A Mini Makeover of a Blah Area

I struggled with what to do with this bed at the front of my house for some time. This is a photo from last year. All I could think of was that shutters would help and stalled on the garden end of it. You can see how blah it looked. The other side of the front is blah as well but there is a cement path that needs to come out before I can tackle that so back to the bed at hand. I decided I had to do something this year, even if it was minor. I had a hosta I could split so I brought the bed out a bit.

I realize it was a rather simple change but I feel I'm making progress and it's an improvement. Sometimes it's baby steps that get us there. I have color from the hostas when the bleeding hearts and phlox are done blooming. I added a baptisia there on the right side next to the steps. I got it at an end of year sale last fall but it's not very happy. I may give it another year and see what it does before moving it.

There are a few foxglove Apple gave me that should bloom next year. She gave me five starters that I put toward the back of the bed. I also found some toad-lilys on clearance that came back and will hopefully bloom this year.

I would like to line the bed with stones but I think I may make it bigger so I think I will wait and contemplate a bit. I can't wait to remove the walk on the right side in front of the porch area. We plan to put in a curved sidewalk in someday where two people can walk side by side and then have a garden area from the curve of the walk to the porch. When that happens, it may make sense to bring out this bed even more. If anyone has suggestions, I am always looking for advice from other gardeners. You can probably tell but the area gets shade most of the year.

My Mystery Garden

Well it's not much of a mystery anymore but that's what I've been calling this little garden.

Ron dug up this area sometime last summer. My kitchen table sits by the double windows that overlook the area. I love water features and thought how wonderful it would be to have a garden with a fountain below the window. I could relax at the table and enjoy the flowers along with the sound of trickling water (last summer I made Apple crazy with my hunt for just the right fountain but I digress...) Unfortunately things got busy and I didn't have many extra plants so the area sat there for awhile but the weeds were happy.

I found my fountain and it makes the nicest little trickle sound as a fountain should. Apple gave me a yellow lily and some liatrice from her garden. A friend gave me a hosta and some Giant Solomon's Seal. I found the blue salvia at the farmers market and had to try it after seeing it at Cornell Plantations. I also bought some Russian sage and a pink coreopsis that is now blooming.

I had seven plants I could identify. The rest were mysteries by the time I planted the garden. Apple and I went to visit Kerri of Colors of the Garden last year and she sent me home with some treasures. We also had a plant swap at the Garden Club at the end of the year and I am always getting pass-a-longs from friends. Life was crazy so everything ended up in this area which was really a holding bed, not a garden. I of course didn't label anything and couldn't remember what I had been given. This spring I dug everything up and rearranged it. Apple suggested I mark my path BEFORE planting which worked out well. Sometimes the obvious isn't so obvious for some of us. LOL. I'm so glad I have a sister with good advice! Since I couldn't remember what was what, I just plunked things here and there and figured I would move things as they bloomed if they didn't fit.

Now some of the mysteries are solved. There are shasta daisies and gloriosa daisies from Kerri - Thank you again Kerri! Some phlox, two iris', coral bells, and I suppose, a few more mysteries yet to be revealed....

I'm sure I will add to this space and move things over time. I also want to add a chair so I can sit and enjoy the sound of the fountain and read a book. I'm not sure about the "stepping stones". Maybe it's because I know they are old tiles a friend gave me but they will work for now.

A Cart Full of Favorites

Elizabeth at Garden Rant is having a contest to give away five Troy-bilt garden carts and I sure could use one. This is what I'd be using now if it didn't have a flat tire again. It was left as junk by the previous owner and John keeps repairing it for me. It won't be long before the plastic will have to be held together with duct tape.

So, the contest. I have five (5) to give away so your chances are good. I had a few ideas for possible comment tasks, including writing a classic sonnet and describing and solving the most important issue facing home gardeners today. But, in the end, I came up with this: list your five favorite plants (presumably that you could put in this cart) and briefly explain why they'd be the ones you'd rescue from your garden if it was threatened by catastrophe. Or just say why you like them. Troy-Bilt will send a cart each to the five best comments, as determined by me (representing Garden Rant).

I wouldn't have had a prayer of winning one if I'd had to write a sonnet but listing my five favorites plants can't be that hard, can it? Wait a minute - just five!?


#5 - Crocuses. They are the first plants I see here in the spring and give me hope that the snow won't last into June. They wouldn't take up much room in the cart - instead I'd use the cart to shovel off my flower beds into the cart and haul the nasty white stuff away. I could have blooms two weeks earlier like everyone in town!

#4 - Monarda / Beebalm / Oswego Tea. I love everything about this plant; the bright red color, the way it spreads without taking over, it's tall, lasts all summer and the mint scent is wonderful. It also blooms right around the 4th of July here and the flower heads look like miniature fireworks.

#3 - Daylilies. My goal is to have enough varieties to bloom all season long. The season is so short here that shouldn't be hard. I love the grace of the flowers and variety of colors. If I could save just one it would be this one that I have no name for. Why this one? Besides the great color combination, it was a gift from my sister.

#2- Peonies. We had very few flowers when I was growing up but we always had peonies. The flowers are huge and just scream "Happy Spring" to me. Even after the flowers are done they stay attractive for the entire summer and they are virtually care free. Mom's peony now resides in my garden and if I could rescue only one, that would be it. I do have several others however and some of them need to be moved so the cart would get a workout.


#1- Hosta. Even before I started gardening I had hostas. They grow in the shade but don't mind a bit of sun, weeds don't grow under them, they come in so many sizes that there is one for most any spot. I love the mounded shape and even though I'm not a big fan of the flowers they attract hummingbirds. They are quite hard to kill, although I have lost one called First Frost. A plant by that name probably had no business being in my garden anyway. I need to rearrange my front bed and the cart (and a small crane) would come in very handy for moving this hosta that is competing for space with the bleeding heart.

Sister's Weekend

Last weekend was a gardening dream! Early Saturday Country Girl picked me up to go plant shopping but before we could leave she had to unload the plants she brought me. She had told me she was bringing me some things but holy cow!

Giant Solomon's Seal, White Phlox and in the back a mystery plant

We headed out in the rain to the Regional Market in Syracuse. The rain stopped before we got there and the place was packed. Prices were not as low as I'd hoped and there weren't many great deals but we did find a few. My greatest find was this Fuchsia. I didn't know there were varieties with flowers this big and just had to have it.
I hadn't been to the Market in years so it was fun even if the prices weren't what I'd hoped for. Our next stop was Seneca Hill Perennials. They are a local grower that I was unaware of until I saw them mentioned by Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening. They do mostly mail order and are only open a few days in May and June. We enjoyed touring the gardens and a couple of the greenhouses.

Giant Solomon's Seal at Seneca Hill.

I picked up a Penstemon Tubaeflorus and this adorable Shooting Star.

Dodecatheon

We had a nice lunch in Oswego and headed over to Ontario Orchards. I had head great things about them but I was less than impressed. They had mostly the same things you find everywhere, their prices were high and one of the cashier's was quite rude. Perhaps we caught them on a bad day but I probably won't go back.

Our final stop was at Hoxie's, a little greenhouse I pass often but had never stopped at. They had just annuals but at a great price so Country Girl was able to pick up some things for her some of her flower boxes. I am trying to get my annuals going from seed but at the rate things are not germinating I will probably head back there to pick up some plants to fill in here and there.

My sister's schedule is such that we don't get to spend much time together so seeing each other two weekends in a row was great. I'm sure we'll do something together before the end of July but we're already making plans for Garden Walk.

Sunday found me out in the garden early digging up plants for a swap that a co-worker hosted in the afternoon. Since the garden club didn't have a swap after all :(!!!!! this year I was really looking forward to this one and I was not disappointed. Not only did we swap plants but we got a tour of her woodland garden and had a chance to socialize outside of work. I got three different hosta including a cute little mini one, rose of sharon, yellow coneflower, woodland hyacinth, bleeding heart and several unnamed plants with just a description of what they will look like.

I got all of the bareroot plants in right away and most of the rest went in over the course of the week. New plants meant moving things around and catching up on some of the weeding that never seems to be done so it's been a great week in the garden!

A Bit of Progress

Every spare minute I've had lately (and there haven't been many!) has been spent in the garden. Four of the beds have been weeded and will need to be done again soon. I've painted the kero and propane tanks so I can get the new bed started. Several new plants have been set out and I've started wildflower seeds out in the clearing in the woods.

John took apart two of the corners from the old screen room. I think they'll make a great trellis set. I just want to touch up the paint a little and then get something planted. Maybe a couple of varieties of clematis?


My sister gave me three boxes of plants for the fund raiser on Saturday. And so far I've kept the other donations alive! She also gave me some chives and feverfew for my garden. :-)


I bought this hosta on ebay last year. It is called "Twisty," which I haven't found at Hosta library yet so I'm unsure of the "official" name. Twisty does seem appropriate. I'm disappointed that two of my hostas didn't come back this year. I really thought you couldn't kill a hosta.


The rhododendrons started blooming yesterday.


The pink azaleas are done. This coral colored one just started blooming. I love this bush and wish that I'd planted it on the other side of the house where we spend all our time.