We put in a Pond!

Our neighbors have a large and awesome pond. They called me over the other day to ask if we wanted a pond liner she didn't plan on using. She had picked it up off the curb when our now landlord lived here-it used to be where I now I have hostas planted. My son Ben has been asking for a pond for a really long time- he always loves the water feature aspects of any garden place we visit. So we jumped for joy when this pond liner fell in our laps.

We figured out where we wanted it, called the dig line, acquired a filter, and while I rounded up rocks from various parts of the yard, my husband dug a hole and put it in. Ta Da!

 I "attached" it to an existing bed.

 My aunt gave us this quirky alligator years ago and I knew right away I wanted him close to the water. I planted steppables (thyme, sedge, and moss) around him so the kids can stepp all over here and get close to the water without any obstacles. The flat rock in the foreground of this photo is immovable, so the boys can lay right on top of it.

I had a hole in the rock garden area behind the pond I filled with this gorgeous sedum "October Daphne;" love the water hues here, and think it looks great spilling towards the the pond.

Since then we've added a floating blue ceramic frog and some fish... but 5 of the 6 fish already perished. Oh well. More coming soon! I also saw about 15 tiny birds splashing in the fountain on a very hot 94 degree day! So neat! The dragonflies seem to love it, also. But more than anything, my kids love it. They are by it all the time, reading, looking at the fish, putting their hands in the water. So great!

Springety Spring, Spring!

Well, there is no escaping it now! Spring is here, and the plants are growing. This has truly been an odd year, as the snow melted and the temps climbed up almost immediately. I have been rushing to pull the winter protection (a 6-10 inches blanket of leaves and twigs) off my beds so the bulbs could grow. The longer I leave the protective layer on, the harder it becomes to remove later without damaging what is growing beneath. Look how these tulips just pushed themselves right through the barrier.

Once the barrier is removed the parts of the tulip that were not getting an sun are yellowish; two days have passed now and they are all solid red. Here is the mis-colored bulb:
Beneath the surface I've found blooms on primrose.

This spotted deadnettle also had little purple flowers on it.
I was stunned to find this Wallflower (Bowles Mauve) had not only survived winter, but was pushing out blooms already. All my research told me this guy was shortlived, and not hardy. Surprise!

The sedum 'Angelina' is glowing already!

The soil has been quiet soft and workable, so in the new sunny front yard we've errected my newest arbor, and I planted sweet peas on the base for now. I will be putting flower beds on boths sides for dahlias, roses, and clematis, among others things.

I hope to have some blooms, soon. I can also hardly wait to start dividing and moving a few things. Happy Gardening!

Random Rainy Day Dreaming

Oh boy it's raining here. Hard, steady, wet, wet rainfall hasn't ceased since we woke up and opened the curtains. The skies are dark, and the lights are on midday. Very rare. So, I'm obviously stuck indoors all day. Weather has never kept this gardener from 'gardening.' I pulled out my garden guide, a huge three ring binder filled with all my labels and notes, article clippings, etc. I also rounded up my magazines and set to work on some ideas while the boys are napping. Here's what my binder looks like:

While I was looking at the binder I found this picture I was telling my mom about the other day. My mom is lucky owner of one of these red mandevilla, and she just picked up sweet potato vine 'margueritte' recently, too. I suggested she combine them for this effect:

Isn't that stunning?

Twig Art

So I have an obessesion with vines and climbers. I have too many, actually. Jasmines, passion vines, a dozen clematis, trumpet vines, virginia creeper, climbing roses, and I do annual vines like morning glory, hyacinth bean, and more. I also have a hardy addiction to structures in the garden that can provide height for my ever growing collection of vines. This spring I am poised to put 3 more clematis in the ground, and a couple more climbing roses, too. I need more supports.

I have been fantasizing about this structure ever since I saw in the spring 2008 Country Almanac Flower Gardening. This was my first gardening magazine this season, and it's already falling apart I've flipped the pages so many times. Isn't this dreamy? But expensive, I'm sure.

We have plans to put in some pavers to create a patio similar to one pictured above beneath our table later this spring. I wish I could somehow build something like this structure around it. Heck, I wish I had the white picket fence in the background, too. LOL. I use the resources I have. Mostly, twigs, to build what I can. I don't have enough twigs to build such a large arbor, but I do have a small stack of willow branches out back waiting to be turned into something. If I can't get in the dirt too much, I can pull these twigs into the kitchen and make a big mess trying to build one of these. This weekend is going to be too chilly and wet for outdoor gardening, so maybe I'll make garden art. I'll let you know what I come up with. The trellisses look easy enough. And the big house shaped arbor could be shrunk to a kid size, and I could put their bench under it? Ideas, ideas...

Peony Dilema

We have two pretty cool nights forecasted, but then I think I'll be in the clear to start putting in some perennials, bare-root roses, lilies, and hostas in the ground. Monday looks to bring promising gardening weather with 50 and sunny forecasted. I know the following weekend should be golden. My May 1st I'll have the tender stuff in the ground, unless some madness shows up in the forecast.

So, the boxed/bagged plants at the all the big box stores have seduced me. You know the ones I'm talking about... the cheap, brightly colored boxes with the huge pictures of summertime goodness on them and the occasional stray new growth spilling out of the top of the box? I don't buy into the quality of the plants being any less at any one store. If you're good in the garden, and your research, you can keep a plant alive no matter where you've found it. Plus, I am on a pretty strict budget, coming from a virtually single income (his income, not mine) household, I have to make choices about what I spend our spare change on. I always want more peonies, but around here a peony in a pot starts over $20 a piece, putting them far out of my reach.

Last spring I went to several area public gardens during peony time and fell in love. This year I decided the boxed/bagged peonies will just have to do. Essentially I'm paying less b/c there is no pot or dirt coming with the plant... right now I have several peonies growing in recycled pots in my dining room (recycled as in from past trips to the nursery). I also have a red Karl Rosenfeld I'll be dividing next week. I have been sketching and visualizing where to put these gems:

First, I have to decide if I want to spread them out, or clump them side by side.

I found this image of some similar peonies put in a bed together and I like the look:

On the other hand, peonies bloom so bright and big, long before a lot of the more colorful things in my garden start their show. I think having a peony here and there around the garden could create some color and drama in places otherwise lacking that time of the season. I think I may mix the peonies with roses in the front bed I created last fall. I read somewhere that peonies complete their bloom just as spring roses begin, so good things could come from this combo. We'll see what I decide. Sigh.

Sedum Wall Art

I love how I can tuck tiny sedum into any crevice and watch it thrive without water or even substanial dirt. Last year I put some hens and chicks in an old enamelware pot and hung it under a trellis on my back lot. Done. Instant cuteness. I kept it in my kitchen window over winter and it's ready to move back outside this spring. This year, I've expanded the sedums in my collection, and have been dividing them in the house throughout the winter just waiting for my next idea. Well, it came this week. I found this thing at an antique mall, and I've already begun filling it with a variety of sedum.

I have not decided where to put it yet, but the sedum are waiting in the window for the temps to go up.

Quick Rose Note

And, hey mom, here's the Eden rose I've been pushing you to buy for your garden. I see it everywhere I look in books and magazines, if only I could grow it here.

Stay dry everyone. Happy gardening.

Color my world, indoors.

I have a lot of plants in my house right now. Tons. So many it's not pretty anymore, its just too much clutter. In just a month they'll almost all move outside. For now, some of the little buggers are blooming or just being fabulous inside. I thought I'd share, of course.
Plumeria, from my plant growin in California. My mom brought it to me on her recent trip.
Passion flower vine is covered with blooms. I gave this plant the tiniest dose of fertilizer and it goes crazy with blooms. It sits in my dining room window, and remained this healthy all winter there.

Red primrose and sedum 'angelina' in my bay window.

An unknown Oxalis, dainty flowers only open in bright sunlight.

Another forced Hyacinth in my living room.

Three pots of sedum in the window, 'blue spruce' and 'angelina'.

Bouganvillea, red. Now you see what all the hulla-bub is about. I love this plant. You can also see why its often called 'paper flower'. You can take the girl out of southern California, but the girl can bring southern California with her wherever she goes, even Wisconsin.



Variegated Angel's Trumpet, Brugmansia.

I grew this wandering jew from a tiny 3 inch clipping I took home from my mom's planter in California. I have since dividing the original cutting several times, and the result is whole plant, a gorgeous one at that.

Christmas Cactus is ready to bloom.

Florist Primrose still pumping out blooms.


Has everyone seen the Lowe's commerical where the whole world is black and white until you enter the nursery section? The man in the commercial is in disbelief and begins to stick parts of his body back into the B & W world, like his arm and even booty. After purchasing flowers the couple remains colorful as they leave the store. I LOVE this commercial, and while I know all nurserys can provide me with color, it makes me want to get in the car and drive the half hour plus to the nearest Lowe's.

No Pansies in Sight.

I went to three stores, one of which promised their garden center would open April 1st, and I could not find a flat of pansies anywhere. I'm about as impatient as gardeners come. I found this old radio flyer wagon with a nice bright blue aged patina, and I'm dying to fill it with blue and yellow pansies. See, a wagon is on wheels, and I can pull it in the kitchen overnight if the temps are too low, only to bring back out during the day and have an instant color in the colorless yard. While shopping I did find my very first rototiller, a gas powered model on sale at Farm and Fleet. Happy Birthday to me.

Soil
Theo picked up a boatload of manure for my vegetable bed, and I'm dying to get it worked into the grass clippings and homemade compost I threw over the soil surface last fall. I've never ammended my soil, just fertilized with my watering can, and topped it with weed preventer. I started my compost pile a year ago, and have begun to use it. After losing squash, and having some less than spectacular tomatos last year, I've concluded my biggest soil problem in the veggie bed is drainage. Had I known 4 years ago I would have saved the tiny chunks of cement Theo dug out of the patio that used to cover the now veggie bed. I could have used the cement chunks to create a rock layer beneath the soil. I did not know much anything about gardening that first year though, and the rocks are long gone. My quest to improve drainage begins now, or after I till. I'll be putting in various lettuce, swiss chard, radishes and turnips this weekend. I'm taking a risk of losing the crops to record cold temps, but if that happens, I just replant later. Each of the items I listed say to plant either as soon as soil is workable or after danger of heavy frost has passed.

Roses
I'm just so anxious to get out into the garden! Today, while the boys napped, I added some manure & bone meal around the base of each of my roses, then dumped some water soluable rose plant food over them. I can't remember if I shared the miraculous news, but it appears ALL of my roses survived winter! I'm stunned. I thought for sure I'd lose one, as I always have in the past, but the bud union is green on every single one! I have 12 roses, a Morden Centennial, Granny's Pride, Double Delight, Toulouse Lautrec, John Cabot, Mr. Lincoln, Kordes Perfecta, two cl. Golden Showers, a cl. Don Juan, and cl. Iceberg, and an unidentified whitish rose that us wonderfully reliable.

Here's a picture of the base of my John Cabot rose. I've read tons of articles and books about rose gardening and I find it interesting that many people will tell you it's "easy" to prune a rose back in the spring, simply remove "dead wood." One article said dead wood was easy to recognize b/c dead is brown/black and alive is green. This doesn't apply to my roses. Sure it's a nice general rule, but this John Cabot is thriving from toe to top, and it has plenty of brown branches that have fresh nodules of growth forming on them. See, here, there is no dead wood pictures, and it's not all green. In fact, most of the shrub's higher branches are a warm indian brown (for those of you who loved your big box of crayolas as much as me as a kid).





Additionally, not all healthy rose branches are green. My morden centennial is all red, all throughout the winter. It's quite stunning actually. Here's a picture of a thriving branch of the Morden Centennial. I'm not shy to mention mine looks a hundred times better than the one at the local Rotary Gardens, and I got it half dead on clearance at Home Depot years ago.






Last fall I protected these roses with a 10 inch layer of free city mulch and leaves from a tree beside our yard. I stopped pruning in September. Otherwise, nothing special, nothing different; perhaps I finally have a collection of roses that are right for my climate. I have 8 more new roses in my dining room and kitchen sink waiting to be planted for this season. 3 are potted, and the rest are bare root I've been adding suplemental water to. I'm researching when its safe to plant them in my area. I think mid to late April, sooner if they are purchased outside b/c they have then been hardened off or acclimated to the cold.

So, I can't plant much anything yet, but I have been finding some ways to keep busy. Yesterday afternoon I moved an arbor I have had in the veggie bed to the side of the house at the entry to our hose area. I wanted to have something to look at through the living & dining room windows, preferrably roses. Plus, the back of the house had too many arbors. I found these glass balls at Hobby Lobby for $2.50 each, and new instantly I wanted them to be in my garden. There's a garden themed gift shop in McFarland (up by Madison) that has similar balls hanging all over looking so charming beneath branches. I can't wait until a vine makes it to the top of the arbor and casts a shadow so these balls can glow in the shade.

My very first time seeing a blue ball hanging in a garden was last fall. I'm shopping for sedum at a local perennial farm as it was raining, freezing cold; I passed on a path and into a breathtaking hosta garden beneath a massive tree. I glanced up to find a huge lone blue ball hanging from the tree. I fell in love with the idea, and if I ever have a huge tree like that you can bet it'll have a giant reflecting ball hanging it's shadows. For now, these little blue balls will do. I threw some pink sweet pea seeds on both sides of my arbor. Sweet peas are one of the flowering seeds that can be started before the last frost, although I've personally never tried it until now.




Of the 8 new roses I have awaiting planting, 4 are climbers, and two will be put to work beside this arbor. I may even try to get all three around it. I have a cl. blaze with bright reddish-orange blooms, a cl. queen elizabeth with perfectly pink blooms, and a cl. pink don juan and cl. don juan (red). I want to get the look of multiple rose colors on one arbor.

While I'm on the topic of arbors, look what survived the winter winds:





I constructed this knobby little arbor in the middle of perennial border I created last year. I used branches from our willows. I love Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Tree it is. A cl. iceberg (white) rose grows here, and I plan on adding a white or purple clematis this spring and possibly some blue morning glory. I'm debating whether or not to battle years worth of seedlings coming up in this bed.

Sedum & Perennials
I've uncovered some treasures in the bed near this arbor. I planted these maiden pinks from seed last spring indoors. They look so lush and green and I can hardly believe they were encased in ice a few weeks ago. I ran my hand through the dainty foliage over and over to make sure it was real.


I was surprised to see that this Sedum Angelina I picked up at the perennial farm with the blue ball, has emerged with a nice red hue. This is quickly becoming one of my favs in the garden.

And I cleared last years growth from sedum 'Autumn Joy' this week also. I always find these little rosettes of new growth so pretty.

Happy gardening to you all. I'm off to get some gas for the tiller.