have to tiptoe around the pond because there are tiny createures everywhere!

We have also added some fish, the first two I have dubbed Mr. Dickinson and Judge Wilson much to Simon's dismay. Both were representatives from Pennsylvania on the Continental Congress. In the musical 1776, Judge Wilson, desperate to go unnoticed, always followed Mr. Dickinson around and did what he did. These two fish behave much in the same way; I think you can now see why Simon is dismayed! We have worked very hard to get the fish used to us and we had finally succeeded in getting them not to disappear every time we walked up. Then one day last week, they were gone, no sign of them anywhere! By Sunday we had finally seen three of them and it became obvious that one had been permanently removed. No wonder they were hiding!

When we planted the Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum dissectum "Green Hornet") we needed something to help shore up the ground. Looking around for something, I spotted an old cedar log in the woods. Simon and I took turns digging it out then moved it in place. Simon added some lichen which seems to be happy! The only problem is the maple is a little too threadleaf so the leaves don't show up well. Any ideas?

Future thoughts: Keep filling in plants, add more koi and, oh yeah, there's the "expansion project." We have some leftover liner and well, what else would one do with it, but build another pond a little further up the slope with a stream connecting the two...Little and Lewis warn that water gardens can be addicting...

Guest Overstays Her Welcome!

Twice this week we had a doe in your yard. The first time we saw her, I was sitting on the screen porch and heard rustling in the yard. Craning my neck, I could see her poking into the leaves at the base of our peach tree. She was beautiful! A couple of days ago, my son called me into the office around 8 am and there she was licking our bird feeder. Yesterday, I went outside and was surprised by what I thought was a new plant that had suddenly appeared in the bed beneath the patio. Slowly I recognized it as the hosta pictured above. Here's what it looks like now.

My next thought was my vegetable garden. As yet untouched by deer. No more. They're amazing creatures; she bypassed yellow pepper plants on either side and red pepepper plants in another bed to eat the tops off of two of another kind of red pepper plants. If you're wondering how I'm so sure it was her, well I have evidence.

What I've done the first year...the end of the driveway

The end nearest the patio has a beautiful pink climbing rose with small flowers, a white butterfly bush, irises and some lupines. Beyond that in an alternating pattern there are deep pink spireas and pink shrub roses. The former owners definitely had a thing for that color! I cut back the spirea this Spring and it's flourishing; I haven't touched the roses yet although they desperately need it, but when? They have become ugly and leggy and this year got black spot. I don't care much about black spot overall, but the legginess is unacceptable. Until last weekend it was also filled with more of that horrible thug, pachysandra. After struggling to get it out on my own, I decided it was worth every penny to pay Simon a small removal fee. The pachysandra is now coming up in the driveway! Everytime I see it for sale, read an article or watch a television show where it's recommended as a groundcover I shudder. The only good thing about the plant is that its roots are a distinctive white so it's easy to figure out if you're ripping up pachysandra or rose. There I said something nice! With the pachysandra came dirt, much dirt so I had to replace much of it. This week Simon put down mulch and the bed looks great!

Future thoughts: At first, I was thinking I'd just go with the pink, but that seems a little much so now I'm thinking of using lavenders, perhaps some salvias.

What I've done the past year...around the patio

The house has a screen porch with a combine brick/wood patio, three raised beds around it and one bed below it in the yard. My plan is to do mostly white's and silvers around the patio itself; no plan has revealed itself for the bed below YET!

1. The bed to the left was filled with pachysandra when we arrived. Simon was set to the task of removing it; not easy! The worst part was that he disturbed a copperhead who crawled between his legs and into another bed where my Dad beheaded him. A copper snake now lives in the place where he died.

2. I plopped into this bed some an old-fashioned Mum 'Miss Jessie' from the daylily lady in King George, the Lambs Ear and a Salvia with the prettiest color blooms whose name I lost. All came from the old house and most will eventually move.

3. I dug the mint, your typical variety and a chocolate one, out of the bed nearest the porch and Simon replanted it in pots. Ironically, the regular variety was in a pot inside a coffee can and yes it had grown out and spread! It looks rather bare without the mint which I'm still picking mint out of the bed. It also has two lavenders, 'Grosso' and a more delicate variety and several miniature roses.

4. The last bed is behind the grill; lovely huh? I planted a small, white climbing rose 'Jeanne d'Arc' behind it; it should grow tall enought to peek over and take up enough space to prevent me from having to get back there too much. Left in the bed are what I believe is a small salvia, a yellow flower yet to be identified, Leucanthemum probably 'Becky.'

5. Here's the only part I'm happy with. When we moved in there was a long bench in the middle of the patio. We took it out, moved it elsewhere and I put clay pots on the brick posts. This summer I've put in Woodruff.

6. The bed below the patio was filled with mahonia. Not only is it a thug, but it hurts! An afternoon digging out this horrible plant convinced me that I won't have any plants in my garden that hurt unless they are incredibly beautiful. Mahonia is not! Since it was removed, the remaining plants have flourished. Particularly the hosta; it's as if they're responding to the sun!


Future Thoughts: Emphasis on whites and silvers in the patio beds. No specific ideas about the bed below.