Perpetual Chore List: Spring is here!

UPDATED APRIL 30--GETTING CLOSER!

This is simply to get the list out of my head and somewhere where I can refer back to if need be! What's a garden blog for, after all?

1. Operation Berry Bliss, phase...4?
    A. Cut back all dead foliage on strawberry plants. DONE!
    B. Move blueberry bushes into pots. Yup, I've decided this is going to happen. The two that spent time on the back slope are still struggling, and the strawberries down on that end aren't thriving in the more acidic soil. So after the blueberry bushes are out, I need to re-amend the soil with regular garden soil and compost.
Or, I may do something drastic and just compost the 2 struggling blueberry bushes. It would be painful, though, so I haven't decided on that one yet. However, that would leave space for a new start.
   C. Prune the raspberries! DONE!
With as warm a winter as we've had, this could have been done a month ago, probably. It's definitely time now.

2. Perennial maintenance
    A. Finish dividing and moving daisies. DONE!
I got one patch done today that was all dead in the center, and even the side shoots transplanted already. Go me! There's another big patch in front that needs dividing as well, but the new leaves on it are still very tiny. I will probably wait on this one until this grow out a little more.  I'm not getting rid of my daises, per se, just trying to take white out of my front flowerbed. Some of them I'm giving away, some I'm putting up on the back slope (daisies are supposed to do well with clay soil), and some I would like to put in my new flowerbed (see below), which will have a color scheme of billowing whites and purples.
     B. Divide irises down front.
They must like it there; most have 2 if not three healthy rhizomes growing from the main center one I planted a few years ago.
     C. If my hydrangea down front has died, pull it out and figure out what to plant in its place. Or move something down to replace it. ** NOT DEAD! MOVED IT TO SHADIER SPOT.

3. New flower bed
   I've already talked about this in a previous post. I've narrowed in one what I want, now I just need to make it happen.
  The summarized version: 2 cherry trees, 3 lilac bushes (including one from the slope), and a flowerbed. Ready, set, go!
   PURCHASED 2 NEW SHRUBS FOR THIS BED, 2 MORE TO FIND.

4.  Roses!
    ENGLISH ROSES PLANTED.
   So I've got 4 English roses coming my way sometime this spring: 3 William Shakespeare, and 1 Abraham Darby. I'm really excited. The AB rose already has a place. I need to buy a trellis for it.
The 3 WS roses could go any number of places. As part of moving my daisies (above), I could either put a William Shakespeare rose each place I had a patch of daisies OR put them all together in the new flowerbed OR make another new flowerbed for them down by the driveway. Decision time is very near, as any new bed needs to be prepped now, so that it can be ready for when the roses come.
   Also, the Burgundy Iceberg rose in my front terrace needs to be moved to a location with more sun. [SWITCHED PLACES WITH THE HYDRANGEA THAT NEEDED MORE SHADE]

5. Top Terrace
  The master plan: Move daphne from the end, and replant with a boxwood to match the other one up there. I already pulled out the 'Watercolors' rose, and I plan to plant another elderberry there. I'm hoping more repetition will counteract the rather haphazard look I've got going on right now.
 Cut down the doggone pine tree up there! It's only been a year...and a few months since we sawed off the top for a Christmas tree. I mean, really? It's time. I'm sure the long-suffering neighbors would agree.

6. *sigh* the lawn [that isn't...yet]
  Fertilize the lawn so that at some future--perhaps mythical--date we can actually walk on it again.
My son did this and overseeded at the same time just last week (4/10-11). Maybe it will actually GROW!

7. Vegetable Garden
  Add compost and till in. Chit potatoes.
  Plant the spring veggies! (plus sweet peas)
I'm hoping to get these last two done this week!

And for all my spare time...

7. Prune the forsythia I just realized is growing at the tippy top of the slope. It's on our neighbor's side, but as we are great friends, I'm sure they won't mind. Yes, I'll ask first.

8. Purchase and plant a dwarf willow tree at the top of the slope to help cover the unsightly bare mud patch. It should love it up there due to the presence of an underground spring (we think)!

9. Plant all the bulbs we dug out in connection with the lawn project last fall and hope that they come back next year.

Shade garden update

Lovely, airy little flowers on the heuchera  

I didn't realize it was a flowering plant until now. I guess with the other one up on the slope higher I just didn't notice the flowers last year.

Just a glimpse of viola purple under the apple tree.

New additions from the neighbor:



hellebore

It's planted on the right-hand side, just above the shade-bed proper.

Big healthy fern--it's the one on the left.

So far it's done the best of all the ferns--maybe because it was so well established in her yard before transplanting it over.

Not sure the cinnamon fern is going to make it.

Tackling the back flowerbed

Before

--weed patch, interspersed with irises--

Have I mentioned before how intimidated I have been by this side of the flowerbed?

So jam-packed full of weeds that I hardly knew what to do with it.

Plus the irises that had probably never been divided. {sigh}

Well, I finally I got up the gumption to tackle it.

I decided there was nothing I could do but tear everything out and start over.

I was glad I did. The crab grass roots were all intertwined under the irises. There's no way I could have kept it weeded with that being the case. I'm putting all of the irises up on the slope, in the back corner by the alliums.

After adding several bags of topsoil and compost, I tranplanted the rose bushes from out front to that spot. I don't think they're going to make it, though. We weren't able to get very much of their roots when we pulled them out, because the roots went straight down into the clay and broke off. They look pretty dead right now.

I will give them another few weeks and if they don't perk up I'll probably pull them out and put something else in to get it settled before winter.

I'll add the current "after" pictures soon.

On the plus side, the mockorange shrub has grown almost a foot this summer.

I have been watering it diligently and it has really been shooting up.

Transplanting candidates

These lovely roses bloomed while we were gone.

I couldn't remember from last summer what color they were.

The deep maroon/fuschia will be perfect in front of the wall, when we get that flowerbed prepared. Since last summer, these have been trampled on repeatedly and even run over by the tractor.

Perhaps that is their preferred treatment! I only remember getting a handful of blooms last year, and just look at them going now!

I'm hoping to transplant them this fall into their new location.

The lavender bush that ate Manhatten.

This thing is way huge and not very pretty in this location anymore.

At the very least I need to take about 2/3 of it out and transplant elsewhere.

I'm thinking slope, of course, as that is my fallback whenever transplanting comes up these days.

Plus, lavender does well in dry conditions, and full sun.

Perfect for the upper slope. And again, perhaps it will compete with all that grass!

This specimen just keeps getting taller and bushier.

It has an herb-like smell to it, but I'm not sure what it is.

No flowers to speak of, just these finely serrated leaves.

This one might actually be a good choice for the flowerbed alongside the shed, if we even get one put in there. Although I am thinking about making that area the children's garden.

So it will probably also end up on the slope. Higher up, where it can get as tall as it likes. 

I loved these tiny daisies last year, but never got them transplanted up to the slope as planned.

Won't they look sweet close to their larger cousins?

I'm pretty sure they are actually a weed, but that's okay. I'll move them up anyway.

Heck, they'll fit right in with all the weedy goodness going on up there.

See what I mean?