gardenwife's Journal: Early Spring 2003 - March Around the yard

• Member: gardenwife
• Journal: Default
• Category: Our Yard
• Status: Unknown

Initial Notes:

Entries and Updates

Mar 18, 2003   The Zepherine Droughin climbing rose looks great. She's been in her spot since 1999, so I think this year we should have a good show of roses. I need to spray her and the others with dormant oil still.

Mar 18, 2003   More buds. :) This is one of the forsythia bushes out back. Last year they looked kind of funny, with really long shoots heading skyward; this year, though, they're filling in on those long branches. Glad I didn't cut them back!

Mar 18, 2003   I think this is the meadow rue (Thalictrum aquilegifolium) coming up. This is one of the plants that just makes me grin from ear to ear when I see it finally making its appearance. It's SPRING! About that name...The second word in its Latin name gives a hint about why it's commonly called "meadow rue columbine" or "feathered columbine". Aquilegi refers to the columbine's family, while folium refers to foliage, or leaves. Its leave look like those of a columbine. There's your lesson for the day - I thought it was pretty neat how that plant was named.

Mar 18, 2003   These are the triple orange daylilies I transplanted from behind my neighbor's house. This cluster is by our patio, to the left of our arbor.

Mar 18, 2003   This penstemon may not have ever died back, come to think of it. This is the "Husker's Red" variety. It's commonly called beardtongue.

Mar 18, 2003   Our Echinops Ritro (globe thistle) is coming up nicely in the island bed out front. The plants under the birdfeeder out back are not doing so great because of all the sunflower hulls.

Mar 18, 2003   This is cinquefoil "Miss Wilmott" (I think that's this variety). It does well on the hillside, though I really need to move it to where it will get more sun. I think I'm going to pack our island bed pretty full by transplanting some of the sun-lovers which don't get enough light along the fencerow.

Mar 18, 2003   Hollyhocks in the fencerow bed out front. Sheesh, I really need to get out there and clear away the dead plant material!

Mar 18, 2003   Looks like a couple of my digitalis made it out front. Whew! These are a varety which is supposed to be truly perennial, not biennial, I believe.

Mar 18, 2003   Green, green poppy leaves! I can't wait for those sweeties to bloom. I think these are the orange ones, but they might be some of the iceland poppies. They're along the fencerow bed out front, up near the house.

Mar 18, 2003   The dwarf iris Marilyn gave me are doing well. These little guys bloom on really short stems; sometimes the leaves are taller than the blooms! They're a purple-blue color and they bloom early. These are along the back edge of our fir bed out back.

Mar 18, 2003   So far, this is the only plant which has popped up in the tumbled soil beneath the back kitchen window. The whole bed - the whole foundation of the house, actually - was dug out when we had basement waterproofing done. It's hard to say what all was buried 2' deep and what was put back at the surface. This could be a valerian plant - I had a bunch of them in this bed, along with wonderful multi-colored Four O'Clock's... *sniffle*

Mar 18, 2003   A wide shot of the kitchen bed. See what I mean? :(

Mar 18, 2003   The other side of the back steps - the back wall of our home...*whimper*. The only plant the crew dug up and replaced in its spot was our clematis, seen at the far end of this shot.

Mar 18, 2003   But I noticed GOOD NEWS out there at that clematis vine. Look -- growth!

Mar 18, 2003   Right in front of that clematis I see what appears to be some of my Stella d'Oro daylilies sprouting. Hope there are more of them, though I would think they'd have come up by now like these have.

Mar 18, 2003   The front of our fir bed looks pretty sad right now, but I did see some green shoots coming up a the bases of last years' stems. Yippee!

Mar 18, 2003   This is the view as you look straight down from our front porch rail. The plants here are really taking over and get too tall to be in with the grafted willow tree we have in this bed. Aaaargh. What you see green here is probably the peachleaf bellflowers, that and some mullein maybe. It's hard to tell with all the debris. There's also some columbine in there.

Mar 18, 2003   Our front yard, as seen from the porch. I have a lot of clean-up to do!

Mar 18, 2003   This is where the flower box used to be. When we had the basement work done, the crew dismantled and hauled away that bed and used the soil from it to refill the trench when they were done making the J-channel along the wall. The only plant salvaged (that we know of thus far) is the porcelainberry vine.

Mar 18, 2003   This is our birdfeeder bed. I need to rake away the sunflower and thistle seed hulls.

Mar 18, 2003   Pretty grungy looking lambs ear and assorted perennials. This is in the still-scraggly fir bed in the back yard.