These are Prairie Fire Crabapples in my front yard — two of the coolest trees I’ve ever had! I love their display in April and May. It seems like their bloom season was too short this year, and it might have been the dry weather we had and the fast rise in temperature last week….
I’m also growing some Japanese maples from seed, and this is my first attempt at doing it. These are from seeds off my red Japanese maple in front of my house. I had to put them in the fridge for a few months to “stratify” and then plant them. I have nine of these babies…
I now have about 250 flower seedlings growing, with most of them hardened off outside (although I brought them back in the basement Wednesday night because of the cold storms this weekend). Most of what I have here are: Dianthus deltoides ‘Brilliancy’ — a relative of carnations with purple flowers Delosperma cooperi (cold-hardy iceplant with…
Here are a few more photos from the tulips in my front flowerbed. My girls really like those ones that look like jesters’ hats. I hope these all come back well next year; I should also add more to the bed this fall. These photos were taken one week ago, and they’ve started to decline…
Yesterday evening, I drilled four holes in my chlorotic maple and inserted Medicap FE iron supplements. The tree is leafing, although not as thickly as the two healthy ones. Last August, I injected a lot of EDDHA iron into the soil around the tree with my root feeder watering device. I think that helped; the…
My lawn has been very dry this month, and after greening up earlier in the month, it’s started getting brown spots again. I decided to turn on the lawn sprinklers last Friday evening. I gave it a full cycle for the lawn and the front flowerbed and then turned the system off. Before I use…
My Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) are blooming now. This year, I was concerned that all I was seeing from the Muscari was a tousled mass of leaves flopping around. But all of a sudden a week or so ago, the flower spikes just jumped up. They actually keep getting better every year, spreading a little and…
I thought this photo was so cool it deserved more than a thumbnail. I love this tree! Everything about it is great — the way it looks, the amount of apples it produces, the wonderful flavor of the Granny Smith apples, everything. My favorite things in the garden are the fruit bearers — apples, cherries,…