Summer Transition

May, June and July have come and gone.  I was so busy working in gardens that I didn't have time to write about gardening.  Business has slowed enough now to allow me to get back to doing other things again.  I've even taken some time to work in my own sadly neglected garden. 

 Because I was in it so seldom this summer, the shift in blooms seemed dramatic.  One day there was iris all over. The next time I was free to enjoy a garden walk, iris was replaced by bee balm and daylilies. That's what I love about perennial gardens - the slow evolution of shapes and colors between spring and fall.

These are some of the things that were blooming in June.

  

                   

          

Some of these plants were just starting in June and are still blooming - the catmint, blanket flower, and honeysuckle vine.  The peonies and orange poppies come and go so quickly, that you could miss them!

Here is what the garden had to show in July.

                 

              

Speaking of plants that have a long bloom time, shrub roses are it!  I have pink, coral, orange, white, yellow, and red shrub roses.  They bloom all the way through fall.  Asiatic lilies, oriental lilies, yucca and daylilies are dramatic, but they won't be there for you all summer like shrub roses. Tomorrow I'll go out and see what's blooming in August.

Spring Cleaning

Cleaning up the garden is not the most glamorous of gardening tasks.  There is the old perennial foliage to be pulled out, the layer of soggy leaves, and the shrubs that need to be pruned.  After the winter we've had, I'm so glad to be outside that even these mundane chores seem fun!  Especially since there are so many signs of life under all that debris.

perennial geraniums

             The mystery lilies are 4 inches tall already.

The first flowers of 2014!

If you haven't done the garden clean-up yet, you'll need to get out there very soon.  Tall grasses have to be cut down before fresh growth comes up through last year's dead stalks.  I found a way to make cutting down grasses easier.  I got a new toy - a soil knife.  It's turning out to be the most useful tool I own.  I used to cut down grasses with my electric trimmer.  It's easier with the serrated edge of the soil knife.  I wish I'd had this year's ago!

                                         Fresh growth is already up on these grasses.

Now is also the time to prune summer-blooming shrubs that bloom on new wood.  Spireas, mop-head hydrangeas, Russian sage, ninebark, and potentillas are in this category.

If it blooms in spring, don't prune until after flowering.

I love euonymus.  It needs no care and looks good all the time.  I took this picture today and it will look great until the snow covers it.  If only there were more plants like that!

Winter Burn

Now that the snow has finally retreated, I braved the 24-degree temperature (it only looked like a nice day) and walked around my yard for the first time in five months.  The good thing about a consistent, deep cover of snow is that it provides protection so that the perennials aren't exposed to sun, wind, and nibbling crittters.  The only plants that don't look so good are the Alberta spruce.  The south and west sides are brown and crispy.   I've noticed a lot of brown evergreen shrubs all over as I drive around.  Looks like this.


I've never seen winter burn to this extent, so I had to do a little research to find out if my Alberta spruce are going to be okay.  It turns out that if only the tips of the branches are brown, new growth may come in and mask the dead sections.  The brown parts are not going to green up though.  How you want to deal with your plant depends on the extent of the damage.  It might look better in a year or two, but certainly not this year.  If a branch is brown all the way to the trunk, it's dead and should be cut out.  If you only have to take out a couple of small branches, the surrounding ones might fill in the bare spots in time, but a shrub with gaping holes is never going to look good again.  Then it's time for some "shovel pruning". You might want to plant something else in that spot.  Alberta spruce are susceptible to winter burn and do best in a location that is sheltered from drying winter wind and sun. Yews grow back if you have to cut out damage and upright junipers are supposed to hold up well in harsh winter conditions.

I'm not sure if I'll have to take drastic measures with my Alberta spruce.  I'd hate to lose them after ten years.  But then I'd have the opportunity to try some other new plant, which is always fun!

Getting Geraniums Shaped Up for Spring

Even though I am a perennial gardener, I do like zonal geraniums for their large flowers and non-stop blooming.  I use them in pots that I can move around to fill in bare spots in the garden where perennials have yet to bloom or have finished for the year, as well as in flower boxes.  Because I have ledge space in south-facing windows, I pot them up, cut them down, and bring them in for the winter.  They bloom on and off, which is a very welcome sight when it's below zero (again!).

Even with lots of light, the winter growth is leggy and weak.  It's time to prune them before their spring growth spurt.

This guy is healthy, but the recent growth isn't thick.

This guy bloomed all winter.  Now I want him to put his effort into producing strong stems.

Here's how to prune geraniums that you've overwintered to get fuller, more compact plants by summer.

Using a scissors reserved for gardening, make a cut directly above a leaf stem at a point where the main stem is strong and thick.  Cut all the main stems down this way.  You'll feel like you butchered your plant, but it's all for the best.

Keep cutting.

He looks a little sad now, but he'll be sending out new growth in no time.

When you're finished,  water and put your geranium in a sunny spot.  With the longer days, it's time to start fertilizing, too.   And don't be too eager to set geraniums out in spring.  They aren't happy with anything less than 50 degrees.  I've tried to push them outside too early and regretted it.

Time to Start Planning!

With the heatwave we've had this week, I've been thinking about the upcoming planting season. I plan on expanding the variety of fruits and vegetables I grow and deleting some that did not work out so well last year. One plant that is definitely on the "must-plant" list is basil. We mostly use it for pesto. A little is good in a frittata, spaghetti sauce, or bruschetta, but mostly we use it for pesto. We really, really like pesto. It's expensive to buy, but easy to make, and inexpensive if you grow your own basil. A few plants provide enough basil to freeze for making pesto all winter.

Basil is super-easy to grow. Plant seeds after the soil is warm and you can start plucking leaves as soon as the plants are small bushes. I've never had any insect pests bother basil. In late summer, when the plants are full-sized, I cut the top 2/3 off the plants, harvest the leaves, wash, dry, measure into two-cup portions (packed down), and pack in Ziplock bags (squeeze out all air). Here's what's left of last summer's harvest in my freezer door.

The remaining 1/3 of each basil plant will send out more shoots and produce more (smaller) leaves so you will still have fresh basil into fall.

This is a delicious pesto recipe, but it's different from the traditional in a couple of ways. First, I substitute toasted walnuts for pine nuts. Second, I cut the fat by substituting chicken stock for half of the olive oil.

Pesto
2 cups basil leaves packed
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup olive oil (substitute half chicken stock if desired)
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup toasted walnuts (see note)

Place all ingredients in food processor. Cover and blend on medium speed about three minutes. *note- To toast walnuts, spread on baking sheet, toast at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes. Stir one or two times while toasting. 

 If you are using frozen basil, add it while it's still frozen. It turns soft once thawed.

Basil does not take up much room in your garden and can even be grown in a pot on your deck or patio. It is well worth the tiny investment in time and money to grow your own basil!

Mid-winter Beauty

I said I would post about freezing vegetables, but I just have to write about all the birds we are getting at our feeder with a new seed mix.  We don't have a lot of mature trees in our subdivision, so we don't get much variety of bird life.  We've always had lots of juncos and finches, and a pair of cardinals, but now we are getting birds that don't usually come to the feeder outside our kitchen window.


We've never had red-bellied woodpeckers before.

We now have a pair of blue-jays too.

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal are here several times a day.

 

The seed heads of silver lace vine on the deck  bring the juncos close to the window. 

 It looks like a busy restaurant.

 

The birds love the new food.  It's a berry-flavored nut and raisin mix.  The cold days seem less dismal when there's so much activity outside!

Time to start planning

I mentioned in a previous post that there are two seasons for me: the Christmas season and the gardening season. Now that Christmas is over, I'm starting to think about what I'd like to plant in my newly expanded vegetable garden.  I was never able to grow much in my tiny raised bed, but we took out some grass last year and my options have expanded.  I took a look at a seed catalog today.  There are vegetables I've never even heard of!

While there won't be any planting going on for a few months, I can still get out and have a little fun in the yard.

My snowcat  has green glass for eyes and knitting needles for whiskers.

He won't be melting any time soon, since sub-zero temperatures are predicted.

I'll have plenty of time to research and plan my new vegetable garden.  Even the early crops can't go in for at least four months.  Until then,we're enjoying the bounty from last years' garden that's in the freezer.  More about freezing vegetables in the next post.