Tasks
🚜 Move gravel from areas where it is too deep to other spots.
⛔ Take lavender out of brown pot in front -- put Diamond Frost euphorbia in it
🌼 Dig up sunflowers from driveway strip and add to fence by patio table.
🌹Tie Cascade rose canes to string attached to door canopy to get it to climb.
✅ Fertilized pots (strawberries) & clematis & peony on 4/25
✔ Took out the tiny Weihenstephaner sedums.
✔ Unpotted Kannah Creek buckwheat, in front of Summer Love vine.
✔ Moved anemone runners that have spread.
✔ Moved white Icicle veronicas* that are tucked under broom to spots around the birdbath
* or were they the remains of the Crystal Peak obedient plants??
✔ Trimmed junipers by driveway & moved irrigation feeder line inside shrub.
✔ Fixed swale along side fence -- added rocks at top where irises (& Shimmer primroses) were.
April 30
Plants in Plastic Pots
Yesterday the wildfire smoke was horrible and we stayed indoors all day. Today the wind changed and it was nicer. I planted some annuals.
I put them in plastic pots and then dropped those into pottery containers outside.
That way when we go away, I can lift the pots and bring them inside for the week or 10 days we are gone. I'll still need a neighbor to come over to water the big pots, but all the fiddly stuff arranged around the garden can be housed in the tub inside with some water and out of the hot sun.
What is in plastic pots:
Euphorbia Diamond Frost, Cuphea Vermillionaire, fragrant tobacco, strawberries in troughs. Those can all be taken out and brought inside.
Also: the terracotta vase by the sundial has a plastic pot with a dwarf delphinium, and the urn by the kitchen window strip has a black petunia in a plastic pot inside. The brown urn by the gate will have Kent's Beauty oregano in a pot inside it.
Those can all be lifted and brought inside.
The three red plastic pots with grasses can come inside as well. And various small things in sick bay or on the patio coffee table can be moved indoors.
What will still have to stay outside and be watered:
White geraniums in the green troughBlueberry in the white cement potThings in the white bowl
Deschampsia in pot in the corner
Cuphea David Verity in the turquoise pot
Redtwig dogwood in turquoise pot
Would I be able to lift them and move them all under the spray sprinkler head by the garage door where the automatic system can keep them watered? I might.
By the way, I'm not sure about the form of the cuphea in the big urn in front. That container shape wants something low draping out of it, not sticking up.
April 28
A Lovely Evening
Today is smoke filled from the fires over the mountains, but yesterday was lovely. Drinks on the patio, looking at the emerging spring garden on a nice evening:
I love how the tiny aronia 'Brilliantissima' shines in a shaft of sunlight in the distance:
It's probably too shady and too small a location for it, but it looks great transplanted there:
April 27
Tulips!
My own, along the garage wall, and a vaseful from Whole Foods:
April 25
Still going
The viburnum is still blooming strongly 10 days after first opening, just covered this year and still fragrant. It's never looked so good.
It's not just pretty and flowery, it has actual presence in the garden, anchoring that corner by the birches and enclosing the deck corner.
I water and water everything. No rain since just a little bit of snow at the end of March and winds have been fierce. Wildfires are all around us but the air has cleared today. The soil slurps up whatever I put down and I find I am soaking all the gardens a lot.
April 24
Still so little
The redbud is blooming profusely this year -- finally -- but the tree itself is still so small and hard to photograph to any effect.
Nice.
April 23
Wind
Very windy, but warm. Chairs blew over, dust clouds darkened the sky, and wildfires over the mountains around Las Vegas and to the west are burning.
One thing I really like lately is the new house number sign I put on the coyote fence at the gate. I got it last winter before we had the house painted, and it goes beautifully with the peach colored stucco now.
I had wanted something on that strip of fence and thought getting tall plants in the driveway strip would add interest, but now I'm fine with the low plants below and the tile sign accenting the fence.
The stone family is fine with it now too.
April 21
Notes on Planting
Random, changing thoughts about the plants for this spring:
Cuphea David Verity is larger than the one I ordered, Vermillionaire. Got David Verity at Waterwise plant sale for the turquoise pot on the patio -- love it in that container and it needs to be large to fill it.
> Put Vermillionaire in the large urn on front portal. Will be nice with white geraniums this year.
> Put Kent Beauty oregano in brown urn by gate. Too much sun? Keep it watered.
Take out the purple After Midnight lavender from brown pot in front. Flowers are nice and it blooms twice but the foliage bothers me as it declines between flowering.
> In the brown pot in front put the Diamond Frost euphorbia.
Take out the Low Mound aronia under the pine. Put another Marian Sampson mondardella from Waterwise sale there. More eye catching, in shade, see how it does.
> Put Low Mound aronia next to new salvia by the Rose of Sharon.
Create patch of plumbagos on other side of rock swale by drain spout.
Got Pow Wow white coneflowers at Waterwise sale to put around birdbath (the tiny things I transplanted from dining room window garden are benighted Crystal Peak obedient plants I think?)
Got at Waterwise sale:
Cuphea David Verity - 1Mondardella Marian Sampson - 1Pow Wow white coneflowers - 2
Plumbagos - 5
Heuchera Firefly to complement Splendens - 1
Bowles Black violas for oblong pot on patio table - 3
Mexican hat, one more to fill - 1
April 17
Easter Sunday
I think they are planted too close together.
They're tiny and they will remain small plants, but they'll fill out and I really should have spread them out more.
I scraped away all the gravel, added compost and planted, then replaced all the gravel. It was actually a lot of work. Should I just do it over?
Or not.
They're not much to see in the gravel, but when the bright red flowers come out it will be more impactful. Maybe just wait and see how they spread.
It will need to rise up above the coralbells and the growing fountain grass in front of it. I'd like it to be seen against the flat garage wall, so it will need to gain some height.
The blue is intense.
I'm never sure which is delphinium and which is larkspur. This was an impulse buy at Payne's.
The viburnum by the deck is full and lush this year and the flowers are just opening this Easter Sunday. Fragrantly sweet already.
And some tulips are starting to open.
Just two purples and a bright coral orange one so far.
April 16
Planting
The day was lovely, dry, warm, sunny.
I get so tired working in the yard. Not feel-good tired like I used to, but achy and exhausted.
I plant a little, I sit. I drink water. Everything is so hard to reach, the up and down from knees to standing is awful, and every movement is slow and hard to do.
Age. . .
> I planted a fernbush out in the common area and two Apache Plumes up against the garage wall.
> I unpotted the Kannah Creek buckwheat and put it in front of the Summer Love vine. The kinnikinniks came out, they did not survive winter.
> I planted orange pansies and Johnny jump ups in the white bowl, and a black pansy in the brown urn on the patio.
> I watered some.
Nothing big today, but lots of little things and back and forth and fiddling, and more planting to do. I'm tired.
April 15
Next Ten Days
Temps will be at or above 40 for the next ten nights, and the days will be mostly sunny and in the low 70s. I can hook up the hoses and leave them for ten days. That takes us to the end of April, but freezes can still happen in May. I know that.
Nevertheless I shopped at Paynes and Plants of the Southwest and got lots of stuff.
I found Monardella macrantha 'Marian Sampson' and got 4 to replace the ones lost. I got Apache plume and a fernbush to put in the common area.
I got a black petunia for a pot, and a dark blue salvia for the terracotta vase by the sundial, and a delphinium for the potting bench curve. And white pelargoniums for the green trough this year. And two replacement Pink Chintz thymes -- two did not come back under the birdbath.
And a silver edged horehound for the front. And one more Las Vegas hollyhock.
For the first time in two years of pandemic shopping, the spring nursery inventories were fabulous. And I haven't even been to the Waterwise plant sales yet, which don't start til April 21.
Restraint is needed.
April 13
Very Windy (and dry)
Several days of high winds and cold.
I'm trying to keep things watered by hand, it's so dry.
The next two nights are below freezing, so I have to hook and unhook hoses, but after that it's a week of warmth with no freezes.
The redbud has tons of dark pink buds ready to open.
No sign of crabapple blossoms yet, but it's time. It bloomed profusely in mid April last year.
No sign of anything yet, but it has leafed out nice and green. When will it bloom?
April 4
Real Gardening
Cool and sunny, above freezing at night, but there will be frigid temps to come. For now, though, I got out and did some real gardening: I divided the two big clumps of lambsear in the potting bench curve and replanted them on the other side of the garden.
Lambsear looks so ratty in spring, but they will fill in.
They had grown elongated toward the back, so I chopped off the back ends and made two more new clumps.
In the process I found the irrigation installers had put multiple emitters buried in the lambsears and they really don't wan t that much water. I took up the feeder lines and rearranged them -- it's easy as the tiny lines rotate on their fittings.
Kind of a mess of lines twisted about the left side of the garden now, but all the things I want watered have a head near them now.
April 3
Rock Swale
Instead I'll eliminate any plantings there, and just use the extra white rocks I have to fill the strip where the plants were supposed to be.
I don't need another planting to tend, and I'm never over on that side to see anything.
I'll move the larger white rocks up to fill the open space, add more smaller rocks on the slope, and some gravel to fill the wider swale and call it done.
Against all odds, the dug up and trampled tulips are all coming up, some in odd spots, but all of them along the garage wall survived.
The crabapple is greening up, and its tiny unfurled leaves catch the light. The greenest thing in the early April landscape is the leafy fernbush, almost fully clothed and green.
(🚰 Hooked up the hose again and watered the potting bench curve, behind the patio table and the strip under the kitchen window.)
April 2
Hummer Feeders
Put the hummingbird feeders out today. After days of cool, cloudy, overcast weather, it's nice, in the 60s now.
(🚰 Hooked up a hose and watered the field, the dining rom window garden and the kitchen courtyard and new birdbath garden.)
I really don't like how rosy the house paint color is. It looks fresh and neat, but . . pink, especially in the shade.
In sunshine it washes out more and just looks light colored and neutral. But shadows make it look so tropical-pastel, not southwest-tan.
I dunno.
It looks particularly "off" next to the other houses in view -- our pink tones turn their stucco colors to a muddy brown when seen together.
Ack.
March 30
It's Done!
Painting is complete. The major disruptions to our outside (irrigation last fall, painting this spring) are over and I am ready to get the potting bench and sundries back together and the furniture reset and pots put where needed. Now spring can arrive!
The color is way pinker than I thought it would be. I love how fresh and light it is, and how the outside wall sconces now blend into the wall color, but in some lights, and especially around the turquoise garage side door, it looks Bermudian.
The patching he did over the new door canopy is excellent -- no visible patch at all any more.
Yikes. But the color is lovely and the job was well done, neat and clean . . . and thorough.
Th rosy tan (pink?) doesn't go as well with the cream colored garage doors now, but that's okay.
The real test will be whether his stucco mesh + paint + caulking repair did the trick to stop rain coming in through the wall over the sliders on the patio.
When he left the slider screen was off its track --- arrrgh. A bear to reset, and Pella said a repair visit would be $95, the earliest at the end of April. I fixed it myself, kinda. It works. Sorta.
Painting - $8,000 minus the $300 for the neighbor's cost of the back garage wall.
Stucco repair - $2,500.
March 27
A Step
I've been fussing over how to create a shallow, short step from the railroad ties down to the level where the potting bench and tool closet are. It's too deep, but building steps with pavers or concrete blocks seemed like too much. Cutting up railroad ties and setting them in is beyond my ability.
I tried building a small set of dry stacked stones as steps from the excess edging sandstone I have, but that did not work at all.
Having Tim build me a set of wood stairs seemed like a lot, and even pressure treated wood rots when set in the ground.
It's an aerobics step bench, good for 350 pounds, plastic, 4 or 6 inches tall, adjustable. $20 on Amazon.
I put it below the railroad tie and use it for a step. It's functional and no one can see it on the lower level.
This works.
March 26
Painting
✃ I cut back the Karl Foerster grasses today, mainly for the painter, but it was time. Weather has turned nice and the painter is getting a lot done.
It goes on really pink but dries a soft rose tan and bright sunshine washes it out to just a refreshing light color.
Everything is in disarray in the yard, with furniture scattered about away from the house, ladders and scaffolding stored on top of emerging plants, pots moved about.
But nothing too terrible and it will all be over soon, certainly by the first week of April.
Then I can get everything arranged and back to normal, and the new paint will provide a fresh, nice background for the gardens as they come in.
March 24
Late Snow
Came back from warm, green California to several inches of heavy snow yesterday. It's cold, in the low 20s at night and in the 40s in the daytime. Sun is out today, though.
The painter starts our stucco repair on the patio today, and then will paint the whole house as it warms up later, so there will be much disruption and some garden trampling for a while to come.
March 13
A Bit of Pruning
It's been so cold I didn't even want to venture out. But I finally did today in 53 sunny warmth and cut back the rosemary so it doesn't encroach on the sidewalk, and then pruned the Chinese privet by the garage.
It was too lollipop symmetrical and too square. It doesn't look like I took off much, but I really did remove a lot, and the shape is narrower along the right side. That will give the nearby redbud some room.
March 11
Cold Snap
After the first few warm days in March, it turned very cold, with off and on snow or overcast skies for days. Overnight in the teens, daily highs not much above 40. Breezy, cold and wintry.
March 2
Greening Up
I got out and snipped back the standing perennials. The day was hot, actually, and the soil felt warm where there wasn't snow.
I love these little snippers I got from Burgon & Ball.
I found them online at Corona Clippers when I was shopping for Greg's Christmas present.
Easy to handle, very small and compact, with a finger loop and a curved thumb rest. Made cutting the fiddly dry stalks a simple chore.
February 20
Plant Orders
From Bluestone Perennials:
From Whiteflower Farm:
From Burpee Seeds:
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| 3 Choca Mocha cosmos for white bowl and a pack of 4 red salvias for sundial pots |
January 28
And Then It Snowed
Unexpectedly, after I watered pots yesterday, it snowed a ton overnight.
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| January 28 |
And it's very cold, so it hasn't melted much.
January 27
Watered Pots
I put some water in the pots outdoors and watered the little oaks in the field. It's been very cold and mostly sunny, with no moisture. Snow lingers along our north facing front walk, but everywhere else it's long gone.
January 7
Lingering Snow
We got some snow a few days ago and it is lingering, soaking into my gardens in places. Good.
January 3
Potting Bench Curve
I am not really sure I like the newly installed moss rock border in front of the aspens.
Here's the evolution, from when there was a rock collar round the aspens, to the new expanded garden that includes the aspens inside it, with moss rock edging:
I liked the gentle curve that originally ran behind the aspens.
It's nicer, and the garden is bigger. But the curve has an awkward shape now.
And the rocks run too close in front of the aspen trunks, raised up above the garden itself, creating a small well with steep sides. It's odd and it's visually ungraceful.
January 1
Cold start
A wet, rainy / snowy beginning to 2022. Good moisture after a dry fall, but gloomy and cold.