OK–More like Summer April 22, 2007
Posted by carolmk in Garden_update, Spring_Cleaning, weather.add a comment
It was 60 this morning and got up to 81! How did we skip spring? Right now, it’s raining and boy do we need it. I don’t have the rain gauge set up yet–I usually set it up around May 1 (or the closest weekend) so if the weather seems promising next weekend, I’ll set it up then.
I’m really tired. I did the WOW thing on the yard. I really need a new spreader, the one I’ve got, the bottom of the line, allows no adjustments so I needed to spread twice–a lot of walking. Wish I had had my pedometer on! I also spread some Milorganite in the lawn where I think the deer walk through. I also spread Milorganite in the flower beds I’ve finished cleaning: Sister’s bedroom bed, Sister’s maple bed, the white pine bed, the pin cherry bed and the east side of the house bed. In all the aforementioned beds, I’ve done the final cleanup and pulled down the wires and put up the peony rings (for anything that is showing). I did the final cleanup on the east side bed, but didn’t get around to the Milorganite part. I also hung the deer deterrent bags in the blueberries, white pine bed, part of the raspberry bed and Sister’s bedroom bed. There’s definite munching in the last bed occurring. I didn’t spray. I also fertilized the black raspberries. They are really greening up.
The forsythia still looks pretty good. The Mayflowers are fantastic! One of the plants in bloom has at least two dozen flowers open. All three are looking very healthy. More blood roots have sprung up overnight and opened. I’ve got about four patches, each with 8-12 plants. Some spring beauties are in bloom in the white pine bed today as well. A number of trilliums have emerged as well–not in bloom though. With this heat, I expect things will happen fast.
I haven’t done anything with the front beds yet and I still have to finish the garage and kitchen beds. Hopefully, I’ll have time after work this week, but it’s not looking very hopeful.
Spring–At Last? April 22, 2007
Posted by carolmk in Clematis, Garden_update, Spring_Cleaning, weather.add a comment
OK, last week mornings were below freezing and we were lucky to get up to the 40s. This week, we still had mornings around freezing but every day was warmer than the last. Today, Saturday, it was 49 when I got up and it got up to 76!
With the warm weather a lot is happening quickly in the yard.
My wildflowers in the White Pine Bed have survived nicely (I think). I’ve got three May flowers (hepatica) in bloom. Two are white, one is pink. The pink one has a least 20 buds. I couldn’t tell how many buds were on the other plants. I’ve also got about half a dozen blood roots in bloom in three clumps–more blood root shoots are coming up. There are leaves of dutchman’s breeches showing–just. The Jacob’s ladder is about 6″ tall and the leeks look healthy. I think I’ll need to thin the waterleaf as I see quite a few coming up. Bill Mackenzie clematis is alive, there are buds and I think a new shoot. I raked the excess leaves out of the bed today and removed the wires from around the blueberries–they all look pretty good. I need to get deer deterrent stuff out there tomorrow before they are grazed to nubs. The deer are nibbling on my lilac and have almost eaten the summersweet down to the ground. One of the rhubarb plants is just coming up.
The small wildflower area around the big side maple is showing a lot of life as well. There are a half dozen spring beauties in bloom, the Jacob’s ladder is about 6″ tall and the meadow rue is up.
I finished cleaning the east side bed completely. All leaves are cleared. The peony rings are up on Sister’s bedroom bed, her maple tree bed and the east side bed. There are some signs of bleeding hearts coming up in the east side bed. That’s one I need to divide. The virgin’s bower, Will Goodwin, texensis and Betty Corning clematis on the east side bed are showing signs of life. Hakuree, in Sister’s bedroom bed is looking good as is Polish spirit in Sister’s maple bed.
I worked outside for about four hours today. I mostly worked on raking leaves out of flower beds and then grinding them up using the leaf vacuum. I raked out the garage bed, kitchen bed, pin cherry bed and back side bed. I got six bags of ground leaves. The rest of the cleanup will need to be done by hand. I also need to prune things back in each of those beds. I’ll see what I get done tomorrow. It was fairly windy today, not the optimum for picking up leaves.
