Re: Spent Sunday in the garden

Kitty:  Worries and surprises...sums it up pretty well.  :-)


Melody, IA (Z 5/4)

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."    
--Albert Einstein

 --- On Tue 04/06, Kitty < kmrsy@comcast.net > wrote:
From: Kitty [mailto: kmrsy@comcast.net]
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 23:02:27 -0500
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Spent Sunday in the garden

Re > I think I may have<br>> lost one of my clumps of perennial grasses,
but I thought that last year<br>> too and it surprised me, so we'll
see.<br><br>Melody,<br>I go through those worries each spring. I bought
2 species shade peonies<br>last year. The P. obovata from Seneca Hill
was robust and had a few blooms<br>after planting last spring. The P.
japonica from PDN was a slight little<br>nothing that shriveled and
disappeared. But this spring the japonica is up<br>already and has a
flower bud while the obovata is still snuggled under the<br>mulch. both
are very much alive and I'm thrilled.<br><br>My Pulmonaria 'David Ward'
became quite robust last year, but I found the<br>center had died out
this spring. Meanwhile the newest one. P. 'Raspberry<br>Splash' looks
like it didn't even take a nap this winter. It is big and<br>bold,
seemingly still with last years leaves still looking great
and<br>blooming to beat the band!<br><br>And then there's Geranium
'Rozanne'. I heard how strong she was and finally<br>got one last fall.
In February I checked and she seemed fine, but last week<br>she seemed
to have disappeared. Today I found some new leaves.<br><br>My toadlilies
were up already, but last night's bitter cold browned them,<br>I'm sure
they'll rebound though.<br><br>Lastly, Verbena 'Homestead Purple' is not
hardy here, but it is so prolific<br>it is worth growing as an annual.
It was still blooming late last fall, so<br>I left it in for spring
cleanup. However, I noticed a few stems still had<br>some green so I
just left them a bit longer. What do you know - I think I<br>see the
beginnings of new leaves!<br><br>So there are always worries...and
surprises!<br><br>Kitty<br>----- Original Message ----- <br>From:
"Melody" <mhobertm@excite.com><br>To: <gardenchat@hort.net><br>Sent:
Monday, April 05, 2004 4:09 AM<br>Subject: [CHAT] Spent Sunday in the
garden<br><br><br>> Sunday was a great day here to be gardening...temps
in upper 50's, loads<br>> of sunshine, very little wind...so I spent the
whole day

from right<br>> after Mass this a.m. until supper time putzing in the
garden...it was<br>> glorious! Some of the daffodils are now blooming,
including some tiny<br>> miniatures. Finished spring clean-up chores in
two more beds<br>> today...everything in them is looking great. Chopped
the butterfly bush<br>> down to about four inches today...it is already
leafing out nicely at<br>> it's base, so hooray! it made it! Looks like
all the rose bushes came<br>> through the winter alive, so that's
another plus. I think I may have<br>> lost one of my clumps of perennial
grasses, but I thought that last year<br>> too and it surprised me, so
we'll see. But most satisfying of all, we<br>> managed to make huge
inroads into dealing with the spearmint/peppermint<br>> problem...my
husband has about half the landscaping cloth torn out and I<br>> have
now begun the arduous task of deep spading every square inch and<br>>
removing the running roots of these plants, at the same time
searching<br>> for any plants I want to save...found seven gaura that I
dug and<br>> transplanted (so yes, they are hardy here!) and two
huechera that had<br>> been swamped by the mint, so I moved them to a
portion of the bed I had<br>> already spaded and sifted free of
mint/roots. Had to move one other<br>> huechera and two Lady's Mantle,
so those went there as well. Got about<br>> 18 of the roses pruned and
fed today. We've started on our revamp of our<br>> little pond by
getting it cleaned out and emptied of all the gunky water<br>> that had
collected in it since the snow melted. Rearranged the existing<br>>
garden art collection and added some new pieces...a couple of funky<br>>
wooden pink flamingoes and some stained glass tiles set into black
iron<br>> frames on posts, along with some black iron finials on posts.
I think I<br>> was working off a lot of grief in the garden...we had to
put our puppy<br>> Sidda down on Saturday...she had developed a serious
kidney disease that<br>> would have been too expensive to treat in light
of the fact that<br>><

br
>> she still needed another $600 surgery on her other hip, with a
likely<br>> outcome that the kidney disease would still only continue to
get worse<br>> even with treatment...I just couldn't do that do her and
with her hip<br>> daily getting worse and her level of pain increasing,
it was time. But I<br>> miss her...and the garden always helps. And I
got a sunburn, darn it!<br>><br>> Melody, IA (Z 5/4)<br>><br>> "The most
beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."<br>> --Albert
Einstein<br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>>
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