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gardendude's April 2008 Entries
Last Post 8 days, 9 hours Ago
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Apr 23, 2008 | 8:51 PM PST
I had some more free time the other day....so naturally I went over to the nursery and bought some plants to fill in the last of the bare spots in the garden. Came home with coral bells (the green type) and one of the new Encore azaleas, Autumn Sangria. Can't wait to see them both grow and bloom! Also added a columbine, Black Beauty. We had two days of a good soaking rain, and I was amazed to see just how quickly all the plants responded to it. Most of them grew at least another few inches it seems. The foxglove, blanket flower, and gerbera daisies are all getting ready to open their flowers! I looked at the butterfly bush and I can see the new fleshy stems growing off the wood from last spring, should be much more upright this time around, with the way I pruned it. While I was out there, I also pruned back the long, winding and arching branches on the forsythia, to hopefully make it bushier and less lanky. And I found a pleasant surprise....the clematis my mom planted a few years ago behind the Rhododendron is really taking off and climbing up the trellis at a good pace. The last few years it really struggled and nearly died, despite weekly waterings. But for whatever reason, it's healthy and thriving back there. Lastly, the lettuce is coming along nicely. We planted three lettuce seedlings in a long narrow container, and after the rain and damp conditions we had recently, they definitely got bigger and are growing leaves like crazy. Next thing I need to do is to clear out weeds from the pathway, put in some stepping stones and those "stepables" groundcovers, and throw on a new layer of mulch on the "horseshoe" bed.
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Apr 23, 2008 | 8:51 PM PST
I had some more free time the other day....so naturally I went over to the nursery and bought some plants to fill in the last of the bare spots in the garden. Came home with coral bells (the green type) and one of the new Encore azaleas, Autumn Sangria. Can't wait to see them both grow and bloom! Also added a columbine, Black Beauty. We had two days of a good soaking rain, and I was amazed to see just how quickly all the plants responded to it. Most of them grew at least another few inches it seems. The foxglove, blanket flower, and gerbera daisies are all getting ready to open their flowers! I looked at the butterfly bush and I can see the new fleshy stems growing off the wood from last spring, should be much more upright this time around, with the way I pruned it. While I was out there, I also pruned back the long, winding and arching branches on the forsythia, to hopefully make it bushier and less lanky. And I found a pleasant surprise....the clematis my mom planted a few years ago behind the Rhododendron is really taking off and climbing up the trellis at a good pace. The last few years it really struggled and nearly died, despite weekly waterings. But for whatever reason, it's healthy and thriving back there. Lastly, the lettuce is coming along nicely. We planted three lettuce seedlings in a long narrow container, and after the rain and damp conditions we had recently, they definitely got bigger and are growing leaves like crazy. Next thing I need to do is to clear out weeds from the pathway, put in some stepping stones and those "stepables" groundcovers, and throw on a new layer of mulch on the "horseshoe" bed.
Garden is a poppin!
Apr 17, 2008 | 3:54 PM PST
The weather here is finally staying in the 70s, and the skies are bright and blue. Which means I'm back out in the garden, seeing how things are coming along. Just added some spirea and a few nandina along the side fence, and some purple sage, blanket flower, hollyhock mallow, and coneflower to the rest of the garden. It should look very full this year with what we've added. Everything from the last few springs have come back, starting to really flush out and bloom. A week or two ago when I was at Great Big Greenhouse and some of the other garden centers, I could hardly make up my mind about a few areas I wanted to fill in. My main focus was the back yard, but there is an area in front of our house, below the windows on the left side of the front porch that is bare from where we pulled up some boxwoods that came down with a disease. There are just so many different possibilities, particularly since our yard gets both full sun in some spots, and part shade in others, which opens the door to all kinds of plants. I gotta remember to take on one spot at a time, haha!
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Apr 17, 2008 | 3:54 PM PST
The weather here is finally staying in the 70s, and the skies are bright and blue. Which means I'm back out in the garden, seeing how things are coming along. Just added some spirea and a few nandina along the side fence, and some purple sage, blanket flower, hollyhock mallow, and coneflower to the rest of the garden. It should look very full this year with what we've added. Everything from the last few springs have come back, starting to really flush out and bloom. A week or two ago when I was at Great Big Greenhouse and some of the other garden centers, I could hardly make up my mind about a few areas I wanted to fill in. My main focus was the back yard, but there is an area in front of our house, below the windows on the left side of the front porch that is bare from where we pulled up some boxwoods that came down with a disease. There are just so many different possibilities, particularly since our yard gets both full sun in some spots, and part shade in others, which opens the door to all kinds of plants. I gotta remember to take on one spot at a time, haha!
