A good breaking point

I have done all I have time to do in the gardens before the big Graduation weekend. My honey is graduating from IU in the beginning of May. We have a large weekend planned. Our Anniversary, Honey's Graduation, Mothers Day, and my Father-in-laws Birthday. Now I need to switch gears and go from the yard to the house. I have a lot of cleaning and cooking to do before our guests arrive. Other than mowing the yard and watering plants the gardens are put on hold. Hopefully I will get everything done ahead of schedule and I will still have time for a garden play day before the busy weekend. But I doubt it. I might just have to squeeze in some Mushroom hunting time.

The herb bed to the right of the birdbath is looking bare. Things are coming up but don't look it in the picture. I also have herb plants in the greenhouse but I am not putting them out until last frost date of May 10th. I do believe they would be fine but time is not on my side at this moment.

I love that the rose fairy visited our house. Can you believe the three little Knockout roses showed up.

I love these golden false cypress shrubs. I call them hairy evergreens. lol I have been wanting one of these for all time as well.

The Alliums are getting ready to bloom. Hooray!!! The deer do not like Alliums thank God.

The Greenhouse is looking good. Messy but good. I can't wait to see what another 8 days will bring.

Scarecrow

My sister gave me this little scarecrow to put in the veggie garden. I have been having problems with deer eating my plants. The first time in 10 years I might add. Anyhow, I put this little guy guarding the last patch of uneaten Tulips. so far so good.

Mid April Happenings

After planting the peas on St. Patty's Day, only three had decided to grow. I sowed new peas on the 16th because I am disgusted by the first sowing crop. They are an early harvesting peas, so I am hoping they have time to reach maturity before it gets too hot.

I prepared the new flower bed with weed barrier, top soil and organic manure. I am going to plant tall perennial flowers in this bed. I had originally envision at least 3 Knockout Roses in this bed. But unless the flower gods drop them off, they will have to wait. May's had them for $17.99 for a good sized plant, then saw them at lowe's, same size plant for $29.99 Then today I noticed they had them at Lowe's for $9.99. That is the cheapest I have found. It is a much smaller plant but its dead on with the price. It is best to buy smaller plants and let them grow into your space. Its cheaper, easier and better success rates. IMHO. I also put down some leaf mulch fairly thick to help the soil.

I love the first time I mow the yard for the season. It is always so refreshing. The excitement of the new season lies ahead. Time to really buckle down and get things wrapped up to start enjoying the fruits of labor.

I have been busy moving plants around the yard. I moved some Wild Ginger starts and Obediant plant starts to The Woodlands.

I moved some Ferns and Wild Hydrangea to the front Hosta bed.

I moved some Lily starts to replace the moving plants.

I cleaned out the chimnea, putting the ash on the lilacs and azaleas and hydrangeas.

I re potted the tomato plants.

I strung up all the lights for Lanai Gardens and The Woodlands. I had a few problems with light strands not working. I need to pick up a dark strand of lights for the Den. I enjoy more seclusion there.


I put out all of the houseplants. I know its early but I saw the five day forecast and it looks golden. That will bring us to 10 days before last frost. I have always been a bit of a gambler. Time to roll the dice. Worst case scenario, I will have to spend a couple hours preparing for a cold night.

Wish me luck.

Easter Day

Today was all about being in the yard. It was beautiful today. The weather could not have been more perfect. So many days I am worried about over doing it and then having to go to work. Not today. I knew I could totaly over do it, or just relax and do pittly things. Weeding here and there, or picking up a stick or two. Or get into a big project. I chose to do a whole lot of little things that added up to a big day. I had plants that were in partial shade last year, to be in full sun this year. I knew that they needed to be moved soon. Also I had received some starts from dad today after Easter lunch. He gave me a couple of Euonymus shrubs, and a couple purple Clematis vines. This started the digging marathon. By the new flower bed I planted some shrubs and bushes. They are located on the northwest corner, so they will not shade the flower bed. I planted two Viburnum on the north end. (Last fall I prepared my viburnum to have starts this spring. I simply laid a couple of branches down. Put a rock on them to hold them down. If you want to put a little rooting hormone on the branch, even better. Just bruise the branch or cut it where you are putting the root hormone and make sure that part is touching the ground.) I then planted 3 Euonymus (burning bushes), two of which came from dad and 1 from my own yard. Then three Korean Lilacs. I knew I had a couple good Korean lilac starts, but they were promised to family members. I was strolling by one of my smaller bushes and notice I have plenty of Korean lilac starts. Most of all the shrubs I planted today are small. They don't show up in the photo very well.

The area I put all the shrubs is next to the new flower bed, which is right beside the driveway. Needless to say, the soil condition is horrible. The top 8 inches of the ground is pretty much gravel. Below that it is leaning towards clay. The plants are so small, and they had a good amount of soil around the roots. I dug the holes larger than I needed. I also put potting soil around them when I planted them. I think they will survive, only time will tell and I only have time invested in them. I moved 1 Ligularia, 5 Ostrich Ferns,1 blue Coneflower, 2 Astilbe, 3 Yuccas, 3 Rose of Sharons and 1 mystery plant. lol I can't remember the name of this plant. I remember it likes mostly shade and moist soil. The Yuccas might not survive the move but I have a few smaller ones I can always replace them with. When planting the Clematis, I had to first give them something to climb on. My dad or my sister had given me a large fan trellis they were getting rid of last year. I had a matching one by the Lanai patio. I have a white clematis growing on that trellis. A matching trellis with a different Clematis sounds nice. Once I got the trellis in the ground, I noticed that it is a few inches taller than the other. I will have to cut it down some. It looks a little strange as it is now. Then I had a friend give me some more starts. Three types of Daffodils totaling 7 clumps,



three Peonies and two Virginia Bluebelles.

I know that these plants hate to be moved at this time of year. Somtimes you have no choice. When opportunity knocks... I was trying to get them all planted before dark. I didn't make it, but they are all planted now. Nothing like watering plants in by the light of the moon. Yeah.
Oh I also spray painted the pillars and the concrete planter around the driveway. I will have to give them more support before I put any planters on the pilars.

My personal tips on transplanting;
When digging up a start, take as much soil with the plant as you can lift. lol Try not to disturb the roots as much as you can. And give them a ton of water. I really saturate the ground when transplanting uprooted plants. I keep my eye on the transplants for a 2 week grace period. Then its time to sink or swim so to speak.

Aunt Josie's Planter

My cousin Glenn (Josie's son), gave me this a few years ago. I have never been happy with where I have had it sitting. I am really liking this spot. It is quite visible from all areas of the front yard. I will be able to see it while I am having my morning coffee. This makes me happy.
I think I will try to keep the integrity of this planter and paint everything else to match it.

On the fence

I can't decide if I like these little pillars. They were free and I was going to use them as plant stands. I am still going to use them as plant stands, I just did not think in this spot. They need painted in the worst way. I have two planters on either side of the driveway. They neither one match other than they are both made of concrete. I need to paint them as well. As for the pillars, I am going to put planters on top with some Ipomea growing in both. I need to plant something with a height but have all four planters tied together. Any suggestions?

Ghetto flower bed

This project is a definite ghetto garden project. I only used materials from the yard. The railroad ties were there, just needed a little work. I drilled some holes in the railroad ties and hammered rebar through the tie and the ground. I had 2 landscape timbers that were not being used and drove rebar through them as well. I then put the rocks around it all to hide the timbers. I do however need to go buy some soil. I am planning on putting some Cosmos, Zinnias, Delphinium and Lilies in this bed. The flowers are all started from seed growing in the greenhouse. I am going to put some shrubs on the N and NW corner of the bed. I have some starts of Korean Lilac, Viburnam, Burning Bush and a Snowball bush. I just need to decide which of these I want to put near the new bed.

I do need to go rock gathering. I want to cover the railroad ties with Brown County stone.

This is a side view of the north side of the bed. The bed is about 3-4 feet wide and about 16 feet long.

Theres no place like Home

I am sure this little guy is getting a good look at his new home.

The Love Pond

This actually happened by accident but after I had built the pond, I realized it was in the shape of a heart. But I do love the Love pond.

I had a large bush growing on the NE corner of the pond. I did not know exactly what it was and it wasn't that appealing. I started with just pruning it, and went from the hand pruners, to the lobbers, to the chainsaw. I should have started with the chainsaw to begin with. It would have saved me a little time. I am going to plant some of the Castor plants in that area.

West Lawn ponds

I cleaned up all the debris from around the pond and in the creek. It is so nice to have the
West Lawn presentable again. I am having one issue with the West Lawn, but I won't go into that here.

I am rethinking the idea of getting the creek up and running. It is a big project, but I might just tackle it in June.

Pond rejuvenation

It was an ugly wet day today. What a great time to work on cleaning up the ponds. It took about 3 good hours but the ponds are ready for their close up. I only retrieved 3 goldfish from the upper pond. It seems all the rest had met their maker. The ponds were so nasty I was able to catch the fish with my hands. They didn't see it coming. lol. They are spending the night in one of the totes, I had the water lilies in. If I would have put them back in the ponds, the chlorine from the water would have done them in. They have struggled this long to live, they deserve a nice spacious clean area to call home. I might have to go get them a couple of friends.

And so it begins

I would rather be beat with a pool stick than to clean out the ponds. I haven't cleaned them in far longer than I care to admit and I cannot put it off any longer. This is the kind of stuff I am dealing with. ugh. And this is just what I got out trying to fish out the plants to re pot.

I first pulled all the water plants from the pond. The water lilies were out of control. The roots were a mess. I had 3 different lilies in the pond, and now I have twelve. I put all the the re potted lilies in two large totes and filled them with water. This will be their temporary home until the ponds are ready for their return.

The water iris was not nearly as overgrown as the lilies but I did manage to separate a couple of the plants. I did not separate all the iris because I was lacking enough pots and some were in large enough pots to support them.

The water Pickerel had definitely outgrown its pot as well. I have no idea if I successfully separated this plant. I just divided the Pickerel like I do Hostas and lilies. Only time will tell. The Pickerel is on the left. This also gives you a good idea of the amount of leaves piled up in the bottom of the ponds.

With any luck I will be updating this post with the finished product. Well not quite finished, I know I won't be repairing the creek anytime soon.

Greenhouse clean up

This is what is going on in the greenhouse as of now. It has a lot going on inside this little space.

These are all perennial seedlings. Some have not emerged yet, but I am waiting patiently.

These are mostly flowers and veggie seedlings.

I sowed these Castor seeds on the 27th of March. I can't believe how fast they grow.

Variety of herbs. This is the second flat I had planted.

Lettuce, flower seedlings.

Marigolds

Tree stump

As I had said before, I needed to do something with this ugly stump. I had grand plans to turn this into a beautiful piece of art. Then I got my hands on a chainsaw.

All gone. That is what I call beautiful.