My ‘to do’ list is burying me

Over this spring and summer I have been making a list of all the cool ideas I have seen in magazines, books, blogs, websites, etc that I would like to put into my yard and garden.

Last week, I took a look at that list. Then, after stepping back, taking a deep breath, and developing a very skeptical frown, said to myself "There is no way you are going to get all of that done!" I may have created a monster. One that will most assuredly demand every free minute of my time. I know me well enough to know that I won’t do all of this. Hmmm, maybe if I break it down into smaller pieces so it doesn’t look so overwhelming, I can get it done. I am a hopeless optimist. Time management will definitely play a huge roll if this list is going to be completed.

Projects:
1-Replace grass under the fruit trees with groundcover so I don’t have to mow under them.
2-fill low areas in lawn with top soil
3-replace west gate with new gate, trellis and plant bed
4-replace grassy area at east gate, next to garage/shed with brick pavers in a lattice design (with thyme growing in the open areas)
5-build a cover over the deck, to block out sun, and to hang plants from
6-build trellis over B3 perennial bed to provide some relief from the intense sun
7-build a ladder trellis for containers to set on back deck
8-build shelves in back shed to store pots, plant trays, etc
9-lay a flagstone walkway to back shed
10-install walkway lights along driveway and front/back walkways
11-design an herbal bed and make herbal vinegars, potpourris, teas, etc
12-design and build a row cover system to extend growing season
13-design and build a cold frame
14-paint bird bath and shed doors deep blue?
15-make edging more permanent with bricks or stone
16-make hose guides for garden hoses until irrigation system is installed
17-build another tower for runner beans
18-build a better trellis for tomatoes, those wire jobs are just not strong enough
19-install irrigation system, tired of dragging garden hose around, timer would be a life saver
20-design a trellis for front of house to grow clematis and or honeysuckle

I am sure the list will get longer before it gets shorter. I find so many great ideas from reading garden blogs, etc that I can't help but want to try them myself. Maybe I should just learn to restrict myself a little. Oh, where's the fun in that?

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Springhill Nursery order, part one

Received part of my order from Springhill Nursery. The backordered plant is a Dianthus Desmond, siz of them, actually.

The way they packed these shows, to me, that they really care about them arriving healthy and unblemished. The plants are all very well protected and they all are in very good condition. The instructions with that came with them said they are to go into the ground immediately. And, so they shall. When I unpacked them the root systems were very well developed. I will definitely order from Springhill Nursery in the future.


Caryopteris Summer Sorbet


at maurity

I have two other Caryopteris, Dark Knight and Sunshine Blue, that I planted in April of this year and I love their easy growth habit and the beautiful blue flowers all over them, at the ends of their long graceful stems. Sunshine Blue has light yellowish-green leaves that really dictates where you place the shrub, it just doesn’t look real good where it currently is so I have plans on moving it soon. The Dark Knight has darker green leaves that allows it to go next to just about any other plant. This one, Summer Sorbet, shares both foliage colorings and it may work in places the Sunshine Blue won’t. I’ll have to try it to see for myself.

They all tolerate some drought, perfect for my dry conditions here in Utah. Intolerant of wet, poorly-drained soils, so my clay has to be worked really well with compost and I am a little worried about this winter’s snowmelt. It will be a true test to how well I have compensated with the compost.

As long as the roots survive Caryopteris will come back and flourish. At any rate, they can take hard pruning each spring which will promote vigorous new stem growth. And all of the blooms come on new growth anyway.

They are commonly called Bluebeard, Blue Spirea, and Blue Mist. I’m not sure I have ever heard of them before this year but, so far, I’m glad I did. They make really lovely shrubs, at only 2’-3’ tall and wide, and make a really nice focal point to the border.

A bonus is that it is aromatic when brushed against and they all attract butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects. What more could you ask for in a shrub?



Sedum Improved Golden


at maturity

This one is billed as one of the finest ground covers for sunny dry slopes and banks. I don’t plan on using it on a slope or bank but my yard has no shortage of dry sunny places so it should fit in everywhere. I planted a Sedum Autumn Joy this spring which grew into what could best be described as a stalk of broccoli. I wasn’t real impressed but the pictures of it in full bloom told me to have patience. Once it bloomed, after the weather began cooling off, I knew I just have to have some more. The coloring started as a light pink and soon turned into a brilliant red that simply complimented nearly everything around it. I love this plant. I don’t see it being used as a groundcover because it grew to be 10” tall. I picture groundcover as being only a few inches tall and spreading outwards. Autumn Joy is a stalk but I plan on buying more anyway.

Then I saw this little beauty. And when I learned that I would not have to wait until fall to see the flowers I was sold. This one blooms in late spring and early summer and grows to only 5”-9” tall, which is more in line with my ideal of a groundcover, yet still a little tall. I bought six of them and hopefully they will spread quickly without being too invasive. It is described as a ‘hardy’ creeper which I am beginning to understand in garden nursery parlay means it is a bit invasive. It is to be spaced 12”-18” apart so there is another sign of its invasiveness. But it does have such beautiful yellow sumptuous flowers, doesn’t it?



Hollyhock Brilliant Miniature


at maturity

I have always liked the look of a bunch of Hollyhocks in bloom but their lankiness and the prospect of having to deal with plant supports in the middle of a flower bed put me off. These little guys only grow to be 30” tall and seem like they just might be what I was looking for. They bloom all through summer so they will add a splash of red anywhere I need it.

Aster Snowdrift


at maturity

My three Aster Alma Potschke plants steadily grew this summer into nice looking shrubs, patiently waiting until the weather cooled off, and then they simply burst into a beautiful mound of pink flowers, seemingly overnight. I was so impressed with their proliferation that when I saw these Snowdrift with their blizzard of delicate white daisies I knew the perfect place to show it off. I am going to place six of these in front of and surrounding my two brilliant red rose bushes. I can’t wait to see this combination next September and October.

They grow 4”-6” tall and spread 20”-24” so this is my idea of a groundcover. It is a care-free and very hardy selection of a native American wildflower that is a favorite with butterflies.

You just gotta love it.

Liatris White


at maturity

I planted a Liatris Kobold this spring that sadly did not survive our hot dry summer. I really like the non-standard shape of this plant. It just isn’t rounded or mounded or bushy like the typical perennial with its spikes that reminds me of cattails I used to see around the lake I grew up near as a kid. They weren’t white, of course, but there is something about the shape that I want in my garden. Besides I am not going to let these hot summers tell me I can’t have one of these so I will try it again and this time put some groundcover to keep its roots cool.

I was surprised to learn that Liatris is actually a bulb. Another surprise is that they bloom from the top down. Two more things that take it out of the realm of ordinary flowering plants.

They say you have to be careful with where you place white flowers for fear of it washing out the other colors but I am going to put five of these in a narrow strip along the north border of my property to help hide a chain link fence, interspersed with red Hollyhocks. They only grow 3’ tall and the fence is 7’ tall but it’s a start. I’m planning on putting some sort of a vine to grow along the top of the fence to help cover the rest of it. Maybe a honeysuckle.

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Clematis Franziska Marie

Here is the baby picture of the Clematis Franziska Marie I planted this morning.



Raymond Evison named this cultivar after his youngest daughter. I apologize for not knowing who Raymond Evison is, but as I understand he is known for growing clematis. I bought this one from Wayside Nursery.

I am also sorry to admit to killing a couple clematis before finally having one that survived. My Clematis Jackmanii has survived two winters now and promises to bloom more than it did last year. So I am emboldened enough to try again. Hopefully, I will be able to do this beauty justice as well.

Here is what Franziska Marie is supposed to look like when it reaches maturity in, what, a couple of years.



This clematis is purported to be a very prolific bloomer. I love the beautiful lavender-blue, double flowers that should liven up a bare section of chain link fence near my compost pile.

Everything I have read about it says it blooms from early summer until well into autumn. My Clematis Jackmanii is supposed to bloom during that time as well but it didn’t this year for some reason that I still don’t understand. I have read that a clematis will bloom more fully each year so maybe this is just what is happening to this one. I am remaining patient, what else can I do, right?

As my experience in gardening grows I hope to be able to coax both of these two beautiful clematis into showing their fullest potential.

The Jackmanii, with its single, deep purple flowers that, in my humble opinion, epitomizes the beauty that this well known vine has to offer, remains my favorite.

The Franziska Marie promises to be another favorite. I read that it blooms on both old and new wood resulting in twice the buds of most other clematis. This sounds like my kind of flowering vine.

Both of these vines are in different pruning groups but that is not intimidating at all. They both are trimmed back to a pair of healthy buds or shoots each Spring, late February to early March. Franziska Marie does not get cut back as severely as the Jackmanii, which gets cut back to 6”-10” above the ground, and they both produce blooms on new wood.

Franziska Marie grows to only 5 foot tall whereas Jackmanii can grow up to 20’ long.

Clematis like to have their feet cool and everything else hot so our hot weather here in Utah is perfect for the top part and not so good for the feet. I plan on using some groundcover, possibly the white Aster Snowdrift depending on how its white flowers looks with the lavender-blue flowers. In the meantime, I copied what I did with Jackmanii and have placed some stones around the bottom.

The one thing that really scares me is that these vines are susceptible to wilt. If I can set a reminder to myself to use a systemic fungicide when I water for protection I might be able to overcome this problem.

I had already prepared the hole with composted steer manure and granulated 10-10-10 so hopefully the roots will be happy over this winter and bless us with some of its beautiful double flowers.

Wish us both luck.

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Preparing for Fall blooms.

Finally found time to go through the new Park Seed catalog, Fall Planting 2007, today. Boy was that exciting! Now that my garden is beginning to establish, minus the few that did not make it, I now have a better idea of the areas that need to be filled in.

Going through plant catalogs is always a pleasure/pain thing. On the first pass, I let myself pick out all the plants I want whether I have space for them or not and then whittle the list down to a more manageable list and then whittle it down again to something a little more reasonable and again to something I can actually budget for.

I purchased a few shrubs on Monday from Wasatch Shadows Nursery to replace those shrubs that did not make it. I suppose I can place the blame on the heat since it has been so hot lately (maybe no one will question my involvement in their demise) but, deep inside, I know it was more due to my lack of experience in caring for new plants in this hot, dry heat. You see, my experience involves starting vegetables from seed and transplanting them in cooler temperatures.

Anyway, I bought two Spirea, one ‘Little Princess’ (the first photo) and one ‘Neon Flash’. These photos are what they have the potential to become. I can only care for them as best I can and pray to the patron saint of plants that I don't mess these up too.





The above Spirea are replacing the Viburnum ‘Aurora’ (next photo) and the Viburnum ‘Red Wing’ that so ungraciously turned into thin, brown, crispy sticks, may they rest in peace. These photos are what they could have become, I don't have the heart to show photos of what they did become.





I also bought a Buddleia ‘Black Knight’ (Butterfly Bush) to replace one of the two Buddleia that didn’t survive my pruning shears earlier this spring. I planted them last year and they were the only plants in the 260 sq ft bed. Actually, they shared the bed with a bunch of bindweed. They took off and looked so beautiful with all of their deep purple blooming spikes. I was afraid they would over-grow their bounds and had I read that they can be pruned to the ground each spring to control their size and shape. I pruned them way back thinking that since they grew so quickly they would come back in no time. I thought for sure I read the instructions correctly but evidently my inexperience once again sent some plants to an early meeting with the compost pile.

My long range plans for this plot calls for creeping thyme around the stepping stones and since the nursery had some Thyme 'Pink Chintz' on sale I bought a flat. Gotta save money where you can, right? Here is what they look like. They only get 3"-4" tall and when you step on them they emit a fragrance of some sort. Sounds good, anyway.




My wife has been after me to fill in the two beds at the front of the house and I found some Scabiosa Pincushion ‘Blue Giant’ plants on sale. I bought two thinking they would add a little height between the roses and the Dianthus and Pansies.




I was concerned about planting in this heat (especially given my luck) but the nurseryman gave me some instruction on how to help them get established. He said to water them deeply 3 times a day for two days, then skip one day and water them deeply again and then wait a few more days and spread the days between watering until they get watered only when the tops start to droop.

Now the two things I have to worry about most are mis-interpreting a 'droop' and drowning the roots from over-watering.

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May Recap

This is the first year I have grown allium of any kind and I planted two different kinds that bloomed this month. The Rosy Bells bloomed a bright reddish pink
and the the Sunny Twinkles bloomed a bright yellow, both very nice looking bulbs. They bloomed later than I thought they would. Still, it is nice to have the bulb blooming season extended in this way.

Carrots are coming along nicely, I planted two kinds, 'Danvers Half Long' and 'Thumbelina'. Both were chosen for their short roots due to our clay soil. The Danvers were put into one of the raised beds and the Thumbelina was put into a container on the deck. I wanted to see if I could grow a salad garden on the deck in containers since I have never grown plants in containers before.

The Clematis 'Jackmanii' has set some beautiful deep blue flowers on the last day of the month.

Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' has begun to show signs of color. This is surprising since I just planted these one month ago.

Dianthus 'Agatha' bloomed weakly, but again was surprised it bloomed at all since it was one of those planted just one month ago.

Dianthus 'Zing Rose' bloomed a deep red. This one was planted last month, so I guess they are going to be prolific bloomer. I can only hope.

One of the Echinacea 'Magnus' sent out a bloom. This one is commonly called the Purple Coneflower. The plant itself is still short, as it was planted last month, and has one flower on the very top.

One of my very favorite and most anticipated bulbs is the Iris. I planted 12 and several have bloomed this month. They are yellow and blue and look very nice.

Lamium 'White Nancy', groundcover, bloomed.

Set out a bunch of Marigolds, hoping to attract beneficial insects to combat caterpillars, etc that would mean destruction of my other plants, such as tomatoes and beans. None have bloomed yet.

Primrose 'Firecracker' opened a bright yellow flower on the last day of the month.

Deadheaded roses for the first time this year.

Salvia 'East friesland' bloomed.

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