Central Midwest Gardening: March 2012 in like a lamb!, 3 by shortleaf

shortleaf wrote:
I did a little more outside today, not much. I just can't seem to commit to big jobs that I know need to be done! I'm so lazy, I'd rather sit and watch tv than get the landscaping done, which I really want to get done this year. I started big projects in the yard and I just have to finish them! My friend here thinks I'm crazy for bringing all these rocks in the yard, I just don't say anything, except, I tell her, "you'll thank me later!", I hope I'm right! Speaking of those rocks, I put down a few more by the big birdbath/fountain. I am still deciding what to do with that big Dwarf Eastern White Pine, Pinus Strobus 'Nana'. I've had it since 2004, it is big. It is surprisingly light for a big plant and planter, it's in Pine Bark, no soil. I've seen it's rootball about 4 years ago, it is getting within about 4 or 5 inches of the inside of the planter, so it should be about ready to be planted.

Your birdbath fountain is big like mine, it is similar to mine, Crit. I like the color on yours, mine needs color like that or just all spray painted gray like the color of concrete. It's kinda mismatched on colors the way it is. My Dad kinda fancied painting their statuaries, which is fine, but it wears off and looks like poo years later. The top part was painted in many different colors, even the childrens' faces are tan, it's wore bad and doesn't look like art at all. I'm not familiar with statuaries, your concrete coulda been mixed to look like that maybe, which isn't paint.

I got down and cut one Water Iris's pot with scissors so not so much black plastic shows above the water. The other Water Iris got a thick plastic pot that seems to be ideal for water plants.
I just had to drill big drain holes in the bottom because the water level can get kinda low at times. I don't want them out of a pot of some kind though because the roots go everywhere! And the Iris itself would just always be tipping over if not in a pot.

I tried to straighten up that Colorado Blue Spruce 'Globosa' but I don't think I did it good enuff to suit me! I may just need to dig it up and replant it.

I just can't quit looking at my little shade garden! Maybe there's enuff room in the middle and a little left for a smallish Hosta like 'June' or 'Patriot'. I don't know, maybe I should wait a while to see how big stuff gets there.

This blue ceramic fish has my other Speedwell Veronica 'Georgia Blue' in it. That Dwarf Alberta Spruce by it started out in 2004 as a Living Christmas tree, it has grown alot, it finally got big enuff to plant! lol That other pot behind it has what appears to be a now defunct Pennisetum alopecuroides (straight Fountain Grass), it was 3 "plugs". That was the last mail order item in a $66 order from Bluestem nursery in Canada, not Bluestone Perennials. I have a bunch of what appears now to just be pots of dirt to empty out, unfortunately.