Keeping Score

Clay Soil: 1

Linnae: 0

It's a little hard to see in this shot, but it's not just the handle that snapped off here. The blade of the spade itself snapped right across the bottom during my tulip-hole digging extravaganza on the slope. I knew it was taking some pressure, but I thought it could handle it. [HA! Pun intended.] Obviously, I was wrong.

Luckily, my backup spade finished the job without incident.

Does that even up the score?

Ladybug Convention

There are ladybugs all over the place right now!

I was planting some tulips on the slope by the fence (just below where the alliums are) and noticed this clump of grass. There were 5 right in view, plus at least 3 more in the immediate vicinity that didn't get in the picture. It's awesome! Guess all that weedy grass is good for something!

The Great Bulb Countdown 2012

10/26: Bulb order came yesterday!! From: www.vanengelen.com

They all looked great and smelled so good when I opened the box. Now to get them in the ground ASAP, as we had our first snowfall today. Didn't stick, but it's only a matter of time.  Go, go, go!

Thought it might be helpful to start keeping track. Also, to help myself remember where I've put things!

More info about each one at the bottom.

# received / planted :: type of bulb:: where planted ::

100 / 100 :: Tulip Mariette :: front flowerbed, behind peonies; also a few other clumps scattered along back wall in front; back flowerbed, both sides of yellow topaz rose, plus a clump by other rose bush; scattered on the slope
5 / 5 :: Asiatic daylily, 'Elodie' :: 4 clumps, back flowerbed, close to house
5 / 5 :: Asiatic daylily, 'Rosella's Dream' :: 4 clumps, back flowerbed, close to house
5 / 5 :: Asiatic daylily, 'White Heaven' :: 4 clumps, back flowerbed, close to house
100 / 100 :: Narcissus Miniature mixture :: small clumps dispersed throughout front flowerbed; also, back flowerbed, both sides and in front of yellow topaz rose, either side of dogwood in shade bed
15 / 15 :: Anemone Blanda Mix :: front flowerbed, in place of bacopa
5 / 5 :: Blue Dutch iris :: front flowerbed, driveway side, between phlox and salvia next to wall
10 / 10 :: Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) :: front flowerbed, to the left of peonies, in front of coneflowers
10 / 10 :: Purple Crocus :: back flowerbed, in front of mockorange
10 / 10 :: Striped Squills :: front flowerbed, driveway side, all the way to the end; tulips underneath, these scattered on top
20 / 20 :: Drumstick Alliums :: behind big salvia (between coneflowers and phlox), next to wall
_________________
285 / 285  DONE!!

10/31: Today's weather was gorgeous! I planted most of them on Saturday, in the cold drizzly rain, but today was sunny and in the 50's. I just had on a sweatshirt.

=============================================================================
Info:
Tulip 'Mariette': lily-flowering tulip. Blooms May, 22" tall. Rosy pink.
Lily 'Elodie': Asiatic hybrid lily. Blooms June/July, 3-4' tall. Pale pink.
Lily 'Rosella's Dream': Asiatic hybid lily. Blooms June/July, 3-4' tall. Blush pink & white.
Lily 'White Heaven': Longiflorum hybrid lily. Blooms June/July, 2-3 1/2' tall. Bright white.
Narcissus miniature mix: Blooms April. 6-11" tall. Mixed colors.
Anemone Blanda Mix: spring flowering, 3-4" tall. Mix of purple, white, pink.
Blue Dutch iris: Late spring flowering, 20-24" tall. Deep blue/purple.
Blue Grape Hyacinths: Muscari Armeniacum. Mid-spring flowering, 6-8" tall.
    "Spikes of tiny, fragrant, cobalt-blue, bell-shaped flowers."
Purple Crocus: Blooms late winter to early spring, 4-6" tall.
Striped Squills: Puschkinia libanotica. Blooms late winter to early spring, 4-6" tall.
     "An early spring bloomer with loose clusters of pale blue flowers."
Drumstick Alliums: Blooms early summer, 30" tall.

Staghorn Sumac

Ever since we moved here, I thought this little shrub on the back slope next to the garden was a mountain ash. For some reason....not sure why, now.

I found one just like it at the nursery and realized that it is actually a staghorn sumac. 

The two are not really very similar, now that I know more about the sumac.

Oops! Oh well. Glad to know the real name.

 It's funny how just knowing for sure what it is has made me like it even that much more. It's like greeting a friend vs. an aquaintance.

Here you can see one of my favorite things about it:

the new growth is so fuzzy!

Other favorites traits:

those strange but cool seed heads

the gorgeous fall leaf colors

the fact that we haven't killed it off yet with all of our wall-building and dirt-moving projects around it

Fall Beauty

So much beauty surrounds me right now.

Every day I want to just keep looking, all the time. 

 Front flowerbed

I didn't know that the daylily foliage would change colors in the fall. What a pleasant surprise!

Another reason to love these dianthus: check out the deep purple color of their stems and leaves!

Baby aspens on the back slope.

These should all come out, but they are so pretty right now, that I can't bring myself to do it. Maybe once all their leaves fall off... 

Aspen closeup, with clover heads.

Looking toward the neighbors, from the garden. 

Remains of the tomatoes. 

Basil and oregano (above and below)

Looking up the street.

Directly across the street. 

  

By the front porch.

 How many different pinecones do you see?

I counted at least 4.

  The dark evergreen really makes that orange pop.

Apple tree, looking toward the garden.

This really a beautiful little tree, even without fruit on it.



Red Twig Dogwood

Arctic Fire Red Twig Dogwood

Cornus stolonifera 'Farrow'

"This compact selection of Red Twig Dogwood has dark red winter stems that provide a spectacular show in the winter sunlight. Unlike most Cornus that reach 8-10 ft tall, this one remains only 3-4 ft tall and wide." CHZ: 3-7

Once established, seldom needs watering. Tolerates damp soils. Partial to full sun.

So this is filling in the empty spot right at the lilac bush end of the shade bed. I already love it there. The red stems echo the color of the red huechera leaves just a little bit down from it. A bright spot of color I can see from the kitchen window. I'm already excited to see it in the snow, too!

Back Flowerbed Shrubs

Truly, starting over back here, and feeling pretty good about it, actually.

This was the first attempt to fill-in the right side of the flowerbed, after I pulled out all the irises.

These were the roses from the front, by the steps.

As you can see, they didn't survive the transplant.

Overview

Anchored by a rose bush on each end.

Yes, I still left in some of the irises.

I'm thinking overall color scheme back here is going to be pink/blush/apricot, with yellow and white complements. I also still have the irises to provide counterpoint and perhaps will add in some other pops of purple or darker pink as it evolves. 

Left side: shrub rose 'Watercolors'

Yellow & pink blooms

"changes colors daily" 

I've looked up pictures of these blooms online, and the pink is more fuschia than I thought they would be, which may be a bit strong for this bed, but we'll leave it for now and see what happens.

Right behind the irises, practically invisible at the moment, is Pontentilla primorosa, or "Primose Beauty Cinquefoil." It's buttercup-like flowers should be light yellow with darker yellow centers.

"Compact, mounded deciduous shrub with large, primrose colored almost 1" wide flowers. Flowers bloom into fall."

Average height x width: 3' tall, 4' wide

Hardy to -40 degrees F 

The bush with more yellow leaves in the middle is a flowering almond.

It is supposed to be covered with light pink blooms in the spring, before the leaves appear.

I don't know much about it, but after a little online research, I'm assuming it is the Prunus glandulosa variety, or dwarf size. It should grow 4-6 feet tall and wide, and is supposed to be a fast grower.

It is also supposed to be very hardy with little to no care.

Sounds good to me!

I'm a little worried that the pontentilla is too close to the flowering almond. I may end up moving the potentilla down more toward the rose bush. I didn't do it to begin with, because I'm pretty sure that's where a big bunch of pink tulips come up. So for now I'm going to leave them both and wait until spring to see how spacing is.

L side: mockorange, which has grown at least a foot this year!

Ride side, by A/C unit: Topaz Jewel rose (Rugosa)

"Butter cream yellow blooms. Hardy species rose, old fashioned flowers & salt tolerance. Moderate fruity fragrance."

This one has wicked looked thorns all up and down the stems. Surprisingly enough, I didn't even get scratched putting it in the ground. I thought I would have some battle scars to show, but it slid right into the prepared hole.

More plans for this bed:

I bought some Asiatic daylillies (3-4' tall) to put in along the back; 3 varieties, 5 of each variety, so 15 total. I'll put more abou them when I get them here and planted. Right now I'm thinking they will go in 5 clusters, spaced between the shrubs, along the house where it's always so dry and weedy.

I also plan to plant more tulips and daffodils, as well as some other perennials to add to the color scheme. It feels good to have my big bushes decided and in, finally! Now I can start working around them with the smaller stuff, and hopefully avoid the full-on weed patch that this has been the last several years. 



Raspberries moved!

Cross it off the perpetual chore list, baby!

I had spent 3-4 hours digging, digging, digging, in an attempt to make a new bed for the raspberries.

The ground was so hard that it was very slow going.

Enter my rescuer!

Hooray!

The backhoe made quick work of the digging.

I smoothed it out, then started digging up those raspberries.

I kind of thought there would be room to purchase a few more to plant.

Silly me. They were so packed in there by the house, they filled up the entire space just by themselves.

Granted, I did plant them all in a line down the middle.

I'm hoping that will make staking them up easier next spring.

I decided not to prune them yet, either.

I'm hoping they'll get settled in to their new digs (literally-ha!) before winter.

I think they look so much better!

So does the back flowerbed, for that matter.

HOORAY!

Blackberry jam & Salsa

Our new neighbors let us pick a whole bunch of their blackberries!

We had already made a blackberry pie with the first round we picked.

This time I wanted to do some seedless blackberry jam.

To remove the seeds, I washed and sorted the berries, then put them in a saucepan with 1 C. of fruit juice. (It was blueberry juice, I think--storebought). I let it simmer (not boil). Then removed from heat, and put it through the strainer attachment on our Kitchenaid--the same one we used for applesauce last year. It did a great job! The seeds pooped out one side and the rest, mostly juice, went into another bowl. Processed them according to the Ball blue book. Yum! 

Salsa--around 30 pints.

I had 2 ladies from the ward helping out, who wanted to learn how to do it.

It made everything go so much faster and easier!

I used the same recipe as last year, but cut down the sugar (only used 1/4 C. instead of 3/4 C.)

I like it much better.

This was 2 batches worth.

I used up all my frozen tomatoes from last fall on the first batch, and had enough left over for half of the second batch. Since I never got around to making tomato sauce, I was very glad to get those out of my freezer! They were coming up on the year mark, which is about how long they can be frozen for. To finish off the second batch, one of the ladies brought some tomatoes, and I went out and picked all the ripe ones I could find. We were actually 1 C. short (so 19 C. instead of 20) but we called it good with that.

We've been eating it and it's yummy!

Our salsa from 2011 lasted until the end of the summer, so I'm hoping this will do us until next year!

My favorite flowerbed

 Can I get enough pictures of this flowerbed on here?

Apparently not.

And look what decided to bloom the week of frost?

Hello, Stella d'Oro. Glad you could join us this season.

p.s. I figured out why this petunia didn't do nearly as well as the others. I had planted in one of those biodegradable pots. When I was pulling it out to plant bulbs, the pot came with it. So biodegradable when--in 5 years or something?

Last of the garden

Jacob and Becca helped me harvest the rest of the potatoes and onions last week.

Then, the forecast said it was going to frost!

Unfortunately, time got away from me all day to go out and harvest the all the other vegetables.

It was a dark and stormy night. (I should have started with that, right?)

I grabbed a flashlight, a jacket, and my trusty basket and went out to harvest whatever I could.

A few more tomatoes.

There were a bunch of green cherry tomatoes, which I left on the vine.

I could have been out there all night picking those off, and it was cold!

Those 3 great big ones were about all I got from the Early Girl variety.

Potatoes--of several varieties.

 Chock full of potatoes and onions.

I plan to peel, chop, and freeze all the onions.

Also, I'm going to peel, dice, cook, then freeze the potatoes.

Otherwise I'm sure they would go bad before we got to them.

We don't have the cold storage to really keep them a long time.

I didn't get a picture of the sunflowers peeking out from behind the corn, but they did finally do it.

Picked these tiny corn cobs.

I actually haven't even husked them yet, since I'm pretty sure they will be worthless.

I may use them for an art project with the kiddos tomorrow.

I was glad I had picked everything. I think it has frosted every night since then, with the possible exception of last night.

If I'm going to get another shrub put in the back flowerbed, I had better hurry!