Fall plans

-make a compost pile
-put a composter on your list for Christmas ConsumerReports.org - Compost bins 7/04: Garden, gardening, fertilizer.
-split and disperse hasta garden
-move some daisies and coneflower to the side
-propogate more ground cover?
-experiment with bulbs
-split up that bush in front for 2 plantings (find out if this is a good idea, the early bloomer with big fluffy pink blooms)
-get Ken to cut out the 2 huge roots
-decide on what to plant inbetween the windows (thoughts---that tall whispy purple stuff or the white shoots with spiky plants (where is my recall today) or investigate bushes)

Thinking ahead

Thinking ahead to next year, I need to use taller fence for the wild flowers. They are pretty tall, and I think because they are up against the house they bend quite a bit trying to reach for sun. If I use a tall fence (about a foot 1/2 high) they look better. They also cover some other plantings like the yellow ones (can't think of the name right now).

July 27th pics

Here are pictures of around the yard. I didn't add the butterfly garden because I ran out of film. My favorite right now is the balloon flower above. The buds look like balloons before they open. I was hoping for more blooms. I think I see one more. Maybe next year.

The left side of the North side of cottage. The flowers aren't as plentiful on this side. It's also more weedy. I need to take care of that.

This is the right side of the North side. The japanese silver grass is in front and not doing what i thought they would.


This is ground cover that I thought was interesting. It only has one bloom too. Again I hope it is just first year planting. Maybe more next year. But I'll take suggestions if there are any!
These are the day lillies. I had to plant them fast so here they are. I haven't removed the grass around them yet.

Look sideways here.

Martha Stuart Wildflowers

In the back of this picture, you can see how the Martha Stuart Wild Flower mix is doing. It started blooming in early July and seems to have lots more blooms to go.
The Veragated Japanese Silver Grass is in the middle of the long wall not looking like I thought it should. I need to find out what to do with it. The catmint is looking about the same. I planted them at the same time so I wonder if I did something wrong with both of them (Kyndall actually did the digging.

I realize you can't really see this very well, but close up it looks nice, even though something knocked the right side of the wild flowers down. I think it was a deer, but it could have been the strong wind and storm we had 2 weeks ago.

Here is a close up of the wild flowers and how they look on 7/24/07.

There is also a close up of the yellow flowers (I've temporarily forgotten their names). I love them as border flowers. I want to get more for the other side of that wall. My impatients aren't doing as well as I would like, mostly for lack of watering probably. The clematis behind them started the summer great and have then stopped. I'm hoping it's just a first year thing and next year they will do better. I worry that it is because I didn't loosen up the ground well enough when I first dug them (I didn't know I was supposed to then.)

I would really like to take a horticulture class to get all the basics down.

Day lillies

I planted some day lillies today (from Ken's grandpa and grandma). After getting 3/4 of the way through I remembered reading that I'm supposed to dig 3 times as deep as the roots and add compost and such, but I didn't. I think daylillies are tough though and shouldn't have any problems.

I also have some lamb's ear from Mom and tough little plants that I don't know the name of from Ken's grandmother. I'm hoping to decide tomorrow where to put them and clean up the front of the cottage. It's a weedy mess.

Butterfly garden7/20/07

Grace was excited about the butterflies.

Grace was excited about all the butterflies.