Spring planting, part deux

I went to Lowe's and Home Depot today and stocked up on annuals.  Calibrachoa (yellow/white striped, purple, and pink), white verbena (for $1), another verbena ($2), snapdragons ($1), petunias (purple and mixed, $1 each), and white vinca.

I also got a gorgeous bright red/orange dahlia.  I hope it lives!  I put it in a container with the yellow and white striped calibrichoa and a couple of white vincas.

I put the rest of the vincas (it was a six-pack) in the front, next to where the caladiums might come up someday.  And I put the big white verbena out front next to the dianthus.

Spring planting!

Last weekend I cut the butterfly bush back.  It was already putting out, so I didn't cut it as much as usual.  We'll see if it makes a difference.  I basically cut the peripheral limbs to get them out of the way, but kept the ones that were pointing up.

Today I trimmed the monkey grass and cleaned out the old rudbeckia and coneflower stalks.

And I planted a couple of red hot pokers (next to the mailbox and next to the power pole) and a couple of astilbe 'amethyst' in the shady corner of the yard.  The internet and the inserts seemed to differ quite a bit.  I'm hoping shady is right.  I got both of them at Wal-Mart in a moment of weakness.  I don't really need any more plants, but I see the red hot pokers near mailboxes when I'm out riding, and they seem to do so well, and are so bright and showy!

August planting!

I've had a couple of irises that Maw gave me back in June sitting under the deck since I got them.  It's finally August and time to plant them, and it's freakishly cool....like highs in the mid 70s.  Hopefully they'll do okay.  I planted them along the wall, about 10 feet from the road.  Immortality is white and it's closer to the house.  Bountiful Harvest is purple and white and is closer to the road.

I also planted the gardenia clipping that she gave me that has been rooting on the kitchen windowsill for 2 months.  It's downhill from the mailbox, and is probably going to be too big for the space.  But space is at a premium so...

I also weeded...a lot.

Spring planting!

I took out the driveway leg of the sidewalk today! We're going to have one go from the porch along the hollies to the driveway instead, and still have one go up to the mailbox. So I moved part of a pink up the sidewalk so it'll look more in line with the rest. I also moved 2 Stellas to make them look more with it. And I moved one of the echinacea (that I planted from seeds that I bought at Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains NP in 2009) to the new area. And I transplanted the fuzzy plant with the fuschia-colored flowers that came from Maw's (and came from her mother's) I also planted some melampodium that I got last n
ight at Home Depot.

I also planted a clematis that I got last night at Lowe's, since President has finally died. This one is supposely pure white. We'll see...

On the deck, I planted a long pot on the kitchen side of the deck with a purple and a pink calibrachoa, since the pink

one from last year is doing so well after wintering over. Hopefully these will be just as nice, and last

until next year, assuming we have a light winter again. I also put some marigolds and a red geranium in the pot

that had the tomato last year.

Last week, I got some forsythia and a couple of bridal veils from my mom. I planted the bridal veil on Tuesday at the corner of the walls, and put some mulch on it today. I put 3 clumps of forsythia on the hillside downhill from the hackberry. Maybe it'll make it, maybe not. I have a lot more of it, but I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of tearing down the Japanese honeysuckle to make room for it.

I also planted some bulbs that I've had in a bag for a couple of years. I think they came up when I divided the irises, and I think they're tulips. They were pretty dry, but they were coming out. I put them in 3 different holes on the driveway side of the yard. Maybe they'll come out.

Speaking of tulips...they started blooming today! They were just pink when I saw them this morning, and they were red this afternoon. So I think they really did just show color this morning! Even the ones up next to the road are blooming for the first time! Also, I saw the first pink blooming today. I don't think it was there this morning, but it was this afternoon! And the bluebells are coming up. Everything is so early this year!

Plants from Carol

I planted the grape hyacinths that Carol gave me at the front corner of the yard yesterday, near where we pile leaves in the fall. There were probably about a hundred of them! Maybe a few will survive!

I also planted the lilac she gave me on the hillside near the butterfly bush. I added some Promix, and put one of the concrete slabs that I dug up on the downhill side, so the dirt doesn't wash away, but I don't have high hopes for it. That hillside is crap, but I didn't have room for it in the front yard. I don't know what lilacs really do, but maybe it'll be a little bit of a privacy fence.

In the last week or so, I separated some of the pinks and planted them on the crappy, rocky hillside between the driveways. I also bought a flat of dwarf snapdragons and planted them where the geraniums were last year: to the right of the porch and next to the driveway.

We also started digging to make the new wall next to the driveway last weekend. There were several bulbs that I didn't know what they were, but I figured out from talking to Mommy that they're tiger lilies. I moved them to the rocky hillside too. There were three of them.

Mulch & weeds!

Over a couple of weekends in Februrary, I weeded the garden. It took forever, and those little frilly white things keep coming up. Last Tuesday, I mulched everything, so it looks really good now, but I know there's still weeds just waiting for an opportunity to grow!

Cheap Geraniums!

I planted some more $0.62 seed geraniums that I got at Wal-Mart yesterday. I got a couple earlier in the week to fill in between a couple of the pinks, since the profusion zinnias are very unimpressive, and I got 18 more geraniums yesterday. 18 geraniums cost just over $10. Wow! They're a little beat up, but for the most part, they look good. And they add a little more color. I planted them in the two beds where the pansies were. The pansies were WAY past their prime.

And Johnny Barbour is blooming for the first time this year on the south garden.

killing violets...hopefully

I painted Roundup on the remaining violets in the mondo yesterday. Hopefully it killed them and not too much mondo. I feel certain I got some mondo by mistake.

The Double Cutie that I got last year for my birthday 3 years ago started blooming last Tuesday (5/26). It's bright yellow. And there's something very tall blooming today for the first time, but I haven't gotten out there to inspect it yet.

I also dead-headed the coreopsis yesterday.

The copper identification stakes that I bought on eBay came in yesterday. I'm going to get Chip to write them so they'll be super-neat.

hydrangeas

I planted the hydrangeas I got on eBay today. They're Masja hydrangeas, and they're supposed to be purple. I planted them on either side of the shooting star.

And the coreopis are at their peak, and they're really pretty:

And the yard looks nice in general:

STELLA!!!!

The Stella d'Oro daylilies started blooming yesterday. A couple of them have at least 120 buds, so I want to see just how long they bloom. They're crazy!

The pinks are about done blooming.

The coreopsis and Stella d'Oros have buds. The Stellas are covered! I counted 11 scapes on one, and there are 8-10 buds on each scape!

I sprayed Roundup on the "sidewalk" today. Someday I'll be able to call it just the sidewalk...someday when the stones are laid. :(

Putting things in the ground...and pulling out others

Okay, so here's what has happened in the last couple of weeks:

• April 20: Planted Cherry Profusion Zinnias and annual salvia that I got in my Easter basket. (Plus a few more that I bought at Home Depot in Birmingham). I also planted the Shooting Star Hydrangea that I got for Christmas. It's a little startled by the sun, but the several inches of rain have been good for it.
• A few days later: planted monkey faces (purple, white and pink) in the planters on the front porch.
• April 29, 30, & May 2: Spent at least 6 hours total weeding the mondo. There are still a few violets that I missed, but it looks SO much better.
• May 4: started weeding on the south side of the yard in the mulch. I didn't get very far because my legs were SO SORE from the previous weeding days.

Apparently one of the really big irises that I separated last year was the small, ugly, purple with a little bit of yellow. They're everywhere now! I've also seen the purpley-blue ones, but that's it. There are plenty that didn't bloom, so I hope they will next year and they'll be more representative of what they used to be. I *really* hope I didn't give away the blue-on-top-purple-on-bottom. That was my favorite after the royal purple and white. I'm going to tag the ugly ones and give them away this summer.

The lithodora is almost done blooming.

The Stella 'd Oros have scapes taller than they are, so it shouldn't be too long before they start blooming.

The clematis started blooming today.

I planted the candy lily that Chip got from Judi Overbee yesterday, in the shade, between the irises and the shooting star hydrangea.

What happened since the fall

Sometime in late summer, I dug up the eunonymous on the south side of the yard. I had had it with the constant pruning and the shrub/vine behavior.

In September, I divided the irises in the original patch on the north side of the yard and put most of them on the now-empty south side of the yard as sort of a barrier between the yard and the wall to Garland's yard. You'll at least trample some irises before you fall off the wall now. :) Both sets of irises are looking good now, but I don't think they're going to bloom this year.

At some point in the fall, I planted some new red tulips, since

the ones at the phone pole do so well. I planted them in the daylily bed and out around the water meter on the south side of the yard. The only one to bloom so far is one in the south daylily bed, and it's still lasting after 2 weeks and countless inches of rain.

Everything is SO pretty right now. It's so green. The pansies have finally started blooming after an exceptionally cold winter, and now they look out of place, since they're gold and burgundy. But the daylilies are in perfect mounds of green, and the ones I first planted on the south side of the yard are quite full now.

The pinks have buds and a few are

blooming so far, and surprise! The lithodora that I thought didn't have a chance never died and is now blooming!

The daffodils were NOT impressive this year. Only a few bloomed. I think I need to mark where they are and replant them, whenever you're supposed to do that.

Todaylilies

Prairie Blue Eyes
Moonfire
Orange Twirly (unofficial name)
started blooming today! And I labeled them. :)

Labels!

The Stella d'Oro daylilies have been blooming for several weeks, and the common orange ones started last week. When we got back from Vermont last night, I saw that Ladybug's Louise started sometime over thee weekend. That prompted me to make labels!

Since I don't know exactly where I planted the daylilies when I moved them from the back, I need to label them. So I got out some of the miniblinds in the basement (metal ones), and cut diagonally next to the cords. As a result, I have about 20 6-7 inch strips of metal that I wrote the names on with a black Sharpie. So far, I only have Ladybug's Louise and the 5 that I planted last week that I got from webwalkway.com for letting her use the picture of Prairie Blue Eyes. Those were Pardon Me, Double Cutie, Country Melody, Iron Gate Melody, and Ruffled Apricot. I planted them on Garland's side of the yard, next to the other kidney-shaped section of daylilies over there.

Also, two weekends ago, I got some hostas from home to match the other varigated ones.

The pansies are looking pretty rough. I'll probably dig them up when it's not so damn hot.

more maintenance

I did still more weeding today. Also trimmed the hedges, cleaned the gutters, and dug up the monkey grass on the southwest side of the house. I'm going to freecycle the monkey grass, but it seems that I've been put on hold on freecycle or something.

Also, I noticed that one of the coreopsis is blooming for the first time this year. Also, one of the Stella d'Oro's started blooming earlier this week. It has 10 scapes with at least 7 buds each! Lots of the other daylilies have buds already as well.

Maintenance, and what has happened

I did some maintenance yesterday, mainly weeding.

The clematis on the porch rail started blooming yesterday.

The irises are almost done blooming. The pink and blue ones that I moved from the bank at the back of the house to the front last September didn't bloom. Actually, the blue ones might have. There are some that aren't as lavender as some of the others. They're more blue, and they're more ruffled, which Mommy remembers them being on the package. So they might have bloomed, but the pink ones definitely didn't.

I planted zinnia seeds yesterday, and also noticed that a couple came up from seed from last year. I planted California Giant in the center of the section, some dwarfs that I got for $1 at Walgreen's around those, and the miniatures from Maw's along the driveway.

The amaryllis next to the driveway in the back is almost blooming, and the Stella d'Oro's have buds. They're at least a week away from blooming, though.

The red marigold and candytuft seeds that I planted along the sidewalk haven't come up that well, so I planted more. It's probably an exercise in futility, but they're out there now. There are maybe 5 marigolds and 3 candytufts that have come up. I'm going to try to water them better than I did last time. Since we were in Vermont, and I was having the exacerbation, I didn't water them like I should have.

Pinks!

The pinks started blooming today! And I noticed yesterday that the hostas are coming up on the right side of the yard!

Also, the first tulip turned red today. :)