Yes, I still have gardens!

And I've been very busy in them. After another slow start, things are really starting to take off. At least, most things are. I have a clematis plants that has NO sign of green yet. I've had it for years and am rather amazed at its lack of appearance. It is, however, the purple clematis you see everywhere (Jackman) and I shouldn't have any trouble replacing it.

I thought I planted another one last year, but in doing some investigation, turns out it was a Black-Eyed Susan vine, African sunset. Wish I'd realize that - it's an annual and now I don't know if I can get it anywhere this year! The Friends sale is long over and that's where I got it. I shall have to  look for something else.  Ooops. I put a clematis on my spreadsheet for the sale last year, and thought that's what I got. But I have a vague recollection of changing my mind - not sure why anymore, but it's there. At least now I'll stop looking for it to start growing again!

I have a bad feeling this may be the last year for any kind of roses in our gardens. My favorite is not showing any signs of life, and I think it's time to quit beating that dead horse. That makes me sad, but we've had 3 die since the original. And the zone 5 rose I got several years ago that (improbably) made it through several winters without any protection appears to have succumbed to this last one. Of course, it was the worst winter in 30 years! And I don't know for sure yet, but this is likely the last summer for the "nearly wild" shrub roses out front. They used to be so gorgeous, but have faded badly in recent years. I plan to fertilize this year - I plead guilty on not doing that often enough - but my guess is that several things will work together to ensure their removal. The maple trees on our boulevard grew rapidly the last few years. I don't know if that's typical at their age/size, or if our watering of the native garden (they do need water to get established!) sped it up, but they're casting far more shade than they did even 3 summers ago. And roses don't like shade. These roses (which we were told were all but carefree - yeah, right) are susceptible to all kinds of stuff: black spot, sawfly larvae and Japanese beetles are the ones of which I'm aware. For the last few years, I've used chemicals to control them, and they've worked. But now I find out the chemicals are in the neonicotinoid family, and may contribute to the die off of bees. Now that could be an incorrect guess, but I won't take the chance. So I shall have to search for some other solution and see what happens. I'm willing to accept some bugs in the garden, but I've had these roses stripped to branches more than once. That's not a "few" bugs. I'm not sure what else we'd put in - I like a garden of bushes that don't need a lot of care that spend most of the summer flowering. I have enough gardens demanding my time! I'm thinking coral bells, maybe mixed with hostas. They like shade and have lovely foliage!

Most other things are coming along - some slowly and some exploding and catching up to normal. I plan to plant more daffodil and tulip bulbs come fall. Mine are fading away, and I didn't get half a dozen blooms this year. It happens. My squill (I think), on the other hand, is naturalizing like crazy! I'm ok with that, since the foliage dies back pretty quickly. I don't have it hanging around until July. We have more rhubarb than we know what to do with , especially with no stove or oven right now. Good thing it freezes well. Our crabapple bloomed beautifully - for 2 days. It started late, and I think the unseasonable heat, plus a heavy rain or two, just did it in. From furnace to humid warmth in less than a week - that's Minnesota. I wish we'd actually GET spring once in a while. The lilacs are having a middling year. Last year was fabulous, and the one before that terrible. So middling is just fine. They still smell wonderful.

The growing maple trees forced me to change plans for the native garden. A number of the things I bought for reasonably sunny areas aren't faring well in the heavier shade. So in went more about 10 days ago. They sure filled in some holes nicely, although I need to call the nursery. A few plants didn't survive even 3 days! Here's what I added (all photos from prairiemoon.com).




Anise hyssop



Pale purple coneflower - gotta have this in a native garden!



foxglove



wild geranium



mistflower



monarda (bee balm)



prairie onion

So many of the natives bloom now - they're generally so delicate and lovely. I think right now I have columbine, prairie smoke, wild geranium, shooting star and prairie pussy toes, as well as the non-native flax, all going. And apparently fireweed loves its spot. It's going everywhere! The asters get larger every year, too. I see myself pulling a lot of these in the near future, or I'll have just two plants growing!

 Not much happening in the big main garden yet, but it's coming. You can just tell. My baskets from Gertens look good again. I took the two left over baskets from last year, put mostly shade loving plants in them and put them next to the shed. I had a bare spot there, and figure I might as well get my money's worth out of the baskets. The guy at Gerten's told me they generally last two years. I figure I'll just keep rotating them through!

I may have found a good spot for snapdragons - full sun, with nothing tall around them to cast any shadow. I certainly hope so. And I found a truly full sun spot for my one tomato. Last year, I think the raspberries cast something of a shadow on it, plus I had a different plant.  Back to the good old Sweet 100 for this year. If that doesn't work, I don't know what will!

I decided to try impatiens this year, in spite of the warnings I've read. Have you heard of downy mildew? Apparently it can attack and kill impatiens in about 3 days.  I gather no treatment exists at this time. It mostly spreads by air. I don't think any of my neighbors use impatiens, so I'm hoping I'll be ok. There are certainly alternatives, but they cost anywhere from 3-6 times as much! I did put sunpatiens (which both take more sun and resisit the disease) in one place, but just the regular old impatiens elsewhere. We'll see.

At Kendra's wedding two years ago, our young flower girl commented that we had so many flowers in our year that they were even in the grass. She was so impressed. We didn't tell her she was admiring weeds - the clover. I don't think it grows in Florida. I'm sure it'll be back this year, but right now we have loads of other flowers in our grass.  I don't mind the dandelions so terribly much (we're telling ourselves they feed the bees), but I hate creeping Charlie. And our back yard is just full of it - mostly from the compaction of soil that happened during patio construction. I can't remember if I've written this before, but we're pretty sure the only solution is to kill it all off, till, add good dirt and then sod. The soil is so hard and lumpy that just seeding won't work. You can't even walk barefoot in that part of the yard. With the rest of the yard so nice now, and us spending so much more time outside on the patio, it'd certainly be nice to look at a reasonably decent lawn. I'm not talking pristine turf, but more than a few blades of grass would be a vast improvement. We'd hoped for this year, but it's too warm right now. Maybe in the fall???