Three weeks is a long time to go between posts, especially if you’re one of those bloggers who keeps saying they’re going to step it up this year with a flurry of uplifting, timely and engaging content that… I guess I say that every year… June is a busy time, and sometimes things get done and sometimes nothing gets done, and both take time. Time that you think you’ll have back in March, but when summer rolls around she always proves you wrong. Better to just move on and give the usual apology for ignoring many and hope that July will be different, which is usually not the case 😉
Let me again brag about the delphinium patch. In spite of the drought they came up well and now that they’re entering their most fragile state the forecast will obviously call for severe weather. This always happens. My fingers are crossed this week’s staking efforts will be enough to keep them safe.
So the last post on this blog was a depressing litany of drought, smoke, hopelessness, and most of that was accurate, but as any good gardener will do you assess and move on. Sometimes moving on means a big icecream and lots of pool time, but this June the weather was more campfires and sweatshirts so I was at a loss. Turns out cool weather and dry soil is an excellent combination for bulb digging, and if I can’t have a nice garden at least I can try for neat, so many bulbs are dug and much of the potager is an empty yet well-kept space, and most of the garden is in fact somewhat weed free and waiting. Waiting for the rain I guess, since nothing much happens when it’s dry.
I was seeing photos online of Crinum bulbispermum in bloom and mine was not, but now it is. Within days I went from calling it lazy to calling it amazing as three stalks came up on this one and two on the other. The season is short, but the flowers are worth it.
So I had a plan. Neat was in and after putting in the work I decided I loved the look even if the grass was browning and the perennials were yellowing and wilted. I even spent an afternoon weed wacking the berm which usually doesn’t happen until August, and honestly that looks much better as well.
A neat yet somewhat empty potager. A few tomatoes went in as well as beans, but no masses of self-sown flowers since the soil is too dry. There is a little color though, last fall larkspur seedlings filled in the edges of the tulip beds and are now putting on an awesome show.
As is always the case as soon as one thinks they have a handle on things, the path changes. This week the forecast is filled with rain and humidity. We’ve had rain over the weekend and cloud bursts here and there, but so far none of the amounts have lived up to expectations, and they’re still far short of what we need but they’re enough to bring weed sprouts up in the neat dust, and triple the size of the innocent weedlings which two days ago looked as if they were too small to bother with. I suspect even the lawn will need mowing again if the forecast holds up.
Clematis ‘Venosa Violacea’ has been getting some water and is completely worth the attention. Clematis are amazing and I’m worried about all the cute little ones I keep looking at and wanting 🙂
If this summer turns into a good-for-growing summer my earth moving projects might take a hit. So far cool weather and a few bug-free hours in the evening are revealing new planting areas up along the addition, and new level ground back behind the potager. It was a big day when the leveled areas were up where they were supposed to be and the first new paths were raked and seeded with grass. There’s suddenly hope that the garden will return to something more attractive than rubble piles and trip hazards and that’s a great thing.
The area behind the potager is where all the construction fill is moving to. It used to slope down to a low spot but is now mostly level, which is quite an accomplishment considering that the area around the white bucket was about three feet lower when I started this spring. The tan section going back to the berm, between the buckets, is where grass seed has been put down and it’s an extension of the path which runs through the potager.
All the dirt moving is a win-win scenario. As the back of the yard fills and levels off, the area surrounding the new addition is also coming back to a finished level. Soon I hope to put grass paths back in where concrete trucks once stood, and work something out with all the rock I’ve dug up. Give me another two weeks for this part of the garden and I promise a better scene, although I can’t make a similar promise for the foundation. It might be a year at least before the brick situation is figured out.
The area to the side of the house is almost fully graded and the plan is for the grass path continuing all the way down. I had been thinking of a sand path where all the weeds are coming up on the right of the picture, but I think it will also be grass again, so there will be two strips of grass leading down to the back.
Wow that all seems like a lot of work. I better wrap this post up before I start thinking too hard on what all needs to get done before I can do even more of the stuff which needs to get done. Fresh mulch would be nice. That would be even more of lots of work, and clearly not better than pool time, but at least it keeps me off the streets and out of the gym.
The deck plantings are one thing which is looking nice this year. The drip irrigation was set up earlier than ever and this has been my escape from the mess in the rest of the yard. Surprisingly most of this is from dried plants which came back to life once I drug them out of the garage. The large pot of pink and purple was supposed to be an overwintered rosemary, but calibrachoa seedlings took over and I don’t even care if the rosemary comes back or not. I found it very interesting that calibrachoa roots can survive more drought than rosemary, and from now on I might be throwing them in the garage as well to overwinter.
Thanks for making it this far. It’s still gray and gloomy outside, but I might brave the gloom and take a second coffee outside to see how things are going. It would be nice to get two more days worth of shoveling in before the the rain brings on an explosion of weeds and the lawn gets out of control, but as always it’s still better than snow and ice 😉
Have a great week!
sorta like suburbia 
I can see why your colorful deck is a place of escape (although who need an escape from those glorious delphs?) — the colors are energizing!
Thanks! -and surprisingly the severe weather passed by without a single broken stem, for which I am grateful since they sit right in front of one of the preferred coffee drinking spots 😉
Your delphiniums and your crinums are gorgeous. And that was a LOT of earth moving! I’m impressed.
I never thought I would get this far with the dirt moving. It’s inspiring to see progress and I thank the cool digging weather for that!
Things look pretty darn good, in particular those delphiniums, something I have never successfully grown. And that is an impressive amount of dirt-moving.
I wish I knew the secret behind the delphiniums. I’ve planted a few over the years but only this one clump has survived and on top of that done well.
My next challenge is the pot of dierama seedlings which has overwintered and now needs a planting spot.
I keep reading they don’t like to be wet in the winter, so planted mine on a slight slope, in soil amended with sand. Several have survived two winters now. Of course, several right next to them didn’t, conclusively proving something. Think they might do okay on the berm?
I can relate to your go-to solutions of ice cream and pool time. Also your apology. Blogging is its own reward, or something like that. Whatever drives us to do what we do, it’s a pleasure to know we are not alone. 🙂
I agree! It’s always nice getting some feedback on these mostly lonely pursuits such as gardening and birdwatching.
Impressive progress, Frank. All that hauling makes me tired just thinking of it! I think the potager extension will look fab.
That’s a beautiful clematis. I have five different ones, two are happy and three need to be moved as they no longer get enough sun due to tree growth. I know they hate having roots disturbed, so I keep putting it off. 😦
Your delphiniums are beautiful and I hope the wind/rainstorms that are blowing through are kind to them. I wish you gentle rain!
We had some surprisingly gentle rains and the delphinium survived and the newly seeded paths are already sprouting grass (as well as a healthy dose of weeds)! Every chance I get I’m imagining how the potager extension will look… although for now it will be neat grass paths between horribly weedy and wild beds of soil/fill… but I like that the birds will enjoy the seedy mess.
Isn’t it puzzling how you can plant something, have it do well for years, and then somehow shade creeps in? Just yesterday I was weeding grass out of a moss patch which has become the better option for that spot. What is happening to my full sun property!?
I’m so impressed with your gardens. Your energy seems boundless. Love the delphiniums and planning the paths and the Clematis ‘Venosa Violacea’–well everything. Hope you get good rains and just the right amount.
Haha, I think my energy is reaching a boundary this month, I don’t think July will be as productive 😉 We all go through the ups and downs and I’m surprised myself by how far up this month has been.
We did get some rain, a good amount even though more would have been ok, but according to the news the higher elevations did get more than they wanted. Sadly it looks like the smoke is back just when the sun was supposed to be out, but there’s always something. Hope things are going well for you.
Things are more stable here, thank you. It’s been a long, challenging year and the garden has been a healthy respite. Hope you get some more rain.
Beautiful Delphiniums and I am very envious of all those lovely self-seeded larkspur! Every gardening year has its challenges, doesn’t it. I sometimes wonder if that ‘perfect’ garden year even exists. But you have clearly been busy nonetheless and the potager and area behind it look great. Will you be extending the potager or have you other plans for that area? That must have been an incredible number of wheelbarrows filling in 3 feet! Hope you get some nicer weather with rain soon Frank!
Haha, isn’t that true. Every year is some new surprise… as I look outside to see smoke has returned just when a sunny pool day was forecast!
At least we had a decent amount of rain and the garden looks refreshed. I’ll likely fill the new area with wide rows of whatever strikes my fancy, daffodils… daylilies… sunflowers… it’s far enough back that bright colors at a distance will trump all the weeds in the closeup. I’m hoping the birds will enjoy the weediness for now.
I bet larkspur would do well for you in the new beds, it just leaves a gap in late summer when it goes to seed, which might not be a look you want as everything else is at a peak.
I was shocked to see a few potted eremurus at the nursery and thought of your amazing show last year. These were the shorter yellow types and not the real showstoppers but if I didn’t have all this dirt-moving nonsense going on I would have tried one.
Wow, I have never seen Eremurus potted up here! Planting them was fun though… such weird roots/tubers. Larkspur has seeded itself in one or two spots here, but they are very short so far.
All is going very well with you and the garden is looking great. The “berm” is an unheard of term at this side of the Atlantic though I am familiar with it from reading.
I wonder when the term ‘berm’ became common over here. Probably some suburban landscaper started by trying to separate two over-built mansions without calling in a mason to build a wall. Putting a berm in sounds fancier than saying you’re going to dump a bunch of dirt there for a barrier.
I am totally impressed with your patch of Delphinum and I can’t see any supports. I gave up on them. Not a good plant for a place that gets serious winds, let alone tornadoes. But they are so striking. Love the blues in the potager with all your blue pots. It is a tough garden year with too little/much rain, heat, smoke and construction debris. I sympathize, but have no doubt you will soldier through it — in the garden or the garage or just on the porch.
Each of the delphinium stems are loosely tied in and it seems to work well enough for the average thunderstorm. Trust me that I have enough photos of crushed and twisted bloom stalks from the days when I tried to give non-staking a try, as well as snapped stalks from when each stem was staked individually. Of course a gentle rain rather than tornado is also a big help!
I think we will both soldier through this year. It might be messy but still beats wasting time on a golf course.
Congratulations on your blooming Crinum bulbispermum. Are you going to try hardy camellias next?
Oh you’re too funny. The ‘hardy’ camellias are already planted and the coldframe has at least four more pots of seedling which need to go out.
This summer I’m trying (again) some crape myrtles. Dwarf ones, which I’m not crazy about, but I’ve lost enough of the trees that I’m willing to give this a try.
… and I have a pot full of hardy agapanthus which needs to make its way up north this summer.
The picture with the delphiniums is a beautiful vignette. The delphiniums look so healthy. I hope they survived the big storm. We got almost an entire months rain yesterday. 4.25″ with some serious wind bashing. I am not complaining because we needed it so bad. That rain also washed away a lot of the debris out of the air from Canada. The wind took care of the rest. It was pleasant to be outside this morning in the relative cool picking up debris and cutting limbs into lengths to put into the truck bed to take to the limb pile.
Seeing all your gorgeous pots on your deck looking so good makes me think that next year I will try drip irrigation. I don’t have as many pots but it is still a daily task I could do without.
I love your potager no matter how you use it. It looks inviting with the gazebo-like trellis at the entrance. Fall plants up and at em already. I guess the days are getting shorter now.
I used to have that clematis. I don’t remember seeing it for a long time. My clematis seem to have not minded the weather conditions this year. I have been better at watering since it has been so dry. Maybe that is all they needed in the first place.
Enjoy your weekend. Cheers…