14-15 May: at home

Saturday, 14 May 2022

Weeding at home

A light mist was drifting down when I started weeding, so I picked a fairly small project to begin with. This neglected section with some walking onions, rosemary, strawberries and a couple of interesting young plants (a buplureum and an Acacia pravissima) was solid weeds.

After, taken on Sunday

The rain went away. I took moved Ceanothus ‘Oregon Missed’ for the third time, which often is the fatal move. This time, it went to an east front garden area that I want to fill in with some evergreen plants. But even though I want to be a friendly neighbor, I also think I need to out some backdrop panels (probably painted plywood) in the two center sections of the fence.

In that same area, I was recently sad to find my Stachyurus praecox had died. It got kicked (by me) accidentally during the big fence project. It was hard to find, and expensive, but I must have it as I so much loved the one in my old garden.

Stachyurus praecox in my old garden, 2005. I have the willow leafed one now but I don’t like it as much.

Allan helped me get the pot off of an Amelanchier grandiflora that a friend had recently given me. It went into the spot where the Ceanothus had been. I think it will fill the little bed in better.

Skooter found the dry afternoon quite satisfactory.

A walk around the garden showed how truly Bogsy the south end of it still is.

On the lawn…bogginess that is unheard of in May.

The metal path

Then I simply embarked upon some serious weeding in the front garden, to stay out of the wind. I found two more young plant casualties, a Maypop passiflora which for sure got blasted by our late freeze (I should have covered it but had forgotten about it) and a Corylopsis ‘Longwood Chimes’. I am not giving up on the latter; it looks crispy dead but I will give it a chance to come back.

Same with a special sarcoccaca which is just a little dried out twig. So sad. I had moved it last autumn to what I thought was a more auspicious spot. No doubt that, combined with our hard freeze, killed it. Thousands of my dollars, I’m sure, have been spent on lost plants.

In better news, a euonymus that had clearly died two summers ago, but that I had left in hope, has leafed out. I used to have one my old garden that has the most glorious autumn berries and I hope this is the right one.

In the garden today:

Scilla peruviana, a gift from Jane, the Mulch Maid, backed with Grevillea ‘Canberra Gem’ from Xera Plants, stopped me in my tracks. I got Allan to come look at it, too.

A mystery: Why does my Grevillea victoriae look so pitiful? It’s in a sunny enough spot, I think. I don’t give it any fertilizer that would annoy it. The top has good growth but it always looks sad at the base. The white bits are wool from some I used to mulch tender plants in the freeze. (But not the passiflora or corylopsis, unfortunately).

Not from Xera. Very sparse at the base. Not many flowers, either.

Lamprocapnos ‘Valentine’

So much of a native plant that I call stink mint is still in one corner of the front garden. I won’t have time to weed it till June, probably. Its foliage has an unpleasant smell.

My two blooming rhododendrons:

A gift from Steve and John

My mom’s favorite, from her old garden.

Foliage:

Davidia ‘Lady Sunshine’

Euonymus ‘Wolong Ghost’

Acer campestre ‘Carnival’

Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’

Pieris

Epimedium, before I weeded

Three planted pipes that must be moved because they don’t show well anymore!

Revelation: the bottom of a worm composter that someone gave me makes a great bath for birds and bees. Will put some rocks in it for bees to sit on.

Allan made rhubarb crumble from my first rhubarb picking of the year. Glad I got round to picking it.

Sunday, 15 May 2022

Reading at home

Rain and more rain. Cold. I left my sweatshirt out yesterday. Skooter wants nothing to do with the weather. I wish I could weed more but I will relish finishing my book. Mary and Denny, of my longtime former job Klipsan Beach Cottages, now retired. almost visited, but we postpone it because of weather. I want to meet their new puppy, Charlie!

We will meet Charlie next month! Photo by Mary Caldwell