A shopping we did go…

The Green Springs Plant Sale has been something that my mother has told me about for years.  She said it was one of the best she had ever been to and that I needed to go, so go we did.  I got a lot of the shade plants that were on my wish list, including an Empress Wu hosta.  I will have to spend some time moving the plants around and deciding where I want to put what and with who. 

Looking at the picture though I think that the Grape Soda Heuchera looks really good with the yellow plants!

I also found some miniature hosta to add to my gardens.  I could see getting hooked on them, there are so many to chose from!

Happy sights..

 After working in the morning I was sort of just meandering around in the afternoon, pull a few weeds here, adjust a rock on the pond, watch the hummingbird zooming around.  I saw something that made me very happy and had to run back to the house to get my camera.

I have not seen or heard a peep from these two bullfrogs since we cleaned the pond and to be honest I was afraid they had left.  So I was delighted to see them perched in the grass on the side of the pond.

Up next was this

Apparently the Cicadas have decided, or at least some not to wait and are baffling scientist by coming out early.  I know a lot of people don’t like them but I loved it when they were last here.  Well except I refused to mow the grass because they were everywhere and I didn’t want to run them over.   A few minutes after seeing several of these I made friends with this cute little bugger.

Personally I think they are adorable and very friendly!

I went to check the hummingbird feeder and saw this.

My American Wisteria is getting ready to bloom!  I’ve waited a long time to see this.  When I bought it, it was just a stick!

Finally as I was headed back to the house I noticed something that a lot of people probably would never even see.

The tiny delicate bloom of the sedum that is growing in the pond wall.  It’s an adorable little flower.

Mulching matters…

 It is way to hot out for May.  It was 95 yesterday and is supposed to be the same today with higher humidity.  I was out a little before 7 this morning getting some weeding and mulching done, I only have a little to spread…

For the last several years I confess that I’ve had a landscaper come in and weed and mulch my easier garden beds.  It’s a lot of work and it takes me a long time to do what a crew of 5 can do in a day.  Customer service, however, is not what it use to be and my landscaper let me down big time this year.  It took him almost a month just to get back to me, then another week to set up a time for an estimate, then two more weeks to get the estimate to me.  By this time with the weather having been so warm the weeds and plants had exploded in growth.  I had already spent 2 days weeding beds and told him just get out here with the mulch, days later he informed me it would be several weeks before he could get here.  That wasn’t going to work, weeds wait for no one. 
Now the debate raged between myself and my husband bagged or bulk.  I wanted bulk, he wanted bagged.  He said bagged was easier for him to move around.  I am having a hard time using these bags, they are almost as tall as I am and because of torrential rains two weekends in a row, they weigh a lot.  So spreading for me goes like this. Fight to open bag. Let bag fall forward. Grab bottom of bag and lift up. Then shake and or jump up and down with bag to empty.  Then spread with hands and or rake.  If area is tight with plants, scoop small flower pot amounts out around plants..
Does it look great when I’m done? No doubt.



It’s just the getting to that point that is giving me one heck of a workout.  I’m still thinking I’d prefer bulk at the very least for the flower beds out front.  I’d rather do a cart load that I can maneuver at a time then dance with mulch bags.  Maybe for the back bagged is best because it will be easier to get back there and spread in the larger beds.  In the case of mulching maybe we are both right, just for different reasons..

A new old favorite

Us gardeners we will get our hands on a lot of tools over the course of our gardening lives.  Some we will hate, some we will like and some we will love, but there is one other category the ones that we can’t live without.  These are the tools we will reach for over and over again, the ones that we take good care of, the ones that we always know where they are.  I had three such tools, now..I have four.

 

Meet my new old little garden shovel!  This is an inherited tool, when my husband’s grandmother moved she left behind a few things for us.  A wheelbarrow, a pitchfork, a birdbath, some concrete garden statues and this shovel.  At first glance it’s just a little shovel on a long handle, but for me this is the perfect shovel for planting, for scooping mulch into tight spaces, and even chopping up roots.  Regular size shovels are heavy for me, the handles are thick, the blades are big and when dirt sticks to them they can weight a ton.  This little guy skinny handle, small head and so no issue even when dirt sticks.

I’ve been using this shovel daily and I told my husband I now know how his grandmother managed to do so much for so long.  So thank you Grandma for giving me this shovel I love it!

Plants, herons and pots…

It doesn’t look like much but one day…

I spent some time separating the hosta with the white and green leaves from the ragwort.  These hosta were planted along the other side of the path but I wanted to mix them in with the solid green hosta.  I have I think about 24 of the white and green ones and countless solid green as I found more of them the other day.  This is my first attempt at actually planning where I’m planting things.

The other morning I was sitting in the quiet enjoying my coffee when I saw something very large fly towards the house, as it made it’s was past the French doors my heart sank it was a blue heron.  Now our pond is not hunter friendly, the thing is almost 4 feet deep in the center.  The sides are not flat and I did this on purpose because I didn’t want anyone to be able to hunt my fish or frogs.  I have a Koi cave as well that looks like a log and if the fish hide in there you can’t see them.  On top of all of that I also have an aerator now and it does a great job of obscuring the view into the pond.  All those things are supposed to make it unfriendly to heron, yet there it was flying away and I didn’t know if it had a belly full of fish or not.  I quickly ordered a couple more Koi caves and a decoy heron.  Supposedly heron don’t like to share space with other heron and won’t come to a pond that is already occupied. I will move this guy around the pond all season, just to keep any heron that might be checking in thinking there is someone already here.

And then there were two..okay technically there are still 5 plants in pots left to be planted.  This dogwood and fringe tree, a yellow twig dogwood, a huge Turks Cap lily with some creeping fern and a Japanese rose.  All but the fringe tree require assistance in planting because they need big holes dug and the pots are heavy!  Ironic that I’m down to 5 and am about to hit a mega plant sale this weekend.  I will not however buy anything that I don’t have a place for!

Last but not least, my Sweet Tea finally made it into the ground!  I bought this at a plant sale years ago.  It was huge.  I brought it home and planted it in one of my shade beds and it slowly died away to just a few leaves in one season.  At first I thought it was transplant shock but the following season it did nothing.  So I dug up this pathetic little thing that barely had a leaf on it and planted it in a pot where I could keep an eye on it.  After 2 years in the pot it finally got big enough to try in the ground again, I’m hoping that this area is more to it’s liking because I love the colors on this one.  Oh and yes I planted it with these green hosta on purpose, funny, I’m gardening on purpose now!

A cart for a gardener…

As a gardener who’s garden is more then a few feet, I need a cart.  It has to be easy to handle, it has to be able to haul more than a couple of plants and it needs to be versatile. I have had a FoldIt cart for years and I love it. 

This cart has gone with me to plant sales, it has hauled mulch, rocks and logs.  The ends come off making it perfect for hauling sticks or dumping, really this is a great cart!  Bet now you are wondering what’s wrong with the cart, nothing really it’s just that this cart is wide and that makes it hard to navigate on smaller paths, the tires are big and don’t maneuver well in tight areas and on occasion lose air (though now I see you can get tires that are airless).    So how do you replace a cart that you adore?  Where can you find something that will make your little gardening heart pitter patter???

You stumble on it while looking at shredders, no seriously that is exactly what happened!

Meet the Worx Aerocart now this cart isn’t just a cart.  This cart can be a dolly with that handy little foot on the front.  It’s perfect for moving big pots, bags of mulch and even concrete statues!  See those arms on the side they fold out and with the included accessories you can haul boulders and strap down taller items.  Don’t want to use it as a dolly, fold in that foot and you’ve got a great cart that will dump mulch, rocks or dirt with ease.  Add the wagon accessory, pop off the handles and the cart is now a wagon that you can pull into the garden with a built in seat and water bottle holder!  There is also a tool bag you can get that fits into the bucket for all your gardening supplies, but wait there’s more (sorry couldn’t resist!) there are clip sets you can buy that attach to the sides and will hold 2 of your long handled tools.  As if all of that wasn’t enough, the cart is small with never flat tires.  It is super easy to handle and fits perfectly into all those tight places in my garden.  I have already beat this cart with rocks, mulch and field stone and the interior of the bin still looks good.  I also love the fact that like my Foldit cart it’s sturdy on it’s wheels, no tipping over.

Now I won’t be getting rid of my FoldIt because it can haul more plants and I need that for my plant sales!  Plus since it does fold up it isn’t taking up very much room at all and as I said it’s perfect for hauling sticks when I’ve got piles to go to the brush tile.

So there you go.  Two wonderful carts that work hard for gardeners that work hard!  Oh and I’m not getting anything for reviewing these carts, I’m just sharing my experiences with you!

A new pollinator

 

I met a new pollinator the other day and you know how much a gardener loves pollinators.

At first glance I thought it was some sort of honeybee but there were several and they kept disappearing down into the bottom of the plants.  I grabbed my camera and took some pictures and then searched online.

Meet the digger bee.

Digger bees are solitary like mason bees only they make holes in the ground.  One female can make a lot of holes and she can be pursued by a lot of males.  They won’t be around all summer, just early spring and then again next year.  They are docile but can sting if handled or bothered, so we won’t do either.

It’s amazing to me how many types of pollinators we have and don’t really notice.  I mean sure butterflies are beautiful.

So of course we are going to see them and bumble bees well they are just goofy and fun to watch.

But the ones that we don’t see or pay attention to are doing some hard work.  Mason bees, leafcutter bees and all manner of ground nesting bees, like the digger bees.  Next time you are out in the garden, take a second to see who’s flying around.  You never know who you might meet!