The Dark Season

 

Today we disconnected, emptied, and put away the hoses. We collected the various garden art and secured it in the shed, and put Rob's gravity lounger in the garage.

Yesterday we were both quite depressed, and spent some time talking about how it feels to be surrounded by people who actively want to vote for someone so dumb and mean-spirited. 

But Rob's stage 4 cancer diagnosis this past spring put life in a different perspective for me. We've made it through 6 cycles of chemo, and are just beginning to move toward a more normal life again. The doctor's prognosis hasn't changed from the beginning: 3 to 12 years. Even though his blood work looks good, they simply can't predict how the remaining cancer cells will evolve. 

You are alive until you die, and I want to make sure we take advantage of that time doing the things he wants to do. Physically, it's a new and different normal for him, and sometimes he gets depressed about this. But I think the more we can be out in nature, exploring, the more he will be able to put the cancer in the background to enjoy his time. 

So we'll snuggle in for the dark season and celebrate the holidays, and then look forward to a new growing season and new places to enjoy.

Last of the Bulbs 2024

The Brecks bulb order arrived a few days ago. Some for me, and some for Emma's garden.

Today I put the crocus in a semicircle around the pink monarda in the third raised bed. I did use cayenne pepper when I planted these, since they are shallow (3") and small.

The honey lily turns out to get 3 to 4 feet tall, so that went in the back of the NW triangle garden.

Then I took a break :-) But the weather was so nice, I went back out. I dug up the great daffodils from the abandoned garden where Emma had marked them for me, and put most of them along the curve of the northeast garden, with a few extras near the entrance walk to the porch. 

Then I had two sets of daffodils from the Breck's order. 

The Original Poet's Daffodil (5 bulbs) went in front of the big pot by the mudroom porch. These are white with orange tipped cups.

The Golden Dawn daffodils I dug into the dragon head garden, around some other perennials that should help to hide the foliage after they bloom. They're near the carex, the plant with the very soft whitish foliage (whose name escapes me at the moment), and the dianthus. These are the same that I have already in the NW triangle bed with multiple flowers per stem.

Planting Bulbs and More

 

I got a set of bulbs from Longfield Gardens: 5 of an orange and dark red Asian lily, 5 of a white allium (Mt. Everest), 6 of the Purple Sensation allium, and about 25 of the little iris. 

I planted one white and three purple alliums to the left of the big pot off the mudroom porch. That is the location where I removed the extremely tall pink and white Asian lilies. Before I planted the bulbs, I added a bunch of compost, and moved the short garden phlox to the area. Then the alliums went in behind it. 

I put the Asian lilies in the NW area around the dragon head. So behind the hoary vervain there, and left of the clematis. I did slice and dig up one of the species tulip bulbs in that area unfortunately, but those are mostly farther to the left. 

I scattered the remaining allium bulbs in the dragon head bed, around other perennials that will hide the foliage of the allium as it dies back. Then the last set of bulbs, the little iris, went around the base of the clethra, where we'll be able to see them from the kitchen window in early spring.

The photo at the top is of the dragon bed, with all the pavers and bird scare tape trying to stop the wild turkeys. I added more scary tape today because it does seem to make a difference, even if it looks ridiculous. (Rob is in the background, cleaning his bike.)

Turkeys, Grrr.

 

The wild turkeys have spent a lot of time digging up the young plants I put in. It has been incredibly frustrating. I have covered most of the ground around the plants with pavers and boards, and finally put up bird-scare ribbon. I actually don't know if the ribbon is working because I haven't seen any turkeys in the yard since I put it up. Replanting and raking out all the mulch was getting very tiring. 

My order of agastache was canceled, along with one of the two groundcover sedums. I did receive one of the groundcover sedums, although I haven't put it in the ground yet. I'm still waiting on Tyler to finish the decking --I really am beginning to wonder if he's going to do the job. 

I did move some of the solidago fireworks from the east bed to the area in front of the hollyhocks and prairie dropseed grass. I also added one to the dragon bed, along the back. 

I am really looking forward to seeing this new bed next summer.

We also had a fiery skipper in the yard for the first time (unfortunately being killed by an ambush bug) --I think they're more common south of here. That's the photo above.

More Planting

With some additional rain in the forecast for today, I needed to get the 10 plants I had on hand in the ground yesterday. It was a nice cool morning for it, but the digging was really hard! Most of these plants went into the outer edge of the Dragon bed, where I pulled up landscaping fabric this spring. The dirt here is still so awful! I added quite a bit of compost with each plant.

Because I double-ordered hoary vervain, I put these two plants in the area behind the dragon head where I had removed some of the Baby Joe pye weed. That was easy digging, because I'd dug it up previously, and it has been mulched for several years. 

All the rest was like digging in dry cement, even after that 3/4" of rain. I actually dragged the hose around and watered the holes I dug for everything else, before putting the compost down and the plants in.

Behind and to the west of the baptisia, I put in the two amsonia plants. Behind and to the east of the baptisia I added the two obedient plants. 

The two heart-leaved asters went a few feet east of the armillary compass. 

Finally, after resting, I got the black cohash and goat's beard planted to the west of the hydrangea.

It has rained all day today, but it's only added up to 1/2". The next few days are sunny again, so I'll have to run the soaker hoses in a day or so. And I do still have Blue Fortune agastache, and two groundcover sedums arriving in mid-October. Plus the bulbs :-)

 

Adding and Editing

Apparently I ordered a lot of plants over the last two months 😆

It has been miserably hot and dry over the last weeks and months. It finally rained last night, and we got just under 3/4 inches. It's enough so that I won't need to water today, but I will again tomorrow.

During the cooler mornings of the past week, I did a lot planting and watering.  

1. Spotted bee balm and blue sage went into the SE corner of the wood shed, with the iris and lambs ear. 
2. Baby Joe pyeweed was transplanted from the back of the dragon head to just behind the dianthus. I left some behind the dragon head, but it doesn't seem happy in that spot --buds don't really bloom. There is red monarda back there which I'm sure will colonize the area.
3. Three aromatic asters and three hoary vervain were planted around the armillary compass, alternately. The vervain is more upright, and blooms in summer. Asters tend to be more airy, and bloom in fall. I'm hoping the combination will work well.

Yesterday I received two black cohash, three obedient plant, and three heart-leaved aster. The black cohash will go near the hydrangea, as they are woodland plants, with tall flower spikes. The aster and obedient plant need more sun, and will be added to the dragon head bed.

Early Fall Editing

This coming week, Tyler is going to redo the deck walk and landing pad to and around the water spigot on the SW corner of the house. I've been working on some stuff in order to get plants out of his way, and just doing some normal fall editing.

This morning was a great morning in the garden. We're in one of our more and more common "flash droughts", so many mornings are cool and not humid, and the mosquitoes have disappeared for now. While I get tired of the watering, I'm grateful for the lack of mosquitoes.

I needed to move some Autumn Joy sedum so it won't get stomped on during the decking project. So I put the hose there on a dribble in order to soften the ground. It was two nice clumps, which would have needed separating soon anyway, so win-win. They are now in pots with some compost to keep till I can replant them in the same area. 

I also have some oriental lily bulbs in that west bed, in front of the prairie dropseed grass and hollyhock. I dug out the shorter ones (again, after soaking the ground). They're so dang deep, it's hard to do with a trowel. These are the yellow set. I removed the oregano in the raised bed, added some compost and planted the bulbs in that location.

I also removed the purple coneflower from the northernmost raised bed, since we've agreed that it would be nice for that bed to have only shorter plants so we can see to the other two beds. I got that transplanted to the back of the dragon bed, where the soil was literally as hard as cement from the lack of water. I do use a soaker hose in that bed, but it goes just along the current plants, so other areas are dry, dry, dry!

I dug out the rest of the iris around the AC unit. Some of them I've put in a pot with some moist compost so I can replant them when Tyler is finished. A few others I've planted around where the mock orange shrub roots are. I used roundup in that area earlier to try to kill back the tree seedlings and the remaining mock orange. It seems to be working, but we still can't mow there because of the stumps. I figure maybe I can just make that an iris bed --it gets more sun since that limb was removed from the silver maple, and the soil is very sandy, so well-drained. Rob has talked about burning out those stumps, and if he gets to that it's fine, but if not then we'll have some iris there.

I still need to cut back the aster that's by the southernmost raised bed before Tyler starts, and I'd like to cut back the dead branches in the mock orange area.