The catbird seat

Apparently, that seat is in the middle of one of my boxwoods.

Today I finally started pruning the boxwoods. It's one of the projects that, once started, so clearly is way overdue that I wonder my fellow gardeners had not long since taken me aside for an intervention.

At any rate, as I clipped merrily along, I spotted a nest. I came back with my camera, assuming it was empty, but no! Two little blue eggs, and once I withdrew, the catbird couple flew around to see what havoc I had wrought.

 

I dearly hope I haven't scared them away. I think I can spy on them from my bedroom window if I stay quiet as a mouse.

Upcoming projects

It's time to prune the pink azalea drastically in preparation for getting it out of the ground and putting it - where? Maybe somewhere in the back where I can enjoy its color but don't have to pay too much attention to it. And in its place? The 'Zepherine Drouhin' rose that I've been agonizing about and finally bought at Roxbury on Friday afternoon. I think it gets enough sun there, especially in the morning, and it's worth a try. Not sure whether it needs any support, but since I don't have $1000 to spend on this gorgeous structure, maybe it can do without it.



It's also past time to prune all of the boxwoods, which I suddenly realize have grown all out of proportion to their sites.

The honeysuckle is in full bloom and its sweet, haunting fragrance has hypnotized me into thinking I should never cut it back. I will come to my senses once the flowers fade.

A day in the garden

I've had even more than the usual number of plants waiting to get in the ground and finally had a day to do that. I planted the Mr. Stripey tomato from WFF in my new cedar barrel, surrounded by basil from the sale at Rappahannock Area Adult Activities earlier this month. The Mortgage Lifter tomato went into the walkway garden, where I really need to get a grip - at the moment it's become a holding place for a bunch of stuff, though I do have a tiny vision for it (butterfly bush and a few shrubs to go in next to the aucuba). Still to be planted - where? - is the Riesentraube grape tomato. And they all need tomato cages, which I ruthlessly weeded out of the shed in a fit about a year ago.


One of the colocasias ('Black Magic') is now in the ground next to the aucuba, and I have high hopes that it will make a dramatic black/purple statement there (thanks for that idea, Martha and Becky). I noticed that McClure & Zimmerman's label advises me to plant it responsibly. Somehow I doubt that it will become invasive in our dry heat. The other is slated to go into the pot on the front steps, along with some white caladiums and probably some coleus.

Pruned the forsythia vigorously and felt like a woodcutter in a fairy tale as I bundled the branches together and tied them with twine to put out with the trash (experience tells me forsythia branches are too whippy to go through the chipper/shredder successfully).

Planted the May apples and Jack-in-the-pulpits from Judy's garden under the oak tree.   

This is what they look like in her garden.
The Kirengeshoma palmata that I bought at Merrifield is doing well there, its maple-like leaves waving in the breeze. I'm glad I didn't put it in the front garden, which was the original plan, where it would get too much sun and be out of scale. Planted the forget-me-nots from Judy in front of the akebia.

Planted a Jackmanii clematis to one side of the trellis, and a moonvine from C&T at the farmer's market on the other. Thanks again, Becky and Martha! Will see how they do in the partial shade.

Weeded most of the bishops weed (aka Goutweed, aka 10 Plants You Should Never Buy (Because I Guarantee Someone Will Just Give Them To You) from around the leucojum, though I didn't really get all of the underground roots, so of course it will come back. The kind I have, thanks to Judy's compost, is not even the variegated kind that This Garden is Illegal can find a place for. Luckily, it's not too hard to keep it at bay as long as you keep at it. And anything taken from this part of the garden is never transplanted elsewhere lest it spread.

Looking at the above, it's hard to believe this was four hours of hard work (including mowing the lawn), but it was!

Getting Things Done II

The fruits of a three-day weekend:
Stripped ivy off maple tree
Pruned maple tree
Planted rhododendrons 'Caroline' and 'Ingrid Melquist'
Planted hostas 'August Moon' and 'Blue Umbrella'
Planted epimedium rubrum and wild ginger (asarum canadensis)
Dug up Leucojum and discarded two thirds of it (infested with Bishop's weed)
Rooted out lots of Bishop's weed but it will still come back
Planted double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis forma multiplex)
Discovered and transplanted Rosa 'Fairy'
Planted Nicotiana 'Perfume' dark purple
Pruned white azalea and purple azalea

There's pruning and then there's pruning

"The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, Planting and Pruning Techniques" by Tracy DiSabato-Aust is well-regarded and I can see why. She's obviously a knowledgeable gardener with a lot of experience. Her notes on each plant offer good suggestions for when to prune and what to expect when you do (often a second blush of bloom). I made notes on a couple ideas: remember to cut down biennials immediately after blooming to get another year out of them; cut back old flowering stems of Pulmonaria for a fresher-looking plant; cut back perovskia in early spring, down to live buds, which can be 6" or more above ground; feed astilbe in early October with 20-10-10, it's a heavy feeder.

But she's a great believer in pruning so that you get smaller flowers later in the season. Makes some sense if you can avoid staking, but otherwise it seems fussy and artificial to me. Also, she seems to prefer huge sweeps of the same plant, which looks institutional in my opinion. Interesting, but not an addition to my garden library.

Grubbing out

In yesterday's Post, Joel Lerner recommends cutting forsythia down to two feet to renew it. "They'll have long, flowing stems full of blooms next spring," he claims. Plus, if I decide to remove or greatly diminish this overgrown clump in the back corner, this should make it easier.


Here are the before and after pictures.

He also recommends digging up tulips because they don't reliably return, but then commands us to save them and re-plant in November. Seems way too hard to me, and why bother? I liked the Corps de Ballet collection from WFF, but I planted them too far apart and they're not listed as reblooming, so I may be bold and profligate and pull them up. I can always replant them in the cutting garden in case they make an effort to return next year.

Since we had a gentle rain yesterday (and it felt so cold in the house that I turned the heat on!), today should be a good day for digging weeds, moving bulbs, and whacking back the forsythia and azaleas.