kohoutjm's Blog
kohoutjm's April 2008 Entries
Last Post 16 days, 4 hours Ago
Apr 29, 2008 | 8:00 PM PST
Tags: perennial , Galanthus , before and after
The new perennial shade garden before and after photos. Cause I know that y'all love photos. And I like to show my hard work off to others who know and appreciate the efforts. Ok, so here they are:
Before (yuck!)
After (hurray!)
We were out of town for the weekend and I came back to what I think is Galanthus blooming, although it has usually bloomed much earlier in the year. Here is a quick picture. Does anyone know what this is?
Apr 25, 2008 | 8:50 AM PST
Tags: Shade , perennial , Ligularia , Tiarella , Hosta , Rain
Yesterday was a great day for putting in the new shade garden. Most people don't care for the cloudy, misty day that we had, but the weather was perfect for planting up the new area. Even though it was cloudy and rainy it was still 65-70º outside. So here is a quick photo as I finished.
Last night it rained and we might get a little more today. Let's hope that they all take well to their new homes.
Apr 23, 2008 | 7:41 PM PST
Tags: Ligularia , Foam Flower , Tiarella , Shade , Perennial
Soon I will be adding a new perennial bed to our backyard. We have a problem area that is so shady and wet that it will not grow any grass or really anything. So it looks like mother nature is in my favor on this one... less weeding for me and no watering needed. (This location is where four neighboring yards are graded for water runoff and an ornamental flowering tree provides shade for most of the day.) Ok, so here is a picture of what it looks like now. You can see the neighbor's forsythia bushes in bloom.
I would like it to be about 12 ft. long (two fence sections) and about 4-5 ft deep. I have a little bit of grass to take out, but all in all it should go pretty quick. I was going to do it today, but they were calling for severe weather. It's been about 3 weeks ago when I ordered plants from Earl May. They finally came in today! Here are pictures of them in their pots.
Ligularia 'The Rocket'
Tiarella 'Spring Symphony' Foam Flower
I will have the 3 Ligularia plants in the back along the fence and I will be dividing some all green Hostas, they will go in and around the Ligularia. Then in the front I am going to group the 10 Tiarella into bunches of 3, 5 and 2.
I will post more pictures as I get things moving along.
Apr 23, 2008 | 11:15 AM PST
Tags: miniature iris , Dandelions
Today I have a full flush of blooms on my miniature iris patch. Here is a quick photo of the first couple. I had to go home on my lunch hour to catch them. It always seems that the blooms fade so fast. I'm sure I just get busy and don't notice the time passing.
More pictures in my photo gallery if you would like to view more.
After taking pictures of my new blooms I also noticed more blooms that I am not excited about at all... Dandelions. I proceeded to dig out as many as I could in my remaining time at home. I dug out a bunch in the backyard a few years ago and it seems to have reduced them quite a bit. I hope it works as well in the front yard.
Does anyone have a proven method of getting rid of these things for good?
Apr 21, 2008 | 8:01 PM PST
Tags: miniature iris , herbs
I came home today to be surprised by my miniature irises. They are starting to bloom and I should have beautiful flowers out there tomorrow. My mom's bloomed almost three weeks ago around the 30th of March. Here is a quick peek at them and I will hopefully catch them in bloom tomorrow. These are the cutest little irises I have ever come across, they are only about 6 inches tall, they were given to me by my mom a couple of years ago. They have adjusted well.
And as promised here is a photo of the little herbs. I found these pots at Walgreens for a dollar. Can't pass up a good deal when I see one.
More images are in my photo gallery of what's in bloom now, most images are labeled and dated.
Apr 21, 2008 | 9:36 AM PST
Tags: Bloody Cranesbill , Perennial Bed , Ornamental Flower Basket , Mulch
This weekend I expanded my front perennial bed about 5 ft. I think next year I will bring it all the way up to the house, but this is a good start for now.
In the photo below you can see the large flower basket that my dad made me last year and the phlox (purple and white) on the left side. I divided these and moved them in last year. It looks as though every single one made it through our harsh winter. I checked them out and see lots of little flower buds. They will be opening soon. I hope they begin trailing over the edge this year, but I know it may not be until next year.
Off to the right of the basket is where I began the expansion. I sheared off about 5 ft. of Creeping Charlie. Hoping to keep it under control a little better this year. I split the Bloody Cranesbill that did so well over the last couple of years. I managed to get six good sized divisions. I planted 5 in the new bed and gave one to the neighbor and left a good chunk of the original plant in place. Below you can see the divisions happily in their new home.
I am trying a new process for mulching. Someone suggested that instead of using landscaping plastic to use old newspapers in thick layers to keep the weeds at bay. So here goes, I put down newspapers over the bare ground around all of the divisions, and then added 3" of mulch. Hopefully Charlie won't visit my new bed.
This is the original plant in full bloom in 2006. It was almost twice as big last year and should have split it then, but it was too late before I realized it.
Bloody Cranesbill 2006
Here is more info about Creeping Charlie and Creeping Jenny
They are different plants but both are perennial. Both can be invasive.
Charlie has scalloped edged leaves and purple flowers. It spreads by runners. Any where the runners touch soil they grow roots. If you use a hoe to dig it out any broken pieces will grow roots and compound your problem. It is best to wait until fall if you are going to spray it with chemicals, but pulling it up in the very early spring before it gets it's new growth on it seems to work best for me.
Here is more info about Creeping Charlie.
Jenny is often sold for a ground cover, but most people here in Nebraska use it only in container gardening and treat it as an annual. It has round leaves and it is often chartreuse in color. It has yellow flowers.
Here is more info about Creeping Jenny.
Apr 16, 2008 | 9:17 PM PST
Tags: vegetable garden , herbs , wall-o-waters , cold snap
It's been a few weeks since my last post and things are starting to green up very fast. We had a late cold snap last week and it was down into the upper teens and lower 20s. I covered up the tulips. They should bloom in the next day or so.
I got the garden mostly planted on April 4-5. Put in Asparagus for the first time, potatoes, a few different kinds of sweet peas, walla walla onions, tomatoes (in the wall-o-waters), radishes, lettuces, and carrots. I left some room for beans and cucumbers. Below is my hard work all nice and tidy at the end of the day. 
Tomatoes (in the wall-o-waters)
The forsythia bushes are blooming. The neighbors hacked them down pretty far last fall, so they had a meek showing this year. They will be better next spring.
I have moved my "seedlings" as they are now considered herbs in my mind to their own permanent pots. (It has been 8 1/2 weeks since I put the seeds in the soil.) I found a great deal a Walgreens, cute pots for only a dollar. They are oriental looking white with blue glazes. It was in the 70s today so they also went outside for a short time. As for now they are happily in the garage as it is going to be quite a bit colder for the next couple of days. Then 70s and 80s again so they will travel again. I will have pictures when it is nice enough outside to get some good ones.
I took the rest of my tomato plants to work and gave them away to any willy-nilly person who looked remotely interested. They went very fast. I even got the comment, "You have any more?" Plant lovers are everywhere at work, you can see them ducking out early and coming in late on the nicest days. Everyone is tired of the cold icky winter weather. It's time for Spring!
I ordered plants for a new shade garden they should be in this week or next, Ligularia and Foam Flower. I'm also going to split some of my hostas this week and add them as well. I hope that it will look as good as my minds eye. Pictures to come in a few weeks.
