Vernal Witch Hazel and Glance Under Hoop

Last week, as I looked at pictures of last year in the garden, I realized that it was time for the vernal witch hazel to bloom, so I went out in the snow to take a look.  Sure enough the bottom branches were starting to bloom.

First yellow blooms on the vernal witch hazel bush.

Stepping back to see the whole vernal witch hazel bush, which was planted in the fall of 2012.  Just the bottom branches are starting to bloom.

Wednesday morning brought six more inches of wet, heavy snow, which weighed down the shrubs.  I had to go out to the yew bushes in the front of this picture and the viburnum in the very back and shake the icy snow off of each branch to keep them from breaking and get them to stand up straight again.  Then on Friday the weather was in the 50s and the snow started melting quickly.

The ice around the low hoop finally melted enough so that I could open one side and get some fresh air in.  Although it looks pathetic after months of freezing weather, I was heartened to see the onions growing and new leaves on the kale and tatsoi.  I could probably throw some lettuce seeds in here in a little while and see what comes up.

Although the yellow kale leaves are only good for compost there are new green leaves starting in the center showing that the plant is alive. So I should have this plant producing food again soon.

The pak choi roots have sent up new leaves!  There were also a couple of leaf lettuce plants with new leaves.

Strawberry leaves poke out of the snow in the garden.  I saw quite a few strawberry plants coming up, so once it is a little warmer I will need to clean out the dead material and extra vines around each plant.

Various types of sedum are greening up around the garden.  I don’t want to clean up the leaves too much because we are expecting more snow and cold weather on Sunday.

Animal sighting:  I saw a skunk meandering near the little pond I can see from the window at work.  Later in the week I was driving through my neighborhood and smelled the strong smell of skunk.  Seems like the wildlife are ready to come out of their hibernation now, too.

Snow Angel

I know we have had some really challenging weather, but today I got up and bundled up in my warm jacket, long underwear, and boots, and took a wonderful walk around Lake Katherine.  It was a very peaceful walk, pretty much by myself the whole way.  There is something very thoughtful about the quietness and beauty of a snowy walk.  Then I wanted to make a snowman to put in the front yard, but the snow is too fluffy for that, so I settled for a snow angel!

I can’t remember making a snow angel before, though I must have….

I lay there for a while in my ski pants and super warm jacket and watched the clouds floating along.

Thumbs up for a fun time!  My husband is my snow angel who took the pictures and who does a lot of wonderful shoveling for me.

Another view of the birdbath.  This was before I made the snow angel next to it.  To the right you can see the sedum and hydrangea.  They have been snow-covered most of the winter, so that has made them more pleasant than when there is no snow and they look not so interesting.

Snow on sedum and hydrangea.  I like the light and shadows in the snow this time of year.

Here I was playing with my shadow.  The giant sacaton is the grass right behind the birdhouse.  It is kind of wispy and hard to see, but is at least 4 feet tall.

Light through the fence on a winter morning.

Red branches and buds of a duke blueberry bush.  The snow is so high that half of the bush is under the snow.  I think that is a good thing.

Still our minds wander to warmer climates.  I got some books from the library and we wonder if we have enough free miles to fly south for a quick trip…

Labor Day in the Garden

It was great to have the day off and to be able to get a few things done around the garden.  I actually got quite a bit of cleaning done this morning and some seeds planted.  What I really enjoy this time of year are the insects and wild life that is everywhere, from spiders to butterflies.  I tried to get a picture of a black swallowtail butterfly, but it was fluttering so quickly I could not get it in focus.  Here are a few little creatures I was able to get shots of….

At sunset a bee was resting for the night in a gaillardia flower.

Dragonfly, I think a widow skimmer, on penstemon digitalis – husker red seed head.

Grasshopper on green bean vines.

Three pollinators on Agastache.  The bee and the soldier beetle on the right are familiar.  A new one was the long orange looking bug on the left.  It turns our to be a Ailanthus webworm moth.  They are not native, but have migrated north for the summer, as they like the tree of heaven, which is an invasive tree that is common now in our neighborhood.

Now that it is September a few sedum flowers are turning pink and the soldier beetles are migrating over here and seem to be mating on the flower.  Bees and butterflies like these flowers, too.

Ant on fennel with pink zinnias.

Berries on viburnum arrowwood Chicago lustre.  This has been a good year for a lot of berries on the Chicago lustre and raspberry tart viburnum.

Today’s experiment:  On September 2nd I planted nasturtium and pea seeds that I harvested myself.  Are the seeds viable and will they germinate and sprout this late?  I also planted more lettuce, tatsoi, and onions, to keep it coming through the fall.

Ground Covers

With the rain and mild weather everything is looking very green.  As the heat increases the tomatoes and other vegetables are taking off!  This time of year quite a few of the ground covers are blooming, so I thought I would throw them together in a post.

This sedum stonecrop with yellow blooms is a mounding type.  It keeps growing and covers the area.  In the early spring I cut it way back into three circles and let is grow again.  The green mound in the back that is not flowering is marjoram.  The green mound in the front left is taller sedum that I pinched way back a few weeks ago to keep it manageable.  It will bloom pink around the end of August.  Way in the back you can see the first coreopsis early sunrise flower blooming and in the front is yellow yarrow.

I am not sure if this ground cover is sedum, but it is a creeping type that spreads under the spicebush and viburnum.  It just stops where I put down the straw from last year’s ornamental grasses.  It is starting to bloom yellow where it gets more sun. I call it my fairy meadow.  In front is crookneck yellow squash, which is blossoming.  Also in the middle of the ground cover is the caryopteris I planted from a volunteer seedling.  There are some potato plants back in there, too.

Here is what the ground covers by my patio looked like on May 19th.  These are three that I bought together as part of sedum carpet, that had 6 different ground covers.

Here is what those same ground covers look like now, a month later.  The one that was blooming yellow has turned a bronze color, and one more ground cover, dragon’s blood, is on the right.  Also, I pulled out two big cornflower plants on the right and put in a green and purple coleus, an eggplant and a scabiosa blue butterfly, among other plants.

A close up of the ground cover on the left above.  The foliage is a bit like an evergreen, but the flower is like sedum.

This time of year this sedum dragon’s blood is sending up flowers.  When the weather is cold the foliage turns dark red.  The gaillardia are coming up in the sedum and will grow up and shade much of it.  The taller plants are butterfly weed (asclepias) of various types.

Hostas are a good ground cover for a shady area.  I moved the goat’s beard into the hosta area north of the house and so far it seems to be holding its own.

Strawberries are a useful ground cover.  In the fall they get fall colors and a little messy, but this spring I cut the runners off each plant and have had great fruit production.  I put straw from the dried ornamental grasses under the fruit to keep the strawberries away from the dirt and bugs.

Another useful ground cover is greek oregano.  This plant is very aggressive and is fighting with the strawberries nearby for space.  It will soon send up flowers, which I usually cut back, but the bees love the flowers.  It is great to put oregano, parsley, and thyme in our homemade spaghetti sauce.

Fun activity:  I visited the farmer’s market this morning.  I bought two turnips, a bunch of onions,  and two kohlrabi.  I tried the kohlrabi raw with a little salt and it tasted like something from my past that I had eaten without knowing what I was eating.

Iris, Clematis, and Columbine

With the cooler weather the irises and clematis have bloomed later and the columbine have hung around longer.  It is another rainy day, but heat is coming starting tomorrow.

Blue iris on a rainy day.

Next to the blue irises are the red irises, which bloom about the same time as the new leaves on the Profusion Crabapple.

Close-up detail on red iris.

Jackmanii clematis and common sage.  The clematis are just starting to bloom now and the sage is winding down.

Clematis jackmanii finally opens up.  Earlier this week I spent a half hour detangling all the vines and getting them to grow up the fence instead of hang down on the garden.

Common sage.  The bees love it.

We had a lot of pink columbine this year.  Last year the flowers looked out, but this year they just hung down.  It may have been the weather.

Last year I pulled up sod and extended the drought garden to the east.  This year many of the plants came back, but especially the bachelor buttons – centaurea.  Earlier this spring I moved one of the three bachelor buttons to the far left middle of this picture and it is doing fine and under control.  However the big bachelor button plant in the middle is taking over the whole garden and blocking light from plants I like in the back.  I might let it bloom a little and then cut is down or replace it.  I like the look of the sedum mix on the left front.  There were originally 6 ground covers that came together, but just four are still alive.  The yellow one is a stonecrop, I think.

Sedum stonecrop close-up.

Cooking:  I just pulled a bucket of baby kale and young collards from the garden and Dan cooked them down with some onions and garlic and added a can of lentil soup.  Delicious!

Bird sighting:  I think I just saw a hummingbird in the yard…

Good Morning!

Morning is such a wonderful time in the garden!  It’s quiet and cool, with birds and squirrels busy.  I sit and have my breakfast and read after wiping the dew and spider webs off the plastic chairs.  Its usually hard to read much because something catches my attention and I am off to investigate or get my camera.

The sedum have turned from green to pink now.  I got these sedum from a local woman who just pulled six or seven small branches off her sedum and told me to put them in the ground.  I watered those rootless stalks for a whole summer until they settled in.  The purple finches love them.

Solidago Goldenrod Fireworks

Each morning as we look out the kitchen window we can see this autumn clematis growing and blooming on our laudry post.  It will keep getting bigger and bigger, so we may have to provide some other support or cut it back.  In the background of the picture you can see the sedum and the goldenrod.

A close up of the autumn clematis flower.  As the days get shorter these flowers seem to glow in the light of dawn and at dusk.

Dan joined me outside for breakfast last weekend.  The canna finally got established and has been blooming well.

We have a lot of morning glory volunteers in are yard each year.  I pulled a lot out this spring, but finally let them go in mid-summer.  It does not take them long to cover a wall.  I had to cut some back last weekend to keep them from killing the virginia creeper I planted on the wall this year.  They are so cheery in the morning!

I threw a lot of nasturtium seeds in the garden this spring.  When they start blooming they make some new color combinations.  Here nasturtium with two geraniums and blue hill salvia.

Winter Warmth

The weather has been amazingly mild this year.  Many days have been in the 40s.  Hopefully it has been cold enough to kill off weeds and diseases.  Here are some of the things growing in the middle of February.

 These crocus bulbs bloom on the south side of a log.

Daffodils and Liriope break through the ground on the north side of the house.

The strawberries are spreading vigorously now.

At the base of all the sedum, the new rosette are growing.

Rock Moss grows on the east side of the house.  Last summer, just after Dan finished tarring the garage roof, we had a strong storm and the tar splattered off the roof onto the rocks below.  We may need to get some more rocks to replace these…  Today we visited Home Depot and made an appointment to have a roof specialist visit us to talk about re-roofing next summer.  We need to get several quotes.  That, and college costs, will cost money, so I am reminding myself to try to be cost conscious in the garden this year.  I’ll start planting seeds indoors in a month or so, as that always costs less than buying plants.  I think I have decided to buy a native American Plum tree from Possibility Place in April.

End of Summer…

This coming week is the autumn equinox.  We tuned up the furnace for those cool nights, but still have some warm summery days.  It’s darker in the morning and we try to adjust to the thought of winter months ahead….  Meanwhile the garden continues to provide produce and an abundance of blooms.

These past weeks the pink sedum has been very dramatic.  It is buzzing with honey bees and another flying bug with yellow wings that I have not identified yet.  An autumn clematis has been climbing up the laundry pole and it is now blooming.  Hopefully it will fill out next year.

Grasses around the garden are producing seed heads.  This miscanthus is in the drought garden.  The russian sage keeps blooming its lavender flowers the bees love.

Several weeks ago I was surprised to see these pretty grasses among the weed I had ignored all summer.  I liked the seed heads and brought them inside.

I imagine this as a fairy meadow.  The small space of thick ground cover is surrounded on the south and west by tall grasses and shrubs and to the east by the melon patch.  The fairies can hide when needed, but then dance in the moonlight or enjoy the morning sunlight.

Yesterday Dan helped me plant these three Hicks Yew shrubs.  The idea is to provide some winter color as well as privacy from the house to the north.  This fall I will remove the grass in front of it and work in compost to prepare the soil for next spring when I will extend the drought garden in this direction off the patio.

Checking back in on the evergreen arborvitae I planted in the spring by my neighbor’s back door.  It looks like it made it through the summer well.  I love the spreading purple and green sweet potato vines.

The turtlehead flowers are blooming now.  On the center flower you can see a bumble bee that is deep in the flower.  They seemed to prefer the slightly browned and decayed flowers to visit.  They completely disappear as they fly in and out of each flower seeking nectar.

Food treat this week:   sweet musk melon – cantaloupe from the garden.

Spring Fever!

We turned the clocks forward last night.  The days are longer, but the temperature is still around 40 degrees.  The one thing we are told in the midwest is not to go working in the garden when the ground is soggy from the thaw.  We have to wait for the ground to dry a bit and firm up.  But I am not very good with patience in the springtime! I thought I would take just a few pictures.

Crocus bulbs push up through the Ajuga and dead leaves.  We have a lot of cheerful bulbs coming up all over the garden.

Sedum Dragon’s Blood, true to its name this time of year.

There are at least 10 ornamental grasses that need to be cut to the ground, along with the sedum and the shrubs in the top left of the picture; hydrangea and caryopteris.  I also decided to move quite a few plants from one place to another.  I need to wait for some warm days before I do all of that.  I did find a spot where the soil was ready, though, and planted some lettuce seeds.

It’s a good day to hang out on the couch!

November

A month has past since my last post.  It is mostly clean up time now.

A few weeks ago I took this Chrysanthemum picture – Coral Burst.  I bought a few small plants from my friend earlier in the spring, since stores only sell them in the fall.  I would love to buy more or these in different colors for late fall color.  Next year I will try to get them in early August and see if I can get them to overwinter and come back the next year.

Today I shot this chrysanthemum picture with a half dead pollinator hanging on.  30 minutes later I was cutting back the Salvia and a bee, or something, bit me in the right foot!  That ended my gardening for the day.

The burning bush turned red this week.  I trimmed it back quite a bit earlier in the fall.

Two weeks ago it was extremely windy and the leaves piled up near our back door.  Dan and I pause for a fall photo in the leaves before mulching them up for the compost pile.

Ugly or winter interest?  The sedum are not very attractive now.  I wonder if I should cut them down or if the stalks will look interesting covered by snow…

Switch Grass.  I love ornamental grasses and have many in the garden.  I am thinking about how to highlight them more, so that they get the attention they deserve.