My Half Acre of Paradise

I’ve had a few unusual problem this year, and I think it was caused by a late freeze after a warm week. First, I noticed that one of my Golden Rain trees had tiny new leaf shoots that died and got crispy. The leaves at the top of the tree were OK, but all the lower ones died. A few days later, though, I saw that new buds were forming on the branches, and those new leaves are now coming out. Whew!

I also noticed a few days ago that my butterfly bushes are struggling. One looks OK, but the other two also had leaf shoots that got crispy and died. Looking down into the clump, there are some newer green shoots coming out. I pruned these down to about 12″ back in March, I think. Perhaps that’s too low, but I have read that they should be pruned nearly to the ground. I think I’m going to need to be more cautious next year with their pruning. I gave them a good soaking with the hose, and I hope it helps them recover.

I finally fertilized the rose hedge. I dug a small trench with the trowel all along the side of the hedge and put in Lily Miller 5-8-4 rose food and added some Colorbust 15-30-15 to give it a little more oomph. It took two small bags of the colorbust, and one large bag of the rose food.

We got a dump truck load of compost from Tucker Lawn Care for the area where our aspen trees are. We’re putting down weed fabric and laying the compost on about 2-3″ thick. I hope it stays looking good without much maintenance. It’s beginning to look really nice.

Yesterday, I turned on the lawn sprinklers to make sure the fertilizer is watered in. This morning, the grass already looks noticeably greener! I don’t know if it’s just the water or the fertilizer, but it’s sure working quickly!

Last night, I fertilized the lawn with IFA Spring/Summer Blend 25-5-10 Premium Lawn Fertilizer. The bag said it would handle 8,000 sq ft, and I believe I have about 5,000 sq ft of sod. I used most of the bag, and took the rest and threw it around my burning bushes, golden rain trees, and around two of the big Autumn Blaze maples. Oh, yeah, I also gave a little to the laurel bushes and to one of the birch trees.

It was an awesome day today! I worked out side so long, I have a serious sunburn on the back of my neck. Ouch. Here are some things we did today — Dana worked hard most of the day, too:

• Finished pruning the roses
• Pruned all the shrubs along the south fence, including yellow-twig dogwoods, Hibiscus syriacus, ‘Burning Bush’ euonymus, and ‘Anthony Waterer’ spirea
• Weeded all the beds along the south fence
• Sprayed Roundup on weeds in the gravel area and in the front sidewalk cracks and along the south edge of the front yard
• Sprayed Weed-B-Gone on the dandelions and clover in the lawn
• Used the weedeater to trim down all the weeds and grassy stuff in about 1/3 of the upper area by the aspen trees
• Removed more of the old perennial stalks from the back flowerbed
• Trimmed two of the four lavenders in the back bed
• Planted all the ‘Summer Sorbet’ California poppies — some along the front walkway, in the front bed, and in the back bed in front of the rocks
• Planted peas (the girls did this)

I noticed that my purple tulips are doing very well this year! I thought they were going to fade away and die, since they were getting smaller and weaker for a few years in a row, but this years’ crop have big, bright, beautiful flowers. I think that compost and manure I put in the front walkway bed a few years ago has finally fed the soil and made it feed those tulips in the past year. This is exciting, because I think I’ll plant more tulip next fall if they’re going to do this well!

I also wanted to note that we had freezing weather and snow last Sunday and Monday, and I’m concerned that it damaged the nectarine blossoms. I thought it did for sure, but they looked better today, so maybe they’re OK.

Our backyard neighbor who bought the house with the cherry orchard began cutting down some of the cherry trees today. It was quite sad, especially because they’re in full bloom right now. He only cut two down up closer to his house, so maybe he’s going to leave the ones back by our fence. Not sure though. Some people have no sense of beauty and the joy it can bring to one’s life.

Here’s a handy webpage to check each week to be sure I’m using the right amount of water on my lawn this year:
Utah Climate Data and Turf Water Requirements

On Saturday, I had a chance to do some garden work, but not as much as I would like (OK, well I went fishing!). Too bad I got skunked at fishing!

I did finally spray my fruit trees with horticultural oil. Wade Tischner brought it over. I meant to take note of the brand, but I can’t remember. I do recall that it was 98% mineral oil, or some high number like that. I also sprayed the roses in back and the raspberries, too.

I planted the two bareroot roses (’Nearly Wild’ variety) up among my aspen trees. I did just a little more pruning work on my rose border by the lawn. There are still five or six bushes to go. It’s slow work, but I’m cleaning out some dead branches and stuff that accumulated over a few years (I think last year, I just trimmed them for height and didn’t clean them out).

I put some bone meal, rose fertilizer and a steer manure/compost blend as a top dressing on the clematis vines in front. I hope they do well this year — they’ve been slow to take off. Also did a little weeding in that area, around the Golden Rain tree. Dana and Hannah did some weeding around the roses in back, with Hannah complaining all the way!

A guy was aerating my neighbor’s yard, and he asked if we wanted it done for $35, so we had him do it. I’m not sure he did a good enough job; in the back, it looks like he went over it pretty quick, and there aren’t as many holes as in the front. He missed one entire section behind the garage. My hunch is the guy didn’t realize how big our backyard was when he quoted the price and then he tried to hurry it up to make up for lost time when he got back there.

I started hardening off the poppy seedlings on Friday — I’m just putting them in the sun for a few hours a day. I’d like to get them planted next weekend, but I need to decide where I want them. I’m funny that way — I buy plants and seeds impulsively, not knowing where they should go.

I have some of the white coneflower seedlings starting to get pale leaves, and I think I’ve over watered them. I’m letting them dry out a bit today.

My Forsythia bush just began blooming in the past two days. I’ll have to take a photo and then post it here.

The daffodils in front are starting to open up now. Lots of buds are swelling on the trees, too.

I pruned a few more roses in back today, but I need to finish later this week. I also need to plant those bareroot ‘Nearly Wild’ roses very soon. They’re still soaking in a bucket of water.

I worked on pruning the big row of roses in the backyard yesterday, but I only got halfway through when I had to quit. It got really cold and windy, and snow started falling. But today, it’s about 60 degrees. What a difference we can have in day-to-day weather!

The first of my daffodils are just starting to open today. The pansies and English daisies that I planted last week are doing well. The little purple anemones are still blooming, as are the crocuses.

I have only a few scattered blooms on my creeping phlox, and I wonder if it isn’t going to do well this year. They got a little haggard last fall, but I assumed they would grow back well this spring. I think the deer have grazed on them a little bit this winter, too.