Almost Wordless Wednesday: Clematis on a Blustery Day

A pink mystery clematis grows around a metal watering can bird house under the shade of a Prague viburnum. 

Project Updates: Seeds, Frog Ponds, and Bulbapalooza

I've realized recently that I love being in the middle of a project. I love the finished result even more, provided the project actually comes out the way I want it to. But I love the creative process and problem solving that comes with it almost as much. Here is an update on two projects I started a few months ago as well as the frog pond I created last fall.

Seed Starting for Zombies

Project: I decided this winter to set up my own mini-greenhouse on my kitchen counter and grow a few plants from seed. Salpiglosis, a beautiful annual that sounds like a diseased body part and ground cherries were on the menu. I started two small trays of seeds using traditional fiber pellets and two trays using a product called No Damp Off.

Since I'm home this week on Spring Break I've been taking the seedlings outside for the natural light and to start hardening them off. These are zinnia seedlings.

The ground cherry seedlings are still tiny but I have ten sturdy seedlings so I'm hopeful I'll have enough plants to keep me well supplied. I'll pass the extras on to friends and other gardeners.

Results: The No Damp Off was hard to keep watered and the plants grew weird. If I had watered it with a spray bottle every day, however, it might have worked better. They also germinated slower than the seeds in the fiber pellets. I ended up giving all the No Damp Off and the seeds to my worms and planted zinnias in the extra trays. The salpiglosis seeds needed darkness to germinate but must have germinated before I realized it because they grew tall and skinny. Worm food! The ground cherry seeds planted in the fiber pellets are growing well, even though they're still tiny. I read they don't like cool weather and will put out more growth once it warms up.

I put Texas Tufa's advice to good use and put up foil between the grow lights to reflect as much light back on to the seedlings as possible. It works really well!

Was It Worth It? Yes! Now I don't have to wait until July for my zinnias to bloom and will hopefully have ground cherry plants this summer. Plus, I get to start my day checking on my seed trays while drinking my morning vat of coffee.

Bulbapalooza

Project: I planted 260 discount daffodils and Dutch iris in January, thanks to a ridiculously warm winter. I extended the width of my front garden beds by three feet to accommodate the bulbs and my ongoing redesign of the front landscaping. I'm planning on filling the bed with annual vinca this summer.

Results: Some of the bulbs are up, but not all of them. Those that don't come up this spring will hopefully come up next spring. A few of the daffodils are blooming and more are pushing up every day. Now that we're almost past daffodil season, I love the surprise of unexpected blooms.

There are still a lot of daffodils pushing foliage up through the soil. Purple Dutch iris are interplanted with the daffs. Naked lady lilies are planted at the very end of the bed near the lamp post.

Was It Worth It? Yes!! Even though the bed definitely doesn't look the way I had imagined it last January, I'm confident it will be bursting with bloom next spring. The work is done and I have years of enjoyment ahead of me. Plus, it was incredible to get to work in the garden in January!!

Muck Bucket Frog Pond

Project: I really wanted a pond in my garden but didn't have access to an electrical hookup to power a pump. I considered a container pond but didn't have a way to winterize the container and didn't want to risk cracking  an expensive ceramic pot with our usual winter weather. The solution was to sink a container into the ground and create a tiny in-ground pond. It was also exponentially cheaper than a regular pond. I bought muck buckets and feed scoops at a farm store, dug a big hole, lined the hole with carpet squares, and stuck in the buckets. I submerged bricks into the pond and added potted plants that would grow to cover the edges of the buckets. My goal was to attract frogs to the garden and grow aquatic plants.

Variegated water celery, dwarf horse rush, and a 'Fried Green Tomatoes' lobelia live in the frog pond. I'm hoping the water celery will spread to the point that it covers some of the edges of the muck buckets. Feed scoops hang over the edge of the buckets and provide a 'shallow end' for the frogs. This summer I'm going to float tiny balls of barley in the water to help control algae. Hornwort lives submerged in the water to keep it oxygenated.

Result: The pond and the plants all made it through the winter. Yay! A friend who lives close by brought over a bunch of  frogs that have been hiding a lot but making enough guest appearances that I think they're still in the pond. I also added mosquito fish that I think may have been eaten by the frogs. On the advice of one of the plant specialists at our local garden center, I added guppies to the pond to eat the mosquito larvae. Guppies get along well with frogs and won't go after tadpoles. But between our low night temperatures and several blackbirds who have been using the pond as their own personal fishing hole, I think the guppies have been eaten or froze. The pond is definitely a work in progress.

A chartreuse heuchera brightens up the edges of the pond. It survived total neglect in a pot last summer and I needed to find a spot for it in the garden so I stuck it between the rocks and soil at the edge of the garden bed near the dog run. I'm not sure the name of this cultivar, possibly 'Lime Rickey' but it's tough as nails!!  When I was filling in the hole around the buckets, I created areas for the frogs and toads to hibernate under the ground cover sedum and heuchera.

Was It Worth It? Yes!!  I love having aquatic plants in the garden and can add more guppies when it warms up. When the water is warmer they'll be faster and better able to evade the blackbirds. I was really excited to see the native leopard frogs peeking out the water and sunbathing on the rocks. I turned the driest, most inhospitable spot in my garden into a teensy frog pond. Even the little birds like to hop around its edges. I love it!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Weirdness

Last fall I dug these salvia 'Maraschino' out of the garden and plopped them in a pot to brighten up my patio. I had planned on repotting them this week while I'm on spring break. When I came outside on Monday, they were blooming! In April!!

The Case of the Collapsing Clematis

Victim: Clematis 'The President'
Crime: Isolated stems that have collapsed for no apparent reason
Clues: Droopy stems, weird buds, and few unusually skinny leaves
Attempted Solutions: Copper fungicide, cutting stems back, cussing
Suspects: Radioactive space weasels, freakish March weather, clematis wilt, damaged stems

This picture was taken last May 2011. The clematis grows near a Japanese holly in the front garden.

Abut a month ago I untangled the knot of clematis stems at the base and adjusted the soaker hose. I cut out quite a bit of dead wood. I should have taken a picture, but I forgot.

Maybe the main problem is that I expect it to look the way it does in May even though it's only April.

 Several stems have begun to wilt while the rest of the vine looks fine.

I cut the affected stems back to the ground.

It's really scrawny right now and I can't remember if it was this scrawny last April. I think I need more sleep! I pulled it out of the hollies and trained up a trellis. 

I sprayed it with a copper fungicide in case it's clematis wilt. A crazy mosaic pot I made last year is in the background.

There's something rather alien about this bud. I'm keeping a close, but not too close, eye on it.

These leaves are like supermodels - way too skinny!

I need you to help me solve this case! Whaddya think the problem is??

A Spring Ramble

On an afternoon ramble I found:

  yellow epimediums

cherry blossoms

daffodils

tulips the color of sunset

a wood poppy that planted itself next to the cowslip primroses

 silene 'Rolly's Favorite'

fresh growth on the sweetspire

toad lily takeover

heart leaved asters and pots waiting to be filled

golden alexanders (zizia aptera)

'Starry Night' violas

bleeding heart 

red epimediums

clematis around the birdhouse

lots of buds on the lilacs

purple leaved euphorbia growing between the epimediums and wood anemones

pots ready for summer

And Then There Were Four

"The one best place to bury a good dog 

is in the heart of his master."

A small scrap of a dog, he paced nervously in front of the gate, his cagemate whining and pawing at the the metal fencing. He stood as tall as his long, thin legs could reach, sticking his little nose through the chain link and into my waiting palm. Surrendered by an abusive former owner, Chance was six years old and bonded to the chubby daushund mix, Baby, who waited anxiously for me to slip through the gate and into their cage. I slid to the floor and folded my legs around them both. Chance clambered over Baby's broad back as she licked my jeans, climbing up my chest like a goat. At twelve pounds, he looked like a chihuahua on stilts, his twig-like legs out of proportion to the rest of him. I stroked his ears, murmured platitudes, and then took them both home.

  

At six and eight, they were considered senior dogs and needed to be adopted together. Lucky to be placed at a no-kill shelter, their chances of being adopted were slim. Chance growled like a gremlin when excited, his trachea partially collapsed from being beaten. One dog soon became five but Chance had claimed me as his. Lying in the grass while I gardened, he would doze, waking at my slightest movement to watch me as I puttered. He slept against my chest when I read on the couch, small contented sighs sputtering to the surface as he slipped off to sleep.

He'd been listless all week, mopey and out of sorts. He needed his teeth cleaned and I worried about infection. His little belly was rounder than usual and I prayed silently as I headed for the vet. Tumors circled his organs, his liver bulbous with growth. His abdomen taut with fluid and blood, the vet diagnosed an aggressive liver cancer with no cure or treatment. The family gathered and we said our farewells with Baby at our side. She sniffed his paws and looked away. I'm spreading  his ashes in the garden, where he loved to pee on the plants and harass the squirrels, his tiny paws sidestepping the flowers as he zigzagged through the beds. Dog heaven, I am convinced, contains a garden, squirrels, large grasshoppers perfect for pouncing on, warm blankets, and lots of bacon.

Chance was a rat terrier we adopted  five years ago.

The Scarlet G: The Heretics Guide to Gardening

I've come to realize lately that to some gardeners, I'm a soulless heretic. Despite my worm composting, organic methods, and native plants, I should be emblazoned with a scarlet G because my small yard is full of grass. Grass stretches from my patio to the garden that surrounds my lawn like a circle, providing a playground for my five  dogs and a spot to put the hammock. It will never win Yard of the Month and unless you're drunk, you'd never think it was a golf course. While I chop away at it every year as my garden slowly expands, I'll never eliminate it completely. A new bed was added last fall and as much as I relished digging up the grass to stuff the soil with perennials, I kept the needs of my dogs in mind as I planned.  It's much easier to play fetch in grass than in a perennial bed.

Trying to combine a garden with five dogs that require a play area can be challenging, but one of my favorite gardening books makes it easy. The Southern Living Landscape book is a meat and potatoes guide to landscaping your property. Written by Steve Bender, it's design ideas are accessible and most include a lawn. Page after page of gorgeous gardens framed by lawns spill from its spine. Having lived in the south for almost 10 years, memories of magnificent gardens with grass paths and beautiful front lawns seep like tea into my designs and I find myself unapologetic about the two small patches of green I keep on my property.

A small lawn of cut grass helps us control ticks and the diseases they carry. A weekend spent in bed one spring while a bulls eye rash spread on my thigh was matched by a week spent in tears while one of my dogs fought a deadly tick-borne disease. As I garden and dream, I turn to this book without feeling guilty for my grass. Hand me the scarlet G, if you will, but don't expect remorse.