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.

What I've done so far...the front bed

What was there: old hollies and boxwood, stereotypically overgrown, two very unhappy looking azaleas, some liriope, a crepe myrtle surrounded by bright green, perfectly mounding boxwoods and a yucca.

1. We trimmed down the hollies and boxwood so they weren't blocking the windows, and cut them back so they weren't crowding each other so much. This job has been repeated twice, most recently in the Spring; you can see how long that lasted!

2. We weeded the bed and add the thickest, ugliest, mulch I could find. It didn't work! Since then, this Spring I finished the 4th major weed in less than a year. This time I put down layers of newspapers and covered the area with a 4'' layer of mulch. Guess what? Liriope volunteers and a particularly heinous weed have returned despite my efforts! That's it to the left--anyone have any ideas? It gets 2-3'' long thorns and never flowers (last year I thought it might be a yet unidentified plant so I left it.) As dismaying as it is though, it's nothing compared to the way it was!

3. I moved the variegated liriope which, having been set 18''-24'' back from the sidewalk, allowed lots of crabgrass to grow in front, right up next to the walk. I'm looking forward to it cascading; it's almost there.

4. In between the liriope I've alternated Coreopsis 'Golden Showers' and Geranium 'New Hampshire.'

5. In front of the garage and some of the old boxwood and hollies I planted several Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Longwood Blue.'

6. At the end of the house, before the garage there is a "dry creek bed" except no water ever goes through it. The only thing that ever happens is that insiduous weeds get between the rocks. I've planted some succulents (some sedum, ice plant, hens and chicks) in between so the weeds have some competition. They seem happy, but it could use some more.

Future thoughts: Fill in bare spaces as much as possible! I'd like a yellow fall blooming plant for between the caryopteris and the lirope/coreopsis/geranium front. Move, okay compost, they yucca in the front and replace it with a boxwood like the ones around the crape myrtle that is inexplicably planted on the far back corner of the house. I suspect it was leftover.

I’ve been inspired!

I know I’m supposed to keep written records of my garden, but I’ve never done much more than list plants. When I did keep my little garden journal, it was always hard to find things when I needed them; not to mention my handwriting is atrocious! I also recently read Henry Mitchell's The Essential Earthman and he mentioned some environmental implications to record keeping. A colleague of mine has also begun a blog garden record http://cspgarden.blogspot.com/ and I am enjoying it so much I thought I’d give it a try. Record keeping can be fun-I hope!