That's what some reports are saying fell during the wee hours of the morning. I don't know for sure, but the yard looks pretty beat up. The basement water feature is larger. I need to pick up a box fan today. I'll be pushing water towards the drain in the floor all morning.
In the garden, plants have flopped all over the place.
The tomatoes should have been staked a week ago. I'll be doing that as soon as the ground dries out enough to hold a stake. Each plant will be tied to a stake. It's too late to try any other method. I just hope I don't break them. I need to prune suckers too.
The gully refilled last night. From the looks of it, it overflowed.
The pussywillow cuttings I stuck into the moist soil this spring seem to enjoy the extra moisture.
Same with the cannas.
And the elephant ears are finally coming up.
Some rudbeckia made it without flopping.
Including a new brown/orange variety.
And I have squash blooms. There's one on just about all the plants. The sun is trying to poke through the clouds now, so hopefully the bees will come out to play.
It's 72 degrees. 80% chance of rain this afternoon with more thunderstorms likely. I guess there's no drought after all.
I got up this morning, had some coffee, and went back to bed. The slow steady rain is still falling. It's 72 degrees. So that's the perfect weather for scattering seeds, moving reseeded annuals, and doing some general weeding in all parts of the yard.
I moved a few things into the upper meadow, like amaranthus.
A gazillion cosmos that were growing in the rose garden.
Perilla.
I planted out my 12 Salvia subrotunda seedlings. I replaced them with cuttings from Montauk Daisy, Salvia greggii, and a red mum that survived the winter.
Looking back towards the house from the gully, it's filling in with pokeweed and Virginia creeper. I'm okay with that, for the time being.
I also divided a few wintersown things that were planted out in big hunks. Ox Eye Daisy, that notorious weed, has been spread all over the Crape Myrtle Bed. I need more white in that spot. Not many of my cosmos seeds have popped up yet. Maybe after all this rain they'll do something.
I plan to spend the rest of the early afternoon weeding in the rain. I'll continue to move things here and there, filling in areas where seeds failed to germinate. There's a lot of crabgrass out there.
I wasn't here to enjoy it, but the storms over Charlotte were loud enough to wake me up last night. I was visiting. When I arrived back home this morning, the 3/4" of rain we received had sent everything into overdrive. There's a lot of new things popping up now that the ground is wet again. The gully has a lot of surprises.
Tomatoes and castor beans.
Squash? Or cucumber?
Of course there's datura.
And pokeweed.
Mimosa tree seedlings are all over the place. I'll let a few grow. They can get out of hand with the reseeding.
In the garden, Pride of Barbados survived being planted out weeks ago and receiving very little water. It should take off now.
Petunia seedlings. That must have been one virile specimen.
Cucumbers and beans are up in the potager.
I'm finally going to plant out some tomatoes. More showers in the forecast this coming week.
Near the basement door, the fragrant bed is germinating great. Four O'clocks, datura, and what I hope are nicotiana seedlings have grown since yesterday. They like the rain and the horse poo.
I'm starting to be very happy with this corner of the perennial bed. Last year it was a mess of struggling plants. It's a dry semi-shady corner with very acidic soil from years of oak leaves. I spread wood ashes all winter and transplanted a few shade tolerant perennials this spring. It's filling in nicely.
It's 72 degrees and windy. More rain possible this afternoon and evening. I'm going to plant out a few things today, at a very leisurely pace. No reason to rush.
Our first heavy frost of the winter was December 5, 2009. It was late in coming. We had a light frost in October, but nothing took much notice. If the forecast holds, our last frost of this year will be March 9, 2010. That's just over 3 months of winter. I'm not holding my breath just yet. I've seen snow in April. Our average last frost date is April 15.
Today, I'm going to piddle about the yard a bit. I might cut the grass again and do some more weeding and edging. My real plans focus on the gully and seed scattering. Farmers Almanac proclaims today and tomorrow as the best days to start seed and flowerbeds. I'll be doing just that in the gully.
Last summer, I collected cosmos seeds from all my orange and sometimes yellow blooming plants. I'll be scattering these seeds in the area where the ivy and periwinkle have been trampled hauling firewood all winter. I have no doubt some of them will be taken by the birds. Others will fail to sprout for whatever reason. But some should take hold and germinate before the ivy recovers the area. I've also got Forget Me Not seeds for the back side of the perennial bed. I used the weed eater last week to remove many of the winter weeds and give me a little access to the soil there. They'll enjoy the shady nature of that space and should bloom until the heat of summer takes them out. They reseed readily once established. Cosmos do too.
Other plans include moving the tiny maples I marked with pink tape last fall. I chose saplings with brilliant orange or yellow foliage. They're just beginning to bud right now, so moving them shouldn't cause too much stress. It's still wet back there, but the red maples can handle a bit of water.
Finally, I'm going to do what I've been wanting done for several years. In the Wild, the area between my yard and the neighbor's plot, I've got large clumps of daffodils that never bloom. I intend to dig these out today, scattering bulbs in the perennial bed, the shrub border, and along the back of the house where I've neglected planting anything for spring color. It's probably not the best time to move daffodils, but I've got nothing to lose. These clumps need the attention.
I figure I'll get at least another 100 bulbs from these, maybe more. If time allows, I might possibly consider maybe scraping some paint from the trim on the north side of the house, preparing it for the paint I need to apply soon. I'm still unsure about how to handle painting the South side, where the ridgeline is 3 stories off the ground.
It's 39 degrees this morning. The high today should be in the mid 70s. There is also laundry to do.
Some time ago, when another gardener had possession of this yard, she planted these ground covers. I'm sure she never expected or intended them to take over the entire neighborhood. In the almost 20 years since she's lived here, it has spread to cover more than an acre of woodlands. When I purchased the house, I knew it was there. I should have turned and run. I thought I was up to the challenge. Over the past two years, I've done a good job of slowly moving the edge of the yard back to where it may have once been. This coming week, I'm hoping to take another large bite out of one, possible two areas.
The first is the area behind the meadow. If I'm to plant anything along the "path" I've created there, I have to remove the Vinca major that covers the ground. I'd like to plant my Miss Huff cuttings. This area receives nearly full day sun in summer and dries out considerably without normal rainfall. I'll scatter some of the 125 rudbeckias here too.
Here's a closeup of the full area. Already, there are some shrub cuttings that were rooted and planted last spring. Butterfly bushes from wintersown seed have struggled here. I doubt I'll save any of it aside from the one rooted gardenia. I may move it to a more hospitable place.
The second area that needs to be tackled is the gully proper. I've already removed considerable privet from this area. Euonymus and English Ivy take up most of this space. There's a row of nandinas that grow in and out of the broken, stacked concrete retaining wall someone built ages ago. Bats make their residence here in the summer. I don't want to disturb them, in case they are hibernating.
I know I can't tackle all of this area, given that the Ivy covers everything all the way to the street, but I want to get a start on it. I might need to bring in the heavy chemicals for this one. We'll see how the other area goes first, since I'm not even sure what to do with this space yet.
Whenever I run across someone thinking of planting this in our area, I always advise against it. I beg them to come take what they want from my yard rather than purchase such a significantly invasive plant. They just laugh. Give them 5 years. They'll be back asking how to kill this stuff.
The snow is melting quickly. The roads are nearly completely clear. It's 36 degrees and sunny. There is a cold wind blowing from the West.
Friday, I got the strings laid out for one of the lower potager beds.
The hoophouse hasn't been bothered by snow, ice, or wind.
The gully still has plenty of snow.
The stream is a great source of water for the birds.
I noticed on Friday that I had poppy seedlings in the meadow.
There's lots of standing water everywhere. The soil is saturated.
The camellia shed all her blooms.
Another crocus has bloomed. When the sun hits it, it will open.
I'm off tomorrow. The forecast is for sunny and 47 degrees. I'll spend part of the day removing the leaves from the meadow bed. I need to mulch them and respread them. I'm hoping the sunshine next week will cause more poppies to sprout along with whatever other seeds remain.
I spent an hour this morning laying down more paint in the kitchen. I still have to do the wall behind the fridge. I guess I can mark my calender on Saturday for that. It's supposed to be nasty with freezing rain, again.
Once the mail came, I had the new piece I needed for my dad's chainsaw. This thing is a monster. It cuts through 12" diameter logs like butter. Twigs just get in the way. I got a lot done. I even split enough to last through the weekend if I need it, but I'll probably do more tomorrow. It's supposed to be a little cooler and maybe cloudy. The tree is slowly disappearing.
During one of my several breaks, I planted the Giant Green Arborvitae. It's placed strategically to block several houses from my bedroom window view. It's slated to reach 70' tall and 20' wide. It's got lots of room.
A rotting log across the stream out back provides a larger puddle of clean water for the birds. Whenever I walk away, they swarm. I want to line the bank of this area with pussywillow and swamp mallow.
My weeping willow is rooting well.
There's still a little snow on the ground from this weekend.
But the sky turned out to be that famous Carolina Blue.
In the shrub island, I found one of the 100 daffodils I planted here. The robins uncovered it yesterday. They've stripped the neighbor's holly tree and have moved on to more fertile feeding grounds.
Peonies are coming up too. These came from Trevor's house in Virginia last March. I know it can take years to reestablish a clump after moving or dividing. I'm hoping for 4 blooms this year instead of two.
The camellia next to the perennial bed looks great. When I moved in, it was several large trunks with leaves at the very top. I hacked it to the ground. I'd say it's forgiven me.
With a couple day's wood in the basement, I sat for a spell. Terrible picture, yes. So much for a swing built for two.
