Cynthia LeFevre – Page 11 – Wellyssa's Womb

Spring bulbs are up, fingers crossed

I love it when the spring bulbs finally start blooming. There’s this odd anticipation of the coming summer, mixed with a constant watching of the sky for the next spring storm.

The orange Chopin Crown Imperials came up WAY too early. But I am really happy with how strong and tall their first year’s growth is.

The new Service berry trees made it through their first winter. We’ll see if they grow here in the tree ring in the front lawn. We planted Catalpa here the first year we moved in. They were beautiful until they were slaughtered by a late freeze in the 7th year. We replaced the Catalpas with hot pink crab apples, which made it two years. The freeze/heat/freeze/heat cycles of the 2014 winter took them out.

White tulips under the new baby Serviceberry tree

So fall of 2015 we planted the two Service berries. They’re supposed to be indestructible, native to the high plains. Convince me. Already, in early April the tulip bed is filled with weeds. I sprayed this bed three times last year but the weeds just keep coming. It’s like a divine farce or something. This year’s strategy is vinegar. But I need to pull this first batch while the tulips are blooming. Sigh.

This is the second winter for these baby Carol Mackie Daphnes. I had 4 really nice shrubs here, which I planted in 2005. I got them a little too close to the Korean Lilacs and they were crowding each other, so I trimmed them back and moved them forward. They did not appreciate that. So these babies are their replacement. So far so good.

Carol Mackie Daphne in front of Korean Lilacs, in the front garden. East

The Daffodils have been up for a couple weeks, but I was surprised to see the tulips pop up so soon.

Spring mixed tulips in front of the old barn coupla. Baby likes them.

Into the Spring we go! Gird up your overalls, this journey is not for the faint of heart. Forward Ho!

The Spring Maiden

Spring – such a savage season. Like a sweet young maiden, she flirts with us, showing us only small glimpses of her beauty, leaving us hungering for more.

Chopin Crown Imperial, blooming too early

And, like the vengeful young maiden, the object of her affection scorned, she lashes out with cold wind and snow, running away to hide her tears, she leaves us yet again hungering for more.

Apricot Tree, wrapped against spring freeze

The Apricot tree is in full bloom for a week now. Something about the 70 degree weather she says. I watched the temperature steadily dropped over the past three days, and finally decided to try to save her buds. This beautiful little tree gets her buds frozen off every year. This year I’m trying to change that. I wrestled with the wind yesterday and wrapped her up in row cover fabric. Held down with twine and large binder clips. I stuck my head up inside the fabric and it actually was much warmer inside there than outside. I hope this is enough protection, it’s all I could think to do. We’ll see.

(Update: no apricots.)

Chopin Crown Imperials covered with black pots to protect against spring freeze

The crown imperials are tucked away underneath these large size black pots, held down with long fabric pins. I can’t believe they came up this early. They’re pricey bulbs damn it!

Tee hee hee, she squeels!

Willow woman – phase 1

March 12, 2016: Someone posted a beautiful picture of a willow branch sculpture on facebook. I immediately put it into my file cabinet for future must do projects. I saved all the willow branches from last falls pruning and had a ginormous pile behind the storage fence just waiting to start this project.

It’s spring! Time to build the willow woman! My good friends D and Bear were all too happy to help. They love artsy projects, especially D (she’s an artist). Brian and I went outside early and laid out the weed barrier (because I’ll be damned if I end up pulling weeds out of my willow woman’s skirt!) Then we anchored in the basic frame for the structure.

We used tree stakes and rebar to build the shape of what will be her skirt and shoulders. The rear stake will anchor the rear branches so they don’t blow around in the wind.

D and I working on the outside of the skirt. (Bear was being camera shy, I’ll get her next time.)

5:30 pm. Filling the center of the skirt. Out of branches, out of energy. Done for now.

Pink forsythia

March 12, 2016: I planted this “shrub” 4 years ago. This is the first time it’s bloomed and it’s still so puny. I give it extra fertilizer, extra water . . . . it’s just a wussy plant. But hey, here it is blooming! (except the flowers are white not pink!)

Daylily backbreaker

Week of March 1st, 2016: Waaay back in 2006 Brian and I took a trip to Augusta Missouri to see his Aunt and Uncle, Judy and Randy. They have a beautiful piece of land in a pristine valley, surrounded by wooded hills and vineyards. When we drove up the long driveway, the first thing I saw was a beautiful row of orange daylilies. I commented to Aunt Judy about how beautiful they were and she went into a tirade about what a pain in the ass they are and how they’ve completely taken over the hibiscus garden. I said: “what hibiscus?” She said: “exactly!” So she pushed her way through the daylilies and pointed out the poor hibiscus shrubs completely drowned in daylilies, and explained how she just hadn’t had time to dig them out . . . . . so here I am with a shovel digging out the day lilies.

Digging daylilies at Aunt Judy's. — Digging day lilies at Aunt Judy’s.

Bonus! I get to take them home! I ended up with about 200 tuber sections.

New daylily bed, 2006. (The strip of disturbed ground to the left of the dirt berm in the front by the road) All the darker bumps are the holes for the 1000 crocus that I planted before the lawn was seeded. The amount of water it takes to grow a freshly seeded lawn, will rot your bulbs. FYI — New day lily bed

This is the front yard, looking toward the east from the front porch. (The strip of disturbed ground to the left of the dirt berm in the front by the road). All the darker bumps (closer to the porch) are the holes for the 2000 crocus that I planted before the lawn was seeded. (FYI: The amount of water it takes to grow a freshly seeded lawn, will rot your bulbs. Plant bulbs AFTER the lawn comes in.)

Daylily bed, 2014

Daylily bed, 2014This started out as 100 tubers. I planted two large beds of day lilies, one on the north side of the driveway and the other on the south side of the driveway. They are glorious in mid June. But spring cleanup is a real chore. I pulled out 4 large bags of dead leaves and stems on each side. But you can’t beat day lilies, really. They are troopers. And you need to be tough to live out here on the open plains in Brighton. So I’ve now got day lily beds strategically placed around the yard and on the berms. And if you drive around the neighborhood in June, you can also see my orange babies in several of my neighbor’s yards too. I love them, they make me happy.

I’m still trimming . . . .

Week of March 7th, 2016: Trimmed all the tall grasses on the street side of the north berm, cut down the dead iris leaves and stalks (I found that it’s easier to cut iris with a pair of sharp scissors rather than the hand pruners), trimmed back the perennial wild aster, the marshmallows, shrub roses and hyssop, and oh yes – the north/west daylily bed. That took all week, a few hours a day. Can I just say: “I’m over it!”

Did I say trimming?

February 28, 2016: We . . . I guess I should say who “we” is. My spiritual community – “we” use my back yard a lot for Sabbats and various community events. So I decided to organize some community “work days” to help get some of the back yard projects done. I was worried that no one would be interested in coming over and sweating in the yard with me – but lo and behold! 5 people showed up and said they would be happy to help with the spring trimming. We got the butterfly garden completely trimmed back, all the Russian sage and rabbit brush on the north berm, the 4 large pampas grasses in the dragon gardens, and all the maximilians. We had a lot of fun and the yard looks all neat and tidy. Yeah team!

Archer and Lupin trimming back the pampas grass

COLS workday Feb. 28, 2016: Me, Willow and James

Butterfly garden all trimmed up, trimmed down!

South Willow Garden

February 10-12, 2015 Wednesday-Friday

The south willow garden is overgrown. The willows keep spreading out taking over more and more of this space, yes I know – they ARE willows and that’s what willows do. When we first moved into this house 11 years ago, the contractor scraped the lot and smoothed it all out – I guess they thought that would make it look pretty. Actually it was a house sitting in the middle of a dirt field. Not my idea of pretty. We bought the house in December and started first thing in the spring purchasing the specimen trees that would eventually anchor the whole landscaping plan. 100_0875

Then all of a sudden things started to grow on the south side of the house. Apparently there used to be an underground irrigation pipe that cut across my yard diagonally from the reservoir ponds to the north/west of the subdivision, across the street, and then across town to some farm at the east edge of Brighton. Really. And the willows put their roots down to tap that water source. So first thing in the spring, after being scraped off level to the ground, they began to work their way back up. I decided to honor their tenacity and let them stay. (The orange paint on the ground is the outline of what will be the edge of the lawn.) 100_1771

So now the willows get trimmed back to half their height about every 3 years and every year I dig out their shoots that keep spreading out and trying to take over the whole bed. They’re worth it though, they provide good screening all year round and the birds use them for shelter as they visit the bird feeders. South willow garden in summer (2014)

EVERYTHING in this garden needs to be trimmed or cleaned up, the willows, the marshmallow, the day lilies, iris, elderberry, sand cherries, Russian sage and viburnums. The rabbits have completely destroyed the quince. (SAD FACE) They must be particularly tasty because they ate them right down to the ground. I really wanted their coral colored flowers to balance all the purple in the Russian sage. I’ll try again next time they go on sale.

Trimming, Red Twig dogwood

More shrub trimming! What? You thought I was done? You haven’t seen this yard. I’m still working on the south berm. I got all the red twig dogwood, on both sides of the berm, thinned out and removed all the dead wood.

Now when you look at the berm all you see is a blaze of red branches. You can’t get more bang for your buck than red twig dogwood. I bought them at Lowes probably 8 years ago in one gallon pots for $2.50 each. Now they’re 5-6′ wide and 3-5′ tall.

Free plants – an experiment

February 5, 2016 – Friday

Puling out the twisted willow branches that I put in the pots in front of the house. I painted them with burgundy, purple and gold glitter paint last fall, so when the eastern sun rises and hits the front of the house, the sticks sparkle in the sunshine. I think they looked pretty good, at least compared to lonely empty pots.

So as I was I was pulling the branches out, one of them wouldn’t come out. I thought it must be frozen so I pulled harder and it finally came out, along with a clump of soil around the bottom with little roots sticking out.

Surprise!

I got 5 well rooted willow shoots out of the three pots, which I then planted together in another pot so their roots will continue to strengthen. Later in the spring I’ll find a good place to use these willows. I love free plants!

UPDATE: they didn’t make it. 🙁