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!