Late start.

I'm getting a late start this morning, my day off. I spent the night in Charlotte at the home of two friends. As soon as I arrived, I noticed a few things.

There are more blue flower on the Mountain Bluet, wintersown in 2008.



The purple azalea I remember in the backyard next to the a/c unit isn't quite as purple as I recall.



The two year old tea olives are getting big.



Snowball viburnum is about to bloom.



A one year old cutting from Sharon's gardenia bush is growing again. Sharon passed away this past winter from cancer. Her husband still walks her little dog down the street. He says she loved to walk past my house last summer before the disease forced her to stay inside.



I finally have ladybugs. I also have lots of aphids.



And Brown Avenue is gone. At least for a few months.



I'm going to spend a few hours planting some containers out. I'm thinking of mowing the grass again, but it could wait a few more days. I need to transplant my tomato seedlings into individual cups. Their growth stunt may be caused by the nutrient starved seed starting medium. I don't want to lose this second batch. I have very few seeds left. I might even spend a few minutes getting reacquainted with the hammock. It's sunny and 64 degrees. The high today should reach the mid 70s, back to normal.

In other news, Dixie Carter passed away at age 70 last night. The lights have gone out in Georgia.

Back to life.

It was a cool day after the wonderful temperatures we had this weekend. Later in the week, we'll be in the 70s again. It looks like my day off will be a nice one. As the clouds parted this afternoon, I snapped a shot of the evening sky. It's great getting home while it's still daylight.



The flowering quince growing around the chainlink fence that belongs to my neighbor is a welcome sight. No blooms on any of mine this year.



Nearby, what I think is an amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) may need to be removed this year. They can become very invasive. If it blooms soon, which it looks like it will, the yard will be full of fragrance for the first and last time.



The Loropetalum is coming in to bloom.



Azaleas are budding. This is a formosa purple that was here when I bought the house. I cut it down to the ground because it was so wretched.



The oakleaf hydrangea is sporting new growth and last year's leaves.



One of the three aucuba I rooted last summer. All three are showing growth. It'll be years before they fill in. I'll start pinching later in the season to get some bushier growth.



The Snowball viburnum cuttings are pushing out leaves. They were so tiny when I put them in last fall. I was afraid they wouldn't survive. All three made it. I will have to transplant these soon. There's no way these shrubs can grow where I put them for the winter.



It's currently 45 degrees. We're expecting to drop into the upper 30s tonight, maybe low 40s. Rain could come at any time, or not. Tomorrow, it should warm up a bit to the mid 60s. By Wednesday, we'll be back in the mid 70s. I plan to spend the day mowing and doing some more planting. My sinuses are stuffed. My nose is running. My throat is sore. Pollen has started to fall from the maples. The oaks will begin their assault soon.

Editing.

First, there's a poll on the sidebar. I'd like to know how many people are reading my blog. It's just a curiosity thing, certainly not scientific at all.
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On the north side of the house, I planted 18 Carolina Cherry Laurel seedlings last fall. Surprisingly, in little sun and frozen ground, they've all survived, I think. I spaced them 18" apart, knowing that was too close at the time. I'll need to remove every other one soon and replant them elsewhere in the yard. As an evergreen, they'll work nicely around the borders of the backyard eventually reaching the height of small trees if I let them. Instead, I'll pinch and snip and force them to branch out into shorter, stockier plants.



A few feet away, I planted cuttings that were rooted from Carrie's Elaeagnus. They're in the Neighbor's corner. The plants I took cuttings from were easily 12' tall and possibly just as wide. They were huge. They're too large for the space I have them in for sure. They'll also be moved to the edges of the backyard, possibly in front of the dead oak tree as suggested by Tim from Atlanta.



The silvery foliage should play nicely with the vitex I recently installed. That particular plant has now been moved to three different locations since I purchased it last spring. It now has a full sun site and should bloom profusely for years.



Also in the Corner, I have another Leyland Cypress that will find a home around the edges of the backyard. It was originally installed in an attempt to block the view of a bomb shelter and garage that belongs to my peering neighbor, Cat. She was best friends with the woman that gardened here for 40 years. She's got mixed feelings over what I've done to the yard so far.



There's a pyracantha near the upper meadow that needs a new home too.



I've already moved two of these from shady spots along the top edge of the gully. I will probably transplant it soon into the same area near the dead oak tree.



Several rooted gardenias need a new home. I'm currently thinking about the hill along the street between the ancient oak tree and the dying red dogwood. I think a hedge of gardenia would be a nice way to block some street noise while providing for a more private front yard. It's a shady area in summer, with very little direct sun.

Two pampas grasses need to find a permanent home somewhere in the yard. One is currently behind the swing, just in front of the dead oak tree. I'm not crazy about these grasses, but I do love the plumes. Both have been moved multiple times and have never put down enough roots to make transplanting a problem. I was worried they wouldn't survive, but sure enough, there's new growth on both. As they grow very large and continue to spread, I need to give them a lot of room.



Along the end of the driveway, there are three cuttings of Snowball viburnum that survived the winter. I'll have to find new homes for them.



I've already moved the one that was along the edge of the gully, the parent plant for these three cuttings. Again, lots of space will be needed for these large shrubs.



I keep finding myself drawn to shrubs and plants that mature into large specimens. I blame the towering trees in the backyard. Trying to place a miniature shrub into a space that's currently framed by 100' tall oaks is not the easiest thing to do. Many plants will be overwhelmed by the scale of these trees. And yet, I still need space to plant the flowers I'm growing from seed.

One image I keep returning to for inspiration can be found on a blog header from my sidebar. I'm not unrealistic. I know that it will take years to achieve the look I want in my backyard. It's a waiting game. Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

It's 45 degrees. Rain will be coming again this afternoon, sometimes heavy. On Sunday morning, I'll start moving the plants I listed above.

Contemplating Purple, Pink, and White

There's the root mass of an ancient crape myrtle in the backyard. I cut it to the ground shortly after moving in. It blooms pink, the color of bubble gum. It's the starting point for the Crape Myrtle bed. Last year's growth is now about 6' tall. Powdery Mildew attacks it every summer. Now that the oak tree is down, the increased sunlight should help.



In this bed, I have echinacea, both purple and white, veronica, purple and white, Russian sage, and a packet of cosmos seeds that will be sown in late April, pink and white. Along the back edge of the perennial bed, there are altheas, or Rose of Sharon, moved here from the front of a house in Winston-Salem several years ago. They'll be used to form an edge along the top of the broken concrete retaining wall at the gully. They bloom purple and white.



To make way for these shrubs, which need more light than I have allowed them in the perennial bed, I need to move my Snowball viburnum. Maybe that will be done today. Maybe tomorrow. I'm still trying to find a suitable location.



It's sunny and 30 degrees. We might reach 60 today.

12:04pm - I've been to Carla's to unload the stone she purchased last night. It was on the back of the truck. Then I went to the store to pick up the stone she gave me from the leftovers. It was another $10 deal for some edgers that were used in the store last summer. They don't match the house exactly, but the red will be fine of what I intend to use them for this year. Tomorrow, she'll come over in the morning to help me set them where I want them.

I also moved the Rose of Sharon shrubs.



The snowball viburnum found a new home along the edge of the woods near where I hang my hammock in the spring. It'll do for now. I also moved two pyracantha to the impromptu path along the dead oak tree trunk. A few years, they should fill in and block the rotting carcass. I had already moved the vitex to behind the swing.

It's 48 degrees. The tomato seedlings are getting their first taste of the outdoors. I've got them in the driveway, shaded by the truck. There's a light breeze which should help harden them off a bit. They've gotten leggy in their enclosed containers. I'm hoping to pot up the four Marseilles fig cuttings today. Maybe after I get back from the mountain.

Looks like we made it....

There you are, lookin' just the same as you did, last time I touched you.

Cuttings struck and planted in 2009.

Mophead hydrangea



Oak leaf hydrangea



Snowball viburnum



Vitex "Shoal Creek"



Red Pussywillow



6th St Fig



Boxwood euonymus



Others that look like they made it: Elaeagnus x ebbengei, variegated weigela, forsythia, lots of gardenias, redtwig dogwood, white pussywillow, and brugmansias.

Not everything was as fortunate. There should have been a vitex cutting here.



I'm not being naive. Winter is not over yet, but the coldest weather should be well behind us now. It's going to be a beautiful weekend.

Hibernating

It's 52 degrees and mostly cloudy. The wind picked up overnight. The rain is coming. By 2pm, we should be soaking in it. By sunset, it will have moved on ushering in cooler temperatures for the rest of the week. A fire will have to be built this evening in the basement heater.

I've got a few chores I'm working on today. I'm doing laundry. The dishes are done. I'm planning to sweep and maybe mop the hardwoods before heading to work. Since Thursday, I've had this odd pain in my lower back. I'm not even sure what I did to cause it. I just remember waking up on Thanksgiving Day with it. I'm trying to give it some healing time when I'm not at the store. The heaviest thing I've lifted all morning was the coffee pot.

The sun is a lot like me today. It wants to come out, but the clouds are keeping it inside.



Some things from around the yard:

Oakleaf Hydrangea



Snowball viburnum



Sedum. Just three feet away, the frost has killed another to the ground.



Under lights in the basement, the pineapple sage is trying to bloom.



I'm packaging two sets of cuttings from the brugmansias to mail out today. I've also got two seed trade packages to send out. I'm still waiting on one thing before mailing a large package to Austin, TX. I'm hoping it will be ready in another week.

I've got two more days of work before my two days off. I've got no plans for those days. Rain on Wednesday, sunny and cooler on Thursday, I'll probably spend most of my time sorting seeds and thinking about next year. I could work on the kitchen. Then again, I could just stay in bed and watch some movies.

4:37pm - The rain we were supposed to get broke up and gave us just a smattering of moisture. It's humid and sticky at 57 degrees. The clouds should clear out with the wind later tonight.

When I was leaving for work, I spotted something. I ran back inside to get the camera.



Last December, this camellia was blooming. I assumed then that it was a C. japonica. It was also much redder last year. Methinks it needs some acid. I'm not going to remove the oak leaves this year and I will fertilize next spring.

Rock and Roll

In the back yard this spring, I dug two large rocks out of the ground. I don't know why I did it. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. For a while, they sat next to the hole they came out of. At some point during the summer, I moved them to the edge of the "lawn" to make mowing easier. The lavender crape myrtle lived there for a couple of months. The hole has been filled in with dirt. Red clover has germinated well there.

This morning, I decided to move those two rocks to the perennial bed. I couldn't have chosen a home any further away without putting them in the street. I used the hand truck and a lot of cussing to get them where I wanted them.

#1



#2



I actually moved three large stones, but one I was able to lift and place on the hand truck. They now reside along the new path I built a couple weeks ago around the back edge of the perennial bed. I probably destroyed the new grass seedlings. It won't be long before clover takes over anyway.





Consistency in design is something I have been taught by my instructors when I was in college. In architecture, consistency is necessary to help people understand movement, form, and texture. It can also be used to define spaces. Private and public spaces can be differentiated using different materials, lighting, or even color. So in my beds, I want some sort of consistency as well. All the tended beds will eventually have stone edging as I find it and place it. Along the edge of the former white bed, now known as the neighbor's corner, I picked up all the stone and finished the perennial bed as well as a good chunk of the gully bed. I'll explain later what I did this morning in the neighbor's corner and why I no longer need stone edging there.



Wheelbarrow #1



Wheelbarrow #2



Wheelbarrow #3 and done.



When I started, there was only about 6' of edging in place. This stone was dug from planting holes all around the yard.



From the upper yard behind the house, you can see the stone I laid around the edge of the gully bed.




Just about where the stone ends now, I transplanted the White Profusion butterfly bush from the neighbor's corner.



I also planted 4 purple Speedwell plants that I got for 50 cents each. The purple should go well with the echinacea and Icicle speedwell already there. Lots of baby echinacea from scattered seeds were seen.



As suggested, I made lots of changes to the neighbor's corner this morning. I won't go into detail now, but there are lots of shrubs there now including five Howardi Ligustrum (evergreen), two loropetalum, several rose of sharon seedlings, a couple of azaleas, two dwarf burning bush, and a couple snowball viburnum cuttings that I rooted months ago. It should provide color, interest, and privacy as it grows together. The only plants I purchased were three clearance ligustrums. I got them for less than $12 for all three. Woot!

I plan to let this corner become semi-wild again. When I cleared it out, I envisioned a beautiful corner with lots of white flowers and flowering shrubs. It hasn't turned out that way. It's too hot and dry in the summer for most perennials and the annuals I wanted there. I still lack privacy in the backyard from prying eyes, and a patio will be built somewhere someday. These shrubs and trees will be mulched with leaves. I'll allow the vinca minor to regrow, and let it spill softly into the edge of the yard where the lawnmower can keep it in check. Naturalized planting areas in the yard won't have stone edging. Only tended beds will need that treatment, cutting down on the amount of stone I'll need for the borders.

This afternoon, now that lunch is done, I plan to move a lot of the split firewood into the basement to continue drying.



It's 57 degrees, cloudy and cool. The wind has died down for the time being. No sign of the promised sunlight I was hoping for today.