Holes in the allée

The allée is still a newer garden. It was started a tiny bit in 2012 but I dug out the rest in 2013. I've added plugs, divided plants, and last fall I bought about $200 worth of perennials and planted many of them there.

But still, when I walked through it this week I noticed that there are a lot of holes. No, not those kinds of holes. We're fortunate that in this part of the city (and probably in many parts of the city), we don't have to deal with moles or voles or other critters. The holes I have are embarrassing because there is nothing growing in them.  I'm sure when I plant new flowers in late summer/early fall that I have a plan in my head but I didn't realize that the plan included leaving great spaces of nothingness.

I seem to have three categories of holes: Places where there's nothing because the plants around it get bigger; bare spaces left when bulb foliage dies; and then just pure poor planning on my part.

To wit: I know that I didn't plant a lot here because the ninebark will eventually be 8 feet across, though since that probably won't happen for several more years, I need to plant and then move when the ninebark takes over. 

And this is a tough spot because when the hibiscus gets going in July, it crowds out everything around it. So instead of giving it space, apparently I planted right next to it and then left blank spaces closer to the pathway. Awesome.

These next two pictures show problems that arise when the bulb foliage finally dies. Then, there will be absolutely nothing in their places. I need to work on some choreography in these spots.

 

Then there are the spaces of nothingness or just really bad planting on my part. Like here - apparently I like to plant on diagonals. 

Here next to the back door - I know it wasn't this empty last year. There were some Geranium 'Rozanne' and more than one Coreopsis but I guess it didn't come back. I planted some annuals there but I have to do something about this. It's a tough area, though, since it gets stepped on all winter when the bench isn't there to block that route.

Under my Eastern redbud (which had TWO flowers this year, by the way, an improvement over zero so it gets to stay), I planted two Amsonia hubrichtii last fall. I know they'll get larger but right now they're just sprigs and it looks so bare.

Or this - let me just bunch plants together around a hole of nothingness, and then plant some annuals in there to try to mitigate the damage.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do. This mainly involves online shopping for new plants but may also include moving some things around and dividing some plants. For now, I'll just sit here in the a/c and window shop online.

Things I'd Like to Do in 2015

I stopped making New Years' resolutions a long time ago and I've been recently moving away from making goals. Instead, if I write a list of things I'd like to do, I'm not as hard on myself if it doesn't get done or doesn't turn out the way I want. Something about "things I'd like to do" means less pressure in my perfectionist-oriented brain. So with that being said, here are some initial thoughts about things I'd like to accomplish in my garden this year. They're all interrelated.


Plant a greater variety of annuals

I've been buying the same 4 packets of annuals from the grocery store every February for years. Orange/red marigolds and three types of zinnias.

I'm really bored of them and by the time late summer rolls around, I always regret not having a better variety of annuals to compliment the perennials. But they can be expensive if I buy them from my local nursery (and probably treated with some sort of chemical). So I'm going to grow my own and branch out from the old standbys. If it works out, I'll be able to fill in the gaps in my perennial beds and have enough to fill up pots for my front porch and back patio. Now, the only thing I need to do is to figure out which flowers I want.


Don't be so damn cheap

I have a hard time not being super frugal. This is partially why I don't buy a lot of annuals (see above) when spending some damn money would make my garden look nicer. I have no problem spending on perennials but seem to have a block when it comes to annuals, furniture, accessories, etc. So in the interest of stimulating the economy and making the garden look nicer, I'm going to try to get rid of the internal struggle that tells me not to buy and just do it.


Make inspiration a reality

I have hundreds of photos of gardens I've visited that have inspired me, whether it was the stone of a pathway or a striking flower combination. I'd like to revisit those pictures and figure out how I can make some of those inspirations work for me in my own garden. It'll take some money (see above) and planning, but I do love a good Excel spreadsheet. I think I have to remember that I can get overwhelmed so I only need to pick out one or two ideas for now. I'm already mentally arranging my embarrassing back patio, and have decided to enlist some professional design help for the front yard.

Do you make resolutions, goals, or lists of things to do in the new year? What's on that list for the upcoming gardening season?

Like Christmas morning

Nevermind that I was up at 4:45 in the morning yesterday because one of the dogs decided it was a great time to be awake.

Or that I was out of the house to my job by 7 am, and didn't get home from my second (teaching) job until 7:30 pm.

Though it was dark when I got home, three boxes of plants had arrived! I scarfed down some dinner and set to unpacking them outside.

Thank goodness I wrote down where each one should go when I was ordering them. My addled brain didn't even remember most of what I ordered, let alone what I intended for them.But with this big purchase of close to twenty plants, I'm trying to introduce more variegation, height, textured foliage, and colored stems in my garden. 

Get the shovels ready! I'm going to be digging all weekend!

Have you made any fall purchases to help improve your garden next year?

To do list this weekend

My running schedule this weekend is really light and it won't be too hot, so it is time to dig in and get some stuff done:

* Mow & trim lawn
* Prune butterfly bush
* Cut back echinacea and other plants on their way out
* Weed
* Extend backyard flower beds
* Use my Groupon at Primex to get plants for next years' bloom (they're having a buy one, get one 50% off - yahoo!); plant them
* Water

Again with the sedum

Something is eating my sedum again. Last year, the plants made it through the summer pretty unscathed, but this year big chunks are already missing from the leaves.

I have seen ants, teeny tiny black bugs (smaller than a pinhead) and ladybugs on them. I know we have slugs here and there.

My first guess is that the black bugs are aphids. Ladybugs eat aphids, which might explain why I've seen the pretty red bugs around lately. Apparently there are even black sedum aphids (see here). I have aphids on my daylilies, though, and they leave dead brown spots where they've been eating. What's happening now is more like bites are being taken out of the leaves. So my second guess is slugs. Jerks.

My plan of attack (shh! don't tell the pests!) is threefold:

First, I was going to chop the sedum this weekend anyway to prevent them from blooming too early. To attack the aphids, I'm also going to squirt them with some dish soap + water. Finally, I'll make a slug beer trap and leave it out around the plant to see if I catch any of the slimy guys. Wish me luck.

Big dahlias, little yard

It's tough having big dreams for a small yard. I'm really restricted by what I can do. I was reminded of that again today as I was trying to plant some dahlia tubers and gladiolus and ranunculus bulbs. Nowhere left to put them!

Last year, I sort of tossed my dahlia tubers into a hole and hoped they would grow. Boy did they! They were massive plants - they would have been at least 5 feet tall if I'd staked them properly. They were prolific bloomers and provided many vases with beautiful cut flowers. This year, I tried to be cognizant of their needs. You know what that means - they won't grow! I divided some of them to give to my neighbor and hope I didn't destroy them. I just pulled them apart instead of doing what the experts in this video recommend:



Oops.

I think they're hardier than they get credit for, though. I dug up all of my tubers in the fall and overwintered them in the basement. But what did I spy already a foot tall in the front yard? A dahlia. I'm guessing that I missed a piece of a tuber last fall and the mild winter didn't turn it to mush. Should be interesting to see what it does.

Tomorrow's To Do list:
* Stake the new eastern redbud before it falls over
* Buy the remainder of the fence finials and put them on the fence posts
* Turn over some more land at the off-site veggie garden; plant pea seedlings and peppers
* Coat the potting bench with polyurethane
* If time allows, move the St. John's Wort bush and Kerria japonica to the side yard hill