our jungle

You might have noticed that posts about our garden have been noticeably absent this season. That is because we no longer have a garden or a yard but a jungle. To recap, when we bought the house last August the yard was in really rough shape - junk and trash scattered, invasive bamboo, large wood stumps and rocks - not to mention the weeds. Our first task was just to get the junk cleared out which were able to do right before the leaves started to fall. So many leaves..... We several really large old oak trees that I love but they create a huge amount of work that pretty much took up the majority of our fall yard work. Winter came and went and in the spring, we were able to clear 3 of the 7 major garden beds. I even planted some lettuces and started a black raspberry patch. Then a very rainy May and June hit which washed out my edible garden and created amazing growing conditions for weeds come July. When we returned from Michigan at the end of the month, the weeds had shot up to astounding heights like 9 feet. Throughout August, they just grew and grew. We had one week, that the heat broke and I was able to clear 2 beds but now we are back to intense heat and humidity so they continue to grow... 

I am really quite embarrassed by the state of our yard and I have seriously debated sticking a sign in our front yard that reads "I know it looks so bad but you should see what we started with! And how much work we have on the inside!". With the heat and a super busy month of weddings, it is not looking promising that our yard is going to improve anytime in the near future. So in the meantime, I sit and plan. Plan for October and weekends of hard labor spent outside. Jeff tells me I need to adjust expectations and focus on manageable projects thus I am working on editing down my list.

1. WEEDING - I think we could get 5 out of the 7 garden beds under control. Like I mentioned, 3 of the 5 have already been cleared so the weeds are relatively new growth and shouldn't be too hard to clean up.
2. MULCH - Mulch the beds that we clear. Without mulch, there is no way the weeds won't just spring right back up.
3. BACKYARD - We had lined up guys to excavate out the bamboo (which invades the rear portion of our backyard) but as of late they have been rather MIA...We really are hoping that they will still do the work as we are running out of time to get it done AND then get grass seed or sod down before the winter. 
4. NEW GRASS - Assuming we can get the backyard excavated, we will then seed or sod. We have started looking into the pros and cons of each and will need to do more research and planning before making our decision. 
5. TREE REMOVAL - We have one small dead tree in the front yard which I think Jeff could manage taking down....with some supervision.
6. TRIM BUSHES - We have several large bushes in the front that are in desperate need of a really good haircut.
7. TRANSPLANT - Once the beds are cleared, there are several plants and two hydrangea bushes that I would like to relocate. 
8. LEAVES - They have already started to drop and this year I would like to stay on top of keeping them cleaned up.

What do you think? Sound doable? And yes these are actual images of our backyard....

first flower feature: hellebores

I am introducing a new series today - flower feature. I have been doing a lot of informal research on flowers that might work in our garden so it seems only natural to share it here. As I have mentioned, there is so much to learn with gardening - varieties, growing conditions, soil composition, diseases, pruning practices etc. In my very early gardening career, I have relied heavily on the advice given at my local nursery and - Google. This first flower feature is a plant that was given on recommendation - hellebores.

I planted a type called 'ice follies' in a partial to primarily shade bed that also has lily of the valley and some hostas. Hellebores are perennial evergreen plants that are rather frost resistant, long blooming - typically early spring, and low maintenance. They can be grown in hardiness zones 6 to 9 and can tolerate full sun to full shade although they prefer partial shade. Sometime referred to as lenten roses, these flowers belong to the same family as the popular ranunculous. I selected this plant because of my shade conditions, wanting to add some color to this particular bed and the fact that it is an evergreen. One of the other really nice things about this plant is that it makes for a beautiful cut arrangement. Floret, a favorite gardening blog of mine, did a nice write up on best practices for cutting hellebore arrangements that you can read here. There are so many stunning varieties ,including lots of hybrids, that I definitely plan on adding more to our garden. Just look how pretty they are!

from top left: hellebores display via Floret - ivory prince variety via Plant Delight - ice follies variety via Conrad Art Glass & Garden - blue lady variety via VonBloem Gardens - source unknown - ivory prince bouquet via Once Wed - peppermint ice via Canadian Gardening -  picotee lady variety via Skagit Gardens

garden questions

Astilbe plant via BHG

Current garden questions...

1. How to store daffodil bulbs?
Over Memorial Day, I dug up a bunch of daffodil bulbs and just left them sitting in our garage. I plan to replant them in the late fall but don't know what to do with them until then. That is until I did a little research...According to some quick googling, it looks like you want to store them in a ventilated area, not in direct sun or exposed to any heat or dampness. A couple of suggestions were: to hang them in an old onion bag or in pantyhose, place them on an elevated screen or put them in a box with peat moss. I think the onion bag sounds the easiest so I am going to give it a try. I am undecided on location but am thinking in the corner of our basement might work seeing that it is no longer filling with water - although it is probably still a little damp.

2. What's the deal with yellow leaves on my raspberry bushes?
I finally got around to adding some more compost to my raspberry bushes. I also pruned away some yellow leaves. The yellowing isn't pervasive but it does make me worry about disease. I would love it if an experienced grower would just come and tell me if I am providing the right growing conditions. Not sure how I will make that happen so, in the meantime, I plan to just give them more water.

3. Why aren't my hydrangea bushes blooming?
I am fairly confident that I have several large hydrangea bushes - 3 in the back, 1 on the side and 1 in the front. Unfortunately, all of them are not showing any signs of blooming...So turns out this is a really common problem and is most likely caused by excessive pruning. In our haste to do some clean up this spring, I am fairly confident that we went to town cutting back the bushes. This is problematic because the most common variety of hydrangea only blossoms off old wood. It also could be that there is not enough phosphorous in the soil. This has a simple solution in that you can add a phosphorous-rich fertilizer to your soil. One organic garden forum I read recommended using Bone Meal - and yes it is what it sounds like.

4. What is a flowering bush that does well in full shade?
Also over Memorial Day, I also started transplanting a patch of lily of the valley. I put them in a bed right near the house that also has a large oak tree in it. I plan to fill the whole bed with lily of the valley but was thinking something with height right around the base of the tree could look really nice. Upon searching for flowering shade bushes, I discovered that HGTV website has a cool feature where you can save specific plant species to your profile. Right now, I am thinking a variety of Astilbe could give me the look I am after.