Fall Replacements

Spring Hill Nurseries sent some replacement plants for ones that never came up. Last week I planted five hostas and this morning I went out in the rain and planted three Hardy Cyclamen (neapolitanum).

It's not immediately obvious which side goes up or down. Here is what they look like: some kind of cookie with a rough spot on one side.



I decided to plant them with the smooth side down. Since the previous ones did not come up at all, I picked a different spot and prepared the soil by digging a hole that is over a foot across, mixed in sand, fertilizer, and dirt mixed with sawdust (from where the tree was removed at the back driveway).

Here they are, I thought it would be handy to have a picture so that I can look for them in the spring.

Finally I covered them with a couple inches of dirt.

Now I'll just have to get some mulch to cover them over. (Does anyone sell mulch this time of year?)

Yard and Garden Update

We tore out the overgrown bushes along the garage, so now the walkway (where I go in and out every day) is a part of the side yard. The bushes were replaced with a rock run that will handle the rainwater from the downspout that would otherwise come down in the new foundation shade garden.



View from the back patio:



Things are growing well in the butterfly garden. We will have to do something with the stray maple tree soon.

Foundation Shade Garden

As built:

1. Hardy Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifclium) - 3 bulbs
2. Sister Theresa Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) - 1 plant
3. Mixed Hostas - 5 stumps
4. Amethyst Astilbe (Astilbe x. Arendsil) - 3 clumps
5. Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) - 3 twigs
6. Mulch - 3 bags
7. Red Scallop Edging - 12?
8. Dirt

This Week's Garden Project

We had a "Foundation Shade Garden" kit come from the nursery on Tuesday evening. Kind of need to get them in the ground, but there is a lot of preparation work to be done in the place where I want to put them. Here is the "before" photo:

Zach Griffith came over to help. Some of the young men in the ward are trying to earn enough money to go to summer camp, so I am offering $10/hour if they will just come over and work. One, with six hours, so far.

Baby Butterfly Blue Bloom

One of the Butterfly Blue Scablosa has a couple of flowers on it this morning.

The First Flower

There it is, the first Billberry Ice flower:

It was out there this morning, but tonight it is gone. Here is how the garden is looking:

Butterfly Garden Planted

The tree nursery before the big change:



Photos of the new garden:

The New Butterfly Garden

Hey, I've been gone from the blog for almost a year. I guess I've been busy.


Here is what's in the works now: a butterfly garden for Momma. Here are the main ingredients:

1. Wild Romance Aster (3)
2. Butterfly Blue Scabiosa (3)
3. White Obedient Plant (3)
4. Black Knight Butterfly Bush (1)
5. Jacob Cline Monarda (3)
6. Billberry Ice Tradescantia (3)
7. Flagstone Bricks (31)
8. Portage Stones (4 or 5)
9. Dirt and Mulch
10. Stray Arbor Day Foundation Trees (4)
11. Stray Bulbs, including Fox's Grapes

Not Very Tasty

I looked out the back door yesterday morning and saw a squirrel sitting on the back yard fence, eating a bright red carrot. He worked on it for quite a while, long enough to get the camera.


I wouldn't think that anything out of the garden would be very tasty this early in the season, especially if it is made of plastic.

Dry Creek in the Back Yard

Here is it with rocks. It still needs plants and flowers, but that will probably wait for now.

New Back Yard

We put a new fence around the back yard in June. They were supposed to finish it in May before Amy and the kids came, but kept putting it off and putting it off. It's nice now that it is done. The yard seems bigger and Rumples doesn't bother barking at people going by on the sidewalk.



The squirrels have a favorite place near the sandbox where they like to tease Rumples. There was also a cat that was hanging around and walking on the garage roof next door:



The current landscaping project is going to be a (mostly) dry creek bed. I've had something of a trench dug back there in past years to drain off the spring floods. A lot more work is going into this version of it.



It's also nice that Rumples can run around and play without being on a chain.

Spring Has Sprung?

The bulbs are starting to come out, surviving the Winter and the squirrels.

Now we need to decide what to do next. Open up the rodent smorgasbord, or try to grow flowers through the mesh? Some people think that they can be repelled with black pepper, but they may like their bulbs spicy.

The New Garden

We took some time off from the construction projects on Saturday afternoon to plant bulbs in the new garden and transplant perennials.


We have high hopes that the chicken-wire cage will keep the squirrels from digging up all of the bulbs over the winter.


It has:

• A row of Drew's Irises
  
• Two rows of Grandma Oaks' Irises (Not sure if they are going to grow because they have been out in the garage for a year or two.)
  
• Unifolium Allium
• Golden Bells Narcissus
• Uva-Vulpis Fritillaria
• Tulip Angelique
• White Lady Narcissus

You can't see them yet, but these are Italicum Arum.





I also got a new electric stapler out of the deal.

October Storm Cleanup

Have almost cleaned up from last year's surprise October storm. This is what the garden looks like now. The new "grass" is ready for its first cutting as soon as the rain dries up.

This is the closest I could find to a photo of the old garden. (Rumples on the left, old garden on the right.)

Another view featuring a rotting garage.