Just some this and that

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Transplanting Forever--

Another plant that can’t seem to find the right spot is a Mock Orange (Philadelphus“Snowbelle”). It is now in its second spot and still not growing strongly, although it was covered with flowers this spring. Since it is not doing that well and is taking up valuable real estate in the Cottage Garden, it will be moved in the fall to, I hope a better spot. I love Mock Orange, but I can’t get them to grow on this property!

A Riot of Color—

I have planned my Cottage Garden following all sorts of rules and advice as to color and texture combinations. I have now decided to throw that out. I will put a plant where I decide I want it at that moment. If it survives there, it stays there. If it doesn’t thrive, I will move it to another, pretty much pulled out of a hat, location. The same goes with buying a plant—if it catches my eye, I will try to find a spot for it.  My main “design” principle is to have a riot of color. I love color—mostly strong and vivid colors. My garden will mirror that. Also, I will give up planting only “edging” plants as edging at the front of the garden. I will use plants up to 2 foot tall. I think that will be more interesting and easier to maintain if a plant dies.

I will be adding some common orange day lilies in pockets here and there.

Deer Deterrents—

Deer No-No may work, at least sometimes. It is very hard to know when a shrub is doing well simply because the deer hasn’t come, as opposed to being turned off by Deer No-No. A neighbor says he never has a deer problem because he uses “Irish Spring” soap on stakes within his garden. I am trying that also, but so far, I have discovered that some critter(s) take the soap and eat it, thus leaving the plants to be eaten! I am still working on how to protect the soap! I think that I have thus taken a step backward!

I put some Deer Scram in one of my gardens today but I can’t put it down as the instructions state because of the way my garden is set up. So I put it on soil around the plants—we shall see.

So far, the best deer and other critter deterrent has been the 4 foot tall welded wire fence around the cottage garden!

Other—

Since the tomato plant has grown taller than the cage, I will have to add some wire fencing to the top, somehow.

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Small accomplishments

Wednesday, July 12, 2012

I decided to transplant two perennials that were lanquishing and I really considered removing them permanently from the garden. I am giving them a second chance, but if they don't do well--out they go--I np longer have the time nor energy to put up with slaggards! Besides, they take up valuable real estate.

One was Echinacea "Magnus". It didn't do all that well last year when I planted it and for a number of reasons is not doing well this year. I moved it with the other Echinacea area which is flourishing. Now we will see.

The other plant is Penstemon "Hucker's Red". I moved it in with "Penstemon "Dark Towers" (which is also not growing as I would like, but at least it is growing and flowering. Now we will see for this one also.

It has been quite hot and sunny here with not much rain (and we could use some about now). I have been watering just the Cottage Garden. I am using one of those sprayers with a dial with many patterns and I have one that works well for this garden. I can water the "upper" area well, and then I move it to the "lower" area. I use "forward rectangular pattern". It also seems to work well in the Copper Beech Garden.

My tomato plant ("Big Boy") has grown taller than the cage and I have many flowers on the plant! I hope nothing happens to it. The deer still has been coming by (but when?) but has left it alone, so far.

Well, time to go into the garden for a look-see and some watering.
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Oh Dear! ...a deer!

July 2, 2012....

Deer came through, probably early this morning, ate flowers of Joe Pye Weed –thought it didn’t like this plant! I hate deer, woodchucks, and snakes! Gardening certainly has many challenges.

My Filipendula-Queen of the Prairie, is doing well. This is a “returnee” from my original garden of many moons ago. ....

Returnees: Filipendula growing next to a Ligularia.

A few others are also hanging in and probably more are trying but since I don’t recognize the leaves for the most part, they probably have been pulled as weeds. Such is life when you let a garden go to rack and ruin and then decide to re-establish it! Those remaining are: Malva, peony, Ligularia, Siberian and some German  iris, common variety orange day lily, periwinkle, a couple of privet hedge, some hybrid day lilies, a couple of the many lilies I planted, blue hydrangeas-snowball and Lacecap, Monarda, yucca, tall grass-Miscanthus- I think.

I bought some plants from Wayside’s the “end of spring” sale. It is always problematic ordering when it is almost summer. The plants looked pretty good. I ordered a delphinium and thought that that might not work out and didn’t. The plant died so I am getting a credit. I think late summer-early fall, I will order the same plants from Wayside, LazyS, and maybe Bluestone—doing some comparison shopping between mail order companies.

Speaking of mail-order buying—I like many hard-to-find plants but without doing a lot of traveling around, so I resort to mail-order. I really prefer to see and pick my own plants, but I also do not like to travel far as much as I used to do. I always mail-ordered as well, even then. Personally, I don’t find quite the same “quality” or “handling” (I can’t find the right word) as in the past and many of the nurseries have gone out of business or were bought out. I used to order from a nursery in Ohio (?) called “The Garden Place” –what a variety and quality. The plants came bare-rooted but each one was perfect. I do buy potted plants from Home Depot (Norwalk or Fairfield), Perennial Gardens (Bedford, NY), Reynolds (Norwalk), and last year from Costco (Norwalk). Of course, buying potted plants can still be “iffy” as many plants seem to be growing well but turn out to be pot-bound and have a bit of a struggle getting reestablished in a garden. OK, enough of this ...

I planted Monarda Jacob Kline last year after hearing wonderful things about the plant. It was nice but I didn’t see what all the hoopla was about—but this year—WOW. We have some strong breezes coming across the property sometimes, and I had to do a loose twine “corset” around the plant. The stalks are at least 4 foot tall now.

Monarda Jacob Kline

I have decided to buy a tape recorder so that when I go into the garden it will be easy to “make notes” to be transcribed later.

Off to Home Depot shortly—hope I find something nice since my garden helper is coming tomorrow and he can help me plant them. I like bright and strong colors mostly, so I think some Rubeckia would be a good choice.