I fret about trees

Maybe because trees take so long to get established and grow large enough to cast some shade, I tend to worry about mine. So far, none have succumbed to disease or pests or weather, but still I fret.

This pic is the trunk of the pagoda dogwood. I'm not finding any help online about this issue. So far, the tree looks fine, but this is a worrisome sight.

The 'Perfect Purple' flowering crab in the front yard has a similar problem. Again, the tree looks fine otherwise (except for losing the leader which broke off in a storm). I hope it continues to do well.

At least the redbud in the backyard that lost a leader-type branch in the same storm has several applicants vying for that position. We'll see who comes out on top (so to speak).

I don't worry about the bishop's weed - it's indestructible - but it does seem to suffer from leaf spot, or something like it. I *could* try to do something about it, but like I said, indestructible.

One plant I had completely forgotten about is this Japanese painted fern I received as a gift when I retired. It must like its location at the end of the hosta bed, and I admire its tenacity, but it is too well hidden. Perhaps it would make a good houseplant?

After a week of hot, humid, rainy weather, almost everything that blooms in the yard is leaning if not outright prone. Even the Russian Giant sunflowers are falling over, despite not having seed heads yet. The natives along the fence are particularly bad. And because of the weather, I have not been able to be out there helping everything get upright again. There are several dry, temperate days ahead, so I'd better stop writing and start staking.

They come and they go

While dividing and transplanting the 'Autumn Joy' Sedum, I found some old plant markers from previous attempts to fill the bed by the front walk. This discovery led me to comb through my blog, looking for references of what other plants I have loved and lost. The list is mournfully long.

Whatever happened to the lovely Hibiscus 'Luna Red'? Or the equally red crocosmia? Some plants just succumb, but others meet their demise because of my never ending need to move things around which results in my losing track of them. So now I am trying to catalog everything that is currently growing in my yard AND mark their location so they won't be forgotten.

Here are two examples of plants that need tracking collars. The Heuchera 'Zipper' above and the Japanese painted fern below are easy to forget about. I added the former to the hosta bed last year, the latter two years ago. I have faith that 'Zipper' will grow big and strong and fulfill its destiny to provide some contrast to the two other heurcheras that flank it. The fern has survived despite being located next to the dryer vent, but I think it could do better elsewhere, if I don't forget it altogether.

Without some kind of system, I will also continue to make the mistake of calling something one thing when it is something else entirely. Take the grass below, which I have been referring to as big blue stem, even though it looks nothing like big blue stem, especially its plume-like seed heads. My SO commented in passing how it looks similar to his silver grass but not quite.

After scrolling through my blog, I now think it is maiden hair grass, a.k.a. Chinese silver grass. I planted some in the yard once upon a time and don't know what happened to it. I think this plant (which I moved to its current location last fall) might be it.

How do you maintain your garden census?

Perfect weather, sort of

We have been having some gorgeous weather from the human comfort standpoint - cool, dry, partially overcast so no sun baking one's brains, etc. Some of the garden plants, especially the sad looking sweet potatoes, wish it were warmer, and they all could use a good soaking rain. But us two-leggeds cannot complain. Some hot days are coming, then hopefully a storm and more of these reasonable temps. We'll see - weather is so fickle.

Here's what's happening in the yard these days:

First up, garlic!

The pic above is 'Music' which is supposed to be the newest fave of backyard garlic growers. I purchased it from Burpee, who sells it by the ounce, not the bulb, so I had no idea how much I was getting. Turns out a LOT, enough to experiment with. Pickled garlic, anyone? (The variety below is either Bogatyr, German Extra Hardy, or Georgia Fire, all of which I grew from my own stock.)

I think the fountain never made it out of the shed at all last year. Now that I am home ALL THE TIME, it is back on the back porch where I can enjoy its burbling while simultaneously enjoying this great weather. (Notice Meyer lemon in the back. It is much recovered and doing great - knock on wood!)

Next to the back porch, where I can keep an eye on it, is some swamp milkweed, which is relatively new to the yard.

Not so new to the yard is common milkweed, all volunteers. Milkweed spreads easily but is also easy to discourage, either purposely or not. Given the plight of the monarch population, I am going to deliberately encourage these guys.

New garden art!

Last year, I added the cat below. This year, when I passed the same vendor at the Three Rivers Festival, I eyeballed the sampling but nothing (that was within my price range) caught my eye. My SO, however, returned the next day and bought me the above heron. It is standing in the rhubarb patch, but I am thinking it would look great by a pond. Agree?

Here's is the Japanese fern I mentioned before, a gift from my (now former) co-workers. It's still alive, and now I am interested in maybe adding a few tall ferns to the back of the hosta bed. Maybe. We'll see how this one does.

Another gift from those co-workers, a Supertunia. I'm not much of a petunia person, but I am curious to see what a super version of one does.

And, finally, daylilies.

My daylilies bloom every year, and every year I am so taken with their luscious colors that I photograph them, and the photos look remarkably similar to the photos from previous years.

Yesterday I picked my first tomatoes of the season, some cherry-sized ones. I planted two varieties of cherry tomatoes and the plants have become so HUGE and intertwined that I am not sure which plant these came from. I'm guessing the Matt's Wild Cherry, simply because the black cherry should be darker, right? I've not grown either before, so I'm not sure what to expect, except great taste. Yum!

Random Wednesday (without pictures)

1. I am still getting used to being retired. Every day feels like Saturday. It's hard to give myself permission to sit down and read a book or watch a movie, as I'm not used to having enough hours in the day for such leisure activities.

2. Yesterday, I weeded the hosta bed and moved 'Love Pat' from one end to the other where a space had opened up as a result of said weeding. Then a Japanese painted fern went into the spot formerly occupied by 'Love Pat'. The fern (Athyrium nipponicum (goeringianum) 'Pictum') was a departure gift from my co-workers. The plant tag says it prefers to grow by water or in bog gardens. No such environment exists in my yard, so I hope I can keep it alive.

3. My co-workers also gave me a petunia hybrid known as Supertunia 'Indigo Charm'. That went into the bed by the front walk.

4. Speaking of the bed by the front walk, I have been slaving away there recently. Last year, I move some 'Clara Curtis' painted daisies there, and they were so happy, they rapidly began overwhelming everything else. I relocated those, then realized the few surviving coreopsis were blocking the view of the delphinium (which I was surprised to see survived last winter). I shifted the coreopsis to the back of the bed. I have alternative plans for the beds that are by the patio, so I moved salvia, scabiosa, and lavender from there to here. So now there is a big hodgepodge of plants in the bed by the front walk, including several sedums both low growing and tall. We'll see how they sort themselves out.

5. My experience with coreopsis is they rarely last more than a few years. The exceptions to the rule (knock on wood) are 'Route 66' and 'Zagreb'.

6. I have been picking almost a quart of raspberries on a daily basis, eating some, freezing the rest. A half pint of local organic raspberries goes for $4 in these parts, so I am feeling rather smug about my harvest.

7. When I planted potatoes in raised beds this year, it was with the intention of moving some of the dirt from the patio beds to the potato beds as the potatoes grew. The potatoes got ahead of me, WAY ahead of me, but I did add some of that dirt this week, topping it with straw. I learned from the first potato bed that I should work the outside edge before the interior areas, to keep everything propped up.

8. Sadly, it appears that my asplenifolia has died. It leafed out this spring, but now all the leaves are dead. Perhaps a delayed reaction to the harsh winter? I'm doing a wait-and-see, maybe it will recover, but so far, it does not look good.

9. I found my gas meter yesterday. During the month of June, my yard received over 7" of rain. Great for plants, even better for weeds. In the past, I have received a letter from the gas company, informing me they could not read the meter due to the weeds. Now they read the meter remotely, but I still want to keep that area clear. And the air conditioner.

10. No need for AC today. It is a lovely, breezy, partly sunny 75 degrees. Open the windows!