Winter

has arrived with about 5 inches of snow, blowing and dropping temps. I put together this arrangement for my planter with a spruce top, some cedar and white pine branches.

November watering....

October was cold, rainy, and snowy! But November has been warm and dry, so since the temperature was in the 50's today, I thought I would take advantage of the nice weather and water the evergreens I planted this summer and fall. Now the hose can be packed away for the winter.

Oh, and I found a pack of 90 daffodil bulbs for just $4.00 today, so I just had to buy them and get them planted. I should have been cleaning my house in preparation for Thanksgiving, but I was out digging in the dirt!!

More daffodils planted

A beautiful fall day today - we haven't had many of those! I planted more bulbs - Ice Follies, Golden Ducat, and Unsurpassable daffodils. Ice Follies is white and yellow and Golden Ducat has a many-petalled center. Most of them went into the rose garden, where the fading foliage will be hid by baby's breath or the annuals I plant along the edge.

A find from the woods

As I was tromping through the woods taking some fall pictures, I came across this hunk of wood. It is a big, old knot from one of the oak trees. I hauled it around front - next spring I will fill it with dirt and plant some annuals in it.

Fall color

The leaves are finally showing some color!

New cutting garden - ready for spring!

A cutting garden has been on my mind for some time. I laid down 800 pounds of compost, then black landscape fabric and mulch. In the spring, this should be ready for planting.

Hens and Chicks

Last weekend, I planted like crazy and moved mulch like mad!! I found some bargain plants and got them in the ground. I love the way this hen and chick picks up the red in the iron ore rock from northern Minnesota. Oh, and the mulch pile - gone!! Yahoo!!

Snow?

There is snow in the forecast tonight. It has been very cool (only 23 degrees this morning at 5:30 - so we've had a hard freeze). I was able to get some plants in the ground Wednesday evening and tonight I moved a tree and planted a purple smokebush. I still have a pagoda dogwood shrub and about a dozen perennials to plant, plus another hundred or so bulbs.

And the mulch pile, while it has shrunk, is still hulking in the driveway.

I am hoping that the weather will warm up again, but the pressure is on - will I get my plants and bulbs in the ground before the snow comes and stays and will we get the mulch out of the driveway and where it belongs?

Shrub border - mulched

It was not the best day to be working outside, but work we did! Now that the mulch has been added to the shrub border, it is really looking nice. Just another 12 feet or so to go and it will be done.

New White Fir

I found this nice little white fir at a half price sale Saturday morning. (It was cold and drizzling, but a sale is a sale!) I know it is a bit late to plant evergreens. I will just make sure that I keep it well-watered. It's soft color will show beautifully against the dark evergreens behind it.

Spider

Saturday morning was foggy! A big, hairy sprider built this web and I just had to get a picture. He didn't have much luck in this spot, as by late afternoon he was gone.

Mulched border

Here's a section of the border that has been mulched.

Newspaper and landscape fabric

I leave the grass between my plants - it will eventually decompose and add much needed nutrients to our sandy soil. To kill the grass, I lay down 4 to 6 layers of newspaper. A new trick that I learned was to keep a pail of water handy and soak the newspaper before laying it down. This keeps in place - because even a small breeze can blow newspapers around.

Mulch edge

I started mulching my shrub border this weekend. The first step is to dig a trench for the edge. I use a flat shovel and angle it so when you take the grass out, it forms a v-shaped trench. The garden hose helps me determine where the edge should be and I cut along it. The trench is about 10 inches wide.

Snowdrift crabapple

One of the new trees that I planted is a Snowdrift crabapple. It has pink buds that open to white flowers and persisitent fruit. Isn't the fruit pretty? I think she is going to be a beauty when she matures!

Dwarf subalpine pines

I moved the mugo pines that were in the front shrub border and replaced them with dwarf subalpine pines. They look like a blue spruce, but will only grow to about 6 to 8 feet tall - perfect to use in a border. They will add a nice upright shape and they repeat the blue color of the blue spruce globes near the house.

Mulched!

This is an area that was planted ealier this summer and finally got mulched this past weekend. It inlcudes a purple smokebush, some of the bright green spireas - Goldmound, I think they are called. There are also some microbiata evergreens at the front. The brick path on the left leads to the hose.

The purple smokebush will need to be trimmed back heavily every two years. That will keep it from getting leggy and too tall for the space.

Leaf casting

A group of gardening friends got together a little over a week ago and did some leaf casting. This one is my first attempt - the leaf is from Dean's garden and was some sort of large leaved annual. The leaf is slowly drying up and soon it will crumble off easily.

New trees and mulch arriving!

I have been waiting for some good fall sales and went to one last night at a nearby garden center. I bought a Princeton Gold maple, a Snowdrift crabapple, two dwarf subalpine blue spruces and a purple smokebush.

And I ordered up 7 yards of mulch - which will be delivered tomorrow! Lots of work ahead.

We have been having very dry weather, so just keeping up with the watering has been a job. That is supposed to change late this weekend, with rain moving in. We need it!

New hedge

Our neigbors planted a double row of evergreens along the border of our property. For some reason, a 35 foot gap was left in the row of evergreens in the back yard. I found a great deal on Holmstrup arborvitaes at Costco - 3 to 4 foot tall shrubs for only $7.99. We bought 9 of them and planted them today to fill in the gap. They will eventually grow to about 10 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide.

Taking care of root bound shrubs

I found a great bargain on some shrubs this weekend. They are Holmstrup arborvitae and when we started planting them, we found that they were quite rootbound. You can see in the top photo how the roots are forming a circle.

It is important to keep the roots from circling because if they do, they can eventually choke off the plant. To avoid this, use your shovel to cut through the roots about an inch or so into the root ball. Do this in 3 spots around the rootball and pull away the roots at the bottom. This will help prevent the roots from continuing to grow in a circle.

Fall Planting

I've been scrambling to get things planted. Our cool summer days have had the definite feel of fall lately. I added some perennials to my shrub border and have decided to replace the mugo pines with Sester's Dwarf spruce. They are small blue spruce trees that only get about 6 ft tall. They will add a much needed variation in shapes in the border, as well as repeating the blue color of the dwarf blue spruce globes that are planted near the house. I am hoping to find them on sale this fall.

Most of the summer, I have had over 50 plants on my back patio, waiting to be planted. The number is now down to 21 - yay! But soon the fall plant sales will start, so that number may grow again. That reminds me - I need to create a list of plants that I am looking for so that I don't over-buy!

What's blooming?

The Minnesota hardy mum! Even though I pinched this back in mid-July, it is blooming like crazy!

I blanched a pound of beans tonight and picked some beautiful Caspian Pink heirloom tomatoes. They look different, but are very tasty!

Garden friends

Thanks to some of my gardening friends who are moving their plants and wanting to make room for new things to try, I planted a bunch of hostas and other plants - phlox, daisies, daylilies, coneflowers, fleeceflower (pictured), and Joe Pye weed.

As I was planting the hostas (really, I was just plunking them into the ground in no particular fashion), I was dreaming of the beautiful bed that they would be planted in next spring. What a special pleasure it is to be able to take a simple patch of ground and create something interesting and beautiful.

New bed

Between the vegetable garden and the driveway, I have added some phlox, a plume poppy, daylilies and a bunch of coneflowers. They all look pretty sad, but they will look great next spring! I hope to find some shorter perennials to fill in at the front.

Carefree Beauty

One of my favorite shrub roses!

Rock border

Another project that I am working on is adding a rock border. This is the edge of a path that will run in front of the house between the foundation plantings and the shrub border. I'll use newspaper and mulch to kill the grass, then after a year or two, I will take out the mulch and add pea gravel or crushed limestone. I also want to make some stepping stones.

Small bed

I added some rock to this area. The plants are irises and My Monet wiegela. The raised square brick will be the perfect spot for a planter next spring. There is one on the other side of the path, too. Sorry for the hose in the background - no rain lately, so the soaker hose is running on some of the new shrubs by the vegetable garden.

Front yard shrub border

It has been a hot week! I have been working on the shrub border in the front of the house. On this end of the border, I've planted spreading cotoneasters, some Tiger Eye sumacs and Ivory Halo dogwoods.

I also planted some hydrangeas - Tardiva, Pink Diamond, Pinky Winky, and three Twist and Shout. They are close to the front path. There are also some Ivory Halo dogwoods and Tor spireas in this part of the border.

I discovered a bee colony when I tried to move a large boulder. I decided to leave the boulder in place - I didn't want to kill the bees.

The Mugo pines in this border are not doing well and I plan to replace them with evergreens that are more upright. This will all look much different once it gets mulched!

Another shrub border....

I've started to add shrubs around the outside of the fence. Snowmound spireas, some Sara Bernhardt peonies, and some Regent serviceberries. I plan to add a couple of hydrangeas - an Annabelle and an interesting one with varigated leaves. I am also going to move my Honeycrisp apple tree to this are.

Arbor

I finally found an arbor! And it was on sale : ) I planted an Aunt Dee wisteria to grow up and over - it will be so much fun to see it grow and bloom (hopefully) next summer.

Climbing Roses

These roses haven't grown too much taller, but they are blooming!

Lilies

I think these are called Starfighters - but that seems to be a strange name for such a beautiful lily! Correction: Just found my receipt and the actual name of these lilies is Starlight Express - wasn't that the name of an 80's band? : )

The fence is done.....

But the gates don't really line up right. I'll have to find a different way of latching them. I love the fence and have already planted my blueberry bushes in the corners!

Fencing

After a weekend out of town (why does that put me a week behind in my gardening work?), I spent the day working on the fence. It is about 3/4 done and I am pooped! Hopefully I will be able to finish it up tomorrow and post pictures!

We have harvested zucchini, green peppers, lettuce, and today, sugar snap peas from the veggie garden! I have used basil and the kids have had fun smelling the sage.

Red Dragon Fleeceflower

These Red Dragon Fleeceflower plants look great under my Prairiefire crabapple. They will look even better once I get this large shrub border mulched!

Coneflowers in bloom

Hard to believe that these coneflowers were just planted last summer! I think I put in 6 plants - three on each side. I guess they like it there!

Fencing

I have been working on getting my fence around the vegetable garden installed. I have all the support posts in place - they just need to be pounded into the ground a bit deeper. You can see the corner section on the right.

Because it is easier to install the fence sections with two people working on it, I started taking the grass out. As I was working, the idea came to me that I need to work on installing the fence sections beginning at a gate post and working to the next gate post - because I think there might be a bit of wiggle room where the gate meets in the middle. I need to measure the gate sections, just to make sure!

Rocks

On Saturday, we headed up to our neighbor's farm to pick rocks out of a newly plowed field. We picked more than this, but this was a full load for our truck. Where will these rocks go? I'll get them cleaned up and use some to fill in near the dry creek bed. The large ones will be placed in my shrub border.

What's Blooming?

My pink Volcano phlox, joined by a butterfly delphinium and some ballon flowers.



Moonbeam coreopsis and some coral bells.

Veggie garden

Look at how full and lush my veggie garden looks! There are a few green tomatoes and we've eaten leaf lettuce and some banana peppers. The beans are just starting to climb the obelisks.

New plants!

Here is a new sedum next to the dry creek bed.



And the new My Monet weigela. Some new sedums are planted near the edge of the dry creek bed and I also tucked in some irises from my friend Elizabeth. They'll join a few irises that I got years ago from my friend Sandy. I am going to add a few more rocks in this area.


The shrub border now includes two Dark Horse weigela, and two Daydream shrub roses. The next job will be to get it mulched!

Shade Garden

On Monday, I worked on getting some of my shade plants in the ground. I don't have much shade in my yard yet, but there is always a spot for a few hosta!

Garden Wisdom

A quote from Zach, my little gardening buddy:

If you're not getting dirty, you're not having fun!!

A busy (and dirty!) day out in the garden. I planted more shrubs in my border, added a new weigela and some sedums next to the dry creek bed. I trimmed up my baby's breath and did some weeding next to the path.

If it isn't raining in the morning, I'll take some new pictures and post them. I have to keep reminding myself that everything doesn't need to be perfect - that I am documenting the process of creating.

New shrub border

The weather has been cloudy and cool, perfect for planting. I spent all day yesterday putting in a new shrub border along the outside of my brick path. Closest to the path is a row of evergreens - Sea Green Junipers in the middle and two Holmstrup arborvitae on the ends. My favorite spirea, a Shibori, is front and center. It flowers in three colors - white, pink, and rose. I have more shrubs to add to this area, including some weigela and shrub roses.

Along the curve of the path and towards the house, I put in some Ivory Halo dogwoods, some Tor spireas, and a Tardiva hydrangea.

It will all get mulched. I haven't decided what type of edging I will add in the front. I would like to do a low stone wall, but I haven't found the right type of stone just yet.

Railing planter

This fun planter is on the railing of my front porch. It has black-eye susan vine, some lantana, a fun coleus at the back and purple million bells. There is also a pair of the dark sweet potato vines on the back and a purple bacopa. It looks very different from the front and the back.