Thursday, May 23, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Babbling Brook Gets Green
The greenery around the babbling brook has woken up and started to grow. I also added another dozen short to ground cover type perennials. Some plants were chosen hoping they will creep over and into the crevices of the rocks to soften the overall appearance.
All the new pond plants have settled in and are growing too. I need those to also help hide some of the exposed pond liner at the water surface. It was my first rubber lined pond. The proper shelf I needed to place rocks and hide all of the liner was a touch off. Given the cramped space I was in, I did pretty good.
The pond water is growing too. It turned a pea soup green when it first warmed up and has stayed that way. I have treated it with an algicide the three times the bottle said I could, nothing. I put plants in to help clean the water, nothing. Today I gave it a second dose of bacterial enzymes that are supposed to help digest the excess nutrients and had a short chat about over feeding the fish. We shall see. It would be nice to see the goldfish more than when they rise to the surface, which isn't that often. They are a bit skittish.
Overall it is looking good. The land based greenery is filling in. The pond based greenery is growing fine. The goldfish are alive and getting bigger. I have to toss one out of the skimmer every now and again and from fleeting glimpses I know they are double the size or more since they first went in.
Now if I can only get the water to clear up, life in the babbling brook would be perfect.
All the new pond plants have settled in and are growing too. I need those to also help hide some of the exposed pond liner at the water surface. It was my first rubber lined pond. The proper shelf I needed to place rocks and hide all of the liner was a touch off. Given the cramped space I was in, I did pretty good.
The pond water is growing too. It turned a pea soup green when it first warmed up and has stayed that way. I have treated it with an algicide the three times the bottle said I could, nothing. I put plants in to help clean the water, nothing. Today I gave it a second dose of bacterial enzymes that are supposed to help digest the excess nutrients and had a short chat about over feeding the fish. We shall see. It would be nice to see the goldfish more than when they rise to the surface, which isn't that often. They are a bit skittish.
Overall it is looking good. The land based greenery is filling in. The pond based greenery is growing fine. The goldfish are alive and getting bigger. I have to toss one out of the skimmer every now and again and from fleeting glimpses I know they are double the size or more since they first went in.
Now if I can only get the water to clear up, life in the babbling brook would be perfect.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Things They Might Have Seen
If the weathers had cooperated.
It was a year ago that garden bloggers from across the country came to the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top to see the wild cultivated gardens. They arrived for the peak of the lull between the rhododendron show and the onset of summer bloom. Nature had rescheduled spring that year. Then it delivered a one two punch of hard freezes. This year spring is back on schedule with the perfect cool conditions for a drawn out show.
Phlox divaricata
Lorelei iris ready to burst fringed with phacelia.
The much larger Phacelia bipinnatifida.
Columbine
Hosta with the Blue Pot art project
Hosta and Iris cristata.
Tiarella, Foam Flower.
Phacelia, rhododendron and the roof top of the fancy gardener's shed.
This weekend a client and one lucky garden blogger will come to the wild cultivated gardens and they will see what should have been seen.
Like False Solomon's Seal, Maianthemum racemosum in full bloom that hasn't been frozen or eaten by deer - yet.
The weathers are looking to be perfect.
It was a year ago that garden bloggers from across the country came to the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top to see the wild cultivated gardens. They arrived for the peak of the lull between the rhododendron show and the onset of summer bloom. Nature had rescheduled spring that year. Then it delivered a one two punch of hard freezes. This year spring is back on schedule with the perfect cool conditions for a drawn out show.
Phlox divaricata
Lorelei iris ready to burst fringed with phacelia.
The much larger Phacelia bipinnatifida.
Columbine
Hosta with the Blue Pot art project
Hosta and Iris cristata.
Tiarella, Foam Flower.
Phacelia, rhododendron and the roof top of the fancy gardener's shed.
This weekend a client and one lucky garden blogger will come to the wild cultivated gardens and they will see what should have been seen.
Like False Solomon's Seal, Maianthemum racemosum in full bloom that hasn't been frozen or eaten by deer - yet.
The weathers are looking to be perfect.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Why Wait
I was in Indian Paintbrush territory today and stopped to gather a few more. They are on a steep road embankment under utility lines that was recently clear cut and regularly sprayed. I don't feel bad about relocating them to a safer environment.
The new ones were planted on the same slope as the others, further down slope in a bit more sun. Mine are smaller than the new ones. It could be an elevation, later growth thing or other site conditions. My Lush on this slope is much shorter at the moment compared to where they came from.
There are two small patches that returned. Now there will be four. More seeds makes for faster production of this annual or biennial wild flower. Too bad it isn't a perennial. Annuals really have to like it here to get a viable population going.
Now that I have remembered they are basically annuals, it is no wonder I didn't see them come back right away. The ones that showed up this year must be from seed. That is a good sign.
There can't be any waiting when it comes to the roadside vegetable garden. The time to plant is NOW. We are on a schedule in this zone. No dawdling allowed.
My first sowing of greens were mostly snowed out. Very little came up when conditions were right. I reseeded and spiked the rows. There are certain creatures who slink about the premises that find bare dirt makes the best place for deposits. The spikes have kept them out. I wish they would keep slugs out too.
I went to the Big Box to buy my peppers and tomatoes and was shocked, shocked I tell you, to see most of the tomatoes were $6 a pop. I needed 20. No way. No how. Hiding in the back racks were smaller four packs of tomatoes for half that price. They only had hot peppers left and we don't do hot peppers. The racks were pretty bare and the aisles were full of vegetable aficionados, the ones smart enough to wait until the chance of frost has past. Or maybe they were all replacing what got zapped. I'll have to go back after the next delivery and stop in at my local independent nursery for peppers.
My sweet potato slips were ordered a while back. Shipment was set to begin on May 20th. I am ready for their arrival.
After a late start, the roadside vegetable garden is on for the season.
The new ones were planted on the same slope as the others, further down slope in a bit more sun. Mine are smaller than the new ones. It could be an elevation, later growth thing or other site conditions. My Lush on this slope is much shorter at the moment compared to where they came from.
There are two small patches that returned. Now there will be four. More seeds makes for faster production of this annual or biennial wild flower. Too bad it isn't a perennial. Annuals really have to like it here to get a viable population going.
Now that I have remembered they are basically annuals, it is no wonder I didn't see them come back right away. The ones that showed up this year must be from seed. That is a good sign.
There can't be any waiting when it comes to the roadside vegetable garden. The time to plant is NOW. We are on a schedule in this zone. No dawdling allowed.
My first sowing of greens were mostly snowed out. Very little came up when conditions were right. I reseeded and spiked the rows. There are certain creatures who slink about the premises that find bare dirt makes the best place for deposits. The spikes have kept them out. I wish they would keep slugs out too.
I went to the Big Box to buy my peppers and tomatoes and was shocked, shocked I tell you, to see most of the tomatoes were $6 a pop. I needed 20. No way. No how. Hiding in the back racks were smaller four packs of tomatoes for half that price. They only had hot peppers left and we don't do hot peppers. The racks were pretty bare and the aisles were full of vegetable aficionados, the ones smart enough to wait until the chance of frost has past. Or maybe they were all replacing what got zapped. I'll have to go back after the next delivery and stop in at my local independent nursery for peppers.
My sweet potato slips were ordered a while back. Shipment was set to begin on May 20th. I am ready for their arrival.
After a late start, the roadside vegetable garden is on for the season.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
The First Haircut
I have worn defined paths through the garden becoming by deliberately sticking to them as I wander slowly through. After a full week of warm and ample rain, the Lush was trying to close off my paths. It was time for the first haircut before visitors arrive.
The two main goals are to have paths that will lead you through the garden and to keep the stone creations from being swallowed whole. I want to keep them visible through the time of vegetation.
What good is a snake in the grass if you don't see it until it is too late?
This path clearing also defines the planting areas of the tall flower meadow. What will be kept short like a lawn and what will be allowed to grow tall? In time I can see the shapes of the taller planting areas becoming more defined and not so remnant like. My cultivation and definition of the tall flower meadow is still a work in progress. Each year I make more headway.
This will do for the first haircut. The time to concentrate on thug removal has arrived. That and keeping all the baby shrubberies from being ensnared by the Lush.
This is my first ever Yellow Lady's Slipper orchid, Cypripedium pubescens. Actually, the client who gave this to me insisted it was gift for my mother. I was a good boy and planted it in her garden. I can visit it and coo over it anytime.
This is such a perfect orchid, a cold hardy, long lived, clumping perennial that grows in the ground and needs no special attention at all. Perfect for the wild cultivated gardens. I hope it makes babies.
Tomorrow I will do some path defining in the ridge top gardens. The sunny utility meadow was done this afternoon. My morning was spent in the roadside vegetable garden sowing all kinds of seeds. I need to go buy peppers and tomatoes NOW. Our last frost has past and there is no time to waste. The season of vegetation only lasts half the year.
The two main goals are to have paths that will lead you through the garden and to keep the stone creations from being swallowed whole. I want to keep them visible through the time of vegetation.
What good is a snake in the grass if you don't see it until it is too late?
This path clearing also defines the planting areas of the tall flower meadow. What will be kept short like a lawn and what will be allowed to grow tall? In time I can see the shapes of the taller planting areas becoming more defined and not so remnant like. My cultivation and definition of the tall flower meadow is still a work in progress. Each year I make more headway.
This will do for the first haircut. The time to concentrate on thug removal has arrived. That and keeping all the baby shrubberies from being ensnared by the Lush.
This is my first ever Yellow Lady's Slipper orchid, Cypripedium pubescens. Actually, the client who gave this to me insisted it was gift for my mother. I was a good boy and planted it in her garden. I can visit it and coo over it anytime.
This is such a perfect orchid, a cold hardy, long lived, clumping perennial that grows in the ground and needs no special attention at all. Perfect for the wild cultivated gardens. I hope it makes babies.
Tomorrow I will do some path defining in the ridge top gardens. The sunny utility meadow was done this afternoon. My morning was spent in the roadside vegetable garden sowing all kinds of seeds. I need to go buy peppers and tomatoes NOW. Our last frost has past and there is no time to waste. The season of vegetation only lasts half the year.
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Lady Dons Her Slipper
I saw these Dutch iris in a well tended garden today. I tend it.
This is their second or third spring. Some have returned to bloom better than others. Like the ones on the left side of the walkway are doing great and many of the ones on the right side of the walkway are skinny, spindly foliage with no blooms. Both sides of the walkway get the same kind of tending. Gardening is just a crap shoot so much of the time.
At the end of each day I head home to gardens that get much less tending, often to my dismay. The little Iris cristata don't seem to mind. They are blooming quite well along both sides of all kinds of paths.
Out near the back forty a camassia blooms in the most recent annex to the gardens. There are signs I have slowed Bulbarella's expansion efforts. She has gotten quite enthused about infill in the places where I have been killing off the Silver Lamium, Lamium maculatum, that was taking over the entire mountain top. What had been nothing but lamium before was now bare ground that needed filling.
I turned a corner on the path and there she was. The Yellow Lady Slipper orchid was in bloom. This was a gift from a client. She said take it. I never see it where it is. It needs a better home. Three springs later it has a new third stem and the first bloom.
I think the Lady has settled in. Now if it will just get as big and prolific as the one I saw at the native plant garden in Lake Junaluska.
There are advantages to a less tended garden. The Lady is still a bit on the wild side and might not take to too much tending.
I got a little closer still to the blood red azalea. Just this part of it was distorting the camera lens.
The big rhododendrons don't have the same effect. They are just beginning to open and should be at peak by next Sunday.
There are still quite a number of the deciduous azaleas left to bloom. They have a much more extended range of bloom times while the rhododendrons are more in synch.
It is looking like it will be a good bloom year for the rhododendron. Some years they don't set as many buds. Gardening is just a crap shoot so much of the time.
It is also looking to be a banner year for the bearded iris. Next Sunday the wild cultivated gardens should look spectacular ...... Now if I can just get some more weeds pulled before then.
This is their second or third spring. Some have returned to bloom better than others. Like the ones on the left side of the walkway are doing great and many of the ones on the right side of the walkway are skinny, spindly foliage with no blooms. Both sides of the walkway get the same kind of tending. Gardening is just a crap shoot so much of the time.
At the end of each day I head home to gardens that get much less tending, often to my dismay. The little Iris cristata don't seem to mind. They are blooming quite well along both sides of all kinds of paths.
Out near the back forty a camassia blooms in the most recent annex to the gardens. There are signs I have slowed Bulbarella's expansion efforts. She has gotten quite enthused about infill in the places where I have been killing off the Silver Lamium, Lamium maculatum, that was taking over the entire mountain top. What had been nothing but lamium before was now bare ground that needed filling.
I turned a corner on the path and there she was. The Yellow Lady Slipper orchid was in bloom. This was a gift from a client. She said take it. I never see it where it is. It needs a better home. Three springs later it has a new third stem and the first bloom.
I think the Lady has settled in. Now if it will just get as big and prolific as the one I saw at the native plant garden in Lake Junaluska.
There are advantages to a less tended garden. The Lady is still a bit on the wild side and might not take to too much tending.
I got a little closer still to the blood red azalea. Just this part of it was distorting the camera lens.
The big rhododendrons don't have the same effect. They are just beginning to open and should be at peak by next Sunday.
There are still quite a number of the deciduous azaleas left to bloom. They have a much more extended range of bloom times while the rhododendrons are more in synch.
It is looking like it will be a good bloom year for the rhododendron. Some years they don't set as many buds. Gardening is just a crap shoot so much of the time.
It is also looking to be a banner year for the bearded iris. Next Sunday the wild cultivated gardens should look spectacular ...... Now if I can just get some more weeds pulled before then.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Buttercups and Bluebells For A Late Bloom Day
Hughes satellite internet or the computer or both were in an ornery mood last night. After working in the heat, 80 degrees, all day with a head and chest cold, I wasn't able to get my Bloom Day post done before I started to fall asleep. I won't last long tonight either.
Everything that follows was blooming in the wild cultivated gardens yesterday on the 15th for the official Bloom Day.
Iris cristata, Dwarf Crested Iris.
Ranunculus bulbosus, Buttercup. I do believe there are at least two other Buttercup species up here.
This hardy to zone 3, Campanula 'Birch's Hybrid' jumped in my cart the other day.
A field of Golden Ragwort, Packera aurea. Now if those Caesar's Brother iris would just bloom with the Ragwort.
Jack in the Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum.
Trillium grandiflorum. This one hitch hiked in with a Calycanthus.
The Phacelia purshii is just starting to bloom. In another week the entire ridge top garden will be awash in a delicate blue foam.
Lots of Trillium grandiflorum. I transplanted a bucket full of these over to the garden becoming.
We have Bluebells, millions of Bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica.
That is the white Phacelia fimbriata blooming across the county line in the Kingdom of Madison. We have a bit of it on our side of the county line.
Have I mentioned the Bluebells are having a very good year?
The odd yellow rhododendron.
Bluebells and a blood red azalea. I can't get the camera to close to that azalea. It is too intense.
Millions and millions of Bluebells.
Finding the Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja coccinea blooming in the garden becoming was a nice surprise. I introduced it here about three years ago and never saw it again until now. Hopefully it will spread.
That is a bit of what is blooming on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top in the middle of May. The gardeners and nature are always adding more
If you haven't been, head over to Miss Carol's May Dreams Gardens Bloom Day headquarters, maybe you can find some other garden with as many Bluebells as we have here.
Everything that follows was blooming in the wild cultivated gardens yesterday on the 15th for the official Bloom Day.
Iris cristata, Dwarf Crested Iris.
Ranunculus bulbosus, Buttercup. I do believe there are at least two other Buttercup species up here.
This hardy to zone 3, Campanula 'Birch's Hybrid' jumped in my cart the other day.
A field of Golden Ragwort, Packera aurea. Now if those Caesar's Brother iris would just bloom with the Ragwort.
Jack in the Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum.
Trillium grandiflorum. This one hitch hiked in with a Calycanthus.
The Phacelia purshii is just starting to bloom. In another week the entire ridge top garden will be awash in a delicate blue foam.
Lots of Trillium grandiflorum. I transplanted a bucket full of these over to the garden becoming.
We have Bluebells, millions of Bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica.
That is the white Phacelia fimbriata blooming across the county line in the Kingdom of Madison. We have a bit of it on our side of the county line.
Have I mentioned the Bluebells are having a very good year?
The odd yellow rhododendron.
Bluebells and a blood red azalea. I can't get the camera to close to that azalea. It is too intense.
Millions and millions of Bluebells.
Finding the Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja coccinea blooming in the garden becoming was a nice surprise. I introduced it here about three years ago and never saw it again until now. Hopefully it will spread.
That is a bit of what is blooming on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top in the middle of May. The gardeners and nature are always adding more
If you haven't been, head over to Miss Carol's May Dreams Gardens Bloom Day headquarters, maybe you can find some other garden with as many Bluebells as we have here.
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