Spring Cleaning

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so I decided it would be a great time to start cleaning up the garden. First, I repotted the Crown Princess Margareta climbing rose so that the bud union is under the soil instead of inches above. I had first potted the plant in haste and didn't realize until later, when it started to rain, that it was not planted at proper depth. I also planted a Jackmanii clematis behind it. I hope that the orange of the rose and the purple of the clematis will be a knockout combination.

Next, I attacked the half moon bed in front of the garage. There was a bit of weeding to do and C helped me cut down the large overwintered fountain grass with our nifty electric hedge trimmer.

Before:

After: 

The peony that was transplanted a year or two ago has sent up some shoots. I am hoping that it will flower this year. 

Most of the Russian sage were hand trimmed, as well as the lavender. The Autumn Joy sedum and the Artemesia seem to be doing well. There seems to be signs of Rudebeckia and Echinacea Prairie Splendor as well. The scented lilies which can be seen in the background in the image above seem to be multiplying too. I'm pretty happy about that since they are so fragrant!

 The sedum were planted in front of the house in a bed created by the walkway which is usually filled with weeds. I don't normally like sedum, but they look better than weeds! I only had two flats which I cut into eight 5" x 5" pieces. I definitely need more if I want to cover that area!

Next, I cleaned up some of the catmint and planted some marigolds next to them, thinking that the purple and orange combination might be pleasing... hm... that would be similar to the rose and clematis combination I have in the back. In the picture, there are also irises and an Eremurus (foxtail lily). I had originally planted more than one, but since their roots are so fragile, it seems only one survived. I really should plant some more. Their height and foxtail-like flowers make statement in the bed.  Fortunately, there are two more that I planted a year or two earlier, a little further back. 

At the other end of the bed above, I was happy to see that Achillea millefolium 'Oertel's Rose' (yarrow) is coming back strong and has even spread a little. I planted some more of the marigolds nearby to fill in some of the empty space. Originally daylilly Stella d'Oro were planted there, but they didn't seem to take off.

A picture of the overall bed from the south before the cleanup:

After the cleanup - a view from the west:

Next project - the bed in front of the house. Thanks for reading! :)

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.