Tasks
🌹Get and install for Cascade rose to climb up to door canopy
💠Add rocks behind iron Jackmanii trellis to weight it away from leaning on the fence.
🟣 Move Sweet Summer Love vine to potting bench curve (take out Venosa violocae)
🌱 Get little bluestem grasses for common area
December 20
Merry Christmas
December 1
Outside Decorations
I hung the larger of the two artificial wreaths on the gate. I didn't want to get the ladder out to put it up over the garage as I usually do -- and it always looks too small up there. I got a new bow at Target, but it's nothing great. Still, this looks good.
At Target I also got a fake lighted tree to put in the brown urn on the front portal. The artificial snow frosting is light enough to make this show up against the dark recess of our front doors.
The whole effect, though, including the tiny red pepper wreaths on the doors, is dinky -- I never seem to master decorating with any scale.
I didn't want to hang lights or do anything up on a ladder, so that's part of the problem with the small scale of my decorations.
Inside she had lush faux greenery on shelves and on a sofa console and on mantels, with impressively large lighted glass ornament trees tucked into the greenery and other substantial decorations.
They do a very big 8 or 9 foot tall tree. Their decorations all have presence and impact that my little decorations and 5 foot tall little tree inside in a corner never do.
But I like the little lighted tree on our dark front porch. It works in that urn and I didn't have to do anything except plop it in and plug it in.
And look at the size, especially all the whippy new growth at the top. I love how narrow it is, perfect for this tight space (and it would have suited a few other spots in the yard where I need a tightly narrow tree.)
November 30
Dry Fall
Jeronimo's crew came today and cleaned up all the leaves. $325 -- 3 men worked for two hours. There are still pockets of leaves I need to scoop up, but most is done.
After they left I watered. We've had no precipitation this fall since mid October, other than a dusting of snow. I used the 2.5 gallon watering can and made endless trips including out in the common area. It would have been easier to re-hook the hose and wand and then take it all back in when done.
I put the tree up and some decorations on the fireplace mantel.
Nothing outside yet, I don't know what I want. My two small wreaths aren't doing it for me outside any more. I put the sealer of the two inside on the sliding glass door.
November 14
Wet Cushions
So much for bringing in the new white patio cushions when it rains or snows, to keep them dry inside the house!
It snowed unexpectedly overnight. It isn't much snow, and it will melt, but the cushions are covered and will be soggy.
The Blonde Ambition grass in a pot on the deck got smushed, but I hope it will bounce back up.
It's what I see from inside the bedroom slider, and I'd like to keep some winter interest out there on the deck. Just something to look at.
November 12
Hard Freeze
It's all over now. We had a hard freeze overnight in the low 20s and the Japanese maple lost every last leaf. The new serviceberry is still hanging on to its few red leaves but they have withered.
The anemone is now dry crumpled gray leaves. Everything else is done too. The parrotia that had looked so lemon lime yellow yesterday is still holding its leaves and doesn't look too bad, but definitely a little droopy and less vivid.
All else looks like winter, totally bare or shriveled.
November 11
Ironwood
Wow, the Persian ironwood by the guest room window has colored beautifully. Like everything else this year this parrotia is lemon-lime yellow, not as coppery as in other years.
It holds its leaves for a long time in fall.
But nights in the mid to low 20s are coming, so I drained and brought in the hoses, and emptied the rainbarrel.
Jim got lovely orange roses at the store today.
It's actually a focus from up the street and eye catching each time I pull out of the driveway and see it from the car.
Blueberries are supposed to have fantastic red fall color, and mine in Conn. did, but nothing on this one yet. Still, it's starting to be an elegant plant right by the back door.
1. I need to get in the car and go over there to take a walk instead of always walking the neighborhood.
November 9
Draining the Rainbarrel
Windy but not too cold today.
It looks like the tiny serviceberry, now shining copper red, is helping.
The Japanese maple next to it is even more brilliantly red than before, and now the serviceberry, with its broader oval leaves, is brilliant too.
I righted the barrel, but left it uncovered to let the sludge at the bottom dry out. Then I'll cap it for winter.
The viburnum has turned lemony golden yellow with lots of dark variation. Eye catching.
It's yellower than in other autumns, like the sumacs, which weren't red at all this year, but a very unimpressive yellow brown before losing their leaves.
At least the yellow viburnum looks jewel toned and beautiful.
November 5
Snow
Yesterday it was cold and snowy and grim all day. The Japanese maple got battered down as did everything else.
Today the sun is out and everything looks just fine. Like the snow never happened. Still cold, though, in the 20s at night and 30s in the morning even with the sun out.
November 2
Some Clean Up
I took down the remaining stalks of verbascum at the side of the house -- I needed the loppers to cut through the huge woody stems.
They were the most incredible plants this year, a wall of alien looking immense structures. The blooms are not pretty but the huge tall plants fill the empty space there.
But I don't want more. I took out several seedlings I saw spreading about; they are easy to uproot.
Three of them had formed a perfectly straight, evenly spaced line in front of the house (where the New Mexico privets had been).
Nicely positioned away from the wall of the house, it looked like a formal planting. But I really don't want three huge verbascums lined up just there.
I took those out. But weren't they cute, lined up?
Then I pruned the firethorn (pyracantha) in the fence alley. It has gotten huge. I took off the tall whippy branches arching above so it's more of a horizontally structured shrub now, just the height of the fence.
The thorns are awful. Oddly, there are orange berry clusters but they are all in back, unseen from the front of the shrub.
I am not sure why it bloomed and set berries only in the lower back branches.
Lastly, I pruned the rosemary to keep it off the walk and a little more away from the house wall. I wore gloves, but I smell like rosemary anyway, and it is a strong aroma. Too strong. The plant wants to be big and lush and I am needing to keep it narrow and trimmed in this tight spot.
November 1
Nights Below Freezing
The Japanese maple just keeps getting better and better, redder and redder.
Opening the blinds in the morning is startling seeing the sunrise light it up.
Spectacular.
After a summer season where it looked a little too open and thin this is quite rewarding. The brand new serviceberry near the rain barrel is supposed to color red in autumn (hence 'Autumn Brilliance') but it is still too new and still in transplant adjustment mode and leaves remain green.
They look healthy though.
Nights have been consistently at freezing in the high 20s or low 30s, so I've brought the hoses in and shut off the water.
But the anemone that usually blackens in a freeze has remained green and full, with brilliant red plumbagos beneath. I wonder how much longer it will keep now that we are getting freezing nights?
The little blueberry in a pot did not fruit this year (and may not be a very big producer), but it has formed a nice structure and the leaves are a lovely blue green.
What has been a real disappointment this year are the fragrant sumacs. Not a hint of red at all. The ones by the garage wall, which usually get a nice coppery color, are just a blah yellow and going by.
The one at the foot of Major Wheeler honeysuckle turned rusty brown. It had been wine red in other years.
A wet summer, and irrigation -- did that do in the fall color on the sumacs?
And despite a bumper spring show of viburnum flowers, there is not a red berry to be seen on the viburnum by the deck. Hmmm.
October 25
A freeze
A light freeze last night. The mums in pots are okay, but the vinca in the troughs in front went by. Nothing else in the garden is toast yet, though.
Jeronimo came today to shut down the irrigation system, and he had his crew man convert the spray pop up heads by the garage to drip lines all around the birdbath, the sumacs and clematis and the redbud.
October 21
Botanical Garden
Two things I want to remember from my visit to the botanical garden this morning:
The piñon juniper walk is open and it's nice -- not a walk along the arroyo below as I had imagined, but a wandering twisting path along a gentle rise on 3 acres behind the garden.
The path is less than half a mile, but I can also walk the garden itself and the art walk that winds above it, and get in a 2 mile Strava- documented walk maybe!
I just need to remember I want to do that one day.
2. Grasses. Of course they are at their best right now. I keep wanting to put more grasses in the common area next to our driveway. The garden has so many, and the prettiest, and somewhat smaller sized ones were the little bluestems.
They are reddish in fall and the seedheads are fluffy. There are few in the common area now and I should plant a whole bunch more around in several bare spots, mixing up the tawny brown grasses that are mostly there.
I should just go to Plants of the Southwest and get a whole bunch of Schizachyrium scoparium and plant now while the ground is still damp.
So . . two takeaways:
> go for a Strava walk at the botanical garden when I want to go for a walk, and
> get some little bluestems and plant the common area. And also bouteloua, blue gram grass (the "eyelash seedhead grass") -- there's a great profile of it at the garden here.
The other sight that was stunning at the garden today in late October: the Texas red oaks. Wow.
October 19
Lovely Fall
Cool air, hot sun, very little breeze, fall colors all around. Very cold nights.
I bought some mums for the pots I had emptied out when we went to California, and also got a Siskiyou Pink gaura, which I just love in the brown urn on the patio.
There is something about its arching abandon and delicate pink flowers in the formal urn that is a pleasing balance.
The whole back yard actually looks great as it fades into fall. The Raydon's Favorite aster is in bloom, and after the soaking rain that beat it down, it has bounced back a bit.
The redbud hiding out behind it by the garage also looks healthy and leafy and I also have hopes for good flowering and some growth next year.
I really like how the entire birdbath garden came together. Still new, the little shrublets (aronia, buckwheat, a pineleaf penstemon, a transplanted amsonia, etc.) all need to bulk up and I want to add more of the pretty white Crystal Peak obedient plants around the base of the birdbath.
But even now it's a nice sight on a sunny fall day, seen from the patio.
October 11
Planted Pinons
Lucy gave me 3 tiny, tiny piñon pine seedlings to plant in the common area. She even gave me wire cloches for them.
But after all our rain, the ground was soft. It's caliche and sand and it gets sticky and heavy when wet, but I could dig out spots for the little trees.
I did manage to put them in a sort of line at the crest of the drainage swale, behind the oaks and a little to the side of them. Oaks + pines staggered.
I dug up the fernbush and put that in front of the oaks closer to the driveway where I'll see it better. Then the middle of the three pines went in the spot where at the fernbush had been.
Hope I didn't set the fernbush way back, they are supposed to be hard to start.
October 9
It Cleared, Then Rained
Sun this morning, then clouds, then 1/3 of an inch of steady rain in the afternoon. While the sun was out in the morning I got out to chop back the giant mulleins and cut back the Texas red yucca spikes. Also chopped back most of the perennials that have gone by.
October 8
All Day Rain
It rained just over a half inch all day, a soaker.
October 5
A Lot of Rain
An inch overnight and into the day. Roiling clouds, rainbows, very unsettled.
September 29
Digging Things Up
I pried up a stone in the lower patio and moved it to make a partial stone path by the deck.
In its open spot I planted the Hope desert willow.
A lot of work. That stone was heavy, the scraping out of the planting hole was difficult and then moving another flagstone to the planting hole to create a circle was not easy either.
That edging piece sits an inch above the level of the stone next to it. I put some divisions of the thyme leaf speedwell at that corner to disguise it. Only I will notice.
Then I dug up the leftmost hakonechloa to see why it is so much smaller than the other two. It lives, but it just hasn't grown at all since the second year of planting.
I thought maybe a root was impeding its growth, but there was no large root in the hole when I dug it up.
The soil was dry-crumbly but not powder dry. Not really moist either, just chunky. I've noticed that before. The soil there gets water, but the texture is hard clumpy.
There were a few of the edging stones from the old border buried near the hakonechloa, but nothing that would inhibit roots.
I dug the edging bricks out and they do seem quite big to have remained buried there, but they weren't close enough to the plant to have interfered.
Anyway, I took them out, the soil is open there, I added compost and Yum Yum mix and loosened the clumpy soil.
Watered everything well. Let's see if I can get this Japanese forest grass to do anything.
After that I spread a bit of the nicer mulch I just got, and . . .
. . . . I am pooped.
September 27
I Tire Easily
It takes so little to tire me. I trimmed the Chinese privet by the fence (less starburst, a little neater) and pruned the leaning juniper by the gate.
I picked up some of the bigger chunks of that horrible mulch from last fall (this year's bags of the same stuff is much smaller and nicer.) and got a truthful that I spread around the sunflowers by the garage. They are broken bits of pallets I think, and don't do much for mulch, but the help cover some of the bare soil there.
Got tired after that! The days have been beautiful, sunny and cool., but by 11:30 a.m. it gets hot in the sun and I poop out.
September 24
Deep Wet Soil
I planted the little serviceberry 'Autumn Brilliance' from Sooner Farm. The spot where I had taken out the gaura was deeply wet.
Usually when I dig around here I find nice moist soil from my watering for about 4 inches down, then powder dry dirt below that.
At this spot it was moist and friable and wet all the way down, partly from the irrigation there, and partly because it sits below the rain barrel and we got half an inch while we were away -- and it pools there when the barrel overflows.
It's a little stick, a single trunk specimen. Now to watch it grow and fill out!
I moved the Kent's Beauty oregano from a terra cotta trough into the big white bowl. Next year I'll do basil and some petunias in the bowl with the oregano.
The new patio chair cushions came from Wayfair (white, or "natural" again.) They fit and look great, but they slide. I need to put a sticky mat under each.
A beautiful cool sunny day today, just lovely. Everything looks pretty good and the air and the sun were so refreshing and I love my patio and yard and house!
September 19
10 Days Away
We're home after our trip to California -- what a little imp of a doll Karolina is! Such fun tending to her.
The pots I put under the pop up sprinkler in the birdbath garden did okay, and on top of that we got half an inch of rain while we were gone. I'm not sure what day that occurred.
The one exception was the white bowl -- it was completely dry. and the Choca mocha cosmos and yellow petunia died. I may have blocked the sprinkler from reaching it by putting another pot too much in front of it. Even the half inch of rain did not keep it moist enough.
No real loss -- it's going on late September now and time to remove the pots and annuals.
September 7
This Year's No-Shows
Despite a new irrigation system and a good monsoon season, these all disappointed:
- Poco orange kniphofia never grew, never flowered
- Red heucheras never flowered, were shrunken with just a few leaves.
- Delphiniums and mourning widow geraniums did bloom but sparse, puny and brief
- Crocosmias came up but never bloomed
- Red agastache and bubblegum pink one barely bloomed, very thin
- None of the hollyhocks bloomed, despite being second year plants
Other things were too new to do much yet. The real standouts were the rejuvenated Rose of Sharon, blanketflowers around the birdbath, the tall Vanessa parrotia tree, and the full pink anemone under the dining room window.
September 5
Visit to Andrea's
A nice time with my friend Andrea, celebrating her birthday today in her lovely garden. Every time I visit, I come back determined to incorprate more of her style into my spaces. Her lush, mature, crowded, exuberant planting is all jumbled together but tamed with stone paths that wander about.
I do love the look down my narrow back yard from our deck -- and of course I'm dealing with a sapling crabapple, not the mature shade she has.
And my view out to the length of the garden from the patio chairs under the vigas is nice too. But the open deck, open stone patio and lower stone patio all keep me from bringing plantings forward from the fence line or creating more layers.
Other than pots scattered about on the stonework and on the deck, I don't have a way to create the lush, cohesive look she has. The pots look stiffly placed. The wild things in the corner under the sundial are what I want more of.
I know her garden is older and established. Much of mine is still new. But even the things I planted several years ago are still tiny and sparse. My agastaches don't even show up much less rival her big pink one in the center of a jumble of flowering plants.
She says water is the answer -- much, much more of it than you'd think. My irrigation system does seem to be adequate only to keep things alive while we're gone (and I added a day for 4 days total per week). I probably should increase it.
I'm getting there, but it's slow and I keep doing things over, so lots of my plants are new each year. And I'm planting in aspen and cottonwood roots, and Virginia creeper vine aggressiveness too.
Her isolated mounds surrounded by narrow paths have open soil, like Greg's, which is free of roots and both of their gardens are so much more lush than mine.
Now that I removed the patio table and chairs from the lower stone patio by our deck, I could take up the stones, or some of them, and bring some plantings forward to give a fuller look to that whole back fenceline.
Should I?
I don't want to give up the usable space, but it's not like we use that lower level at all. And getting more shade out there would be ideal. . . .
September 4
Labor Day Weekend
On Friday we leave for California for 10 days, and then bring Pam back here for 5 days. Before we go I will:
- dispose of both the yellow and black petunias, Diamond Frost euphorbia, all the small pots around the sundial, lobelia in front, pentas in green trough -- summer is over and it's too hard to water all that while we are gone 10 days.
- move the tobacco, small seedling pots, both oblong troughs into the house on a tray with water.
- put the black pot with Blonde Ambition grass in the spray sprinkler area.
- add watering wine bottles to blueberry, redtwig dogwood, desert willow & spots in garden.
Pam won't see all the summery pots, especially the ones around the sundial or the ones at the front door, but I don't think she'll notice and the place will look tidier and spare, ready for fall.
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| Goodbye, summer |