My garden was going to be one of the stops on the 2020 Garden Bloggers Fling in Madison until the pandemic put paid to such group events. Now I am glad it got postponed as it seems like it's been one problem after another in the garden.
First up was a leak in the stream between our pond and the header pool above it. Mark managed to find that leak and fix it. All was well until we realized there was yet another leak which still has not been identified. In the meantime, the pond is turned off so we can monitor the water level while Mark continues to investigate.
Mark promised me that he would give me ten years of his time to create a garden. He's devoted the better part of twenty years to it, but is more than ready to leave things up to me. I have never really managed the pond in all those years, so I just left the lilies that a critter upended out of their pots to float upside down on the pond. It does not seem to have stopped them from blooming.
The garden is full of vignettes like this: plants in pots where you least expect them and where they don't add to the charm of the landscape. On the upside, all my loose pots are nicely caged to protect them from the bunnies.
Finishing a project does not mean putting away the things you used — like buckets of rocks from the pond. There are no visitors coming to the garden, so who needs to clean up as they go?
Our Japanese maple that we thought was killed in the polar vortex of 2018/19. It is coming back but looks pretty ridiculous at the moment. Still undecided if it should stay or go.
The floral stalwarts of the garden did not make an appearance — or barely so — this year. Lilium landini is totally MIA while the Martagons got hit by the late frost and did not perform well at all. So there would have been no big floral display for the Bloggers if they had come.
But the really big problems are the big items in the garden like our Arborvitae hedge that has been destroyed by the last few winters. The plants probably need a truck and a chain to put them out which can be done via our neighbor's driveway. They will be replaced with a fence to obscure the sight of their vehicles. But Mark is much less interested in designing a fence than he once was, so we just walk by this mess and ignore it.
In addition to this major problem in the front garden, it appears verticillium wilt has killed half of one of the trees that keeps my garden in the back from frying up in the late afternoon. None of this would feel so overwhelming if we were comfortable just called various folks to deal with these problems. But we are really limiting contact with anyone but a few close friends.
So I am just trying to ignore all the problems and enjoying planting, cutting flowers for the house and even weeding which has been a breeze given our endless rain in June.
Oh gosh, you've got a lot of problems going on but the silver lining is that the tour was cancelled so you don't have to stress as much as you might have. The old dogwoods in my yard, at least eleven, have varying degrees of deadwood and I think they are all on the way out. The biggest loss will the two that border my "courtyard" giving shade and screening me from the road. Losing trees is disturbing when you have planted relying on their shade.
Posted by: Barbara H. | Friday, July 10, 2020 at 08:05 AM
I am sure, had the bloggers visited, all they would have seen was beauty. I'm not making light of your problems, just noting that others usually have more forgiving eyes.
Posted by: Loree / danger garden | Friday, July 10, 2020 at 11:25 AM
Your garden is so lovely that I wouldn't notice any of this unless you pointed it out to me. Jim is hopefully getting a leak fixed right now. He had a cycling accident Sunday, two screws put to stabilize a broken sacrum Wednesday, and now they're trying to find and fix a bleeder. It's been a week! Wait, it's only been five days...
Posted by: Kristin | Friday, July 10, 2020 at 12:32 PM
I suspect that anyone who's ever hosted a garden tour has faced a similar litany of problems. After all, Mother Nature - and general circumstance - never stop throwing wrenches into the gears of life. The Japanese maple looks like an art piece to me. What's the story behind the tower in the last photo?
Posted by: Kris P | Friday, July 10, 2020 at 05:56 PM
You with too much rain and here not enough. You just never know. It does rather dash your hopes for a wonderful gardening year to have such problems. I hope you get them all sorted out. I don't mind leaving things out if I can't look out the window and see them. It drives me crazy if I can see them. ha... Your j Maple looks like you tried to bonsai it in the ground. It appears that it is trying to recuperate. Good luck. I hope Mark is feeling alright. He is a trooper.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Friday, July 10, 2020 at 07:01 PM
Every year and every garden has challenges and unique beauty. Your garden is amazing, no matter what. But I know what you mean that sometimes the challenges seem to happen all at once, and they can be overwhelming. Hang in there. :)
Posted by: Beth @ PlantPostings | Friday, July 10, 2020 at 10:10 PM
Your Japanese maple now looks like a character from a Dr. Seuss book! No heat or rain here, just temperatures too cool to make it feel like summer. Yesterday it actually got up to 72°...a heat wave!
Posted by: Christine | Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at 08:45 AM