✓ Prune the privet
✓ Prune rosemary along walkway
> Trim thyme around birdbath
> Remove blackeyed Susans from potting bench curve (after bloom is done)
✓ Replace parrotia on patio - Sooner Plant Farms
Fertilized 8/21
August 31
Summer ends. Tomorrow is September, Monday is Labor Day. Everything looks nice on these quiet, sunny, cool mornings. Plants love the chilly nights and sunny days now.
> Plant out the 3 most recent Radio Red salvias I just got and see if they will winter over in the ground.
I'll put them in the spots where I have them now, tucked in their nursery pots, in the kitchen courtyard. The other three by the sundial will stay in pots to winter over in the garage again.
> When I take out the black eyed Susans and coneflowers from below the aspens, I'll plant some of them in the kitchen courtyard.
That sunny spot will be my exuberant flowery garden, while under the trees -- both the potting bench curve and the dining room window garden --will be quieter spaces with foliage and shrubs.
August 30
Cold, refreshing mornings in the 50s. A lot of cloudiness and unsettled skies, but when the sun is out in the daytime it's hot. With the cooler overnights and the bit of moisture we've been getting, the plants all look so much better.
The swath of plumbago fronting the river rocks by the dining room window are finally making a show and spreading out.
I seriously underwatered them to start in the first years, had to add more, and I learned I have to fertilize them a few times in summer. But now they are looking good, filling out and blooming nicely.
The fall anemone not so much. It is leafy now, but blooming sparsely.
It is spreading all over. I constantly have to pull little runners out of the plumbagos all the time. I thought our dry soils here would keep its spread from being aggressive, but it turns out I have to water it a lot to keep the thin leaves from crisping.
Look at where the Red Cascade rose is headed -- it's reblooming now and peeking through the fence.
I still want to consider training it to climb up over the kitchen door canopy. But that's a lot of work and I need to get it going while the canes are growing and I'm not quite sure how.
Even now while the plant is still young they aren't that pliable. And it really wants to scramble in a tangle, not reach out and climb.
I should wait until winter when the leaves are off to see what I can do with the thorny twiggy branches. It may still be best to let it scramble over the fence after all.
August 27
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| Persian Spire examples |
Only a 2 gallons size, about 18 inches tall, for $90. Tiny, but I'm already on the third try with this and didn't want to spend or risk the 5 gallon size.
It's 'Persian Spire', which has purple red tinged leaves and will grow to 20 feet tall and 9 feet wide.
This one at maturity will be smaller than 'Vanessa' -- I hadn't realized 'Vanessa' would grow to 40 feet tall and 20 feet wide.
Which it probably won't in this climate, but still, that's too big for the tiny space I have between the patio sitting alcove and the fence.
I'm not sure about the purple edged leaves, but the form should look like my beautiful 'Vanessa' by the guest room window, but a much smaller tree.
I'd limb it up at the bottom as I have done with 'Vanessa'.
The little Forestfarm one I just planted (a replacement this spring for the Sooner Plant Farm one that I loved until lit didn't make it through winter) isn't growing at all.
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| Vanessa -- the new one from Forestfarm, and the 6 year old specimen |
The leaves are shrinking, no new growth at all. I was willing to let it go through winter to see if it would do anything, but the smaller Persian Spire will eventually be a better size, so I'll take out the little twig and replace it.
My 6 year old specimen in the guest room window corner is beautiful, but how big will it get?
August 18
Late summer. Hot sunny afternoons, the plants wilt and I water pots daily; everything else every two days. Plus I run the irrigation four days a week. It's too much, but it keeps things from looking so tired and stressed.
Mornings are lovely, cool and refreshing. Clouds form each afternoon and we've had rain, but nothing recently.
The birdbath garden looks good.
I added a pot of tickseed and the whole composition looks nice.
August 10
Before the rain I pruned the privet even more, and it is quite limbed up now, with some bare spots that need to grow back in. But it opens up the area so much better.
I moved the pots of yellow tickseed that had been simply stashed below the rr ties by the tool closet.
They are full and brightly flowering, so one went in the kitchen courtyard (to replace the turquoise bowl of crocosmias that were burning out) and one went in the prairie wildflower pot garden under the sundial.
August 4
Seven years ago today we moved in! I love this house and I like my evolving gardens.
Yesterday I pruned the overgrown Chinese privet. It's been hard to get a picture of it -- the light reflects off the tiny leaves and the mulch below is busy to the camera's eye.
It's better but still needs some trimming in the interior. There are two vertical stems that need to come out, and the form still leans way out. But that's the nature of its planting so close up against the fence. I can trim more of the front, but the back is so flat up against the fence that there won't be much left.
And the side facing the garage, which is what we see entering the yard, is really sketchy now. It may grow in with more sun.
I do like the openness below with the starburst branchy effect up top.
It's an improvement but still seems a little too full. I may do some more chopping.
August 3
I bought the yellow ones way back in April and they struggled in the cold until warm weather arrived, but boy are they non-stop flowering machines.
I had them in a pot tucked in the potting bench curve and they were eye catching at ground level, but the lemon yellow was odd with the other colors there, especially after the golden blackeyed Susans opened.
I like them better as a bright spot in the brown urn. The Millennium alliums are nice and full and I like them, although they are a dusty soft color that is hard to integrate with anything.
So I moved the Tidal Wave Silver petunia pot to the potting bench curve, tucked in between the blue lambsears.
This petunia was supposed to be white (silver) but it isn't. The pinky-lilac color goes better in this spot.
August 2
It rained a quarter inch last night. I had watered extensively yesterday and the irrigation ran on its normal schedule yesterday morning and yet . . when just a quarter inch falls out of the sky, everything looks so much plumper and more refreshed. Plants stand taller and look better.
I re-potted the blanketflowers today into larger containers. They were sowed in small pots on May 21, so it's been 10 weeks, and they are still tiny things with only their embryonic leaves, no permanent leaves have emerged in over two months.
I don't think they are going to take.
Still far too fragile to plant out, and how am I going to overwinter them?
It was hard to keep them watered in their tiny starting pots. Even a few drips overwatered, and then quickly dried out.
I'll see if these larger pots prompt any new growth.
It has really gotten way too big, leaning out and forward and down too much. The form isn't good and it looks bulky.
Plus, I need to allow room for the crabapple to grow and I'd like to have a bit of a view down the yard to the circle of plants around the birdbath when sitting on the deck.
It needs more than trimming of branches on that side, it needs some pretty severe pruning for a better, more upright shape. I want to keep a curved shape, rounded but more vase like.
It's too hot now in mid summer, but when it cools, or if there is a comfortable enough morning, I'll tackle it.
Reducing the horizontal heft of the privet will keep the visual scale of the back yard in balance while I wait for the crabapple and ironwood saplings to grow and gain height.
Which brings me to the struggling ironwood sapling. I really want to replace it and Sooner Plant Farms has a 5 gallon this fall for $175.
That's what I got last time and it was beautifully formed and quite big, but didn't survive its first winter. Try again??