Planting time

Yesterday the sun was shining and I had the morning off work, so I got the front yard planted with the Bird Sanctuary Garden that I had ordered from Michigan Bulb Co. I went back to the area where I broke the winging weeder but this time I brought my shovel, saw and hand pruners. See, I do learn from my mistakes! I had planted some succulent ground cover a year or so ago that I had moved from another garden bed. I decided it just wasn't looking like I wanted it to, so out it came. There is something so lovely about freshly turned soil. It is so black and rich looking with the worms freaking out because their tunnels have been destroyed. It would have been a good day to be a robin I think.

I couldn't get out all the roots, so I cut them back as far as I could. I am not planning on planting anything more in this bed, so it should be ok. The new roots will have plenty of room to spread out and any remaining tree roots should decompose over time. On the far right side of the bed (facing north), I planted the aronia berry. It is a little more low growing, so it should not shade out the rest of the bed as it grows. I planted the Goji berry on the far left. It may intertwine with the wisteria there at some point, but the wisteria tends to lean to the left, so I am hoping it won't be too bad.

This is the purple love grass. I planted it in front of the stump.

It is a little messy looking, but the birds are supposed to love it. The jury is still out. I will let it grow and then make a decision.


Then I clumped the remaining flowers on either side of the stump. I can't remember what I planted where, but I did keep them together by type of flower.

BEE BALM:  I think it is gorgeous. I had first seen it in a neighbor's yard and I just had to have it in mine.  I love the spiky petals.

CONEFLOWER:  I have a coneflower mix, so I won't know the color until later in the summer. Goldfinches are supposed to love coneflowers.  I will let them dry after blooming unless it looks awful.  On shrubs, if you deadhead, you usually get more blooms.  I don't think that is true with flowers, even if you have multiple heads per stem.

BLUE CARDINAL FLOWER: I had never seen this plant before, so I am excited to have it in my garden.

I was thrilled to notice that the sun shone on this garden patch all day long. With the Magnolia there, I had never noticed it before. These flowers should bloom more profusely being in full sun and maybe I will even get butterflies this year.

Of course, the news this morning said we should have a cool, damp spring this year. Fabulous. At least my plantings will get well established before the drought.

Beware!

This is the Chameleon Houttuynia.  I have no idea how to pronounce that second word.  I saw it for sale in a catalogue I received yesterday and I just had to shake my head in dismay.  Someone planted this beast in my yard over 10 years ago.  It doesn't die, it spreads by underground runners that if they break off they continue to grow and best of all, it smells rank!  It makes my eyes water when I pull it out or God forbid I drive over it with the car.  But the catalogue says this, "Unique Oriental plant!...Thrives almost anywhere.  Vigorous grower and spreads quickly in moist or dry soils, full sun to full shade."  I would agree that it is lovely, but so are dandelions and starlings.  This catalogue also sells St. John's Wort which I have been told is a bear to remove. 

Why  do we gardeners do this?  I already admitted to ordering the butterfly bush which spreads by seed, so it won't matter if I put it in a container or not.  I think it is our impatient natures that conflicts with the speed of the garden that sets us up for disaster.  We see that a plant will quickly solve our problem and and we go for it.  It is hard to plant a tree or shrub and know that it may take 5 to 10 years for the first bloom or fruit.  We don't expect to live in the same house that long.

Gardening teaches us to see with far sightedness.  If we are to be a good gardener or steward, we must think long term.  We must consider all of our actions and weigh the consequences of them.  Otherwise, we resort to using pesticides to eradicate an unforeseen problem which has long lasting consequences of its own.  Or we cut down trees or dig out shrubs to start fresh maybe after we have already replaced our gutters that were knocked off the roof or repaved the driveway after it was cracked by the roots. 

I may not plant that butterfly bush after all.

The first arrivals

My birthday gift arrived on Friday from Gurneys. It was the Japanese Stewartia that I was expecting and a flowering quince that I wasn't expecting. Thanks Dad! I need to still purchase the wine/whiskey barrel for the Stewartia tree, so for now, it is sitting on my back porch in the rain. It isn't all that cold at the moment, so I figured it ought to get used to what the weather is like here.

The flowering quince is a low growing shrub. It likes full sun to partial shade which is good for my yard as partial shade is pretty much all there is. It does grow wide, 4 to 5 feet, so I was concerned about placement. In the articles I read yesterday, it was often linked to the forsythia in terms of bloom time. I have a forsythia in the front yard. It grows tall and somewhat wild though I do trim it back after it blooms. Then it just grows more. I planted a lavender near it last year and I am happy to report the lavender is still alive. It is also about the same size as it was when I planted it, about 4" tall and about 3" wide.

It is funny to think about potential size of plants because the quince is a little smaller than the lavender at this point as well. It is like buying adult size clothing for your infant. Sure they will need them eventually, but right now it seems a little ridiculous.

In any case, the soil is healthy there. Years ago a pine tree grew in this spot, but the stump rotted away last summer and with the rhododendrons gone, it is more open now than ever before. I had moved some iris nearby that I had planted too deeply in years past. They always grew lovely greens, but no flowers. They didn't bloom last year either, but hopefully they will this year. If they don't, I may just pull them out.

My grandmother used to have iris and snapdragons at her home in Walla Walla. I am sure she had a huge variety of flowers, but those two stick my memory. That is what I love about flowers; they instantly transport you to your earliest memory of them. The forsythia in my mother's yard, her roses, the grape vines along the fence, it is so easy to recall.

But the weather here in Western Washington does not lend itself to the same flowers that can be grown in Eastern Washington. Our soil is very acidic with the large number of Douglas Fir trees that grow so well here. Roses look horrible with black spot most of the time and I am washing my hands of them and pulling them out, with the exception of the Rosa rugosa (I think it is) that I harvested at a plant salvage event.

I moved the yellow crocosmia to the empty spot where that awful green shrub was. Again the soil is very acidic there, so mostly I just scooped up the soil with the bulbs or corms in place and transported the whole thing to the other side of the yard. I have high hopes for these flowers as they will be growing just behind the red crocosmia that have been doing very well in that spot for a number of years now. They don't look like much this time of year, but come mid summer, they should be fabulous. I also moved around some hyacinth that were growing on the perimeter of the bed by the front porch. I clustered them together so they looked like they belonged there and not an afterthought. I put down the safe slug bait and hopefully they will bloom in a few weeks. I only broke one in the move, so that would be a success. This is the spot where the cranberry will go when it arrives. I am thinking of putting one in the ground and the other in a barrel.

Time for a product review: I bought a new hoe last year called the "Winged Weeder" from Fred Meyer. It has a long plastic handle that doesn't blister my hands and a two sharp blades that flare out to either side. Last year, I was using it to remove creeping buttercup from a corner in my back yard and I snapped it in two. Not the handle, but the blade. I took it back to Fred Meyer and they replaced it for me, no questions asked. Yesterday, I was working near the Magnolia stump clearing out the roots as best I could and I snapped the new blade in two. I must be using the wrong tool for the job. Perhaps I need and ice pick. The blade isn't even 1/4" thick, so maybe that is why it breaks so easily. It works very well in cultivated soil, like a vegetable garden, but it can't hold up to thick roots or creeping buttercup. I have a hori hori knife that would do the job, but it is a hand held tool, so I am on my knees hacking away at things which is hard on my back. I need something tougher than me. I frequently break handles on my garden tools. User error I would guess.

Michigan Bulb Co. said my plants should be here in a few days, the bird garden and the butterfly garden.  I am so excited to get it all put together in the front yard.  I took my bird feeders down to discourage the pine siskins