Rain Garden Update

I have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks - work, work, get togethers, landlording, and lots of gardening.

In particular, SSB and I have been working on the rain garden. We finally tracked down our contract which was approved two months ago but the DNR guy neglected to give to us. As our neighbor says, "Never trust the government."

What exactly is a rain garden? The idea of a rain garden is to make a place for the water that falls on your property to collect and be used up by plants rather than running into the storm drains. Rain gardens normally use native plants since they are the best adapted to your property's particular conditions. I really liked that idea and took it as a challenge. My plan is to take a garden that can look rather boring

that uses plants that can look rather weedy

both pictures from www.urbanwaterquality.org

and make it appealing to the average homeowner.

We were given a design for the garden which looked very much like the design you see in the first picture above. I'm not too big on all these doughnut or kidney shaped rain gardens. Every rain garden that was on the demonstration list we were given was either doughnut or kidney shaped - OR BOTH! They just end up looking so unnatural and boring; whereas I prefer more natural looking layouts with some excitement. -And spirals, apparently, as the design that I came up with will be the second spiral garden on our property.

This is a "Before". I already started a garden here that I had been expanding over the years. At least 2/3 of the material in the garden needed to be removed (I gave them all new homes).

Here we have begun the lay out. I like to study a site for a while, then just start digging. The site will guide me as to the shape the garden should be. It's more divining than designing.

Most of the rain garden guides that I read mentioned an option for over-flow. They suggested a drain of some kind. I decided that, since the whole purpose of the garden was to keep water from draining off my property into our river, a holding pit made more sense. This pit will house the marshier plants that we purchased. It is the spirally part of the garden.

There is SSB watering the plants that we just purchased and laid out in the design. We purchased small plants so we could afford to get more of them, and they tend to transplant better when they are small. These should fill in nicely in a couple of months.
Here you can see the river idea that I was going for. The basin will be filled in with layers of sand, pea gravel, and progressively larger rocks once the plants are dug in. Right now, the rocks are serving to keep the plant pots from tipping over while we lay them out.

Are you ready for the dramatic Before & After?

Nice change, huh? Some of the plants in this picture were ones left from the original bed. They were either wildflower volunteers (like buttercups, goldenrod and daisies) or they were wildflowers that I had planted there myself. SSB and I did all the design ourselves and we did almost all the work too (the DNR guy helped dig for about an hour one day).

We still have a little more to do, but I think we might reach my goal of having it done by July 4th!

Easy Ligularia

Although I live in the North, my garden is mostly in full, and I mean FULL, sun. Plus, the summers here are generally in the high 80s and 90s with humidity in the same - but not infrequently does it get over 100F! Bleh! And barely any rain makes for a very poor environment to grow ligularia, unless you happen to have a consistently boggy area in your yard, which I do not.

However, I have happened upon what I would describe as no ordinary ligularia - Desdemona.

Desdemona, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways

First - the fact that it actually grows!! I have killed so many ligularia; and the ones that I have managed to keep alive before finding this one have required a lot of attention.

Second - it's easy! I barely have to do anything to mine - even in FULL SUN!!

Third - they grow in FULL SUN!! Strike that. They aren't so much "growing" as they are "thriving". Having them in full sun was an accident. This area was originally very shaded, but the shade came from annual sunflowers. I had intended to move the ligularia the following spring, but they never gave me a reason to follow through with that plan. Even in the height of summer they do just fine here in FULL SUN!

Fourth - rarely needs extra watering. Ligularia have gained quite a bit of a reputation for being water hogs; and I have to say that my vote is in the affirmative on that one for every other ligularia that I have grown. But these are no ordinary ligularia! I am watering many of my other regular garden plants due to lack of rain or excessive heat long before I even need to think about the Desdemona - and did I mention that these are in FULL SUN?

Fifth - their height. The oldest plant is already over 3' high this year!

Sixth - the texture they add to the garden. Their leaves are Huge! I was just reading the other day that gardens without variety in leaf size and structure will appear boring.
These are definitely not boring. In fact they really do make all the plants around them look better!

Seventh - the color. The leaves are a spruce green on top and an iridescent raspberry underneath. The dark stems add even more contrast and interest.

Eighth - they flower! And they have nice, big, interesting flowers - and lots of them!

Ninth - the structure and form. It is a very architectural plant that can be used successfully in a formal or cottagey garden.

Tenth - did I mention they were easy?


If some one had never planted a ligularia before, this is THE ONE that I would recommend.

Wonderful Wildflowers

When I garden, I don't so much "plan" as "go with the flow". Often the most wonderful things happen when I just let things happen.

As my garden has gotten bigger I have developed the habit of leaving some of the weeds to see what they actually are. Through the years I have been rewarded with lots of fabulous free flowers: violas, columbine, catchfly, hoary vervain, poppies, sunflowers, dame's rocket, lilies, goldenrod, milkweed, asters, veronica, rudbeckia hirta, pennycress, Virginia waterleaf, downy yellow violet, Solomon's seal, buttercups, winter cress, tansy, evening primrose, rose twisted-stalk, ground cherry, geranium, wild strawberry, white campion, and lots & lots of oxeye daisies - the current backbone of my garden!

But the one that I get the most people asking me about is my mullein. It is a biennial that looks like a velvet loose-leaf cabbage in its first year - very nice for the front of the border. In the second year, the plant elongates to 6 feet tall at times! Time for the back of the border at that height; and even if you move it in that second year, it blooms just fine.

It's a member of the snapdragon family that looks more closely related to lamb's ear or cacti. In fact, part of the reason that I personally love this plant is that, as it "ripens" after flowering, it reminds me of a saguaro cactus - well a soft, fuzzy version anyway.

They dependably start up around the garden every year and are fairly easy to move. I loved the way that these were bunching here in my prairie garden, so I moved a few more here.

Just when I thought they were looking fabulous themselves, the peony bloomed. I love the white pompons behind the silvery, fuzzy foliage of the mullein. What a happy accident!

Mullein are EASY to take care of. After you get them re-established after transplant they should NEVER need anymore care - no water, no food, no fuss. Nice.

Some of these mullein are already three feet high, but don't worry - behind them is Queen-of-the-Prairie which also gets up to 6' tall. And behind that are my compass plants which can get 7' tall!!

I will be planting winter cress among the mullein this year as I find them in my veggie beds. They have beautifully full tufts of yellow in mid-spring.

In front of them I have seeded pennycress that I collected from the patch that started itself there the last three years. This is a great little annual from start to finish. Nice form, pretty flower, interesting seed pods, and great ripening color. It also blooms right before the winter cress, so there should be continual color in this bed.

Don't have a prairie garden? Don't worry, I think they work well in the average, well kempt garden too!
The mullein are impressive at all stages, even in death. They create stately bird feeders throughout the fall and winter months- goldfinches and woodpeckers especially love the seed.

Mulleins have encouraged me to continue to let the weeds grow. Who knows what gem I will find next!

Vexing Vines

I decided that no matter what I was going to get the clematis planted this last weekend, which meant that I had to finish leveling the gazebo. It was difficult since it has been raining almost everyday for a week, but I got it done Saturday morning.

When I brought the clematis out to plant, the Comtesse de Bouchard all had some sort of fungus, even though the Blue Ravine right next to them were unscathed. I went to the nursery to ask if they had a fungicide I could use on them and they told me to bring them in for an exchange instead. I know you are going to say that was nice of them but actually they were quite snotty about it even though I never asked them to do it. They only had two though, so I got a refund for the third.

I have never bought a potted vine with a mini trellis before. I seriously suggest that they include instructions with these things! I started with the Comtesse since I really wanted to get them planted to avoid the fungus problem. I nearly destroyed one and did destroy the other trying to get the damn trellis unhooked from the pot so I could get the plant out. My suggestion with this set up is to cut the pot to release the trellis hooks from the bottom, take the plant and trellis out together, plant the vine, and if you want to remove the trellis - clip the vine free with sharp mini pruners. Oh, and you'll probably want a second person to help hold things. It was a nightmare.

Just as two years ago when I knocked a hibiscus shoot off the plant, I quickly acted to make cuttings. I have 6 of them and I tried all three ways that I read about. Something HAS to take, right? We'll see.

The oak I transplanted on Mother's Day is still alive. It looks like we will be losing the very top two branches, but everything else is looking pretty good. I figure that since it is three weeks in, that tree just might make it. Yay!

The pear that I transplanted this spring didn't even seem to notice that it had been moved. It never wilted at all, bloomed profusely, and is now covered by about three dozen pears! It had over four dozen, but I clipped off over a dozen of the smallest pears to keep the tree from over-working itself. This tree is only a few years old and barely taller than I am and was recently transplanted but still manages to crank out dozens of fruit - what a trooper!

My Tiffany tea rose made it another year. See my pretty toes?


Here is the rodgersia flower in full bloom. Not bad, huh? This will look really nice when there are a bunch of them blooming at once.

I Was Right!

Two years ago I was trying to identify a lily that I had. I scoured through all the lily indexes I have in my sidebar and finally guessed it to be "America" - I was right! I just found the tag for it Saturday. Yay!

Late Start, Early Start

I finally got my veggie/herb garden seeds from Jung that I ordered about a three weeks ago. How long does it take to put a dozen seed envelopes in a box?
Normally this wouldn't be a problem since I generally don't start planting my veggies until a week or two after Memorial Day - but this year I got a jump start (for me anyway) and had started planting two weeks ago. I had already replaced much of what I had ordered with other seeds, so...

I will be making ANOTHER veggie garden bed to house the items that I just got from Jung. I needed an additional bed anyway. I can cram a lot of veggies in a 4x16 bed, but I want to grow more squash and herbs.

The seeds I purchased:

• Pumpkin "Early Sweet Sugar Pie" (which I already replaced with "Triple Treat"; a fabulous pumpkin that I had grown one other year and made the best pies with and what I had really wanted anyway)
• Snow pea "Mammoth Melting Sugar"
• Edible pod pea "Sugar Daddy" (which I have already replaced with "Sugar Snap" left over from last year)
  
• Garden pea "British Wonder"
• Filet bean "Maxibel"
• Kale "Blue Curled Vates"
• Broccoli "Packman Hybrid"
• Lettuce "Baby Star" (which I already replaced with "Buttercrunch")
• Salad greens "Jung's Gourmet Mesclun Mix" (I have grown this before and my family and the groundhog highly approved)
• Pepper "Cherry Bomb Hybrid" and "Margaret's"
• Spinach "Bloomsdale Long Standing" (which I discovered later I already had seeds!)
• Carrot "Sweetness III Hybrid" (which I have already replaced with "Gold Mine" and "Nantes Scarlet"
• Basil "Mammoth Napoletano" and sweet basil "Italian Large Leaf" (both of which I already replaced with what I had really wanted anyway "Genovese")

I also get left overs from my neighbors every year (packs of 6 when they only need 4 plants - I get 2! I love free plants!) . This year so far I have three different kinds of tomatoes, an eggplant, and two sweet peppers. The eggplant and peppers I planted in the flower garden since I had run out of space in my veggie garden and haven't finished the new bed yet. They will look nice and help fill in some space. I am thinking about starting a few more veggies in the flower garden, I have all this extra space in there, and having something growing in it should keep me from buying more plants!

Well, we'll see anyway.

Springtime Waning

We are now entering that weird in-between time where it doesn't feel like spring anymore but it isn't quite summer yet either. The last of my spring bulbs have finished and the black locust are blooming.

OH! The black locust has such an enveloping, wonderful scent! I look forward to its bloom every year. It is a wonderful garden tree in that it grows FAST but strong; provides dappled light; offers interest in the way of bark (older trees), leaves, flowers, and generally inedible bean shaped fruit; it has a narrow canopy footprint, and the leaves are small enough to leave where they land. The problem comes in their aggressive seedlings. This tree has quite a few offspring every year and they will not be denied! The saplings are very thorny (they lose their thorns as they get older) and the entire root must be dug out to get rid of them. You could also let them grow until they are an inch or two thick and cut them down, but even then the tree will try to sucker. They actually are much easier to remove than elm, though. I spent an hour yesterday cutting elm sapling out of my lilac bush - and I will have to do it again and again because I can not dig out the root where they are.

Another item blooming right now is my dogwood.
I have not noticed any scent with it, but the shrub is beautiful enough.

They are not necessarily easy to grow, no matter what you hear. The majority of the other variegated dogwood around town look pretty shabby. Other than a fertilizer spike at planting (which I do with most of my shrubs) I didn't do anything special with this one, I guess I just got lucky.

If you give this a try, I would suggest growing it in full sun as I have noticed about the other variegated dogwoods around town, the more shade they get, the less happy they look.

One plant that really doesn't mind a little shade is the columbine. Several years ago I started some Barlow columbine from seed. I originally had four plants. They weren't too keen on exactly where I had planted them (a little too close to the pine, I'm guessing) and one by one they died over a two year period. The spring after the last died, a couple of their offspring showed up. And now I get new ones every year.

These are just two of the Barlows that I have this year. My husband and I remembered the columbine munchers from last year and were right on top of them this year. I squished them right on the leaves while they were still tiny. They didn't stand a chance.



Here is the rodgersia with it's flower. Not a real impressive flower, but it's the leaves that I want. This plant at maturity will be about hip high. Not as big as the astilboides (which I just found out is related to the rodgersia), but still a very interesting plant.

I want to get a mass of them growing to help fill in the Asian shade garden that we are expanding. Again, it is not meant to be a true Japanese or Chinese garden, it is merely inspired by them; Fusion, as my husband calls it. And hopefully it will be an inspiration in its own right.

This is the work that I did yesterday. It was supposed to rain all day, so I got up started my runs to the compost center as soon as they opened at 8am and figured that I would just get loads until it started to rain. I was able to get enough to lay out the whole garden. My idea here was a Taoist theme of "going with the flow". I think out of all the philosophies that I have studied, Taoism makes the most sense. If you have not read The Tao of Pooh I highly recommend it.

The path is a river, an old river, the kind of river that has over the years gone from rushingly trying to push its way through the world to gently and wisely finding its way through. It is not concerned with the speed of the journey, it values the journey itself. This river guides those traveling it through the garden slowly so that they may enjoy the journey too.

New Template and More Plant Shame

As you may have noticed, I tweaked my template. I'm not sure if I like the background color yet, but I think that the title/header turned out great - featuring a picture of my very own "Princess Irene" tulips. Love them!

And here is another of my favorite tulips - "Blue Parrot". I know, they don't look like parrot tulips since they are only slightly frilly; but that is what I like about them. They are one of the most feminine looking tulips I have ever seen. Very delicate looking, yet TOUGH! They are growing in mostly shade under two pine trees - and still blooming every year!


The oak tree that I moved last Sunday is still doing well. I am not calling it a success yet, but I am less worried about it now. I still have not identified it. Here is a picture of the bark (isn't it cool?) and the leaves. Does anyone know what it is? My best guess is a burr oak, but I can't find any pictures of the juvenile leaves and bark.

And now on to the shame...

I killed the delphinium that the nursery guy gave me. I feel awful. It was in a small pot and dried out overnight. I really should have re-potted it as soon as I got it home. I almost cried. What could I do but vow to have the best damn looking delphinium bed this year?

SO, I went to another nursery today with the specific purpose of buying delphinium. I left without any since their stock looked a little iffy, but did manage to purchase 7 clematis!! And they weren't cheap - but I had to have them. They had "Blue Ravine". My early readers may remember the pictures that I posted of my "Blue Ravine" clematis - simply STUNNING! But I killed it last year. Noticing a pattern here? I was trying to straighten what it was climbing and *snap!*

I didn't get ALL Blue Ravine. My gazebo has 6 legs and I want to plant a clematis next to each one so my gazebo will be covered in clematis. I didn't want it all covered in one color though - that would just be overwhelming. I chose another clematis to alternate: Comtesse de Bouchard. The Blue Ravine is a repeat bloomer, blooming May-June and then again in August. Comtesse blooms June-September. I think this will be perfect since they will most likely only bloom together in August. Comtesse's selling point, besides the blooming time, was that the vine takes on the look of shiny copper wire as it ages - just beautiful!

So six legs, seven clematis. What was the seventh clematis?
Well, we fell in love with this one and just had to have it:

It is "Betty Corning". We loved the way that it resembled a trumpet lily. The foliage is very fine and delicate looking which makes this a very feminine/lacy looking plant. We really don't have a clue where we will put it either. *Sigh* I have to quit going to nurseries.

Free Tree

Mother's Day was another very busy day. I started weeding and adding compost to the delphinium bed, but got sick of running into the half dead ornamental plum so I had my son cut it down for me.

Then there was a huge gap that I was not happy with. Seeing as we did not get a tree the day before, I wasn't sure what to do. But as you may have guessed - I am obsessive. I did not want to wait to fill the gap so I started finally digging out an oak that I have been meaning to move for a couple of years. It was a gift from the tree rats, but they planted it too close to the high line. I didn't move it yet because I had no idea where to put it and I heard that oaks were not easy to move successfully. But it was either move it or chop it down, so why not give it a chance to live?

OMG! They are not easy to move at all! I was digging in 85F heat for about an hour and a half! I had fully intended to dig a good three feet down before cutting the roots (oaks have a tap root system - a series of thick roots that grow practically straight down), but the spot it was in was tight and I kept hitting roots. Even though I hacked up the roots more than I wanted to, I did finally get it out and move it to its new home.

Sorry it's so fuzzy, but it was dusk when I took this picture. You can see the remains of the plum between the dogwood and the oak. I was actually happy that the plum died - it was way too close to the dogwood and I didn't want to move it.

This oak so far hasn't seemed to even notice that it got moved. I watered the crap out it yesterday and feed it to give it a boost. I still have not gotten any root stimulator, otherwise I would have used some of that too. I am crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. This is an absolutely lovely tree and I think that it fits the spot nicely. I figure if I can keep it happy for a couple of weeks it might just stand a chance.

Happy Mother's Day!

I have been in a funk for a couple weeks due to, I'm guessing, all the stress that the changes at work have been creating^[1] - and that garden-pillager didn't help either! But yesterday I had a great day. I woke up around 9am, made some coffee (Farmer Brothers ROCKS!), and nestled into my couch to order some bulbs from Breck's before their $25 coupon expired. Here's what I ordered (all of the following images are from the Breck's catalog):

I liked my Arabian Mystery tulips so much that I just had to have more. I originally bought these from a nursery in the Twin Cities that has an awesome fall bulb collection - but they sell them in open bulk bins, so I'm never 100% sure that I'm getting what I think I'm getting.

The Sunrise tulips speak for themselves!

The Trout Lilies looked perfect for our Zen garden^[2], they reminded me of pagodas.

The Exotic Emperors just caught my eye. The combination of colors looks so elegant. I can't wait to see these in person!

After I sent my bulb order in, I slammed the rest of my coffee and headed out to the garden to get some weeding done before heading off to work.

It was perfect weather - cool and sunny. I don't like heat. I prefer high 60s to low 70s. I can take higher temps if the humidity is low, but around here it gets really humid - not Florida humid, but pretty damn close.

I was getting so much done in the garden that I decided to skip work (which I can do pretty much at will since I am in charge of my own scheduling at my job - nice, huh?). I weeded pretty much all the beds in the main garden and even moved some plants around - including those Greenland Tulips that I have been meaning to move from under the burning bush for years. Even though they weren't really flowering anymore because they weren't getting enough sun and were being strangled by the dense root mass of the bush), they were still multiplying nicely. I also noticed that some had moved themselves from under the bush into more sun and were actually blooming pretty well (I left those alone). I hope that means that the move will get these tulips blooming again; they are such lovely tulips.

I lost an ornamental plum tree and over half of my delphinium, so SSB said we should go to Funkie Gardens to see if they had any trees that we could put in the area. I always love a trip to Funkie Garden. They specialize in hostas and unusual perennial plants - hence the name. Well, $136 later we didn't have a tree, but we did have some very nice plants!

2 Eupatorium maculatum 'Carin' (Joe Pye weed)

2 Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Rubra' (pasque flower)

2 Trollius c. 'Golden Queen' (globe flower)

1 Iris cristata 'Eco Bluebird' (wood iris)

2 Heliopsis h. 'Prairie Sunset' (false sunflower)

1 Athyrium niponicum 'Burgundy Lace' (painted fern)

1 Tsuga canadensis 'Cole's Prostrate' (dwarf hemlock)

2 Silphium lanciniatum (compass or cup plant)

The last one I was not familiar with at all. I got it because the leaves and base were so intriguing and it said that it could get up to 7' high!! When I got home and Googled it - well, it wasn't what I was expecting - and I have two of them! I'm sure that I can find some place to make these work.

On the way home we stopped at another nursery that I usually get my delphinium from. They only had one variety this year, so I only got two hoping that I could pick up a couple more colors some place else. The guy selling me them was excited that I had such a big bed and commitment to growing delphinium. He told me to hang on, disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a small pot with a delphinium in it. He said it was a gift to me. He had grown it from seed himself. Aw! I was so touched! I promise to take good care of it.

I felt so good by the end of the day; content and happily tired! What a great early Mother's Day!

^[1] I work at a pharmacy and one of the pharmacists quit, leaving only one pharmacist. And of course the one that left was also the one that made my job around there much easier. The other bookkeeper also left leaving me in charge of ALL the business management. That bumped my hours up about 20 more hours a week as well as giving me a whole new pile of things to learn and sort out.

^[2] The Zen Garden is named so because it is inspired by Japanese gardens and our cat, Zen, is buried there.