From master landscaper & ace photographer Dan B:
When we moved in the house was surrounded by unglamorous (I’m being kind) sidewalks. The backyard was sloped enough to uncomfortable to stand or to hold a chair. And I wanted ponds to hold water for summer. My partner built these rip-rap walls and I put paving on top. We have served dinner during the pandemic. Mt. Baker, 90 air miles north is visible from the top.
The daffodils I planted on top quadrupled in one year. I prefer the white petaled forms for our soft or overcast days.
This is a shallow pond by the tool shed / Mike’s playhouse and the stone stairs and landing to the upper terrace we call Tikal. In the background is a large brown shrub.
The brown shrub, 9 feet tall and wide, is Hebe ‘Midsummer Beauty’. We had 15° several days in a row and a number of plants were damaged. This was the largest. It may come back from the base.
Here’s what it looked like last summer. 8″ long pannicles and very fragrant. It’s from New Zealand where freezes are rare. This plant was 14 years old. It was a favorite hiding spot for our cats.
By the daffodils on Tikal is Wobbles the orange tabby in Temple Lion mode. He likes to guard the front gate and driveway even when Kai, the neighbors’ big German Shepherd, is about.
This is Wobbles’ indoor, bread loaf mode. Who needs legs? Or a tail?
At the west side of Tikal I planted a Grape Hyacinth called Grape Ice. It’s a new find.
Here’s another ‘pink cupped’ daffodil. It’s great on overcast days.
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Here north of Boston, the yellow daffodils that were here when we bought this place thirty years ago are in full (rather storm-battered) bloom, but our pink-cupped white additions are still a (sensible) couple of weeks from joining the show.
Got my first mail-order plants of the season yesterday — three very leggy Blue Butterfly columbines from White Flower Farm. So later today I’ll be transplanting them into temporary pots I can move indoors every night, because even if the ground where I intend them to go wasn’t still frozen, I don’t trust the weather (it’s been in the 50s this week, but we *may* get some snow on Thursday… ) Ah, the joy of climate change!
What’s going on in your gardens (planning / planting / reimaging), this week?
OzarkHillbilly
I bought some “pink-cupped white additions” (Accent Daffodils) from Colorblends aaaaannnndddd….
The first 2 came up yellow.
Not happy. Waiting to see what the rest do, but not holding my breath
p.a.
What’s going on in your gardens (planning / planting / reimaging), this week?
Waiting on a G-D day with over 45° weather without 2 inches of rain!😂😭
The plan is to get out there finally and let my back, shoulders, and vertigo tell me how much effort I should attempt.
Dorothy A. Winsor
What a gorgeous yard.
OzarkHillbilly
This is kind of garden related so I’m putting it up here: Copernicus online portal offers terrifying view of climate emergency
Yeah, the CCCService atlas is not downloading for me either. The connection times out again and again (the 3rd time was not a charm). However, the Climate Pulse page came right up. Hopefully they will work out the glitches on the atlas.
J.
What a gorgeous garden you have, Dan B. And love Wobbles.
Rusty
We are in southern New Hampshire and the previous owner let all the gardens and landscaping go. Invasive vines swamped many of the gardens, killing off plants, and others were taken over by weeds and even small trees. The edging of the ubiquitous granite field stones sank into the earth. The last two summers have been a process of battling back the vines, digging up the stones and resting them where they existed and hauling more from the woods where they didn’t. I did some limited replanting and between the two summers spread 15 yards of mulch. I don’t consider myself much of a gardener but I did feel good when the neighbor said the previous owner two back, that put much of it in, would have been pleased to see it looking so good. Last summer was also me removing myself two 100+ foot pines brought down by heavy snow that fell across the back yard, and repainting much of the house. That left less time too. This summer will be remulchimg and trunk to rescue a small blue stone patio in one corner of the yard. It needs to be pulled up, add a real base and reset.
SkyBluePink
Always enjoy pics of your wonderful property. And cats!
OzarkHillbilly
@SkyBluePink: Yes, Dan B works magic in the gardens. I wish I had 1/10th the talent he has.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Take a picture and mail it to them, with your order #. I’m sure they’ll make it right if you got a mislabeled batch.
satby
My David Austen roses were delivered a week ago Friday during a long overnight freezing snap, so I put them in their box into the garage. Friday was a nice spring day, so I put two into a bucket of water to rehydrate and added some water to the bag of the third that didn’t fit. Yesterday was market day, but today I’m planting all three temporarily into pots for a month while I get their permanent placement ready. They were shipped out of Texas, I wish their shipping department had paid attention to the weather reports north.
Planetjanet
I have a question for the garden experts. I bought a rose to plant in a container that arrived Friday. There are two nights this week that it will get down to mid 30s at night. Right now it is in my dining room which gets lots of sun, but is in the mid 70s. I could put it in my garage to be closer to the outdoor temperatures at about 60, but the one window is a bit shady. Which location would be better? It may only need to be there for a week.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Yeah, I’m sure they will. But I will remain unhappy as I was really looking forward to the new colors. I has a big ol’ sad.
satby
@Planetjanet: It’s fine in the garage with lower light for a week. Better to have it sit at temps closer to outside. You could even pot it if daytime temps are well over freezing, but I also waited a week 😉 so my outdoor overnights could get closer to 30° than 20°.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Accents can open yellow-ish and deepen in color as they age, could it be that? As long as the outer petals are white, that is. I would be disappointed too, I never plant just yellow ones.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: The 2 that have opened up so far are all a bright electric yellow. I’m waiting for the rest in hopes that these were 2 bulbs that ended up in the wrong bin.
Anne Laurie
Do *not* down-rate your gardening — or photography — talents!
You have made so many of us here happy, sharing your own very different garden visions. There is plenty of room in this wide world for both Rembrandts and van Goghs…
CCL
@satby: Same here. Planted all of but one them, but cover them at night. The hole for the last one filled up from all the rain we have had, and isn’t draining (clay soil) so we have some drainage trench work to do …hoping to get it done today.
ETA: danb, love the dry stone work and your garden photos are always so inspiring.
Planetjanet
@satby: Thank you! This really helps. It is an heirloom with its own roots and the leaves are tender.
satby
@Planetjanet: I keep four potted roses in my garage over winter, it’s insulated but not heated and has no windows. I splash a little bit of water on them about once a month while they’re dormant. I pulled the pots out on Friday too, and they all have started to leaf out with no light at all!
Kristine
Such a lovely garden, DanB. Serious envy.
It’s been rainy here in NE Illinois, with more to come over the next few days. There may even be a touch of snow midweek. Then a gradual warmup. I hope.
All the daffs are opening. The crabapples have leaf buds. Waiting for the forsythia to start popping. Won’t be outside much given the weather.
satby
Oh, I wouldn’t even wait, take the picture and send it to customer service. I’ve never had that happen from them, so I hope they send you replacements instead of a refund.
satby
@Kristine: same here. We needed the rain here because the soil is so sandy, but my shrubs seem to have weathered the deep freeze overnights with minimal damage to their buds. Especially the one lilac that has tiny bloom buds.
satby
@Anne Laurie: Co-signed!!
MazeDancer
Inspiring as always, Dan.
On the other end of the gardening spectrum, we have me, in hope springs eternal mode, planting seeds when the moon was newish a couple weeks ago.
Seeds never work for me. Ever.
But this year, have some seedlings! Used a heating pad.
Do not know if I will get plants. But, again, hope.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry to hear that!
Colorblends is normally awesome and will make that right for you, with a refund or a credit, but you can’t get this season back. On the other hand…
My yellow daffodils come up first, and all at once – so if the others aren’t doing much yet, maybe you did just get two stray bulbs and the rest will be the right ones.
Fingers crossed.
OzarkHillbilly
Yeah but is there room for me?
Jeffg166
I put verbena bonariensis cuttings made last autumn into the ground yesterday. They wintered over on a sunny south facing window. Was also battle mildew on them most of the winter.
I found two verbena plants from last year in the ground growing from the base.
Waiting to see if the cuttings will thrive.
Anne Laurie
Just ask your grandbabies, they’ll tell you OF COURSE!
MomSense
Amazing garden!
Do you add diatomaceous earth to the pools or do you have some other means of mosquito control?
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Your gardens are beautiful, OH! The best part is I picture your grand babies out there with you in your gardens and it’s a very happy scene.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have a house related question for you. I’m looking at houses and a lot of the ones listed as new construction are modular set on foundations/full basements. I don’t know anything about modular builds. Anything I should look for or concerns I should know about?
JAM
Your garden looks great, Dan. The daffodils here are finished blooming. I started a bunch of native plants from seed for a new bed, but they’re so tiny I’m afraid to plant them out. On the other hand, I don’t want to pot them all up either. I have to decide soon, though.
kalakal
Sorry to see the state of that Hebe, they’re lovely plants but unfortunately very vulnerable to cold. There’s a British gardening author and presenter called Stefan Bukzacki* whose motto is “never trust a hebe” I hope it returns
*He really does know his stuff, he’s not just a talking head
Kristine
@satby: I wish my soil had some sand. High clay content, so standing water after rains as the ground gets more and more saturated.
I have a mini-rose and the gerbera indoors until it warms up. I’ve been battling aphids on the rose all winter, and spider mites almost took out the serissa. The latter is blooming for the first time, I think because of stress. But it’s also pushing out some nice, shiny leaves so I’m hoping it recovers.
Dan B
@MomSense: We don’t do any mosquito control. We’ve got Dragonflies and there is a large variety of plants which may bring predators that keep the skeeters down. We sit outside in the toolshed/playhouse many evenings. It’s something that would never happen where I grew up in rural Ohio. I know what a billion means. It was the number of mosquitoes in our backyard – year round Stream and wetlands.
John Smallberries
Our upper part of the smallish SoCal patio is known as Persepolis.
satby
@Kristine: I use diatomaceous earth (it’s a fine powder) to kill pests without pesticides or hurting the plant itself. Bugs crawl across it and die from dehydration after their exoskeletons are pierced. You can get it off Amazon, a little goes a long way because you want just a light dusting, not to cover the whole plant. And it’s safe for people and pets inside and outside.
karen marie
@satby: Diatomaceous dirt is the best thing to use against bed bugs too. (So I’ve read – never had them myself but neighbors in another building did and just hearing about it freaked me right the fuck out.) Also fleas and ticks.
Cathie from Canada
Great post, but on a side note, front page posters shouldn’t put the page break (“show post on front page”) INSIDE a block quote.
The page break only works if it’s in a main text section, not inside a block quote section.
The only way I can read this whole post is to go back to the beginning of the post and click on the post link.
Platonicspoof
@Kristine:
This thread is probably dead, but I wanted to be sure you didn’t mean you are thinking of adding “some” sand. Adding a small amount (like less than 50% by volume) can make the clay soil even more like concrete.
Otherwise, in places like western Oregon, it’s advised to just add organic matter annually to the top of the soil. No tilling, etc.
More here from OSU
Some dangers of gypsum.