May Day Blues

Last fall, as I dug up the grass to create the garden along the fence, I discovered a few drifts of this plant growing amongst the sod. It looked familiar to me, though I couldn't identify it right off...and so far, I still have sorted that part out. (What's an identity, anyway, right?) I was pretty sure it was the same plant which I'd hosted a little bit of in the Eastham orchard garden, the one that provided the tiny blue flowers...and it appears on that score, at least, I was correct, for look what appeared to welcome the May!!

While I don't know it by name, there was enough of this plant that I was able to rescue four or five good-sized clumps of it, which I replanted in the foreground areas of the new border. I'll do some more research later on (like after I've been treated for what is becoming a rather annoying sinus infection), but in the meantime, if anyone else recognizes these tiny beauties, I would be glad for your thoughts. (I know they are NOT forget-me-nots, though...)

Meanwhile, although we had a frost warning last night/this morning, it was still time to graduate that first class of ten sunflower plants (at bigger than a foot each, it's hard to still think of them as seedlings) who've been growing by leaps and bounds on the window sill. So I cobbed together some little greenhouse types of things with some branches I trimmed to size, and these great plastic bags.

Today, the bags were mostly protection against the winds, which were a little brisk, and threatened to bend my sunflowers right to the ground...but I can also pile dirt around the bottom of the bags for the next time we're warned of cold temperatures. But hopefully, that is nearly done, and these sunflowers will be towering high above the garden before long.


It's hard to believe the grape hyacinths are already fading, their little blossoms shriveling up and turning to seed. They never last quite long enough, I think, which might be why I plant a few more of them every year.

I was sorry to learn today that the blog Cooper's Corridor has closed its doors. The reasons are a little more than I'd like to get into here (you can check out Joe.My.God columns of the last two days for the details). I am very sad to see Coop leaving our blog circle (hopefully temporarily), as I could always count on him to bring a smile, or some bit of inspiration. However, his reasons are understandable, and I wish he and his family all good things!

Got the second half of that overgrown garden bed in front of the house dug and replanted this afternoon. Plenty of divisions to be replanted elsewhere in the yard as a result, too. 

Pink sedum. 

The nice thing about working at home and at work on similar projects simultaneously has been that I've been able to swap some divisions back and forth between the two places. An assortment of things have found their way to the restaurant garden, while I've also been able to acquire a few bits of things to expand the variety here at home. This pink sedum is one of those, along with a clump of white siberian irises, and a few small divisions of daylilies.

Expatriation Project

The great late summer transplant project continues. In addition to revisiting the organization and layout of many beds here at home, I've also been doing the same with some of the gardens at work, with an eye toward creating a secret garden nook that might be suitable for outdoor wedding ceremonies. In the process of moving things around there, I've also managed to rescue a few more of our expatriot perennials, which lived there during our time of housing uncertainty last winter, but are beginning to suffer a little from this summer's drought.

Despite continuing drought conditions, this eager veronica (speedwell) is attempting a reblooming.

 


Of course, finding homes for these old friends in the new garden beds out back does involve being a little more proactive against the prolific oregano than I've been before. Some clumps have been dug out to share with friends...others are just ripped out and left to die (no doubt scattering their seeds everywhere, but I'll deal with that later). Here's some transplanted veronica and bright yellow coreopsis (neither in bloom just now).
 


Also rescued was one very large plant of Coronation Gold yarrow, which was easily split into two when it arrived home. It's silvery foliage makes it relatively easy to spot in its new location. I also proudly call your attention to the Fountain Grass to the right in the picture. It's been here in the garden all season.
 

A Quick Move

As the autumn transplant project continues, this morning I plucked a runty hydrangea with good potential out of the path bed, for a sunnier spot near the driveway's curve. 

Into the hole left by the hydrangea moved a transplanted yellow azalea in need of pruning. (Actually, the azalea split in two as I dug it up, so another piece of it found a home near that hydrangea.) In front of the newly-sited azalea, I moved in a nice collection of sweet william, who were blooming hidden behind a large shrub this past spring. 

Labor Day

We've lived here for nearly a year. There's been time enough to play in new gardens, while watching the old, established ones. I've catalogued different participants, and spent some random moments of this summer scheming about dividing, transplanting and replanting as the seasons rolled around toward fall.

Today, finally, the time for planning was through, and I began working on the front bed in front of the house. It's an L shaped bed, edged by woods and overgrown with wisteria, but also home to a great drift of Shasta daisies, blue spiderwort, yellow daylilies, pink cranesbill and irises, all crowded in too close around an assortment of roses who might flower better with more space.

In part one of the project, I tackled the driveway side of the bed.
 

STEP ONE: Pruning the long ramblers of wisteria that have been weaving through the bed, choking the other plants and trying to strangle adjacent trees. There were, by now, several plants of the stuff...the newer ones were easily dug up, and their long trailers pruned and piled. The main plant remains for some future day's toil, but it's been pruned back hard, as well.
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STEP TWO: Digging seperating and transplanting some overgrown Shasta Daisies, working to spread their joy along the back of both sides of the bed. Here, a surplus waits here in the wheelbarrow, soon to be taken to their new homes in an assortment of other locations around the yard.
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STEP THREE: Crowded in the center of a trio of different roses, a thick cluster of non-blooming German bearded iris needed to be dug out. They came out easily enough, and I laid them out to be cut back and trimmed before replanting in the driveway side of the garden.
 

STEP FOUR: Around one of two of the rose bushes is a thick clump of yellow daylilies and spiderwort, which I've begun to dig out and divide, to be returned to the bed a safe distance from the roses. An assortment found homes around other sides of the house, and throughout the back garden beds, as well. I also dug out several large clumps of perennial geranium, AKA cranesbill, which I planted in the foreground of the bed. I also dug in an assortment of hyacinths and other bulbs still living in pots from the spring.

As you can see in the background of this pic, there are still plenty of daisies and daylilies to be divided and replanted when part two of this project resumes.

With Slicker and Boots

There was a light mist in the air this morning, sometimes as much as a momentary spatter of rain. Not optimal conditions for working in the garden, but a day off is a Day Off, and it was harder to try to stay in the house and not get my hands in the dirt. More grasses were removed as I continue to lay out bed frameworks, carrying in the latest rock additions. The weeding is trickier in the current location, as there's some creeping thyme woven into the grass, which I'm trying to preserve.

Got the little fences up around the more substantial clumps of peonies, as they are beginning to climb toward the sky, and high winds are predicted with both the storms coming our way. Several buds are already popping up, and one industrious ant was found playing his role in the whole flowering process. That's one of the reasons I'm willing to work around the ant colony I've spied in one of the beds.

And as the rain became just a little more substantial, I did some more transplanting of perennials from the meadow-marsh area. The water level is continuing to rise there (the green heron is a daily sighting lately, tho they remain quick to fly off and avoid any photo opportunity), and two nor'easters will only amplify that, so I've been trying to extricate some of the things that've gone wild there to offer them dryer locales in the new beds.

The transplants were blackeyed susans and yarrow mostly, along with a few wild daisies, but I also discovered several clumps of something I've seen before and know, but not quite well enough to name them. You know...the face is familiar, but I just can't come up with the name. I'll try to get a picture soon, in case anyone else has knows this character.