The May apples are going to bloom this year! And the jack-in-the-pulpits I wasn't sure were going to come up, have, once again reminding me that micromanaging windflowers is a losers game (still gonna' do it though).

Many plants coming up well--goat's beard looks good and my little elder which had died (I thought) turned out to be only dead to the ground and is sending up new shoots. I also have one in a pot that looked like garbage last fallat the nursery so Linda said take it and see what happens and it is growing like crazy. The rainbow leucothoe that was int he same condition is now pre-compost, however...

Looking forward to Monday and Tuesday to get some stuff planted and maybe work on finishing the patio wall. I still need to figure out how to cut the bluestone that is going to top the front edge of the fire pit.

Starting to take shape

The wildflowers have finally mostly made it up--one trillium actually has come up on the sloped site where I had basically given up. And the "junk" sod left over at the garden center last fall is doing great behind the patio wall--which is getting closer to being done. Today is starting cool but is supposed to be sunn as is tomorrow, which is good news.

Patience

It's 30 degrees this morning, once again reminding me of why Rhode Island plants wake up slowly. I've been waiting to see how the trillium I lanted last year would do and yesterday finally saw six shoots coming up so figure they're going to be okay. Nothing from the hillside--they're all in the wildflower garden area, but that's okay, the hillside ones must just be a little slower. Oh, and something ate the base right off my oak leaf hydrangea. I think it may have been voles or mice, as it seems to have happened when there were mounds of snow all over that area. Anyway, I can't even find a base, so they may have eaten the roots too! No oak leaf hydrangea this year, it seems...

Gardens of the Blue Ridge

Always a sure sign of spring when my order arrives from Gardens of the Blue Ridge. Some more jack-in-the-pulpit and native ginger, as well as trilliums and some other native plants. This year I'll be reinforcing some patches with additional plants and also working, finally, on a real garden for the front, where grass doesn't really grow in sand... Have this week off to finish the patio wall--it has been cold this morning so got the new plants out of their plastic pbags and into pots and can now get outside to get started on the patio. The goal is to have it so done by the end of the week that any additional work won't disrupt using the patio for its primary purpose--relaxing!

Nothing but snow outside and water inside...

Read Douglas Tallamy's "Bringing Nature Home" while in Florida and it is well worth reading. He points out in great detail that insects, and hence birds and other small vertebrates (which eat lots of insects) cannot adapt to non-native plants, so, while the plants look attractive, they're dead zones to the native ecosystem. As we remove native plants and add non-natives, we reduce food for our wildlife, resulting in dramatically lower numbers of all kinds of birds.

What I liked was his incremental approach--no one needs to completely change their garden in one year, but consider using native plants the next time you add something to the garden.

Also, don't worry if it is a true native or a cultivar. There is little evidence that improved cultivars are significantly worse for the insects that feed on the plant, and if it is a more-attractive plant for the homeowner, then so much the better.

Back from North Carolina

We're home from North Carolina which was very fun. Actually, we've been back for a few days, which is good because we completely missed the rain and have only have a little bit up here (maybe an inch today--though one more band possibly coming through according to weather.com).

I have a lot of pictures which probably appeal mostly to me but i did think it was fun to find what i'm pretty sure was a coral bell in the Great Smokys that looks almost exactly like the Dolce Mocha Mint coral bell being sold by Proven Winners.

This is the plant I found...

and this is the Mocha Mint--not identical but still kind of fun to see how the variations come about.

every other Huechera I saw was plain green. Of course, i may be wrong about what they are--there weren't any flowers, but i think they were Coral Bells...

More to come

It is hard to believe how long it has been since I've posted. it isn't as if nothing has happened, but nothing has happened as far as the garden. I did plant two Witherod Viburnums and I know I should take pictures, but I haven't. Work for the landscape architect as well as Wildwood has taken my time. Even next week I was hoping for two days to work on my patio but I'm not sure if I'll have them.

So much of life is lived with the idea of some sort of payoff tomorrow. My Dad died instantaneously in a car crash (he was driving) in Arizona. Was he thinking of today or tomorrow?

At least the Phillies were in first when he died. To put this into persective, when the Phillies won the World Series in '80, Tug McGraw's feet had not yet touched the earth again, when the phone rang and it was my Dad saying "They won!"

Which is a part of the only song I ever wrote, a part of which is

"He gave me a quiet place
Where I could always go
Not always seeing eye to eye
Still always sitting side by side,
Listening to a ballgame
on the radio."

It was the Phillies.

I work tomorrow. That is our mantra.