Journal 2020 First Half

June 30 

The Forgotten Corner

I planted up the corner of the alley on the side of the house only so there would be something to look at from the guest room window, and for some screening of the house next door.

It's far from everything and never really seen. I hung the found art that was here hidden under the Virginia creeper, I planted a Vanessa parrotia in the upper level for screening, and a Peggy Martin rose to cover the fence, and amsonias to fill in below.

The aspen was already here, just a twig when we moved in, and growing despite no care and being stranded in a circle of black plastic under the pink rocks.

But now look at this corner!

Today I trimmed the aspen so you can see down the alley through to the end.

And I added some flat rocks to edge the area since rainstorms always washed the mulch out into the pink rocks. I just picked up some random edging rocks I had stashed nearby, found in other parts of the yard, and it looks so much better. So much better, and more like a garden and not a forgotten corner.

I added fresh mulch, and voila - it looks very nice. And . . .  I have an operating irrigation system in this corner!

June 28 Swaps

Swapped the rock rose in the driveway strip for the more vertical and more dramatic dwarf kniphofia Poco Orange. I put the rock rose in a bowl. There are still two rock roses remaining in the strip.

Swapped the four Russian stonecrops for four Weihenstephaner's Gold sedums in the same spots. I put the stonecrops in pots and will find a home for them. They are big and healthy.

I also added two more Mandarin Orange Kudos agastaches next to the one in the front triangle. It seems like a delicate hyssop and is small, and the space needed more massed together.

June 24 From Dry to Moist, Sun to Shade

Everyone everywhere, even High Country Gardens, says coneflowers and black-eyed Susans want full sun and moderate to dry conditions. "Drought tolerant sun lovers, easy care". They simply are NOT. They really struggle in sun, staying short and stunted, and they wilt horribly -- right down to the soil line, not just a bit of droop -- when not standing in boggy wet conditions. I just don't get the disconnect. It was the same thing with May Night salvia. In my experience in this climate Echinaceas and Rudbdeckias want part shade and moist soil. They want it as wet as the heleniums and geums. And they like some shade. 

So, I . . .  .

• Moved all the Pow Wow white coneflowers to the potting bench curve. As soon as I did I was happy with them. They look sweet scattered about in dappled shade, not so rigidly lined up in hot sun, on the verge of always wilting. They're in different spots in the shadier garden, and the ones I had put in there previously seem to grow a little taller in shade. More graceful, not so stunted. I hope they flower ok.

• Moved Goldsturm black-eyed Susan to a pot. As with any of my struggling plants, when I dug it up after daily and sometimes twice daily soakings, I found hard packed dry earth around the rootball. Sigh.

• Moved the Totally Tangerine geums to a few spots scattered about the kitchen courtyard. They too were in dry hard packed soil despite daily soakings. The kitchen courtyard has a little looser soil and I can water it more easily, but still, there is root competition from the aspen and the butterfly bush and I'll need to water.

• Moved one of the new Blue Ice amsonias that had been at the foot of the Peggy Martin rose to the middle of the strip by the fence -- now that whole strip is amsonias. It's so dry there, probably because of the Virginia creeper vine taking ALL the water. But without the thirsty perennials and with dry loving irises on one side and alliums on the other and amsonias in the middle I can manage this strip better. It's way more open feeling now.

• It will take years for the amsonias to fill in, I know. I swapped some of the Millennium alliums to the spot where the little amsonia had been in front of the rose.

June 22 Some Observations
The monardellas are blooming - tiny things I didn't think would thrive in the red volcanic rock but they are. I hope they spread out and bulk up.

The one in the pot in shade in back is doing well and blooming too. They are supposed to do well in containers . . . and they want shade!

Took the CA poppy sprouts out of the bowls
and put in the white petunias.

I gave up on California poppies in bowls. The seeds sprouted and they came up, but for over a month they've done nothing.

They put down nice long roots, but I'm tired of having nothing to look at while waiting for some growth or --- some day --- some flowers.

I took them out and moved the white petunias from the front porch trough to the bowls in back.

I put the little orange marigold seedlings in the trough. I'll like the mass of sturdy orange marigolds there better than the frilly white petunias.

Marigold seedlings went into the green trough in front.

The Red Mountain Texas betony is very nice. Clear red, flowery even in the deep shade in the dining room window garden, and I want more for the back of the potting bench curve. That spot gets more sun and it might make for a fuller plant; this one is a little open.

The big white gaura is in bloom. It got swamped by flooding when we had rain last week, so it looks a little tattered.

Hollyhocks have great foliage but no blooms yet. 'Las Vegas' are supposed to bloom the first year, and now is the season for their flowers, but nothing yet.

Mojave sage is blooming now. Pretty purple & blue flowers. Odd combo but nice.

Mexican Hats, moved this spring (and a few new baby ones added) have started to bloom.

The red 'Splendens' heucheras just keep going and going. I've deadheaded, and they keep blooming. And now the white 'Icicle' speedwells in front of them are opening up. They are delicate, with tall cones.

Icicle veronica plants are not as big and full as the Royal Candles purple ones in fuller sun. And the long cones are delicate, not the stiff short wands of Royal Candles. 'Icicle' speedwell reminds me of gooseneck loosestrife.

June 21 And Summer Arrives

Exquisitely cool summer mornings now, 60 degrees, so refreshing and chilly on the patio while the hot sun rises and warms the back of my neck. Afternoons are hot, but a cool breeze helps. Sometimes we turn on the air to keep the house from overheating in late afternoon, sometimes we don't need to.

Dry air. Blue skies. Just lovely. Mesquite smoke in the air from someone's grill at dinner time. Evenings are perfect for sitting outside late, so comfortable, dry and perfect.

The Shrubbler irrigation kit came this weekend and I've been laying it out and hooking it up. Need to order some more parts, though, so the project is on hold for a bit. 

I am so, so tired from what little I did so far. It's hands & knees, up and down, back and forth work. Not anything heavy, but tedious physical moving around, kneeling, stretching., etc. I tire so easily now. So far what I have put down works.

And it's been mentally challenging to figure out what to hook up with what and where to put it . . . pretty taxing. But I'm getting the hang of the workings and the design I need. 

When it's finally all hooked up I'll need to go around and bury the hoses under gravel and mulch to hide them. The little sprinkler heads are not visually intrusive at all.

I need to keep in mind this doesn't have to be done all at once, and I'm waiting for more parts anyway. I need to pace myself.

June 16 More Moves

I moved the two Raven geraniums to the back of the dining room window garden where it is in deeper shade. I think that will help with the browning on the leaves, and it needs to be interplanted with other things to look good. Right now they are mixed in with the fine foliage of annual larkspurs. In spring they will bloom with the clear yellow Swallowtail columbines, that should be nice.

And the poor remaining Red Lightning heuchera got moved again for the umpteenth time. This time to the far corner of the potting bench curve up against the fence in deeper afternoon shade.

June 15 Sedum Swap

I wanted the spreading habit and golden orange flowers of Sedum kamschaticum Weihenstephaner's Gold in the front triangle garden. Rich, warm colors to go with what's there.

But the species Russian stonecrops I got are lemony yellow with light (but clean and interesting) foliage, and . . . they are very round and clumpy, not spreading. Not much for flowering at all. I really want to swap them out for the Weihenstephaner Golds. And I'd need to get the rock mulch away from the plants to get them to spread.

So . . . I ordered 4 Weihenstephaner Golds from Sooner Plant Farm and I'll replace these. I'll put these sedums elsewhere. Maybe. These sedums are nice plants, just not the rich gold and spreading form I specifically wanted for this front garden, and too clumpy and sparsely blooming. Nice foliage, though.

June 14 Monsoon Rain

Monsoon came early and yesterday afternoon we got hail, deluges, flooding and an inch and a quarter in total. It came down hard and fast. Of course everything looks fabulous now, the next day, with the sun out and still cool air.

It knocked off the red Cascade roses, which were just going by. Also the Peggy Martin roses, which had gone by about a week ago, but still had a shattered, blowsy look on the vines that was nice.

This morning I cut down the rich blue Royal Candles spikes, they were just going by and the rain made them look done. The white Icicle veronicas in the dining room garden are setting buds, but haven't bloomed yet. Too much shade? Or are they just later?

I took out the blackeyed Susans in the potting each curve -- left just two that seemed not to get so wilty. After the rain it was so easy digging in the most dirt. Of course there were big aspen roots right below teh area that wilted the most, that is part of the problem.

I put in the new Jupiter's Beard I just got at Payne's. A nice sized plant. It should do better and fill the space better than the blackeyed Susans.

June 10 Lotsa Pots!

I'm terrible at container planting designs. All of a sudden this year I have a lot of them.

The best is the 'After Midnight' lavender in the brown pot, moved from the center planting out in the front yard to the corner of the portal and I love it. It makes an enclosure now with the porch column and the rain chain urn.

After Midnight lavender keeps going and going and is a deep, jewel colored, upright bloomer

I like it a lot there. In the background you can see the yellow pansies in the blue urn that looked really bright and filled the empty spot. But the pansies went by in early June.

Love the way the two brown pots finish the corner

So I got a dark leaved full and leafy gaura. I thought the deep red would contrast with the turquoise pot and go with the red volcanic rocks in front, the dark brown urns etc. But nope.

Did not like this color pairing or the wild bed head look either

Too moodily dark, too wildly upright. Wrong color, wrong shape, but a good idea if tucked in with lighter things around. I took it out and put in a frilly white petunia  -- that will look more like the bright pansy did and drape over the edges a bit.

The gaura went into the white cement bowl with purple pansies and a draping oregano. Oddest color combination, but there you go.

Well this is an odd combination

At the base of the little sundial where a wild hairy goldenaster has taken root, I plopped down two red geraniums (pelargoniums.) Bright, sturdy, the eye popping red will really be nice when the yellow daisy-like goldenasters come out.

Simple, bright combo at the foot of the sundial

I wanted to put bright orange marigolds in a tightly planted row in the green trough by the front door, but couldn't find any, and the seeds I planted will take forever. Until they are ready, white petunias went in and they look fine, mirroring the white petunia in the blue urn on the other side of the front porch.

Petunias and pine cones. I ran out of mulch, so I laid pine cones over the open potting mix instead

Trailing nasturtiums in the trough on the table are doing well, and the little ones I transplanted out into the big urn in front are too, although they are behind these in size.

Looking like a jungle. Can't wait to see the blooms

A cuphea in the white pot got stunted at first, with small too-dark leaves. I thought the sun and bright reflection here might be too harsh for it, but it's doing better now and producing more normal looking leaves. And it's flowering. The one I put in the garden in shade did not do well at all.

This will fill out and be very flowery all summer

Three terra cotta containers at the corner of the patio are a nice grouping. The dwarf lavender in the upright pot blooms a very dusty blue. The two shallow bowls have seedlings of California poppies, and I'm hoping I get big masses of clear orange flowers sometime soon. I hope. It's an experiment.

Waiting for orange poppies to go with the dusty blue dwarf lavender

The nurserywoman at Plants of the Southwest said Kent's Beauty oregano likes shade, so I put two big ones in the trough at the very back of the potting bench curve in an empty spot. My hope is that they will cascade over the railroad tie and fill the back edge.

Kent's Beauty oregano needs to spill over the sides of the trough
and over the railroad tie

I have sweet basil in a pot by the kitchen door too.

The terra cotta pot of Gold Dew tufted hairgrass in the shady corner by the sumacs gets almost no sun. This is the most it gets, briefly at 1 p.m. The sumacs, out away from the fence, get a lot of afternoon sun and are looking good.

For now, still a new plant, Deschampsia is just a tussock of green strappy leaves.

It's a cool season grass, so when it is mature I hope it sends up its fluffy flowerheads in early summer.

That's a lot of containers to water and tend. And when we go away for more than a couple days . . . oh my. The ones in sun will need to be moved and I may have to get someone in to water everything.

June 9 New Plants

I went to Plants of the Southwest and came home with an "Orange Mountain Daisy" because the nurserywoman said it took shade. I want it to fill the back of the potting bench curve.

It's Hymenoxys hoopesii --- also called Owls Claws -- and it's actually a helenium that wants full sun and lots of water. God help me. Sneezeweeds can't dry out. I already have the one Tiny Dancer helenium back there (only one of six survived winter) and I have to water a lot. And the fulgida Black eyed Susans, which need water and the Physostegias . . . . Oof. Not really what I wanted.

But I'll try them in shade. They are native to New Mexico at higher elevations and don't want hot dry conditions. So the shade may be good, and one source says that as natives they don't need as much water as hybrid sneezeweeds. A little unkempt looking as a wildflower, but that could be good. Height will be good at the back of this garden.

And Lord help me again, but I bought some beautiful blue flowered delphiniums, but they aren't.

They are annual Rocket Larkspurs, or wild delphiniums, or Delphinium consolida (but now changed to Consolida abacus, no longer in the delphinium family). 

Larkspurs are related to delphiniums, but are annuals that like a bit of shade and mountain conditions.

They want moisture while flowering. They don't like hot weather or too dry conditions.

I put them next to the Robustissima anemone for height and color while I wait for the anemone to bulk up. These should have flower stalks about 3 feet high, easily seen through the dining room windows.

June 8 The No-Shows
No plants to be seen: Crocosmias that I took out of the white pot and planted in the kitchen courtyard are nowhere to be seen. I need to remember I gave up on them in the pot last year and put the pot away. Then they came up very, very late and bloomed in September! I'll wait.

No flowers: The thyme leaf speedwell, which is growing into nice mats, did not flower. No rich blue covering the patio stones. Too young?

Immortality irises look good, but never bloomed at all this spring.

Kintzley's Ghost vine is lush and growing very well. A few chomped leaves from some leaf eating insect, but not bad. It set flowers, opened the rounded bracts, but then nothing happened. No yellow flowers against green discs, which should have opened in late May. Now the bracts are turning silver, and the flowers never opened.

Shrinking: 'Robustissima' anemone is a little smaller than when planted. 'Nikko' deutzia is smaller than when I put it in and came up much later this spring. These have green leaves and seem healthy, and have been here two years now, but are getting smaller. 'Poncha Pass' buckwheat got smaller each year and I took it out this month.

No growth: Jones Amsonia was moved, and that set it back. It's healthy but tiny, and did not flower. 'First Choice' caryopteris is tiny, but maybe putting on a miniscule bit of size. 'Lacey Blue' Russian Sage is no bigger than when I planted it two years ago. It's only 6 inches tall still. Hybrid coreopsis plants came back after winter but are dime sized bits of green threads now in June.


June 7 Wilted Plants
I am so frustrated trying to keep Black eyed Susans from wilting. Goldsturm is healthy and big and well established now, but it looks like crap.

The smaller fulgida var. fulgida Black eyed Susans in the potting bench curve also wilt.

They all perk up with lots of water, but I find I am watering deeply every single day to keep them from wilting. I need to stop watering every day. The soil is nice and moist even as they droop sadly in the hot daytime.

Too much water is now becoming the problem, except for the newest little transplants -- they really do fall over and melt into the ground without daily water. But the more mature ones and the established Goldsturm should be able to go a day or two without water now.

Almost all sites stress that they are easy, drought tolerant plants, others say they want constant moisture, but nowhere is there any discussion about wilting either with or without water. In Connecticut I had such beautiful easy-care, upright and sturdy Black eyed Susans with no issues.

Here they look like rags either way. Too much water, too little, it's a plant that looks awful no matter what when the hot sun is out. In the cool mornings it looks perky, but the rest of the time bleeeah.

I love them, but why do I want a plant that looks so awful in my gardens? I am thinking of taking out Goldsturm, and putting something else in that spot. This has to stop. I can't water incessantly and I don't want a sad looking blob to look at.

Mesa Peach blanketflower is the same. I'm over watering it now. It's a rag pile in the daytime no matter what I do, water or no water. Flowers are nice, but it wilts. Butterfly bushes wilt too. They perk up each morning in the cool air, but droop in the daytime. I'm more willing to tolerate that than I am with the Black eyed Susans, though.


June 6 The Moves Completed
Rainy Saturday morning, barely 60 degrees, cool and damp. I made the final moves in front in sprinkling rain, rare for June.

I moved the brown pot with the lavender in it to the corner by the rain chain. The two pots together look okay and it fills the corner in a way that the wispy gaura there did not.

I took the gaura out -- one less thing to water and it was doing nothing. Now the portal corner feels enclosed.

I took out all but one of the Blonde Ambition grasses. I dithered on what to do with them, where to put them and couldn't decide. In the end I left only one near the cholla and rock as a grouping.

Nothing to see yet! The new fernbush is out in front a bit.
One remaining Blonde Ambition grass is now part of a grouping with the rock + cholla.
(The butterfly bush, still tiny, is to the left out of the frame.) 

Simple. Nice.

I left the Honeycomb butterfly bush. I had wanted to put it somewhere else where we could see the flowers easily and watch the butterflies, and where its empty presence as it regrows from the roots wouldn't be so noticeable. But it stayed. I may still move it.

Then I planted the fernbush out in front of the cholla and butterfly bush a bit.

I hope I gave it enough room between the two.

I hope the heavy compost + caliche gumbo won't kill it.

I hope it grows and fills the spot.

All done now, a new planting out front. It felt good to do it in the cool sprinkling rain and I was done and inside with coffee by 10 a.m.

(On a whim I bought a blue ceramic urn at Lowe's the other day. Stuck some yellow pansies in it and it fills that empty spot to the side of the portal.))



June 5 The Moves Begin
I moved the Mesa Peach blanketflower to the kitchen courtyard where it can get more water and maybe not wilt so much. It's in flower actually now, not a good time to move it. Moved the tiny, wispy aristata blanketflowers to the potting bench curve in part shade. They're so tiny, one is just a thin stalk trying to bloom.

I moved the 3 rock roses to the driveway strip where the hot dry sand might be better for them.

(I left the veronicas in front of the rock roses, but if the helianthemums do well they may crowd out the speedwell and be the plants to drape over the metal edge. Maybe? I Also left the Neon sedum clump for some presence, and the Sinning agastache, which is still small and wispy. Also left the orange globe mallow, I'll have to see if these all crowd too much.)

Now I need to move the 3 Blonde Ambition grasses and the pot. Leave the Honeycomb butterfly bush and plant the fernbush slight out in front to allow the butterfly bush and the cholla & the mounding large fernbush enough room.

June 3 Spring Performance
The long-lasting ones -- sturdy, colorful plants of spring. These have been blooming forever:

Red Cascade rose, just covered. Splendens heucheras (Weston Pink are long lasting too.)
Kannah Creek buckwheat, Totally Orange Geums,
& stiff Royal Candles veronicas keep going and going.

The little, slow ones -- there are new tiny transplants that I am evaluating, but here are the ones that have been in the garden a couple years now and are still so, so small. They are healthy and growing but will take a long time to show anything.

Robustissima fall anemone is healthy and growing, but taking forever to gain size.
Same for the Japanese Forest grasses. And First Choice caryopteris is still a tiny thing.
Couldn't even get a pic of the Nikko deutzia, so small still.

The disappointments -- blanketflowers, Perky Sue, Threadleaf fleabane, coreopsis.

I need to be patient with the slow ones, they are healthy and will eventually get there. The disappointments need to be moved or eliminated. 'm happy with the long lasting flowering things, they really have made spring colorful and pretty!

June 2 And now it's June.

I could not find orange marigolds or Profusion zinnias at any stores or nurseries and I was counting on them for color in the open spots I have left in the kitchen courtyard and the potting bench curve. 

Nada, nowhere. The supply chain has been very disrupted this season with the pandemic and retail closures for so long in spring.

So I bought seeds.

I have poor luck with seeds, but we'll see. I did find nice herbs at Lowe's but only bought one sweet basil and put it in the kitchen garden.

Both troughs of trailing nasturtiums did come up once the nights warmed up a bit. The one on the table is looking good.

I took the little seedlings out of the other one -- there were about 4 of them -- and transplanted them into the tall urn on the front portal, to drape over the sides. 

But. . . .  Nasturtiums really hate root disturbance and these slender delicate things got manhandled going into the pot. This may be a total failure.

My mantra, as always, is we'll see. They're in quite a bit of shade most of the day, but my theory is that their delicate leaves do better here in shade than the full sun they'd normally want. We'll see.

May 31 Rain
Rained last night, a gentle soaker, but just a quarter inch total. Everything looks so refreshed, though. When the sun comes out it will dry out quickly but for now . . . ahhh. I woke up this morning without first thinking "I have to water".

Deadheaded the Swallowtail columbines and the Raven geraniums yesterday, flowers were going by. Some blooms starting to come out on the plumbago.

The redbud looks better, but I'll have to cut off the dead top of the leader and some other branches.

Jackmanii clematis is blooming, but still a sparse and lanky vine, not the profusely flowery vine I had before.

It spreads out nicely along the top of the fence -- that's nice -- but so few flowers and nothing from the ground up. Next winter I am going to chop it down (prune it) and let it regrow.

Really, there is almost nothing to see, although there are a few more buds yet to open. I fertilize, I water. It stays sparse and skinny. The flowers are nice, but smallish.

So different than my experience back east with a rampant clematis that totally overran the tower I grew it on.

Peggy Martin rose and the Red Cascade rose are in full bloom now. Really nice. The pink Peggy Martin has long lanky canes, but is growing well. The Red Cascade is full and lush.

I was just thinking how I finally have three Mojave sages growing well -- two new ones and last year's survivor.

Now, after the rain, the middle one seems distressed, with some wilting of lower leaves. Maybe too much water -- I have been watering them quite a bit to get the new ones started.

These have been so, so hard to establish. The only survivor now is off to the side. What to do to balance it at the corner?

May 30 Garden Styles
I visited two neighborhood gardens yesterday -- Andrea's for coffee outside, and Joan & Frank's for an outdoor dinner on their patio. Both of them have really lovely, inviting sitting gardens, and both are so different from my style, making me question what I'm designing here.

Andrea's is wild and stuffed full of roses, peonies, fruit trees, pots scattered about, winding paths, perennials tucked in along the paths, highly elevated raised beds along the perimeter, a birdbath under shade, a fountain-- all crowded in a tiny square back yard. Wild, crazy, an uninhibited tangle that was refreshing.

Beyond her small plot of greenery and lushness you could see the open sandy common area and walking path, and the contrast with her enclosed oasis was nice.

Joan & Frank's (no pictures) is much tidier, also with winding stone paths in a small area, and with shady trees, draping wisterias, roses, little bits of art placed about, and perennials, lavenders, and some shrubs in beds along the fences and around the paths.

It was not a jumble, but the look was loose and unstructured. There were individual clumps of columbines winding in and out of other plants, not a big stand of them like I have. Nothing was tightly crammed together, there was open space between plants.

These are both mature gardens, going on 15 years and more. Mine is new, so even though there were mature shrubs and trees here, what I have planted for gardens is still little and clumpy.

Even so, my style is so different. I plant compositions. I plant threes and fives of things, and group plants together to make "stands". My borders are contained and I have lines of some things -- the sumacs, the hollyhocks, a little line of orange geums, etc. -- planted in a row. Very structured, very tidy, not loose or naturalistic at all. I have great hardscape -- deck, gravel, stone patio, seating areas, but no winding flower edged paths to take you around the garden.

I have shade on the deck in the afternoons, and the seating area under the vigas is in shade in the mornings and both are lovely -- but there is no leafy canopy overhead and no sense of enclosure under trees that the two neighbors' gardens have.

I'd like a looser style -- not the wild tangle of Andrea's but more of the casual style of Joan & Frank's.  I'd like my plants weaving in and out among other things, not so tightly clumped together in compositions. I'd like some paths, not individual display gardens in the corners and edges of the yard.

Not sure how to get that.

May 27 We Have Issues.

So disappointed with the Oklahoma redbud. Pretty sure it has anthracnose and it looks terrible. I started spraying it with baking soda + dish soap, and I have been spraying dormant oil a few mornings since I think it had spider mites too. 

The one New Mexico privet looks horrible, with stunted curled leaves.

The Nikko deutzia in the potting bench curve won't make it. I kept thinking ti would just take time, but after seeing Greg's nice specimens in his garden, it's clear mine isn't doing well. It's barely three leaves and a stick.

The NJ Tea I ordered this spring and hoped to baby along in a pot before planting in a year is gone.

Perky Sue flowers are cute but the little petals are being stripped by . . . earwigs? 

This happened last year to my black eyed Susans. They just don't look like anything without any petals, not sure why I even have rayed flowers in the garden if they're just going to be stalks.

The heirloom nasturtiums I planted in the potting bench curve have not come up. The seeds were a year old, and the soil has not been warm enough yet I guess.  

None of the tobacco seeds I planted in the dining room window garden have come up.

The long vine shoot of the Violacae clematis that looked so promising this spring (it even had buds) suddenly drooped, then crisped and died along the whole length. I cut it off. But there is new foliage emerging at the base that looks healthy.

The trailing nasturtium seeds I planted in two troughs have come up, but one trough has only one survivor and I planted half the package, about a dozen seeds. The other trough on the table is doing better with three survivors out of the dozen planted.

Okay, that's the list of disappointments this spring.

When we came home, 'Bartzella' peony had opened!

May 25 A Weekend Away.  I got so paranoid about going away to Greg's for the weekend -- any trip overwhelms me now when I think about how to keep the plants watered for more than two days away. I stewed about it and worried, and we only planned to be gone Friday, Saturday, then home Sunday night!!

I soaked everything Friday morning before we left, and when we returned Sunday late afternoon, all was well even though it was obvious there had been a lot of wind. Pillows blown about, overturned metal patio chair, etc. And it had been sunny. But even the big hollyhocks were still green and upright. 

The casualties were only the very newest things -- the three newest fulgida black eyed Susans were limp rags in the dirt, almost hard to see, but perked up when I watered, although they have browning at the leaf tips. The more mature black eyed Susans were fine, just a little limp but not in distress. So once they get their roots going they can take a few days without water. Not much more, though.

The newest geums, same thing. Lying down flat in the dirt, almost disappeared, but back upright with water. The older geums were fine.

The big Goldsturm black eyed Susan clump was limp, but the leaves were green and water revived it.

I brought all the terra cotta containers (Calif. poppy seedlings, nasturtium seedlings) into the house while we were gone -- they dry out so quickly out in the sun. They were fine indoors.

> So if we want to be gone for more than 3 days, the gardens will probably survive --- but not new transplants. They almost have to be dug up, potted, and brought indoors if they are going to live when we go away for more than 2-3 days. That might be the way to do it.

May 21 What's Blooming Now. The little red pineleaf penstemons at the front walk are out and colorful and catch the sun out there. Noticeable, for being so small.

The Swallowtail columbines are really lush now, still blooming furiously and very visible from inside the house, not so much from the street. Also the Splendens red heucheras are still bloom.

The hollyhocks are not ready to send up flower stalks yet, but the foliage looks great, unblemished and green and big. It wilts the minute it dries, but water instantly picks it back up again.

The orange geums are a pop of color, so cute together with the Blue Ice amsonias. (The Blue Ice at the foot of the Peggy Martin rose are getting big and are blooming well, the ones by the fence are small and just barely flowering.)

Kintzley's Ghost is starting to put out some funny flowers. Pink Chintz thyme is flooring, some clumps, not all. Major Wheeler honeysuckle still blooms, not quite as much as in mid May.

May 20 Maintenance. I trimmed the bottoms of the New Mexico privets where there were a ton of sprouts. The privet on the right is very sick with stunted leaves. I sprayed some dormant oil on it, but it's so big I couldn't reach -- it's improving a bit. (Maybe take these two big shrubs out? Leave the front of the house open?)

Untrimmed in 2017 when we first moved in. Do we need all the wild greenery at the corner?
Take them out, plant a lower shrub in front not for screening, but to soften the corner?

> I cut back the dying tulip foliage, some is still green and live.

> I pull up cottonwood sprouts every day. I trim back the Virginia creeper every few days.

> I water every day. I am really focusing on putting down more water this year to get things through dry May and arid June. It means every new plant (not the mature shrubs or trees) gets water every other day, and newest little transplants get water every single day. Every day. It's a job.

> The daily wilters:

Surprisingly, chamomile shrivels and wilts the day after getting watered, but perks up right away with some watering. 

Black eyed Susans wilt without daily water, and perk right back up after I soak them.
The widow's tears geranium phaeum wilts when slightly dry, but yellows if I give it too much. 

The still tiny King Edward yarrows want very dry soil and should not be overwatered, but they too wilt when slightly dry and perk back up when watered every day. 

Mesa Peach blanketflower is supposed to do well in hot dry places and it is no longer a tiny transplant, but the driveway strip seems to be too much. It gets like limp lettuce all the time, and fills back out with daily deep watering. It's a tough spot, but I thought this would do better in these conditions. I thought about moving it last year. Should I?

The ground cover Pink Chintz thymes and the Turkish speedwells don't wilt, but they have such shallow roots in such dry sandy soil that they need water every other day to look better. Both are looking good.

May 15 Things Look Good. Well, the redbud doesn't, it is still barely leafing out, and has no life at the top. I need to use a miticide on it? No sign of crocosmias that I unpotted and planted out this spring. No sign at all.

But other things look good:

• Major Wheeler honeysuckle is blooming and I love it. It really does pop seen from down the yard with a bit of sun on it. The camera won't capture the long look, but it positively sparkles -- and when there are more blooms in future years, it will do exactly what I planned -- draw the eye from afar.

• Yellow pompoms of Perky Sue next to Blue Ice amsonias at the foot of the Peggy Martin rose are starting to bloom and will look good together. -- Ha -- PeggySue together 😎

• Orange geums are blooming, so cute.

• Swallowtail columbines look big and lush.

• Kitchen courtyard is coming along -- blue spikes of Royal Candles speedwell are getting ready to bloom.

• Chamomile is still little and sprawly but blooming with sweet little daisies.

• Kintzley's Ghost is full and budding and the Red Cascade rose is too.

• The new Violacae clematis is growing well, sending up skinny vines.

• Sedum kamschaticum clumps look fine.

• The tiny twig of a desert willow is leafing out!

• Lambsear clumps are huge and blue and thriving. Japanese forest grasses need time.

• The boxwood looks great.

• Seiryu Japanese maple is full and fluffy, will need more pruning.

• Viburnum is so big and healthy, I trimmed it a bit now that it's past blooming.

• The Bartzella peony has fat buds (two)

• Vanessa parrotia is absolutely growing and thriving and very full and green

• Pink Chintz thyme is spreading nicely and starting to flower

• Turkish speedwells under the patio table, planted between the stones are looking great. When do they bloom?

May 13 Watering. Now it's dry dry and windy windy, and more dry and wind to come throughout May and in June. It's the season of watering.

I'm learning this year what works:

Water often. Twice a day for pots, every day for new transplants and every other day for plants I put in a year or two ago.

Never mind accepted southwest garden advice to water new things every other day and mature things once week. That simply does not work.

I hand water with the hose in three steps:
1.Wet the soil  /  2.Soak the plants  / 3.Re-water

At first I have to get the wind-dried top of the soil to take the water and that's the shower setting on the hose and wetting everything down really, really well, then waiting for it to soften the surface.

After 10 minutes, go back and soak everything deeply. Every day or every other day, even though the soil seems like lower layers must be soggy, they aren't. A day of sun and wind and bone dry humidity pulls up all the moisture I put down the day before, and tree roots take everything that's deeper.

Then, after another 10 minutes, go back and water again, re-wetting the surface and what the sun or air just dried out, and re-soaking the roots.

It's a time consuming 3 step process, but it seems to be working better this year. In prior years I tried to let things go a day or so longer, then watered one time deeply. Or I watered when things looked like they needed it, which became too late.

The fulgida black-eyed susans need constant water the first year, but I'm finding the ones I planted one and two years ago stay green and full for a couple days after watering now. Progress.

The Splendens heucheras in the dining room window garden stay full for a day or two now also. The first year they wilted a couple hours after each watering.

Even the newly planted chamomile and the King Edward yarrows, which want very dry soil and need care not to overwater, shrivel and get limp if I don't water them every day.

I do love the maturing dining room window gardens now, where I can sit in the TV room and look out the window and see columbines and grasses and heucheras standing tall enough to see through the window. The red of the heuchera wands actually sparkles from inside every time I look up.

More to come when the aronia and the fall anemone bulk up! And more to see when the tall guara and the hollyhocks start to bloom in summer.

The exceedingly browned lower branches of the Scots pine in front have suddenly turned green with new growth.

The branches still look sparse but the tips have new green candles growing all over.

May 11 Some Sleuthing. 

I think the Oklahoma redbud has spider mites. It is susceptible in hot dry conditions. It must have had them last year, unnoticed, and over winter it left damaged (killed) branches, and remnants of webs.

I had seen these white cottony bits this spring and assumed the branches caught some cottonwood fluff -- there was so much floating through the air the past couple weeks. But no, I don't think this is cottonwood fluff.

My new iPhone SE camera is a wonder -- it was only through closeups in "portrait" mode that I actually saw how these are spidery webs and not cottonwood cotton caught in the branches.

The upper half of the tree where the webs are in branch crotches is most affected, and the dry dead twigs snapped off as I tried to wipe away the webbing. I see no spiders, and probably wouldn't until leaves appear.

Here's a picture from last fall, taken October 20, 2019. It shows speckling on the upper leaves -- I thought it was fall coloring, but redbud leaves usually color up solid lemon yellow, not mottled, and the leaves below were not speckled with brown like this.

A picture taken in early October (10/5) last year before any fall yellow, shows nice solid green leaves, I don't see any speckling on them. But was it there? 

Control: there are no mites on the tree now. I need to watch as the leaves (at least the ones coming out on the lower branches) open, and if webbing is present, I'll need to spray with a miticide to coat them.

May 10 As of Mother's Day. Some problems. . . .

> I am worried about the Oklahoma redbud. Last year and the year before, by May 5 it was fully leafed out. This year as of May 10 there are tiny leaves just barely emerging on the lower branches but nothing visible on the upper part. Winter damage? Slow start this year?

It did not bloom at all, although there were about half a dozen magenta buds on low branches and on the trunk. But they never opened. I have kept it well watered. Worried. . .

> One of the New Mexico privets in front is covered all over with stunted, curled leaves. The other one is fine. It looks like aphid damage, but I see no aphids and the weather has been too cool so far perhaps.

May 9 Sowed More Nasturtium Seeds. I sowed the trailing nasturtiums in the terra cotta pots too early, while nights were still cold, and only two have even peeked up yet. It's been 24 days. Today I sowed the rest of the package, and if the originals plus the new sowing come up I'll have to thin them.

California poppies in four different small bowls are al up and need thinning.

May 8 Windy Windy Windy. March and April, normally the windy months, weren't bad. Now, in May we are getting wind and sun and the new little Arctic Fire redtwig dogwood I planted in the blue pot is getting so battered.

It looked green and fresh when I got it from Bluestone Perennials, but the day I planted it the wind started up and it's out in full sun and now the leaves are thin and tattered and several have been torn off. 

I may have killed it.

I finally put an open-bottomed upturned pot around it, anchored with a wire ring, but it's pretty damaged already, and the black pot may overheat it.

The blue container is too big to move inside, so it is out there in the hot sunny open. So windy. Ack.

In the kitchen courtyard the chamomile, buckwheat and tiny dwarf yarrow are all blooming at once and they all have yellow flowers and gray green fine foliage. 

They look the same, especially the yellow pom poms of the sulfur buckwheat and the tiny yellow balls of the yarrow. I didn't plan that.

A newly transplanted seedling of purple flowering nepeta should cool the yellows off and add contrast next year when it is big enough.

I was concerned that the Major Wheeler honeysuckle on the side fence was in too much shade to bloom, but here it is starting to flower, with a robin friend looking on.

It isn't very prolific, and that may be because it is still young, just a couple years old. And it's still early May. But really, in almost all day shade it may not flower much. But so far it's looking good.

May 7 Fertilized the heavy feeders and what's blooming in the garden now.

May 5 Buds. The Bartzella peony has formed two fat buds. I despaired last year about no flowering -- either it was too young still, or it was planted too deeply. Over winter I took away a lot of soil from around the rootball top. Now this spring, there will be flowers.

I keep it well watered and the leaves are healthy, but they are a light green, not at all the deep, dark green of  Bartzella in my CT garden. Does it need more fertilizer? Is it a function of the high UV and alkaline soil here? It's growing and full and now forming buds. 

The Major Wheeler honeysuckle vine has red buds forming -- not a lot, but several are ready to open.

Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle has formed a few buds and I think there will be more.

The Oklahoma redbud has just a few of the tiniest pink buds but it also has tiny leaves forming and I think the flowering isn't going to happen before the leaves come out.

I need to remember that my Oklahoma redbud in CT didn't do much until about the 4th year, and then it bloomed brilliantly in late April and the first week in May even as a small tree.

This was the tree in bloom May 1, four years after planting, and each year thereafter until its demise it bloomed beautifully.

From my pictures it looks like the tree I planted in CT was a bit larger, maybe a year or two older at planting than my current tree here.

So, I need to wait a couple more years for my Oklahoma redbud here in Santa Fe to bulk up a bit. It seems to be healthy enough and growing.

(as an aside, I saw a photo on facebook that the current owners of Timothy Lane posted last year of the Forest Pansy redbud in bloom in spring and it was gorgeous -- that tree for me had been puny and never really bloomed. Maybe redbuds need time to mature before putting out those fantastic pink flowers.)

May 3 Tobacco and Other Seeds. Planted nicotiana alata seeds yesterday in the back of the dining room window garden. 

I'm not even sure what these seeds are. I got them last year from Amazon and they came from China, unlabeled, just with a sticker that said "jasmine". Are these nicotiana alata? The seeds are big like nasturtiums, with a hard coat.

I didn't plant them last year, I was too suspicious. I got tobacco plant starts that were big and healthy but the plants struggled at the base of the fence by the patio. They really want a lot of water, and even though they got deep afternoon shade, the morning sun was too much. Three flowered, but they were puny.

What's to lose with planting the seeds this year in the very shady back part of the dining room window garden, in the bare spots where I'm still waiting for the Robustissima anemone to bulk up. I'll need to keep the area well watered. If they come up, we'll see what they are. If not, nothing lost.

But how great to have a stand of these beautiful, tall, fragrant flowers like I had in CT. And right at the window.

Other seeds I planted: the California poppies started in bowls on April 16 are just starting to sprout. But the nasturtiums want it warmer at night I think. Three weeks after planting the trailing variety in the two troughs they are still not up.

Next year I'm going to stage the troughs -- I'll plant pansies from the store in one trough and put it on the patio coffee table, then start nasturtium seeds in the other and switch it to the table when they're finally up. That way we don't look at dirt in a pot on the table for weeks waiting for the seeds to sprout.

And last year's heirloom Jewel nasturtium seeds planted in the ground in the garden aren't up. It's still too cool at night.

May 2 Delayed. My latest Bluestone order (more Blue Ice amsonias, more Pow Wow White coneflowers, a new dwarf aronia) is delayed til the first week in June, the worst time for planting here -- so hot and searingly dry. But they have had shipping and staffing challenges in this crazy time, and I'll have to wait. 

The first order has shipped and should be here today.

May 1 It's  Finally May. After all my complaining about the cold and gray this long winter and spring, it got really warm the last two days of April. Summery. Windows open. Lovely.

The Spanish broom is blooming and it is stinky.

The tulips are going by, and the Gro-Low sumacs are leafing out.

Everything in the dining room window garden looks lush, some yellow columbines are starting to bloom and there are red colored buds on stalks above the 'Splendens' heucheras.

There are buds on the red 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle and the vine is green and leafy. I worry it is in too much shade, so we'll see how prolific the flowering is, but I Mohave buds.

I even have tiny little buds forming on the 'Bartzella' peony!

The Chocolate Chip ajugas disappoint. They are blooming and the blue flowers sparkle, but the foliage and the size of the clumps is sparse. Remember this in CT?

This was mid May in Connecticut, and it was four years after planting. But mine here in Santa Fe, in their second year, look a little hopeless. For comparison, the ajuga in its second year in CT was still clumpy, but full looking and lush.

I couldn't even get a good picture of my current clumpy bugleweed -- they are individually pretty but not filling the space. They don't have the rich soil I had back east, and they are under pines in dry soil (although I amended it) and the pine needles cover them. The one at the edge, furthest from the pine needle carpet and out in the most sun, is the fullest.

They are sending out runners and I have pulled away the rocks around each -- and I do need to wait another couple weeks til mid May to see if they bulk up. But I still have gaps where I need more plants, and I know I need to wait a couple more years as well.

April 28 Ordered More Plants! I just added to the Bluestone Perennials order -- some more Pow Wow White echinaceas and 5 Blue Ice amsonias, one to replace the lost one, and 4 to add at the foot of the Peggy Martin rose.

Also ordered another aronia, but this one is a small, dwarf mounder, Aronia melanocarpa Low Scape Mound.

Why? I dunno. . . it's for the back of the potting bench curve, where the struggling deutzia is. 

I really wanted the prettiness of the deutzia with white flowers in spring when it's still sunny and open under the aspens there. I know the deutzia takes forever to get going, but it's really almost nothing now in its second year. Barely leafing out and does not look good.

So maybe I'll try this mounded aronia with pretty white flowers and a more compact habit than the deutzia. The green foliage complements the boxwood nearby.

And, like the boxwood, maybe the shade there will be okay even though it wants sun.

> > Also ordered plants for curbside pick up at the Waterwise sale. Some more sunflowers (wait. . . no. I didn't order any apparently!) a David Verity cuphea (turns out I ordered two?) which will go in the back of the potting bench curve where the St. Johnswort was. Also, more Swallowtail columbines, more Pink Chintz thymes, a draping oregano for the bowl and a couple more Weston Pink heucheras, the ones I have are doing well.

April 27 Is It Too Early? The Swallowtail columbines are blooming now, but they look very sparse -- both the foliage, which is green and healthy but not as full as last year, and the flowers, which are fewer and much smaller than last year. 

But . . . it's still April. They looked lush and bloomed fully in the first two weeks of May last year. Is it too early for them to look like that yet? Do I need to wait a week or more? I fertilized them with bloom booster fish fertilizer yesterday.

The same worry with the Chocolate Chip ajugas in the front under the pines. Blooming now, they are sparse clumps with a lot of brown dirt in between. Greening up, but not very thickly, and not looking like they did last year. But, again, last year's photos were taken in the first two weeks of May. Do I need to wait a week? I fertilized these as well.

The little Iriquois Beauty aronia in the dining room window garden is blooming now. Very delicate, with tiny flowers.

It's still a twiggy, lanky and open bit of a shrub, though. Will it bulk up and fill in? Aronias can be leggy, and that's okay, but I want to see this fill out more in the coming years. Not sure if pruning would help . . .

The aspens are leafing out. Each tree opens at a different time, some around us are still bare, while the one on the left in our back yard is quite full already.

April 26 Cottonwood Sprout Season. From now, late April, through the end of May, I am pulling up cottonwood sprouts in the front yard every day. They pop up everywhere. Every day I'm out there stooped over, pulling them up out of the gravel. Arrrgh.

April 23 & 24 It's Still Only April. The heat is still on every day, although some afternoons when it gets up into the 60s it's nice. But mornings and evenings and most of the day the heat still roars.

I fertilized the roses, the clematis, the peony and the Kintzley's Ghost vine today with a liquid bloom booster. I'll do it again in mid May.

* * I planted the Mojave sages and all of the plants from High Country Gardens. It's only April! The order from Bluestone isn't even shipping until the 28th. * * 

The tulips and the viburnum and the nepeta are having their day. The columbines are blooming, but everything looks kind of skimpy and not very full. I have to remind myself that IT IS STILL ONLY APRIL. And we had snow at Easter. Most everything looks good, but I need to be patient, and wait for things to fill out.

          📍 Saw the first hummingbird April 20!

April 20 New Plants Arrived. My High Country Gardens order arrived this morning -- shipped on the 16th for two day delivery on the 18th, but they arrived two days late and I was worried. 

Still, everything looked fresh and green and damp. And the plants were all quite large and full, which hasn't always been the case with HCG.

4 Little Lanterns columbines, some in flower / 2 glossy green rock roses
3 tall leafy Dark Towers penstemons / 3 full veronicas, some with tiny blooms
One very lush deschampsia grass

There was also a large fernbush sprig, ready to be grown on in a pot for a few years to get established and another orange globe mallow to add to the existing one along the driveway.

The only plant that wasn't very full and big was the New Jersey Tea, and I've had such issues before trying to get tiny little ones started. 

NJ Tea -- not much there, and it had come unpotted, with the dirt falling out.

I set the NJ Tea back in its container and tamped down the soil and watered it a bit. Eventually it will go in a pot to be grown on, like the fernbush, for a season or two til it's big enough, I hope, to go in the garden.

April 17 Puttering Around.  Warm today, low 60s. I moved the little Swallowtail Columbine seedling to the bottom of the fence by the patio, just behind the Immortality irises. Swallowtail generally comes true from seed . . . but can cross pollinate. The only other columbine near it is the tiny red Little Lanterns -- will it cross with that? Keeping this seedling by the fence instead of near the others will help me see what it wants to be!

I dug up the anemone runner to replant it to the side of the original clump. What a job to clear out the cottonwood roots from the area just a few inches to the right of the anemone. Roots were matted and tangled right below the surface -- I got out a lot, transplanted the runner and now have two Robustissima anemone seedlings side by side. I'm hopeful they'll form one big shrub sized clump. Maybe?

Before planting the seedling anemone there I moved the last Red Lightning heuchera -- put it at the back of the potting bench curve while I wait for the deutzia nearby to bulk up in a few years. It makes a nice bright pop there -- will it wash out in summer like the others did?


April 16 Planted Seeds. I planted trailing nasturtiums in two troughs and I planted California poppy seeds in four shallow bowls (two terra-cotta, two plastic). They won't be transplanted, they'll grow on in the containers.

The next ten days will be about 60 degrees with no overnights below freezing. I can leave the pots out, not ideal for germination until it gets warmer but not freezing. I won't have to schlep the pots in and out of the house unless later in April or in May there is a freeze.


April 14 A Cold Snap. It snowed a couple days after Easter and night time temperatures were in the 20s. The pansies and violas I had just bought and put in pots were covered. I think they will all survive.

The 'Green Tower' boxwood has amazed me. I had little hope it would survive a winter here without browning badly, and this was a cold winter. But it looks fantastic and is putting out flowers and growth.

The two little 'Raven' hardy geraniums have the freshest green new foliage. I have big hopes for these. I f they bloom well and spread a bit I might get more (Bluestone Perennials).

'Little Lanterns' columbines are so tiny and so delicate and they barely show against the mulch, but their red lanterns are opening now. They are hard to see. I did order more for spring to add to the three isolated little clumps I have.

I got a new jumbo sized rain gauge similar to the big one I used to have in CT. Not that we'll ever get enough rain to fill it, but I wanted something I could see from afar. This is on the fence at the gate, visible from the kitchen door if we ever get enough rain to show.

It's not mounted on the fence, I just stuck the metal frame between two of the coyote fence poles and it's resting on the metal bar. A little wobbly.

So I tried to jerry rig some green wire ties around it to hold it steadier, but that didn't really work very well.

Anyway, I do like how the faux copper color of the plastic funnel and base matches the gate color so well!

Easter weekend 4/11 & 12  No-Shows and a Surprise. Almost everything is either emerging green and healthy or at least showing little tiny bits of life at soil level -- the amsonias are late and they just barely peek up but I know they are there. However, I have some losses:

• Arizona sage in the potting bench curve shows no life whatsoever. I may have lost it?

• lost one blanketflower in the driveway strip. Two Gaillardia aristadas are coming up on the other side, but one is lost.

• lost two of the hot colored coreopsis, not sure if it's the red or the yellow ones. Two are sort of coming up, but two are lost -- no surprise there.

• finally took out the Blue Velvet St. Johnswort but hated to -- it was such a big, bold, beautiful plant for me back east. On paper it liked conditions here and by reputation it's a tough plant, but apparently it's not suited here. Most of the issue is winter hardiness I think. One side was leafing out a bit, the other dead. Gone now.

I replaced the St. Johnswort with 'Miss Katherine' lavender, which I took out of the blue pot to ready that for the redtwig dogwood I want to put in it. But the lavender's new home is temporary. Miss Katherine (pink lavender flowers) will spread three feet wide and there just isn't that much room for it. It's a filler for now until I decide what to put there -- possibly the NJ Tea I ordered if I can get it to grow on in a pot for a season or two.

Surprisingly the two struggling monardellas that I put in the front triangle are up and greening up a bit. They sat under snowbanks all winter, it was the one spot that never melted when all else did.

Planted pansies and Johnny Jump Ups in pots this weekend.

April 8 Things are Opening Up. Small orange butterflies are swarming the plum trees, which are in bloom now. never saw so many before. Signs of life everywhere, lots of things greening up and the weather has been in the 50s - 60s, sunny and too dry. I've been watering.

So sick, both of us, coughing and congested and sore throats for weeks since we got back from CA March 15. Mostly I stay indoors. Not Coronavirus, but flu or just bad colds. I called the Covid hotline and had a long interview and our symptoms are respiratory infection, not Covid-19. I'm on antibiotics, azithromycin. We don't go out anywhere.

As the city is in lockdown, the Waterwise plant sale is only by online order with curbside pickup. I didn't really see anything online I wanted, so may skip any Waterwise plants this spring.

April 1 It's Finally April. Plum trees are just beginning to bud out and with our warm week coming up (60s, more sun than clouds finally), we should see pink explosions soon. Last year they were almost fully open by April 1, this year is a bit later. Susan's apricot at the corner of our yards is in flower.

I had quite a job of getting pots ready for planting -- the big brown container in the front yard had very old soil in it and when I went to clean it out (I'm going to put the After Midnight lavender in there this year instead of cuphea), it had a giant woody root system coming up through the drainage hole. I think the cottonwood had found it searching for water, and sent a root -- a big one -- right up into the moist potting soil. Yikes.

After Midnight lavender just kept blooming all summer in the blue pot with two other lavenders.
I transplanted it to the brown pot in the front yard and hope it does as well there.

Actually that happened with the pot I had in the kitchen courtyard too -- an aspen or possibly butterfly bush root had worked up into the drainage hole from underneath!

March 28 Cold. Again. In the 30s today, although by afternoon we'll see temps in the 40s. So cold, but at least the gray clouds that have plagued us for so long have given way to some sun. But so cold.

When we get a long stretch of warmer weather (which is coming after the weekend) things will really explode.

The boxwood came through winter just fine! And it is blooming. Not a bit of browning on any leaves.

Green tulip swords are coming up nicely. The spike speedwells are greened up and the 'Swallowtail' columbines are full and leafy. Even the tiny dwarf 'Little Lanterns' columbines are up and filling out, but so tiny I can't photograph them.

The groundcover speedwell on the patio is full and greened up and the little tiny one by the driveway is even blooming -- I ordered a few more to fill this little strip better. They'll spread out and make a mat.

The viburnum by the deck has fat buds, ready for an early spring show. I hope this year they are more fragrant than I've noticed in the past.

Nepeta is always an early one, and it is a round green bun already. There are some pups that have spread from the main plant. I should dig those up, pot them for a while and then plant them out somewhere.

March 25 Coates came today. They fertilized the trees -- I am having them come once a year every early spring to fertilize the pines and the aspens. Last year after their treatment the chlorotic smaller aspen in back looked wonderful.

I wasn't home when they did the application last year -- today I was here and I was amazed that they did soil injections around every single tree, shrub, and perennial on the whole property. The flower gardens got fertilized!

The one Scots pine in front looks very browned at the tips -- not the way a pine loses its internal needles in spring, but stressed and browned. It looked this way last year and Coates fertilized in late March 2019. By June 10 I had commented it looked healthy and green again. I need to give it 2 months again this year and see how it greens up.

March 23 & 24 Outside for a While. I cut back the grasses, and agastaches. I dug up the Mexican Hats and put them where the Blonde Ambition grass was at the gate -- did not save the grass. Nowhere to put it and there are three out front.

Took out the Missouri Evening primrose -- not sure I like it and I actually thought I had bought a white flowered evening primrose, not a big yellow flowered one. 

Moved the Kannah Creek buckwheat to the center of the kitchen courtyard garden where it can be a real filler.

Hung the hummingbird feeders.

Unpotted the crocosmias and put the little corms in the ground in front of the Kintzley's Ghost vine. Hope they come up!

March 22 Bits of Green. Not much to see yet, but some things are greening up. Most visible -- veronica groundcovers, tulips and sedums, the columbines, spike speedwell veronicas, and bits of other things. Nothing yet to see of lots of others, it's only March.

March 21 Spring. Cold, cloudy or rainy, isolated to our homes, everything canceled. Dire news. Nothing open. This would all be better if the sun would come out and the temps warm up and I could enjoy some outside time. I do like being at home, but . . . 

It's still in the 20s at night, 30's in the mornings and barely hits the 40s by mid afternoon. It will warm up, but for now I sit inside with socks and bundlewear on, and do exactly what I did all winter long, when I was housebound and anticipating a busy spring of visits, classes, bookgroups, trips. Now I am doing winter mode in spring. It will get better.


March 19 The World Has Changed. We left for California on March 10 and immediately everything collapsed. Tom and Zaneta came back from their Jackson Hole trip, having traveled through LAX, with flu. Hers was mild, his pretty severe. He could not get tested for Covid19, but in any event he is better now but isolated at home for at least another week.

We were unable to see them at all. We stayed at Pam's. It was cold and rainy the whole time. We managed to get back home three days early. Between the time we left and our return, the whole world  changed with the pandemic.

We're home now, isolating. It's cold -- 37 degrees today. After some warmth and the promise of spring, I'm back to bundlewear and staying inside, both because of social isolating and because it's cold outside.

After a housebound winter of too much cold and too few activities, I'd put together a busy spring -- hosting Sue and Linda for a couple days in April, a class at the botanical garden with Andrea, a cooking class, both of my book groups, a trip to Santo Domingo pueblo with book group, and the chance for warm weather and family in California. We booked our flights to go see Hope in April. June tickets to Antiques Roadshow with Andrea. All of that is cancelled. All of it.

Even getting the broken window shade in the master bedroom fixed is not going to happen, and may not -- the company may close for a month. I am living with the shade open all the time, all night. No haircuts -- Jim and I need haircuts badly but can't go. My appointment at the doctor's for hearing aids will have to be cancelled. 

I'm back to sitting in the house bundled up on the computer all day, eating snacks.

But my confinement is the least of what ails our entire planet right now.


March 9 Hooked up the Hoses. It's still early March but the wet winter has given way to a stretch of dry weather and I'm seeing some greening, now that temps are a little warmer. The soil is starting to dry out. We're going away for a week, and I want the soil to be at least a little moist as warm sunshine wakes things up.

So I hooked up all the hoses today -- that felt good. I do have a very efficient system now that works just right for me.

Watered everything. I have to order new wands, the Gilmore cheapie ones all broke over winter, even stored in the garage. They are the only size and type I like, though, so I keep buying new ones each season.


March 7 All is forgiven. After endless cold day-after-day since October, and so much gray and so many snowy days, it is now lovely and all is forgiven. A day in the 60s with sun and no wind. Ahhh.

I ordered 3 1-gallon pots of Black Barlow columbine for the potting bench curve. From Sooner Plant Farm. Loved these when they came up, after a couple years of no-shows, in my old garden.

Black Barlow

Dark and exotic, and they do seed around, and come true from seed. After I take out the Mexican Hats, there will be a small strip behind the white obedient plants for these dark columbines.


March 6 A new bed. I dug out the spot where the hollyhocks will go. Tough work, as there was a deep, fabric-lined, rock studded drainage ditch running there from the kitchen door. The soil was tilthy enough once I dealt with the rocks and fabric. But I had to add a lot of amendment.

I used a whole bag of Soil Builder Raised Bed Mix, which I find to be lighter than the compost I was using. The compost got clumpy and hard unless mixed with a lot of soil. And I don't have a lot of soil.

Composted cotton burrs, coir, expanded shale,
organic topsoil, lava sand, granite sand, basalt,
humate, montmorillonite?, diatomaceous earth.

  ? Montmorillonite is a clay to hold water in drought prone soils. It swells with water. Who knew?

I covered the area with cardboard until I can plant it up -- that will keep the fluffy amended soil from drying out and blowing away.

It's a four foot strip and I only have 6 hollyhocks to plant -- will this even look like anything?


March 5 What a difference 60 degrees makes. Finally some sun and temps in the high 50s, even up to 60 briefly today. Breezy but not bad and I am tackling garden chores, cleaning up, pruning (shaped the Chinese privets, the honeylocust by the driveway, and took off some wild branches on the New Mexico privets in front of the bathroom window, that was a bit of a job). Felt good.

I'm stocking up on fertilizers and soil builder and potting soil and pots and things I'll need for the season, instead of waiting til they're needed and I'm in the middle of something else. I want to be organized and ready.

Bought two more Mohave sages at Payne's today -- I'll keep them indoors and in pots, and won't plant them out until after we get back at the end of May.


March 1 It's really March. A little cloudy and cooler but okay for working outside on a Sunday and I am ready to get going on tasks and projects.

I pruned up the little New Mexico privet (not!! turned out this is an aronia, not that, either . . . a firethorn - pyracantha!) in the front corner. It was such a little weed, just a stick and a few leaves when we moved in. Totally neglected, never watered. By fall 2019 it was growing like a weed -- it gets water from the other side of the fence when I water the rose and amsonias on that side.

I took off almost half -- more than the third recommended. It's more open now, branches don't splay down to the ground any more, but it's hard to really see any difference! This is not a plant I will fuss over, but I do want to control it a bit.

I moved the lighter strawberry pots to the kitchen courtyard, and here's how I ended up using them -- is this weird or not?

Of course it will all look better surround by plants when they grow in. In order to place the smaller strawberry pot next to the bigger one on its side, I had to dig up and move the Jones amsonia, and I hope it will survive. It's just an inch tall, planted last summer. I put it in front of the Kintzley's Ghost vine.

My inspiration for this silly pot-on-its-side throwing up rocks was the picture on the left, which I hoped to translate to my space shown on the right.

Did I get it? I dunno. Needs tweaking, needs plants round it, needs something.

Oof, I just don't know. That shallow bowl in the middle of the garden will go and there will be plants all over, but the strawberry pot on its side just isn't sparking joy. Maybe it should be settled in lower and maybe it should be where the upright small pot stands, more sideways to the fence. Definitely needs tweaking.


February 29 Leap Day Saturday. An extra day of winter that I'm counting as the first of March, and got myself out into the yard to do March cleanup. Only 9 days til we leave for California, but the forecast til then is for mostly sun and daytime temps in the high 40s to 50 -- then toward the very end of the period it will be up in the high 50s in the afternoons and finally -- finally -- just above freezing at night.

On this nice Leap Year Day I did the following:

✄ Cut back and cleaned up all perennials except the agastache (might still get snow and their hollow stems don't like to fill with water.)

✄ Chopped back the butterfly bush in the corner to a 2 foot high frame. Sawed off one very large dead looking cane in the middle.

✄ Pruned the Japanese maple, sorta. No idea what I was doing, but I'm trying to shape it. Took off about a quarter to a third of some small branches, but it's hard to tell what I did.

➰ Covered up the black hose that had become exposed along the north corner of the house. It took several buckets of gravel hauled from the back to this spot in the front to cover it up. The hose looked like black snakes in the front yard before I got it buried under rocks again!

The day was warm with little breeze, the sun was nice, and I was outside working for the first time in months, hauling rocks and cutting things and it felt so good.

February 23 Snowing hard again. So many days have been cold, or gray, or wet, or all of that at once. The heat has been on for 5 months now, roaring every day. Without letup the overnight lows are in the teens and twenties, and daytime in the thirties or forties. Occasionally I can get out for a winter walk, but mostly I am housebound, cold and feeling dreary.

I keep waiting for a mild sunny day in the mid to high 50s to go out and do pruning and clean up, but we haven't had a day like that.

Not like our first winter here!

February 14 💚 As of Valentine's Day half the gardens have been consistently under snow almost all winter. We've had such cold weather and we've had a few wet snowstorms, and the cover has lingered in the back, providing slowly seeping snowmelt and deep cover for plants.

It has lingered in the front yard too. The sedums and orange globemallow and certainly the monardellas in the triangle garden probably don't like all the wet. This is the first day they've even been uncovered at all.

The kitchen courtyard and the strip under the kitchen window are sunny and dry, and the dining room window garden is not snow covered, although the canale by the window drips and drips, wetting one side of that garden constantly.

It has been great moisture for the big pines and the privets. It will be interesting to see how all this slow dripping wet affects the gardens when they wake up in spring.


February 4 - snowed, snowed, snowed all day. At times with big fat flakes and pretty, other times gray, spitting, blowing stuff. High of 25 degrees.

The gardens have been snow covered for weeks this winter. Even when it warms and when most areas were snow free, my gardens still had lumps of snow covering them. Not necessarily good for dry loving plants.

The monardella I planted in the triangle by the front walk has been covered in a particularly persistent patch of snow constantly. I don't think it really wants that much winter moisture.


January 21 - still so cold. We got heavy wet snow last weekend that needed shoveling, and today it is snowing agin but not sticking as much. Another cold, wet, gray-sky winter so far. But the moisture is always appreciated here. No winter watering needed.


January 13 - I ordered more plants today: High Country Gardens - $150 total with shipping:

The blue woolly veronicas will add to the tiny ones just planted along the driveway strip and the two coral Ben Ledi rock roses will be added where the existing one is at the patio step.

Other additions: Dark Towers penstemons will supplement the planting under the pine, and Little Lanterns dwarf columbines will go with the others in the dining room window garden.

I'll put another orange globe mallow next to the existing one in the front triangle garden to "bulk" up the one there.

The Gold Dew tufted hair grass - Deschampsia - goes in the garage corner behind the sumacs, where the struggling Shenandoah panicum grass is now. Deschampsia will take shade. It will be a billowy anchor to that stark corner.

And . . a pretty fernbush, which I want to put out in the common area right at the corner of the driveway. It will get big, but is a slow starter and that's a harsh, sandy site. I'll keep it in a pot for at least two years -- plants from HCG are so tiny and when the little things are put into the ground they struggle. I'll let this one get some size first.

Same thing with the NJ Tea, which I had before and it struggled. The first one was too tiny when planted, the second got stepped on and broken. This time I'll grow it in a pot for two years, like the fernbush, and see how it does. Where will I put it? To be determined.


January 11 - it continues very cold, teens at night and barely out of the 30s in the daytime most days. I ordered plants today: Bluestone Perennials -- $261 total with shipping:

The hollyhocks will be an experiment along the outside of the kitchen courtyard fence -- tall against the coyote fence, but far enough away not to see the foliage. The fig leaf 'Las Vegas' type is less susceptible to rust, but they all still get it.

The redtwig dogwood will go in the blue pot and I'll move the lavenders.

Rudbeckia fulgida adds to my struggling stand, and the geums will be added to the bottom of the pink agastache by the patio table, filling in around it more.

The 'Kudos' agastaches are an experiment -- where to put them? The Mandarin orange one will go in the front triangle garden, along with the orange globe mallow. The red one . . ?


First of the Year
So cold -- the start of 2020 is a chilly one, keeping me indoors and wrapped up. On January 5th, though, the day warmed to 50 degrees (windy, however) and the sun was mostly out, and I got outside for a little walk. I got the stepladder out and took down the wreath over the garage doors -- looks bare now. Now for a long winter ahead . . .