Something happened to the garden pictures for 2011. There are none.
I can’t find them anywhere. I have no idea what happened to them. All my garden pictures are digital and in my computer, except for 2011. I looked in all the other gardening files in case I imported the files to the wrong location. I checked my hard copy file to see if I did hard copies that year, for some weird reason. I checked all my drawers to see if I had
an old data card somewhere with the 2011 pictures on it. No luck.
So I decided I would copy my master garden record entries from 2011 into my blog. And No, I’ not going to do this every year. You would be bored to tears. But looking at this one year’s entries might give you an idea of an average year of gardening madness in my little corner of the world.
2011 – Master Garden Record entries:
FRONT
Rose Garden
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Replaced Rose de Rescht with Easy Does It (Mango/peach) rose
Replaced Oranges and Lemons with Monkey Business (yellow) rose
Replaced What a Peach with Watercolors (yellow/pink) rose
Very dry winter, the rose garden did poorly, 3 dead and at least 10 others with large portions dead. I should have watered more during the winter.
Trees:
Nice growth in the purple ash trees,
but there’s an Ash Borer scare North of here, in Boulder and Ft. Collins. I should probably get them sprayed.
The new crab apples in the center
of the front yard made it through the winter and bloomed in a glorious hot pink! (I still miss the catalpas.)
The front orange day lily beds have taken over the tulips. The 60 I planted in 2006 now are twice that many. Their leaves grew so fast that they totally buried the tulips that used to be in the front edge of this bed. I’ll have to dig the tulips out this fall.
The front porch Daphnies (Carol Mackie) need to be dug out and moved
forward about 2 feet. They are crowding the Korean lilacs, or maybe the lilacs are crowding them. Anyway, their rear branches didn’t bloom because they have spread under the lilacs.
The yellow and pink twinkles (bulbs)
that I planted between the edge of the lawn and the rock wall edging the walkway down to the willow garden, came up in early spring and bloomed profusely. And very long lasting display, about a whole month.
The front privet hedge reached 40″ and received it’s first shaping. Looks marvelous! All my nay-saying neighbors who walked by and laughed at me on my hands and knees measuring and planting those 18″ sticks in the ground, can kiss my ass.
Lawn:
The hot and cold season grasses in the front lawn did not blend together like we were told. They self-segregated (sounds like a global problem?) So now the lawn looks half dead all year round. SHIT!
Rock berms:
Added 2 Bright edge (yellow stripped) Yucca plants to each of the rock berms, and 2 kinnickinick’s. The berms
are now fully planted!
SOUTH
South shoulder Red Oak is suffering from Iron Chlorosis, adding more iron to the soil trying to save it. I thought it was just maples that needed more iron?
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Replaced a Deutzia on the south shoulder with American Cranberry. The south sun was just too hot for the Deutzia. The Spring snow spirea was fabulous, like a 3′ diameter snow ball, the copper old fashioned roses were covered with yellow and orange blooms, the ninebark was brilliant yellow, the wigelias finally bloomed, a hot fushia pink, but they are still smaller than they should be – again I think the south shoulder is too hot for them, and the mock orange is now 5′ x 5′ and covered in fragrant white flowers that smell like – oranges!
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South berm, street side
Transplanted a few small shrub volunteers that have self seeded into other areas of the yard, into the south shoulder garden. All made it through the winter and are greening out.
Planted Karl Forester reed grass and Blue Oat grass on the sides of the center south berm. The sides of the berm
have been bare and boring up till now. The sides are steep, as this berm is about 10′ high because it hides the fire circle on the interior side of the berm. I terraced them in and mounded up water wells around them.
All 3 south berm red maples died. We just can’t get enough iron into this clay soil. So much for my wall of fire!
The lilacs on the south/west corner of the lot grew well after being hard pruned for thickening 2 years ago. They are nice and full, and about 3′ x 3′. They bloomed well this spring. And the Bloodgood Sycamore put on another 3′ and it’s bark is finally maturing enough to start peeling and looking interesting.
The Daffodils around the Red Maples came up very strong, and provided a good 30 days of bloom. (They bloomed while the maples still had bare branches, so I couldn’t tell they were dead yet.) I’ve planted 100 daffodils in each of the two maple beds for the past 3 years. There’s a 6′ diameter circle of daffodils now.
The western sand cherry shrubs filled
out and bloomed well (white flowers and a sage green leaf). The blanket flower I planted at the edge of the noodle gardens had a hard time. ½ died over the winter. I’ll buy a few more this year and see if they do better in that spot.
South berm, interior
Shrubs on the south berm are all doing well, the burning bush finally got wide enough and hard enough at the bass that the rabbits can’t eat them, the red twig dogwoods are 4′ x 4′ now and bloomed well, the mugo pines and rabbit brush all grew. The only thing that I’m having trouble with on the south berm is the forsythia. It bloomed very sparsely, I have 3 full size shrubs and 2 ground cover varieties. The ground covers did better, but they’re going to need a hard prune this fall, they are scraggly.
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I planted 5 Royal purple smoke bush around the top of the south berm, that circles the fire pit. Can’t wait for them ti fill out and set the berm on fire. The blue rug junipers are doing a good job of taking up space in the bare spots on the inside of the berm, surrounding the fire pit. The white sage is taking over the world. Needs to be divided.
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South dessert garden, interior
I planted orange poppies (a gift from a neighbor who had too many) and purple emperor stonecrop in the south dessert garden. I took the Echinacea out of the herb garden and planted them in the dessert garden as well.
CENTER, BACK YARD
The cupola garden bulbs are too densely clustered. They have multiplied well, and will need to be dug up and re-spaced. Yea! And Ugh!
The Linden Tree has put on another 4′ in height.
The giant Crambe on both sides of the womb of the earth produced giant
leaves and 40″ tall flower spikes. Wonderful.
Butterfly garden: I pulled out the campanula from the herb garden and transplanted it at the base of the north berm. It’s getting NO water, so it will spread slower!
The Herb garden was seriously out of control. I can never use this much. I gave soo much away and have loads of it dried and bagged in the basement.
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I pulled out the clary sage, motherwort, hyssop and lovage last year, spreading it around the yard in other places where it can spread out. But new ones popped up, so I guess I’ll keep digging them out of here till I get them all. Tenacious little varments.
Dragon The artemisia died again on the dragon; I planted 30 plants in 2009 and another 30 last year. So I planted blue star juniper. Had to go to 6 different home depot stores to get as many as I needed. But they were on sale, $3.29 for one gallon pots. We’ll see how they do.
This will be the 4th planting on the dragon’s back. I don’t know what’s wrong with this spot in my garden, but nothing seems to want to grow here. It’s not the dirt, cause I bought good garden dirt to make this berm. But I WILL have a dragon! That guy with the huge Mansion in Castle Rock doesn’t get to be the only one in Colorado with a dragon in their garden. Although he did inspire my obsession..
One of my 10 soldier dwarf Albertas died. I searched all over town to find one almost the exact same size to replace it with. Fingers crossed. Then I decided to plant some mini-roses in front of the row of dwarf Albertas. I got them from an ld friend of mine Gwen Moore who raises them.
WEST
The wildflower bed was like a small pond in the west. The flax came up profusely and covered the entire area (about 20 x 40′) in a wonderful blue
that rippled in the breeze like water. I love it when a plan comes together (she says, sticking cigar in mouth . . )
The crab apples got a hard prune in late winter, 2010, and bloomed out nicely on new growth this spring.
The 2 Golden rain trees are still struggling. The Tam junipers on the west berm (planted under the crabs) are spreading nicely. They are 8″ high and 24″ wide in their 3rd year.
CENTER-WEST
DISASTER! My beautiful Willow tree had to be removed. It got a fungal disease. I had two different arborists look at it. Both agreed. It needs to come out and the ground around it dug out. I am soo devastated!
OK, I have planted 6 walnuts, all died. Then I tried chestnuts, they died also. I REALLY wanted some nut trees, but I think I’m going to have to give up on that dream.
Leach field garden. Brian put in 8′ square garden
boxes in each of the four corners of the leach field. The pampas grass that I planted in the center of each box is doing well. We actually got some big fronds last fall.
ORCHARD
All the fruit trees received their first professional prune. J. Willis Tree company came out and they showed me how to do it. I watched as they trimmed each tree, and helped with the last few. I now know how to do this myself the next time it is needed.
NORTH
The Hydrangea on the north wall of the garage bloomed amazingly, producing 6 – 10″ globes of light pink flowers.
North shoulder
The little bunny fountain grass on the north shoulder died.
All 10 of them, Sigh. The copper roses bloomed well, but not as much as the ones on the south side, and I will need to find a few more shrubs that will do well on this side. Too much harsh wind I think, but the Lead bushes are looking good and the pea shrub is 5′ around now.
North Berm, Street side
The holly plants that I transplanted from my neighbor Linda’s house
finally look healthy, still small though. The scrub oak have grown WAY too tall. These are supposed to be shrubs, not trees! I may have to dig them out and move them. The two large patches of dark purple Iris that I got from my friend Kimberly did well for their first year in the ground. Not much bloom, but good growth and foliage. They will be spectacular next year. And the grasses are finally looking like ornamental grasses and not accidental weeds.
I divided the two orange daylily beds in the front yard and planted another large spread of them at the far north/west end of the north berm, at the edge of the property. I put them moving down the berm into the ditch, below the grass garden. They are doing well.
North berm, Interior
The last Japanese White Birch is finally looking like it might live. It actually put out some catkins this spring and is leafing out nicely. (I bought 3 of these from a guy who lives on a large property to the west of us. He has a small tree farm. The other 2 birches I got from him died, along with 2 oaks and 2 sugar gums.) Apparently “likes moist soil” excludes “clay” soil.
The 2 Canadian Red Cherries
are now 10′ x 15′ and put beautiful whitish-green blooms this spring. The Burr Oak that I planted for my dearly-departed friend Mark, is dead. Iron deficiency. I can’t pull it out, as his and his daughter’s ashes are under it. I’ll cut it to the ground and figure out what to do with the space next year. Sorry Mark, I didn’t know about Iron and clay soil when I planted your oak the first summer we moved in.
The Russian sages and dwarf rabbit brush
have spread out on the north berm and provide a beautiful purple and yellow backdrop for the butterfly garden.