Warning, warning, warning...

They weather folks are waning of a "freeze" tonight... not a light frost, but a freeze. It is really hard to cover the essentials and pray that the rest will be fine. This is when i would like to have a dome over the yard... something that i can push a button and the top comes over covering up the plants. But since i don't have a retractable dome over the yard, i had to resort to covering plants with boxes, buckets and pots. I covered the most tender of plants (the new ones) and the bleeding hearts that contain a lot of water in their stems.

One of the young plants that i made sure that i covered are three lily trees. I hope that they do well for me. They are supposed to grow to3-4 feet the first year, 5-6 the second year and 6-8 the third year... i'm looking to build a visual wall and i'm hopeful that these lilies will help.

Today we took our "mantis" tiller over to Dad's so that he could tune it up for us. Thank you Dad! He also showed Joseph the ins and outs of this piece of equipment. We plan on tilling the garden bed tomorrow.

Flowers currently in bloom:

• Clematis
• Columbine
• Dianthus (pinks)
• Violets
• Bleeding Hearts
• Heuchera (Coral Bells)
• Iris
• Lily-of-the-Valley
• Azaleas

Note: Plan on moving the bleeding hearts to the south corner of the property. With the black cohosh, green dragon and astilbe. Will do this in the fall.

A Mom's day gift to myself...

A Mom's day gift to myself...
Originally uploaded by pjslomer

Here's a pic of my new trellis!

New additions...

Today I went to the garden show at the Succop Conservancy. I only bought one plant while there... an old-fashioned orange Poppy... guess I was feeling nostalgic for the older varieties, ones that i've had before. The high-point of this show was the purchase of an iron-worked trellis! It is outrageously organic and ornate with curls and turns. It is an original piece of art that I feel priveleged to have in my garden.
After this garden show I went and purchased hanging plants for Mom's day... two red-purple geraniums and a fuschia... i think Mom will be happy. I also purchased a fuschia and lobelia for me... along with some dill and a really pretty ornamental grass callede Pennisetum orientele 'Karley Rose'. When i got home i planted the grass, poppy and dill.
I dug up more Freckles violas and gave some to Phillip to inturn give to Lori... and I plan on taking some for Mom tomorrow.

It's May!

The magenta tulips are really putting on a show. The dark queen of the night tulips are a nice accent. The violets and violas are having a grand time, along with the creeping phlox. The little lilacs are blooming. The lily-of-the-valley are lending a nice fragrance to the garden. The columbine are starting to bloom... and the heuchera are getting ready... none too soon , as the hummingbirds are back.
I edged the bed around the patio while the robins waited for the worms that i turned up. I also weeded the butterfly bed, the front crabapple tree bed and the front house beds. Still have plenty of others to attend to. And i'm contemplating the vegetable garden.

Good ole' April showers.

Today we had beautiful April showers... enough to fill up the rain barrel. I need to put out the second one. The new mulch looks wonderful and the time seems to have been perfect. With the rain comes a lot of new growth. The clematis, dianthus and allium are getting closer to bloom. The big show currently is the tulips, creeping phlox, grape hyacinth, lily-of-the-valley, violets, violas and daffodils. The trout lily faded fast after last weekend's heat.

April heatwave...

Today the temperature hit 86 degrees... sort of strange considering that a few days ago it was 40 degrees cooler! Oh well, i managed to flow with it pretty well... lots of sunscreen, water and breaks. I remulched the beds near the paperbark maple... and also the main flower bed (almost... i still have a bit more to go) A lot of weeding, digging and lugging. I figured that i carried at least 20 big buckets of mulch today... add that in with the 40 lb. bag of concrete mix. That explains why my back is achy. The concrete mix was used to repair some of the pavers on the back patio. A lot of chippy excavation had occured... so i had to pry up the pavers and then add gravel and concrete, and put the pavers back in place. I also brought out the first rain barrel and hooked it up to the downspout. I repaired (hopefully) two birdbaths that had leaks. I also buried a banana peal near the rose for extra added nutrients.

• Today i noticed that it appears that the quince is taking a year off from blooming... but the flowering almond looks close to bloom
• The orange tulips are looking fine and the small red ones are also blooming
• grape hyacinth in three colors continues to bloom
• five very hearty trout lily plants are having a banner year
• many varieties of daffodils continue to bloom
• new growth on the ferns, hosta, asparagus, heuchera, columbine, lily of the valley
  
• banner year for the freckles viola
  

New Bulbs Planted

This evening wile the temperatures were still very warm i decided to plant some bulbs that i had purchased. I planted 12 Anemones near the sidewalk, 15 fragrant Freesia near the bottom wall and 5 Crocosmia planted near the patio. The rain from earlier in the week helped a lot of the plants grow in quite a spurt. The orange tulips planted last fall look wonderful amidst all the purple and yellow currently in the garden.

I'm really enjoying the small buildings that i purchased last year. They are really nice structural elements in the garden.