Crowded House

While Todd finally unpacks his office and sets up shelving inside...

...I've been spending every spare minute working outside.  I've been struggling with some of the results of my first-year decisions in the garden:  cramming too many plants in a too-small space.  I naturally like a dense, messy garden, but in some cases, we have a really crowded house!

Between the Solomon's seal and the columbines, this little fern could barely breathe.

This coreopsis plant is completely overshadowed by looming peonies and salvia and therefore is not growing as well as it should be. 

Some things were growing nearly on top of each other!

Look at how healthy this lupine is.

I bought another plant at the same time but put it in a different location, where it doesn't have enough room to thrive.  Huge difference!

I've moved a lot of things around this year to make better garden partners.  It's not just spacing, but color.  I'm pretty pleased with how things are turning out, for the most part.  I tend to rely on 2 main colors for my contrasts - lime green and silvery green - for my favorite flower colors (white, purple/blue, and pink).

This sedum (bottom of picture) is commonly known as graveyard moss, although it's not a moss.  It is such a robust, quick-growing plant that years ago, it became a popular choice for planting on freshly-dug graves.  I love using it with other limes, like this euphorbia, and with silver, like this artemisia.

It looks great against color, like this Sweet William, and darker green, like this lemon thyme.

I planted a trusty lime euphorbia next to catmint, which has lovely purple spikes in summer.

I also like the sharp lime of creeping jenny, which I've tucked into my mint bed.  It's a great contrast against the darker green.  Once I finish propagating it, I'll continue to spread it around the garden.

Lime green looks really good against dark colors, like this penstemon.

This is another much-loved color - dramatic purple leaves.  I have multiples of this plant, and I also have this color in several coral bells plants (see below).  The deep purple looks great against both lime green and silver, which is why I love the artemisia that I planted last year.  Most varieties of artemisia are known as "bullies" because it grows so vigorously, but so far, I love it.  Its feathery foliage and silvery color make it a clear choice over another popular silver plant, dusty miller, that I never warmed up to. 

I also use greens and silvers to 'cool down' hot colors, like red.  I don't tend to like red in the garden, but I love these dainty alpine columbines.  I moved them all around in the garden until they were concentrated in 'cooler' areas with hostas and the artemisia.

I also moved several of them out to the new shade bed I'm building under our pine trees.  They make a nice pop of color there, although they won't be really robust until next year.

Yarrow 'moonshine' also has a lovely silvery tint.  You can see it best in this picture from earlier this  month.

They're all fantastic contrast colors and work well together.  And it gives a nice backdrop for my beloved pinks, purples, and whites. 

I think purple is so dramatic in the garden.  It just works so well with green.

Of course, black goes with everything!  :)

Now that most things are moved around (another huge relocation will happen this fall!), I can sit back and wait for the next stage of blooms.

Have a great week!

how now, brown cow(bird)

Just like the seemingly countless red-wing blackbirds that are making homes among the cattails in our pond, we are nesting!  Slowly.

Some furniture is in, but most of my personal things are still in storage, waiting for the new floor to be laid upstairs.  Most painting is done, except for doors and bathroom.  Four rooms are still waiting for wallpaper.  But we have officially relocated! 

It's a remarkable change.  Total silence and darkness at night, punctuated by millions of flashing lightning bugs.  Cool, quiet mornings, usually just me and the roosters from one of the local horse farms.  Windows open, birds singing.  I've mostly been working inside, but just within the past two days have seen a wild deer, rabbit, and turkey.  Did I mention the birds?

The cowbird is one of our most common visitors.

I've written about them before - about how they don't make nests, but instead steal an egg from another bird's nest and deposit one of their own.  They must be pretty successful at it, because we have a virtual flock (or herd, as Todd says) here!  Another remarkable thing about the cowbird is that although they are raised by different species, they all develop their own (and identical, among their breed) unique song.  I learned pretty quickly that when I heard a sound like gurgling water, a cowbird was probably overhead. 

Speaking of invaders, it took me three consecutive mornings of getting up early and putting in two hours at a time in the garden to remove all of the invasive weeds and vines.  First the gnarled mint roots, then the vinca, Virginia creeper, and wild violets.

I found some new invaders, though.  We have moles!  Several holes have appeared in my newly-weeded beds, and a little head popped in and out of one yesterday while I was working. 

Moles don't eat plant roots.  They're insectivores and are strictly after worms, centipedes, grubs, and slugs...which, with the exception of worms, cause plant damage in the garden.  They're pretty remarkable creatures, more closely related to bats than rodents.  Their saliva contains a paralyzing agent, which enables them to eat prey at their leisure. They can tunnel 15 feet per hour!  I would never poison a mole.  A cat can eat a poisoned mole and die...a fox can eat the poisoned cat...a bird can eat the poisoned fox corpse...it's a terrible way for an animal to die, anyway.  You can humanely trap and relocate moles by planting cans in the ground beneath their tunnels, for all the world like an old-fashioned tiger trap.  For now I don't see the harm, so I'll let them be.

Another invader - a four-lined plant bug set up shop amongst my transplanted mint.  Its salivary glands make up 20% of its body weight, so you can see that they have plenty of destructive saliva to make these dark spots on plants.  These were easy enough to pick off by hand.

This little guy overnighted on our screen door daily for the past week!  It's a banded tiger moth.  It's got beautiful coloring...

...with a surprise dark orange inner wing pair that it occasionally flashes.

Another harmless 'invader' but one that I'm pretty excited about is this fungus growing around the bottom of a wooden planter.  It's easy to see why it's called Dead Man's Fingers!

They'll grow appropriately long, spindly, and creepy before they're through, then start turning black.  Aren't they amazing?!?  I can't wait to see how long it takes for us to have a whole 'hand'!

(above photo credit Boredom Therapy)

We've had a week of rain, with intermittently hot days, so when one of the bird feeders out front overturned and spilled about two cups of seed into the front bed, it didn't take long for a massive patch of sprouting greens to come up.

These were pulled along with the weeds, so I've been very busy outside.  I was a kid who spent a lot of time outside in the mud, and thankfully I haven't changed much.  I love weeding and love rooting around in the dirt.  It's exciting to see my little garden start to grow.  Although I don't expect much for a few years ("Gardens:  the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap!"), even my small blooms are enjoyable.

Spearmint...

Foxgloves, one of four:

Stock, an old-fashioned Victorian cottage garden annual with a delicious scent:

Newly-planted fern, one of three, showing new life:

Baptisia, with their pea-like leaves and dainty purple flowers:

Bright-faced yarrow:

Lady's Mantle, with their delightful leaves that show off beaded water like columbines:

Even our bleeding heart still has a few flowers, even though it's nearly June:

I hate leaving 16" - 18" blank spots around my tiny plants, not just because it's not aesthetically pleasing but because empty healthy, composted soil invites weeds...but my little plants will grow and spread.  I'll collect seeds from these plants this fall and increase their number by 10 - 20 each, hopefully, in the spring.  This tiny little garden is going to grow and spread nicely!

Even though certain cats are not yet allowed outside to assist...

...baby steps are being made toward something wonderful, I hope.

Have a great week!