remember it is the journey, of weeding, watering, planting, mulching, dreaming that is the nirvana of "garden", sharkey just reminded me we need to remember those lessons we bring out of the CONTACT SPORT of the garden....meet you in the hemlock arch for a moment of quiet contemplation about how lucky we all are to enjoy the soil, water, sun, bugs and blooms of it all......
Absolutely beautiful spot, CG. Every time I get a glimpse of your garden, I am swept away!
Simply stunning vista as seen through the Hemlocks!
Truly amazing!
Yes, that's a beautiful spot. I'd love to sit under there for an hour or two.
Well, I could easily contemplate how much I've learned since I began gardening. Wish I could think of something now!
meet me there....
One gardening lesson I have learned is NOT to leave your gardening tools all over the yard. Yup last year I was lazing in putting my tools in safe areas when I was working. I tripped over a tiller type thing and brok my arm when falling....I was trying to avoid those spikes which were aimed at my chest....LOL It was one of those senseless gardening accidents....and yes I did learn my lesson LOL
wow, so glad you didn't stab yourself. a broken arm is pretty bad. we can be bad here with tools too and i will remind my hubbie with your story.....guess you pick them up now, ?
Well let's just say I am a lot more careful not to leave my tools laying on the ground......LOL
I've spent years trying to build the foundation of the garden. I can see the same view of the garden from the living room, the kitchen, and the service door of the garage. This is my working view. Whether I'm in the house or outside I am always thinking: what do I need to do next, what needs to be added, moved or supported. While I do take time to see the blooms, and gaze lovingly at the clematis (lol), I'm also checking for insect problems, damage and the overall health of the plants.
Life got in way the last few summers and I am behind. Because I kept falling further and further behind, I felt I had to make up for lost time and ended up hurting myself last year. I was sidelined the whole summer. Frustrated, I spent this past winter wondering if it was all worth it.
Spring came and as the garden started coming to life, so did I. Then, almost like clockwork, life got in the way again. Why these things happen during our short growing season and not any other time during the year only adds more stress to an already stressful situation. To counteract the stress, and to avoid getting hurt again, I forced myself to slow down. Not an easy thing for me to do. The precious few days I have had in the garden so far this spring have been immensely enjoyable. I found myself being more creative, the problems faded to the background, the stress slowly melted away under the sun. I also took more time to look around and just enjoy the garden for what it was, not just all the work that needed to be done. By the end of the day, I was completely relaxed. I have accepted that there is only so much a person can do in one day, and that has to be good enough.
so true julia jayne. it is the work and the planning and the intention and the appreciation of nature that makes it worthwhile. we all get behind, sidetracked and have lots to do, but you can enjoy each day in the garden regardless of this. even if you are just sitting there surrounded by weeds and lists of work.
my garden lesson this week, was
do it right the first time
have weeded the clem gardens so many times this year. fighting "baby trees" mostly. loaded up on bags of pea gravel and had my helper use almost 90 of them yesterday and today mulching the clem areas with a couple of inches of pea gravel, english style. we leave the clems real estate bare, just the compost top dressing inside the collar around the clem.
this keeps the weed OUT, hold in moisture and looks nice. helps keep bugs down too...i srayed the ground with some bayer 3 in one in buggy areas before we layed down the pea gravel.
should have done this 6 weeks ago, instead of wasting helper and my labor on weeding over and over..and other mulch just doesn't cut it as far as staying in place and keeping weeds out.
note to self 2010..do it right the first time. i have learned this lesson 1000 times, expect i will again....
I hear ya. There are some things I never seem to learn.
I tried a new approach to weeding this year. When I was in an area either planting or pulling mulch back from plants, I'd weed the area I was in. I also took advantage of short blocks of time to pull weeds, even if was just 5 minutes. In the past, I'd try to do it all in a couple of days, which lead to achy hands and knees. Most of my garden is now weeded, and it barely felt like I did it. I'm hoping I can keep it up all summer.
I'm seriously considering using pea gravel around the base of the clems. Wood mulch attracts too many insects. Do you use the smooth, tumbled gravel, or the untumbled stuff? Crushed oyster shells is an option too.
What a beautiful spot CG. I can feel the serenity coming right through the monitor.
I spent all day yesterday putting down mulch and pulling weeds. I wanted to skip mulch this year, but the weeds kindly reminded me why mulch is needed.
CG, can you show a photo of what you mean by "English style" for the pea gravel top dressing? Thanks! Evey =)
blissful, realized i should have taken photos. alas i am away till late sat, out of the garden, there is thick pea gravel in the surrounding area of the clems. this promotes drainage, keeps weeds down and discourages certain insects. will be back in the garden this week and will post photos.
ok, reading the posts on ascotiensis and even brushwood having a mis ID, here is a lesson i learned over and over...
label your clems.
i label, diagram and have a list with a notation about which garden are it is in. and i still have mis ID's sometimes to figure out. have 2 from chalk hill last year that i am waiting for blooms to straighten out the ID, cross referencing to the order iplaced...but chalk hill had many ID issues over the years with my shipments...so we shall see.
somehow, the ID fun is part of the journey and the process though, no????? unless it is a rooted out gallon you thought was blue light and it blooms as pink champagne....ooh well. gotta take the good with the bad on this journey!
I've always been very good about mapping out my clematis, and keeping the spreadsheet up to date, but I don't have a large amount so it's still easy to remember where everything is planted. The trouble starts when I move or plant a lot of clematis at the same time. I get careless and don't mark them.
Another lesson is to not give up on an absent clematis too soon. In the early days, I tossed out a CdB that I thought was a goner. I have an Ernest Markham that is too close and all tangled up with Jackmanii because I thought EM didn't survive winter.
I have Bees Jubilee. I bought one years ago, but I thought it died, so either I lost track of it somehow, or one of my other clematis bought last year was mislabeled.
julia jayne, clems are amazing i agree. did you see my thread called "big experiment"? i had an ssv box that hubbie put in laundry room and it was in the shipping box for almost 6 weeks. long story short, one of the two, the allanah lived.....sadly abundance did not and i used her hole a few weeks ago for another clem.
i do find that most clems that come back after a big disappearance usually are alive but do not thrive.i know there are exceptions, but the majority of roots that do this, or do this over and over are not going to end up vigorous and stable. but i agree, always keep the optimism......
life's little mysteries...seen through the clems eyes!
I saw your big experiment thread. It's amazing that one of the clematis survived.
Bees Jubilee is blooming fairly well. I don't like where it is, plus it's in full sun, so I'll move it into after it blooms and wait until next year. If it blooms well, great, but it's no big loss if it doesn't bloom well.
Does Bees Jubilee not like full sun? I didn't see a partial shade recommendation anywhere for it, so I put mine in full sun...
One of the books I have states that Bees Jubilee prefers part shade, water and feed well for best results. It's also slow to establish.
Well nuts! It seems to be happy so far where I planted it, and since it's so new and now it's so ridiculously hot here, I hate to move it at this point... I guess I'll let it go a bit longer and see what happens.
Let me know how it does.
blissful, any bi color can take sun or partial to good bit of shade, but the blooms look better longer in shade. they tend to bleach out and if in sun, they also do not last as long on the vine.
bees jubilee can take some time to establish. i had a new one in as i could never identify my original one as it is in a grouping with some other bi colors. anyway it went in last spring, so-so first year, butnothing out of the ordinary. all seemed normal. it bloomed early this year and then promptly took a rest.....still sleeping. we'll see for how long.
Ah, thanks for that info. It was the only bi I put in that section of the garden. I had seen "partial shade" for the other bi's I planted, but I had not realized the reasoning behind some of the recommendations.
my pleasure. always. enjoy your summer season....
the to do list s never finished, but that is part of the journey. felt like i was whiittling the list down yesterday so i could get to the "last task", refreshing and inserting some markers.....postal truck pulls p with 4 boxes from ssv (i "forgot" i had taken advantage of the sale)...
ooh....can't procrastinate on that, so opened them and got to it. got them all in (luckily i had holes left from spring planting binge and enough soil mixed to just squeak by.... those roots were heavy and huge. this morning mother nature is taking care of another task. we have a soaking rain coming down, a real rain that waters, not a pass by where you still need to water. thanks mother nature.
gotta get out there and finish the labeling today.no matter what!
lessons:
the list is never getting smaller, so celebrate it.
good to always have holes ready and waiting in case you buy a clem...no harm in digging them even months in advance (or having someone do that)
big pile of mixed up amended soil always comes in handy!
always thank mother nature for her gifts!
Thanks CG...I liked your idea of putting the collars around my new plantings...you gotta tell us what clems you got from Debbie....I love all your ideas keep'em coming...
thanks demstratt. i was thinking of posting a list of all my clems but haven't figured out if i could attach a spreadsheet to a posting.
there are many clems in our zone i can answer questions about, def can make a dud and good list
have garden club tours here sat and tues, and a garden luncheon here tomorrow (luckily very small) so crazed right now but can do after this calms down
had 2 inches of rain in a few hours this am.hope the blooms perk up some look wet and bedraggled from it. guess it is better than high winds or drought.
Been raining here too,sure hope it does'nt ruin your garden tours...will be waiting to see if you can do a spreadsheet....lots to see and learn from you...
Heres a question for you,I have a multi blue and about 3 feet away is another one growing...its about 4 feet tall and has 3 flowers and a few tiny buds...can I move it???wonder how it started growing!!never had one do that before...
multi blue grows low for a long time, bet a branch layered. if it is already flowering, yes you can move it. wiat til after in blom, prune it back and move it when you will be home to get it eastabished it is is hot an dry...some extra tlw (tender loving water) may be required. if the setem is already flowering it must have layered itself some time ago....how old is the original multiblue?
sound like a lucky thing to have happen!
not rain today, but we had so much rain it is still sodden, will be drying out as no rain predicted today or tomorrow...cool, humid and frankly kind of ugly. i went outside at 6 am this morning and mixed up 3 gallons of bayer 3 in 1 and prayed all the ground covers and areas where powdery mildew is a possibility..not the direct clems, but the ground cover,mulch, plants and shrubs around them......
nothing else i can do, anything is handlable except a major outbreak of jap beetles.....hahah..... i did milky spore in the late winter/ early spring this year so have my fingers crossed that it will help and we will not have an outbreak this year like we didi last year.
lesson of the week. don't complain about watering or you may bet 4 inches of rain in one week.
the joy of watering the clems when they need it should be appreciated vs the reality of all this rain!
we are so saturated here..........
So Guru are you feeling like a duck yet? Sounds like you guys got quite a soaking. At least it wasn't hail LOL!!!
you are right ,we can not complain. in last 9 days we may have had 4 inches. just soaked but compared to what i see on news, or your hail, there is nothing to complain about.
dawn, did you fertilize when you cut the damaged vines off? keep us posted on how the clems respond. we may as well make a case history out of it.i am so sorry you lost all that early growth.
I had actually fertilized 2 days before the hail hit....I should wait another couple of weeks.....right?
no, you had so much moisture and clems in the growing season before flower bud formation benefit from frequent fertilizer.
always fertilize when cutting back anyway.
what type did you use dawn?
I always use the granular rose food.
I didn't know if it was a good idea to fertilize again so I didn't just to be safe....but thanks for the info.....It is too hot to do it right now......I might go and fertilize again tomorrow then.....
dawn, always good to fertilize just before a nice rain. and always good to your use your judgement. you have a lot of experience and all the variables of heat, soil, temperatures, next watering, time of day etc etc should be taken into consideration. but clems perform best when fertilized often except when dormant and budding or flowering.
hope the recovery goes well,,,,just can't relate to that hail that late and all that green loss. bet they will be awesome this year tho..plants are like that..aren't they?
Dawn, it might be a good idea to use some Messenger on them, if you have any. Then you wouldn't risk burn but would give them a jumpstart toward recovery. We had a huge hail storm hit last April just after everything had begun to grow nicely for spring. It was so frustrating to have finished the spring cleanup and preps for the hot season just to do it all over again, so I can definitely empathize. Good luck and I hope for a speedy recovery for your garden!
