Pictures!

Here are some pictures of the work that was done on Sunday...

Catmint, Purple Bearded Irises and Foxtails planted

Broom, Lavender and Sedum Autumn Joy

Achillea mill. Oertel's Rose in front of Ornamental Grass

Cleaned up the semi-circular planting bed too...

South side:

Echinacea Prarie Splendor and Primroses were added in the Spring

North Side:

Lavender was also added this year; the primroses look more lush on this side 

Middle of the Bed:

It's a bit hard to tell from here, but you can see the sad looking
transplanted peony between the sedum and Russian Sage

Cleopatra Foxtail Lilies

Planted 3 of the Cleopatra Foxtail lilies which came in the mail last week yesterday. I snuck in an allium bulb and planted some purple bearded irises next to them. The catmints were moved up to the front of the planting bed. It now has a more prominent place along the new path and looks good there. The broom, which never bloomed, was moved next to the new lavenders as well as the sedum which is currently in bloom.

Here is a before picture as well as my plans. I won't be planting the daylily since the catmint is taking up more room than expected. I'll post an update picture later!

Update

I forgot to mention that C and I also moved some peonies planted by a previous gardener to the half round bed in the back, in front of the garage. It was sitting under the pine tree near the mailbox and had bloomed only once after C cut down a couple of young shade (weed?) trees. I am hoping that moving it out to a sunnier area will help it to rebloom in future springs to come.

Bowman's Hill Flower Sale 2014

Yesterday I visited the sping flower sale at Bowman's Hill Flower Preserve and came away with some plants:

• Polygonatum Biflorum (Solomon's Seal). I brought a few years back from the same place. It seems to be doing well, so I thought I should buy two more.
• Asarum Canadense (Wild Ginger). I planted this underneath the sad looking azalea which still hasn't leafed out. 2 plants. 
• Anemone Canadensis (Canada Anemone). I planted this by the back door. It is supposed to be a vigorous spreader and sounds like just the thing to cover the empty space in the shaded back area where it seems difficult to grow anything. 1 plant. 
• Trillium species (Trillium). At $15 a pot, this was the spendiest of the lot. I only brought one since I'm not too  familiar with it and am not sure how well it will do, but the flower on their sign seems nice.
• Stylophorum diphyllum (Celandine Poppy). I was not expecting to purchase these and have never heard of them, but their pretty yellow flowers caught my eye as we drove by them along their driveway. I'm planning to plant these in front of the ferns by the back door. 3 plants.

It was really nice to visit the Preserve and see some of the spring flowers growing in their native environment. Anyone who is interested in gardening should get out to see some gardens as they are extremely useful in determining how a mature plant will actually look once they have filled in. I enjoy pouring over plant catalogs and imagining how the ones I like will grow in my garden, but their focus is usually on the flowers, fruits or vegetables. Nothing will give the gardener a real sense of size and habit as well as visiting a garden. Better than that, visit at different seasons when it is possible to see how they look during different seasons.

I also FINALLY planted the Lady Fern after soaking the bare roots for about 2 hours in water. It is in the back near the large stacked rocks where the ivy used to be. I moved the ivy to the new hosta bed, hoping that they will trail over the broken retaining railroad ties. The Tennessee Ostrich fern is currently soaking in a basin of water and will go in the back since they are expected to become very tall. I brought both varieties as bare roots from Home Depot earlier this year, so hopefully they are still alive. I'm not sure how the astilbes are doing. There may be signs of life from one, but the other two roots are not doing much of anything.

Since C moved the large clump of catmint from the front of the house to the space along the road, there was room for more plants in front of the house. I really enjoy going outside and picking fresh thyme for cooking, so I thought that it would be even better if I could also pick some fruits and vegetables as well.

I move the blueberry plant which was planted in a container by the back door to the front, where it can enjoy more sunlight and planted two hanging baskets with strawberries. A trip to Rutgers' annual spring flower sale yielded a Roma tomato plant which is now in the ground next to two spots of Bonnie sweet basil.

Along the road, there are some leaves which look different from the weeds that normally grow there. I hope that it is one of the foxtail lilies. There should be two, but if only one grows, I will still be happy since they sat around the house for a while before they were planted.

Roadside Flowerbed

Today was a good day to cut back the overgrown and overwintered grasses. Some of the cut grasses were used as mulch, to be covered next week (hopefully) by some store brought brown mulch. The lilies I brought last year have made it through the winter, and I'm hoping that there will be some flowers this year.

I also planted the Foxtail lilies (Eremurus) that I brought from the NJ Flower Show. It seems to be the perfect spot for this plant. Since we are on a hill, the site should have great drainage and the area receives a heavy amount of sun during the summer. However, when I planted them, the tops were left exposed and I learned later that they should have been covered by 2-3 inches of soil. I'll need to remember to run outside and cover them up tomorrow! From what I've read, they won't bloom this year, but should definitely bloom by the third year. By the fifth year, they should really take off.

It's not much now, but hopefully it will look good in the summer. 

A few days ago, I also brought a gardenia which I'm thinking of keeping in the back of the house. There are a bunch of buds on it already. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will do well this summer.