My Half Acre of Paradise

Today, I sprayed Vigoro “Bloom Booster” fertilizer on the roses with the hose sprayer. Also did the back flowerbeds, the Hibiscus bushes (south and north), and some of the front flowerbeds, along with the Clematises. I also sprayed the privet bushes, burning bushes, the strawberries, and a little on the flowering cherries, raspberries, and butterfly bushes. I really don’t know how long I should spray them to make a difference.
Those clematises are looking pale and yellow in the leaves. The one in the shade has grown six feet tall or so, but the other is short. I really hope they flower this year.

We did some fun family things today, like going for a long bike ride to the park, having a picnic with all the kids and playing frisbee. But I also got some time in for gardening.

I put the Grubex on the lawn today to protect it from grubs. I hope it works well. I also sprayed some Otho Max on the rose hedge to knock down some aphids.

I had a little trouble in the vegetable garden, because we had near-freezing temps and some hail on Sunday morning. I lost both the tomato plants I put out on Saturday. Also had damage to three or four young cornstalks, but not too bad. I bought two more tomatoes today, but one got broken in half dropping it out of the car. I think it’ll still live. Plus, I have a volunteer tomato out there from last year’s fruit falling on the ground and dropping seed.

We bought some big pots to put the tropical hibiscus and the angel’s trumpet bush in. Ran out of potting soil, so I’ll have to go back for more tomorrow.

I did some pruning on the Chinese elm and the two Japanese maples. Wow, all the Asian trees today, eh? I think it’s all the pruning they’ll need this year. I still need to do some minor pruning on the flowering plum, crabapples, and the sycamore. I think I’m going to take some lower branches off the sycamore.

I dug the trench some more for the city irrigation water hookup. Still got a ways to go.

Here are some cool photos from the yard today. First, the lovely view off my back deck, looking first to the northeast where I have the Aspen corner, and then to the southeast where my arbor and roses are:

Then, some bloom photos. First some Saponaria, then a Coreopsis, and then my lone specimen of Rocky Mountain Penstemon, complete with a bumble bee that was going in and out of the flowers.

And finally, a few shots from my shade garden. One of my hostas and some purple Lamium starting to bloom:

Gardening is fun!

This Linden tree is giving me fits! Look how it is sending out such a long central leader without enough branches forming along the leader! I’m posting a message about it at gardenweb.com in the tree forum to see what kind of answers I can get.

To the list of things blooming now, I would add:

• Blue Flax, which is a remnant of our wildflower mix. We left quite a few of those bunches up in our Aspen tree area.
• Our lilac bush, which is a little later than most around here. We have a Korean lilac (’Miss Kim’ I think). It’s a smaller bush than most lilacs, and ours is only about two feet tall after a few years in the ground.
• Pansies are still going pretty well.
• The English daisies are also still blooming but are slowing down now.

Overall, it’s not much of a bloom season yet, even though there is a lot on these lists. It’s still pretty sparse.

What’s keeping me busy lately? I’m working on trenching for the new pipe that will bring the pressurized irrigation water to my sprinkler system. It’ll probably be about a week before I get it done.

Some of my perennials are starting to bloom now:

• Salvia ‘East Friesland’ just began this week, although there are plenty of them that aren’t quite there yet.
• Dianthus — both the generic bright purple ones and the low-growing mini-carnation kind (Dianthus gratianopolitanus) are blooming. The mini carnations just started this week and the other was starting last week.
• The white candytuft has been blooming strong for several weeks. This is the first year the deer didn’t damage it so much, and I like it a whole lot more now!
• The purple Rock Soapwort has been blooming for more than a week.
• My strawberries were in bloom for a few weeks now, and there are many, many berries growing now. Some are quite big but haven’t turned red yet.
• The creeping phlox is just about done now. I’m wondering if shearing it a little will cause a rebloom?
• Vinca minor has been blooming most of the month quite well, but I need to kill the grass that’s growing in it!
• My Irises just started blooming a few days ago.
• And this isn’t a perennial, but some orange California Poppies started blooming last week, along with a pink Shirley Poppy that found its way into a crevice between rocks in the front rock retaining wall.
• My Viburnum shrubs have been blooming, too. The Burkwoods were about a month ago, and they smell good! The leather leaf ones were a few weeks ago, the trilobum ones are just ending now after about a week.

We finally finished with the second load of compost. This was a total of about 25 cubic yards, and I still could use a little more for a few beds. I might borrow a neighbor’s trailer to get two more yards.

I have six small corkscrew willow plants growing from cuttings I received at a gardening class. They rooted quicky and are growing well, but I’m not sure I really have a place for them. I read they can get 20′ tall, and they need moist soil in the sun. I don’t really have a spot like that. I have a moist spot in the shade, but I’m afraid these will not look good with my Chinese Elm right next to them. Also not sure they’re a good pairing with the Laurel bushes in that area.

I do think, however, that I might plant a Hakura Nishiki willow in that spot. I have some that I’ve grown from cuttings of my own plant, which is struggling in a hot spot on the south side of the house. I think I might put the cuttings in that shady spot, which gets some sun in the morning and will provide some sun when the plant grows taller. Hope it’s not too shady to start. Anyway, these willows only get six feet tall. Maybe I’ll train it into a “standard” or tree-like shape. There’s one like that at Thanksgiving Point.

If I don’t do the willow, I’d like some kind of maple. I had a Japanese maple there, but it died. It looked great while it lasted. Maybe an Amur maple could handle the soil there better than the Japanese. I could get a cutting off my neighbor Kim’s Amur.

Yesterday we weeded the front flowerbeds, and we’re really almost done with all the weeding. Yeah! There’s just the area where the vinca groundcover is that has a lot of wild grass in it. On Saturday, I fertilized the front and back flowerbeds with that Lily Miller rose fertilizer (5-8-4 formula). I’m not sure it was enough, and I think I’ll buy some more. I ordered more compost from Tucker Lawn Care, and it will be dropped off today. 10 more yards. I hope it’s plenty for our needs.

I’m still concerned about two of my butterfly bushes. I see some green sprouts in there, but not enough to ensure me they’re really coming back. I think I mentioned before that I must have cut them too short. But they’re supposed to be cut short. So here’s what I think: if I would have cut them that short in late February or earliest March, they probably would have done OK. But by pruning them in late March, they were already sending sap up those long branches and I robbed them of the energy they needed to recover well. I hope they come back, and I’ll be more careful next year.

I also noticed a few of my Meidiland roses in front are not growing back as well as I would like. But there is some growth on them. Other ones right by them are doing very well.

Today, the twins and I planted some corn seeds. We did two rows of Silver Queen and two rows of Kandy King. One ripens in 70-something days, and the other in 90-some days. In a few weeks, I need to remember to plant some more. I’m trying to make the harvest extend over a month or so by having the different ripening times and different planting times.

The peas we planted are coming up now, and I need to find some support for them.

We finished using all the compost we got from the dump truck, and we didn’t finish the upper tree area. We need to order some more for that and for all our flowerbeds. It’s looking really good so far. I need to take a photo.