Winter Containers

My trifecta of winter containers: Yellow holly with red twig dogwood and southern pine, juniper with mini red holly and southern pine, and red ilex berry with boxwood.  All for the bargain price of $10 FOR EVERYTHING!  Thank you Scott Arboretum for the Winter Greens Sale!!  AND I still have red holly and some other winter greens to add the my wreath or mantle.  I also plan to pick up some free douglas fir greens from the Christmas tree place.

Goodbye Cousin It

Before

After

Hugh and I had been thinking about removing this 8foot wide grass plant for ages.  A previous owner had created a 4' diameter concrete pond adjacent to the driveway with this grass plant beside it.  The plant grew so big it covered the pond completely. I broke up the concrete with a sledgehammer in the spring so we wouldn't have any stagnant water to breed mosquitoes.  I had asked our lawn guy to give us a price to remove it, but he never gave us one so I took matters into my own hands.  I created a craigslist post advertising a free grass plant but specifying that they would have to bring their own tools and dig it up.  Sure enough, a guy came and dug it out (in four pieces).  A levelled the dirt mound with a metal rake, added 4 bags of topsoil, then planted some grass seed.  I can't wait to see it all filled in! 
In related news, Sav-a-Lawn came and aerated the entire lawn and added more grass seed. 

tulip bulbs planted

June helped me plant twelve tulip bulbs in the daylily bed. Hopefully the squirrels won't dig them up and eat them before spring.  I've been dreaming of rearranging all the bulbs, but never quite found the time.  Maybe next spring. These bulbs I purchased from the supermarket - impulse purchase.

Basil Harvest

While Robin sat quietly in her stroller, I took out all the basil.  Robin is pretty grabby these days, and couldn't resist trying to stuff some basil leaves in her mouth. After letting her do a little taste testing, I made a big batch of pesto.   I froze most of it in ice cube trays to use later. 
I also took out a tomato plant, harvested a fig, and planted 10 cloves of garlic. 

Harlequin Bug on Brussel Sprouts

First Figs

The first two figs ripened and I picked them  Delicious!  Funny thing is, there were four there all summer.  These two ripened, the other two are almost ready to go, then BLAMMO!  Now there are about 12 new ones suddenly.  I wonder what will happen to them?  Will it get too cold for them?  will they ever ripen?? 

Monarch

Our butterfly bushes are really doing their job this summer!  I love the bushes right up against our family room window.  The girls love to watch the butterflies from inside without any of the bother of the mosquitoes (which seem to get worse every year!)

Raccoon Babies

Spotted today in the back yard then later on the front porch.

We don't usually see them during the day, but they look pretty happy and healthy, so I'm not too worried.

What's blooming now

I have been neglecting the garden lately, and it needs a serious weeding, but here is a brief update on what is blooming now:

Swallowtails and House Wrens

Spotted this week in the garden:

House Wren

Tiger Swallowtail

Yay, wildlife!!

Red Admiral Butterfly

Another great thing about planting these echinaceas next to the family room window is that it attracts butterflies and fuzzy bumblebees (June's favorites) which we can watch from the window.  This red admiral butterfly was hanging out on the flowers long enough for June and I to grab the insect guide and look it up.  June was delighted to match the picture to the butterfly.

Filling in

I'm happy to see the perennials I put in last summer filling in the bed outside our family room window.  The window sills in there are low, so it was important to get the flower height just right so that they just peeked over the top of the sill - visible, but not blocking views.  The echinacea, daylilies (already there when we moved in) and black eyed susans were just right. Now I just need to get rid of that morning glory that twists itself around everything, hide that big green sewage pump, and tidy up the gutters.....Oh, and repaint the house :)

Grass Seed Experiment

I finally leveled the rocky, bamboo root infested mound that sat at the southeast corner of our backyard.  I added some of that grass seed/fertilizer/mulch all-in-one products by Pennington.  I also spent an hour breaking up the soil around my new shade garden.and raking in some 3 year old grass seed. 
It is supposed to get hot later this week, so not great timing, but I'm giving it a go.

leveled mound at southeast corner

shade garden at north east corner

Ajuga

My step-mother-in-law also sent over some Ajuga.  I don't know much about it except that it has purple flowers.  When I googled it it came up as "invasive" which seems to describe just about every groundcover out there.  Makes sense, since the point of groundcover is to quickly and thoroughly cover the land.  The description also read "sun/part shade" and I planted it in more of a part shade/shade area so hopefully it won't go too crazy and cover everything.

Ajuga in front row

New Ajuga planted

Painted Ferns - the kindness of strangers

Well, not strangers exactly.....
I mentioned to my step-mother-in-law Julie that we were trying to fill in some shady gaps in the garden and within hours she showed up with ferns.  I was ecstatic to get some big ole ferns in to add some height and texture to the ivy beds on the north side of the house.  She also handed over a hosta which I promptly split in two and planted (you can see one of them along the fence below)
THEN, I walk over to her house the other day, and find two large cardboard boxes of japanese painted ferns!  For me!  Julie mentioned to her friend at work Gwen, that I was in need of some planting material and Gwen yanked some ferns out of her garden.  I hardly even know Gwen, but I find it so sweet that as Julie's friend, and fellow gardener, she went to all that trouble.  So nice!!
The painted ferns had a tough two days in their cardboard box, but I think they'll spring back.  Gwen says they are from the Scott Arboretum and aren't picky about their soil.  We'll see....

 Also note my astilbe blooming.  There is another one next to it, but it is pretty scrawny and it is unlikely that it will bloom.

Marigolds

I put in some marigolds yesterday.  I don't see marigolds much in high-end gardens.  I guess they are considered pedestrian for most serious gardeners, but i think they deserve a little more respect.  I have such happy memories of my Dad planting marigolds in our backyard when I was young.  They are such happy sunny little flowers that don't seem to take themselves too seriously.  They now welcome visitors in the bed up near our front door, and I know i can count on them to provide color all summer long.
Coreopsis now blooming up there too.

Fig Tree Planted Yesterday

Yesterday, June and I planted our fig tree right next to the vegetable garden.  Gram bought it for us from Mostardis Nursery.  I hope it makes it.  It was in its pot for quite a few weeks while we figured out where to put it.  A good number of leaves turned yellow and fell off... Fingers crossed for a full recovery.

Italian Everbearing - A bush type grower with at least 2 crops of large, prolific bearing, reddish brown figs having sweet, pink flesh.  The large and flavorful figs resemble those of 'Brown Turkey' but they are larger.  It is a very popular fig in Italy as well as in California.  It is excellent either fresh or dried.

Not our figs, but we hope to get some soon.

Bamboo trench

1'-0" deep bamboo deterrent trench

Hugh and I dug a 1'-0" deep trench a couple weeks ago to deter the VERY INVASIVE neighbor's bamboo from encroaching into our yard.  It has been a great source of frustration for me.  The 20'+ bamboo grows so rapidly that when we came back from our week long vacation, the little shoots we left had grown into 10' tall spikes.  The new shoots are easy to stamp out, but once they are over a couple feet tall, they start becoming woody and you need a saw to cut them down.  Then of course, you are left with sharp spikes sticking out of your lawn - not desirable.  So, in short, we don't want the bamboo in the yard.  We dug a trench and we are supposed to go along the trench twice a year and prune back the runners that attempt to cross the trench.  We are giving the bamboo a couple feet of our yard because it does make a great privacy screen and we hope that, by the end of summer, we won't be able to see our neighbors ugly chainlink fence anymore.

Add some ferns and..voila!

View from the deck

I dug up some wayward ferns from around the backyard and moved them into the loamy soil where the side fence used to be.  I also split up a existing hosta into 6 mini hostas to hhelp fill out the area  Cheap and easy! 
Now, just one question: what do i do with the dry shade in front of the bed?  Try some grass?

New Hydrangea and Birdhouse

"Endless Summer Blushing Bride" and post top birdhouse

The birdhouse already has a new inhabitant.  We're pretty sure it is a chickadee, but sometimes it doesn't look like one at all.  When you see it in person, it doesn't seem quite as black as the other chickadees around.

Doesn't look like a chickadee here...

Here it looks like a chickadee

New Planting on the North Side

After fenced removal - before planting

After fenced removal - before planting

After fenced removal - after planting

After fenced removal - after planting

I added hosta elegans, pink rhododendrons, hosta frances williams, Viva redhead coleus, and japanese forest grass.'all gold"

Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker spotted in our backyard!

Birdhouse gone terribly wrong

I bought this birdhouse at Target.  Cute, right?  I thought so.  I put it in our backyard hanging from our maple tree.  After a week, I looked inside and was delighted to find a couple twigs. Perhaps the beginning of a nest??  After a few days, I peeked in again and was disappointed to see that the three twigs had not moved.  Apparently, the bird did not find the vessel a suitable home.  But, I thought the house looked pretty cool hanging out there so i left it, hoping another bird might give it a try. However, I looked in the other day and found:

 A GIGANTIC HORNET!  Luckily, my brave hubby knew what to do and secured a plastic bag over the whole thing.  When the huge hornet came back, he swatted it dead with a squash racquet.  Well done!
Now the plastic wrapped house is sealed in a 5 gallon bucket in our driveway.  We probably won't touch it for at least another month and we definitely won't be hanging it back outside!  Scary.

Broccoli and Pea Harvest

We just got back from a week long vacation in Florida.  I left the broccoli just starting to bud, but when we got back it was already about to flower.  I missed the ideal harvest time. June and I wasted no time in harvesting all the crowns.  I filled a gallon ziploc bag with the freshly picked and cleaned bounty and stuck it in the freezer for steaming up later.

Our first peas are popping now too. Delicious!
The spinach got to be about two feet tall and stringy so I yanked it out of there.  I'm tired of spinach now anyway.  We have tons in the freezer and we can do some more in the fall.
Little tiny peppers are forming on the one pepper plant.
The tomato plants all had their tops nipped off (deer).  I doused them in Liquid Fence.
Most of our sunflower seedlings are suffering.  June can't resist stamping on them or digging them up.  We might still get a couple.
Now that the broccoli is done I think I'll try some string beans in their place.  I couldn't find any plants, so I guess I'll have to try them from seed.

Peonies in bloom!

One of my all time favorite flowers is now in bloom in our yard.  I wish the blooms lasted longer, but maybe their fleeting nature is part of the appeal.