We Survived!

The winter of 22013-2014 was bad - I wrote about it a lot last Spring.  This past winter was worse.  The only saving grace was that we did not have lots of thaws and freezes - therefore, not much ice.  We had a prodigious amount  of snow, though - well over 100 inches.  The snow kept coming - we had four major snowstorms in four weeks.  All of this snow, and the Town of Wellesley's diligent snow plowing, left me despairing for my poor plants.

I did not think this rhododendron was going to make it - but it has.

Spring has finally arrived - a few weeks late - to New England.  Because it was tardy, all the plants seem to be playing catch up.  I am happy to report that my delphinium - not always able to overwinter, have survived (a consistent snow cover, and a mulch of Christmas tree branches applied after the ground was frozen, may have helped.)

Pollination

Here is an updated info graphic on pollination.  I left out some important information the first time.

Frost Warning

Last Sunday I received an alert on my cell phone that Wellesley was expected to get a frost that night.  I knew what I had to do that day besides watching football - get all of my porch and patio plants inside before nightfall.  Luckily, I have my husband to help - I cannot easily move the hibiscus, lemon tree, agapanthus or mandevilla.  I was able to move the orchids, Christmas cactus (it should be in bloom by Halloween),  and fuschias  into the house.  The geraniums that I keep on my front steps went into the garage.  My amaryllis plants that had been summering in the shade of a large ornamental grass were also brought into the garage.

Here is my one small lemon that I hope will grow big enough to be used.

I hope that this mandevilla is happier in my sunny den than the one I bought last year, which languished in my not-so-sunny bedroom.

We did not get a frost Sunday night.  That is good news for me, because it means that I can still harvest parsley, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, and maybe an eggplant or two.  I also have two dahlias that are budding but have not flowered yet.  My 'Silver and Gold' Chrysanthemum Ajania has not bloomed yet, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will soon.  I still have a few plants to move and some tidying up to do.  My husband was able to spread an organic lawn fertilizer a day before a Nor'Easter blew into town and dropped several inches of rain - which we have needed.

This post is probably my last for the season, although I am not promising that I will not post once in a while, especially if I get some eggplant or my chrysanthemum blooms.

Fall jobs

Most people look at gardening in the fall as "clean up" time.  I think of it more as "evaluate" time.  There is a relaxed pace to fall days - not so much planting and weeding and watering as in the spring and summer.  The last of the flowers are either blooming or about to bloom.  Everything is established.  Here are the jobs  I have come up with after taking a long, hard look at my growing environment.

1. Move.  Lots of perennials need to be moved.  I planted daisies in my pastel section in the spring, and they are very happy.  They would look better if I moved them over to the left a bit.  The lavender that is to their right has finally established itself, and the daisies are being crowded by it.

One of my favorite plants, asclepias tuberosa, (butterfly weed) spread a few years ago.  I am going to remove the plant that is in the front of the border, and move my sedum 'Autumn Joy" to where the asclepias  tuberosa was.  The sedum has been suffering because my anise hyssop has been so happy and is overshadowing the sedum.

I am also going to move some Russian sage that is in one of my sunny borders.  The plant has a lovely way of bending and bowing over its neighbors.  I like this effect more in the back of the border than in the front, where it tends to confuse the eye.

 

2. Fertilize.  I tested my soil recently and found that the earth was deficient in everything - nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash (potassium).  I will fertilize my beds and lawn in the next few weeks with organic fertilizer, and test again in the spring.  Once I get on a more regular feeding schedule, I hope that my lawn and perennials are happier.  I bought the testing kit at a local hardware store.  It helps to have distilled water and patience; other than that, testing is pretty easy.

3. Top dress.  I bought a few bags of good quality top soil, and spread it out thinly over the really sad parts of my lawn.  Two of the sections had been leveled, enhanced, and re-seeded in the last twelve months.  I don't think I did a bad job last year, I just think that the lawn was stressed by the harsh winter, the animals burrowing in the soil, and the very dry summer.  I did not spend lots of time top dressing, and I plan on buying several more bags of top soil to dress the rest of the lawn.  I did put down more grass seed, and the grass has sprouted.

4. Water.  We had a really dry summer.  There has been some rain in the last few weeks, which helps.  I still need to water, especially where I put down the grass seed.  The trees and shrubs need water, too.  Some of my rhododendrons look exhausted.

 

St. Louis

I am from the Midwest - Cleveland - and my daughters have gone to school in the Midwest.  My youngest is at Washington University in St. Louis, so I thought I would talk up the city.

Last year the Cardinals played the Red Sox in the World Series.  A few writers for the Boston Globe opined that there was nothing to do in St. Louis.  I will do my little part to correct that notion.  If you are from the East coast, and are most familiar with cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, a city like St. Louis might seem awfully quiet.  The fact is, though, that a lot of Midwest cities were built and grew differently than East Coast cities.  A lot of the action takes place in neighborhoods.  Places like the Central West End, Maplewood, Soulard, South Grand, the Grove, the Hill, and the Loop, to name just a few.

St. Louis also looks different.  It seems like someone put part of New Orleans on a barge and shipped it north to St. Louis.  There is a charming mix of French style and arts and crafts buildings.

Finally, if you love gardens, you cannot help but be aware of Forest Park (bigger than Central Park in NYC), ant the Missouri Botanical Garden. Forest Park takes up a lot of space.  It includes a zoo, a golf course, the art museum (St. Louis Art Museum, or SLAM - bast acronym ever), the Muny (largest outdoor theatre in the country), the St. Louis Science Center and the Missouri History Museum.

My daughter and I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens last fall, right before Haloween.  A costume party for kids was wrapping up, so the space was a combination of lively and serene.  The 79 acre site has conservatories, formal gardens, demonstration gardens and International gardens.  I especially liked the 14 acre Japanese strolling garden.  There are also Bavarian, Chinese, English Woodland, Ottoman and the Strassenfest  German Garden.

I highly recommend St. Louis as a travel destination, especially for gardeners.  And if you go, remember that there is lots more to the city than the Arch and Busch Stadium (both worth visiting, of course.)

That Pesky Pastel section

I have written at length about a part of my border that I find quite boring.  Things are beginning to change, though.  Plants are maturing and fulfilling their promise.  They have good, solid shapes.  There is a good flow to the design.  Plus, I have had some surprises.  First, the gaura survived, and it adds a graceful, airy element to the space.  My dahlias are blooming, and one is definitely not a pastel.  A delphinium that I planted in the Spring is re-blooming despite having been unceremoniously pruned by a varmint.

The group in the middle row, center is Chrysanthemum Ajania 'Silver and Gold'.  It isn't blooming yet (the flowers should be bright yellow), and I like it just fine without any flowers.  It has a good, well-behaved shape, and has a noticeable presence in the garden.  Plus, there is good flow.  As your eye moves from front-right to middle-center to front left you are following a path of grayed foliage.  There is no confusion in this scheme.  It is satisfying.

I did not pay much attention to the color of the dahlias when I planted them.  It is usually hot, I am in a hurry, and I always doubt whether they are going to grow or not.  This year, they grew.  One is tall and pink; the other is medium-height and orange with  a yellow center.  Luckily, my delphinium is also blooming.  The blue and orange are complements; I think they go together very nicely.

I like these colors together.

Late Summer

Late summer has its own type of beauty in the garden.  Less showy than spring and mid-summer, but perhaps more confident.  I like sedums for this time of year.  These plants have solid shapes and subtle coloring.  Here I have a picture of sedum 'Autumn joy' hiding under anisse hysop (which I will cut back as soon as it is clear of bees.)

The sedum flowers will become bronze-red.  I like them much more than the garish colors of mums that over-run garden centers in September and October.

I am yet again surprised by plants that I thought had died - asters.  They are a beautiful, vibrant hue; they do clash with the nearby rudbeckia.  Sometimes, those clashes are OK.

The part of my garden that I complain the most about - the pastel section - is vibrating with color.  One of the delphinium that I planted in the spring, and that was feasted upon by  a "varmint", has survived and bloomed.  Two dahlias that I bought at the Home Depot, and didn't think too much about, are also in flower.  The one in the foreground has a discordant color, but it will be beautiful in a vase.  My late Uncle Norm loved dahlias.  I am not such a big fan because they look best when you only see the flower - the stalk is not very attractive.  I have two dahlias in my other long border that have not bloomed yet.  Because they are in the back, the stalks will only bother my neighbors.

 

My pink turtlehead Chelone lyonii 'Hot lips' is in full bloom in my shade garden.  Pick this plant if you are looking for something other than astilbe or hosta in your less sunny sections.

 

Sadly, one of our peach trees had to be cut down.  It was so laden with fruit that a heavy rainstorm toppled the tree.  I hope that there is another peach tree in the neighborhood so that the other tree can be pollinated.  We will see what happens.  I think that we may have to plant another peach tree, and be more diligent about keeping it pruned.

My husband using the chain saw to cut down the tree