Yardening mid March 2015

Running late but its so nice sitting here with the promise of spring coming through the back door. Birds are singing and you can just smell the earth coming alive. G-d do I miss being a stay at home waiting for enough light to get out in the garden. I'm so tired of coming home exhausted with the sun shining and having to choose between making dinner and working outside. OK, I know I'm a spoiled brat, but I do love being outside.

Yehudith, I feel the same.

Oh goody, I am off Saturday, and it will be very chilly, maybe even flurries.

Lol. I dislike doing any work on weekday nights and save it for the weekend. It's not enjoyable for me if I have to rush to get it done.

I was so "energized" to do something outside today.
Such a rare, wonderful day cannot be wasted!

I cleaned up my Hellebores
I spread Humus-Manure all over my raised be--and also my compost
on top of that. Still will dig all that up together...soon...
Of course--all this went on top of a layer of half-rotten leaves from last fall.

Then--I transplanted my Yaku Prince Rhodo in the raised bed's right corner.
Poor...poor--Rhodo! It does not look good at all....Everything is droopy.

Last year--after me and others got this from the HD--as fall arrived--I knew
I did not have a place to transplant it in--so I potted it up in a bigger pot.
This pot spent the winter nestled down in another pot with soil in it.
Me thinks---that all this just created a muddy place for the pot.
Maybe almost no drainage? Just thinking........It was not a good thing...

As time went on--I noticed that all the leaves on this Rhodo were drooping.
I thought--Well--OK! It is winter. It still had bloom buds all over--so not to worry.

Today--as I was transplanting this in my raised bed--there had been NO new roots
developed at all in the new soil in the bigger pot.
More like--there were LESS....I am pretty sure it had root rot b/c of all the moisture.

As I transplanted it today--many of the bloom buds just snapped off.
They were not fresh or green or robust. More like dry---just holding their shape..

SO! Now it is potted into my raised bed--in leaf mold and compost and
a bit of humus manure---all mixed in. The soil is so wet--i did not dare water it any more.
MAN!!! You should have seen all the earthworms in the soil as i was digging the hole!!!!

I now need your opinion on what the chance are that it will recover.
Does not look promising to me....time will tell....

Here are a couple pictures from today:

1--The now potted in the raised bed Rhodo
2--Looking down from the top of it.

HELP!!!! G.

That poor rhodie! I hope someone here can offer you some answers.

The ground is squishy under my feet. I won't be doing any digging for awhile.

G: You should prune all of the crispy stuff and leave everything that is still flexible and green. Everything crunchy and brittle is dead. Yaku Prince is an unfriendly specimen. I had to pitch mine after a year; it needed too much coddling. I have a couple rhodis with branches like yours, including an entire plant that I bought last year post bloom. Yeah, I was bummed out about that one. I planted two that were hardy to 6b, wrapped both with burlap, and one lived, one burned out. It won't recover so it will get yanked. It was called Extraordinaire.

Jeff--
Thanks! I have also heard from Paul--and he says it is a gonner.
I do not care--as I do not need/desire another Rhodo.

I will watch it till late spring. If there is no signs of life--I am pitching it..
I only kept this one b/c everyone was so excited about this Rhodo after I
posted about ot from HD.

Tere is NOTHING new I need in my garden. Once in a while--something
sounds tempting..

New season--new plants available at the HD.

G.

Gita, that looks better than some of ours. 2 harsh winters may have been too much.
My yardening today consisted of making space in the GH and garage for plants, they were/are being delivered today. That's where Holly is, doing the sorting and pick-up. I guess as of tomorrow I'll be transplanting seedlings. I don't think we are getting near as many this year, they offered some of our favs in market packs.

I seeded more of the cream white marigolds. Only 2 have come up
from my 1st seeding. I scattered a few in each of 10 cells the 1st time.
Is it possible that these do not produce viable seeds?
Maybe my seed collecting last fall was to blame? Don't know....

On a Marigold seed--it is hard to tell if it is a good one or not.
Checked our seed supply at the HD. They do not have these...
Then again--most of the seeds we have are Burpee's, some Martha Stewart,
and one other brand (???) not often heard of....

G.

I planted some of the white marigolds and had the same problem. I was reading something about them but I can't remember what it was.

Well one tree peony made it through the winter. I have a few herbaceous ones on their way up.

Does anyone want some Valarian. I planted three last year and they all made it and it looks like they produced young. I'm happy to share.

I went out to check the sambucas and I don't think they made it. Between the rabbits and deer and then the snow it was just too much. I've come to the conclusion that its much more cost effective to buy the larger more expensive plants, except when they're known to not take well, than the small ones that just don't have the reserves to weather set backs.

I'm pretty sure those Cream marigolds are hybrids and even though they produce seed, in most cases the seed will not be true to the characteristics of the parent but may revert to the grandparents and then, not necessarily the best qualities of them.

Thanks, Ric---
I was suspecting that a well.....
We will see what the 2 that came up grow up like...IF thy make it.

G.

I remember decades ago that Burpee ran a contest trying to get a white marigold. Maybe the creams are near enough to that, that they are not easy to propagate.

I just have GOT to get in my yard this weekend or I'll go insane. Move a lot of dead leaves and dirt around, lol.

Going to brave the cold so Mark can help me lay out some new raised beds. I feel like adding structure will help the overall look of the yard, even as my routine maintenance gets even worse. Yes I think it can get worse, even though I haven't been great about it anyway haha..

hardscape always makes such a difference!

I had that revelation when I started brick edging to flower beds. A defined line helped so much, especially when the grass and flowers aren't looking picture perfect. And how often are they looking perfect?

he's doing a nice job of it. I don't know what I'll grow but I am started on nice soil and an orderly looking area to grow it in. I've been out there about three hours, pulling barren strawberry and collecting bits of plastic trash that end up here and there, and straightening previous board edging.

My Rhododendron 'Roseum Elegans" has taken a beating the last 2 winters, probably because I cut down the tree that used to give it a wee bit of shade. I should move it to the other side of the yard, but I'm not sure that's going to happen this year!

Sally, what kind of sun will your new bed get?

I've started removing leaves and some of the mulch from around perennials but am also chomping at the bit to do more! I need to put some brick edging back into place, too. I lifted it in the fall so I could expand the bed to make room for a Cephalanthus occidentalis (Buttonbush), but never got around to re-installing it.

Looking forward to seeing the hardscape Sally :)

Muddy, just enough sun to grow vegetables. Way in the back corner of the yard behind the shed.

Jeff, don't get too excited, its raised vegetable beds lol

OH man! BORING VEGGIES??!?!?!?

I will have to tame my enthusiasm then..

I've been too indecisive to do much in the way of structure in general in my yard. Now I'm thinking my original perennial bed needs a total redo.
One place I feel pretty sure I could put a small wall, making a bed along twenty feet of foundation, is on the least used, least viewed side of the house, so why bother? I have already established several shrubs there.

Sally, that area could be a good place to put some additional pollinator and caterpillar plants you don't want to showcase. You've probably taken this into account, but in case you haven't ...you'll want to ensure that whatever kind of wall you put in doesn't trap water near the foundation.

Come to think of it, trapped water is a problem with my raised shrub bed, which was built with landscape timbers with the idea of absorbing some of the storm water. It's on a slope, with one side at ground level and the other ranging from 4-16" high. The landscape timbers don't let water flow through quickly enough, so some (now gone) shrubs were at risk of falling over during heavy rains. I had to tie them to the fence.

trust me Muddy, every cultivated bed here is pretty much full, what with this generous group. This area I just described, in the last year or two had extra milkweed and Chelone crammed in corners.

Oh I see, you're just considering adding some structure, not more room for plants.

I actually got out there a few days last week and planted a new Peony, cleaned up a couple of beds and cut back the black pussy willow.

I need to cut back my black pussy willow also, as I intend to try to move it. I'll shove the cuttings into the mud and see what "takes." That's how I started this one! I'm not sure if it'll be better to move it this spring or in fall, but with lots of other things clamoring for attention out there, it might be fall by default. A major pruning will help, since I won't be able to dig out enough roots to balance out its top otherwise.

Got out there nice and early this morning and cleaned the lower section of the front wall bed. I hope to go back out in a little while and finish the top part. Need to rake up the mess I left, too. Lots of tulips and daffs are coming up in this bed, Hellebores are starting to bloom and a lot of buds and new growth showing up.

Wow, clearing away the winter debris makes a big difference...it's looking good!

Yes, it is coming along pretty well. I have 4 beds cleaned so far. Got to get as much done as I can before we leave the middle of the month.
This one looks empty but it has hosta, bleeding heart and a few other plants hiding under there. The only plants up in this bed are the Hellebores. After I cleaned it Ric mulched up the leaves with the mower and I spread them over the bed.

Good idea; you can't beat free leaf mulch. I mulched up most of my leaves in the fall, but there are still some left to collect and mulch so they don't keep blowing around.

I noticed today that my rear neighbor raked all the shredded leaves from under his arb 'fence' that I put there last fall to enrich the soil...grrr. My plan was to get the soil half decent and then plant some sort of ground cover. I might do that anyway, perhaps just something that will be more tolerant of poor soil.

Looking good, Holly!

It was good to have a warm day for the flowers. I'm seeing forsythia blooming and buds on the viburnums!

I heard it snowed in central PA today! Boy, am I glad that wasn't us! Long term forecasts are finally looking springlike for DC.

We didn't get the snow either but we probably will get a winter mix tomorrow.

Nice SSG. No forsythia here yet. I drive past a HUGE one on the way home from work. It has a base on it that is probably 2' in diameter, packed solid with individual twigs. It is probably 12' tall at least.

Wow Seq, I bet that's gorgeous when in bloom.

Time to talk to the neighbor, Sequoia! Mine became much more tolerant of my brush piles when I told him they were important to the songbirds. He even stopped hauling every branch from his yard to the curb, LOL.

Yeah it's pretty nice. I'll try to take a pic of it when it's in bloom.

Jill, do you find that your efforts are impacting the song bird population around your yard?

Yes, we definitely have more songbirds -- and fewer bug pests -- with the extra food & shelter they find in our yard. Are we increasing the overall populations in our area? Probably not to a measurable degree. But we're seeing and enjoying a lot more of them near our house!

Well that's what matters. Glad you're seeing success.