Each Little World

This and that in the garden

Our weather has been so up and down that I've got more and more plants waiting to get put into the ground. In the meantime, I've done a lot of waiting, walking around with a notepad, changing my mind about what goes where and waiting some more. Things are so behind in making their appearance that I can't be sure where the empty spots are that I have plants ready to plug into. So I've been noticing quirky things that might not have caught my eye if I'd been busy planting. 

Iris lacustris 'Alba' is a lake Iris that typically grows in "slightly acidic, shallow, moist, sandy, or rocky soils." This area of the garden near the edge of the pond was very pebbly once upon a time, but has slowly accumulated enough soil to become mossy. Apparently the Iris don't really mind.

One of my Dryopteris crassirhizoma ferns has developed three separate crowns. That means I can divide it and have three of this gorgeous plant. Doesn't always happen, but what a thrill when it does. 

Last summer I kept noticing a clump of foliage on this woodland Peony that looked different. I kept thinking I was imagining it. This spring, there's no question that a potentially different Peony has moved in. I'm hoping once they both bloom I will know if my eyes are playing tricks or if the Peony is. 

Adiantum venustum is so assertive in my garden that I thought it had fatally consumed this little gem: Pteridophyllum racemosum. It looks like a fern but has delicate white flowers. I will move this to a safer spot tomorrow. 

March. Ugh.

The weather is veering from lamb to lion and back again. Saturday's high was 53°F. ( 11.66°C.), but it brought thunderstorms with heavy rain and wind. Despite the ground being frozen, no water made it into the basement. This morning's temp is 28°F., but feels like 22° according to Weatherbug. 

At this stage of the winter, I am less interested in more snow. We did not get it early in the season when we needed it to protect the garden against the cold. Without checking the record books, this is one of the driest winters I can recall in many years of living in Wisconsin. A walk around the garden Sunday afternoon showed a muddy mess with endless twigs, small branches and locust pods littering the ground. 

i snapped a few wide shots to help me remember what areas held onto the snow longest. Most of the front garden was still snow covered as that's the  north side of the house.

Everything that's not green is under standing water in this shot, including ferns planted last year. How did I not know this spot was so problematic?

Rabbits devoured a dwarf Hemlock planted last fall, two dwarf Oak Leaf Hydrangesas (3 years old) and a 5 year old 'Orange Rocket' Barberry. That's only what I've noticed so far. 

I never went out to look closely at what the city water crew did in December when they had to access the line to do a repair. I was horrified at what a mess they left behind in my Geranium macrorrhizum bed by the street. The blue cap is the water line. They moved the rock marker and filled in the hole with new dirt bit it doesn't look good. Maybe I won't feel as frustrated when the surrounding plants begin to grow in a month. 

On the up side, snowdrops are starting appear. 

Arum itlaicum 'Ghost' just needs the rest of the snow to disappear to start her spring growth spurt. 

I am always curious to see what ferns still look good after snow, ice and freezing temps. This is Dryoteris erythrosora 'Brilliance' aka Autumn Fern. Once this old growth gets removed it takes a long time for this plant to send up its new fronds. You have to mark where this is growing or you will accidentally plant something on top of it. 

Just past the above ferns, the sedges are looking lovely: Carexes pennsylvania and radiata. 

Across the path Polystichum makinoi  actually has its fronds standing upright!

Every year as the ratty snow along the curb starts to melt, I look there to see the first signs of spring. Most years, those signs are empty beer bottles or cigarette packs. This year's souvenir is a COVID mask. Perhaps a driver tossed it from his car window pleased to see the numbers are going down. Somehow I don't think it's the last one I'll find out there. 

Look what happened overnight. See what I mean about lions and lambs. I guess I won't be picking any of those snowdrops as soon as I'd thought. 

New plants for 2022

Yes, I am ordering online again, long before local nurseries will open. It's possible I'll discover I would have been able to buy some of these locally, but I am not going to wait and see. I've ordered very few perennials; concentrating instead on ferns and Carexes that will be happy in my mostly shady garden and some shrubs that will help me cut down on maintenance. 

Here are a few of the plants I've ordered, though I know that ordering things early doesn't always mean you will get them. Fingers crossed.

. . .

Asplenium-scolopendrium-Furcata, a hart's tongue fern with lots of fascinating splits. I've had mixed luck with these but plan to add this to the two that have been in my garden a long time.

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

I have had excellent luck with Dryopteris ferns and am always interested in adding more. Dryopteris-cambrensis, aka log fern, can supposedly deal with more heat and humidity than many ferns. It gets 30" x 3' which should be quite a sight eventually. 

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

I've been successful with autumn ferns, making it sensible to try this one: Dryopteris erythrosora var. prolifica (prolific lacy autumn fern). PDN says it's drought tolerant and that the fronds emerge cinnamon red. 

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

This drama queen looks too good to pass up, so I ordered three. Dryopteris wallichiana 'Jurassic Gold' hails from the Jurassic coast of England. Will it really look like this? I'll let you know. 

WHITE FLOWER FARM

I also ordered three of Dryopteris affinis crispa 'Congesta', a dwarf crisped golden-scaled male fern. I tend to have more large ferns and don't find many small ones that appeal to me. 

KEEPING IT GREEN NURSERY

I've had a lone Osmunda claytoniana, Interrupted fern, growing in the front garden for years. I decided it was time to give it some company, so I'm adding two more. It's a Wisconsin native. 

PRAIRIE NURSERY

I ordered five Carex exurbina, Ivory sedge, to put around the big tree off the deck. At 6"-1' x 1' they will be small enough that I can slip a shrublet in between, but big enough to make a statement. 

PRAIRIE NURSERY

I planted one Carex morrowii 'Silk Tassel' last summer and like it so much I'm adding five more this summer. At 1' x 2' they will make a lovely contrast on the Tea House berm with evergreen shrubs, blue Hostas and Hakonechloa grass. 

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

I have been lusting for a ruby muhly grass for years and finally found one listed for Zone 5, Muhlenbergia reverchonii 'Undaunted'. Really looking forward to giving this a try.

WHITE FLOWER FARM

Before I ordered anything I determined where the plant would go. Then I made my usual id cards for each plant and noted its exact location on the back side of the card. At first I grouped the cards by the nursery where I ordered them.

Later I decided it made more sense to group them by the location where they would be planted. That way I can mentally go through what is already growing, what I'm adding and whether I need anything else.

What does lower maintenance mean?

Now that Mark and I are in our mid-70s, it seems obvious that we need to seriously "reduce maintenance" on our garden. It's a concept that's widely touted, but harder to define. I've had a garden consult with Madison's Jeff Epping, Director of  Horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I've Googled the subject and read endless articles on it.

The articles tell you that if you think of all the chores that your garden requires, those are generally what you need to reduce; jobs like watering, weeding, pruning, deadheading, and dividing plants and cutting grass.

Ann Lovejoy, whose garden books were among my first purchases, suggests installing gravel paths instead of grass. That's because gravel paths let water drain and they don’t need the maintenance that grass paths do. But we did that a dozen years ago. We also replaced our concrete driveway with pavers set in sand.

Surrounding trees with plants instead of lawn is another idea. Done.

Grass is one of the highest maintenance plants one can grow; getting rid of it reduces maintenance and helps the environment — which is probably not news to most of you. We've been in the process of saying goodbye to the last grass on our property for a number of years. There's one little bit left that should be gone by the end of next summer. We're mainly replacing it with native sedges.

Jeff suggested adding more ground covers and shrubs in mass plantings the way we've already done in our driveway. Since I have a lot of shade, I have been adding more ferns (native and other), Carexes, Epimediums and Hellebores. I have a list of shrubs I'm hoping to add this year.

Jeff also said that I should only have a couple of special areas for plants that require work. I have been trying to reduce the number of perennial beds, but it's hard to do. I am trying to think in terms of big sweeps of one or two easy plants with a few drama queens mixed in. I'm currently inspired by this area of the Hermannshof Gardens in Germany. (Photo by James Golden)

Perhaps the most helpful concept about lower maintenance I found was this question: 

"Where do you spend the most chore time in the garden, and which part of the garden is the most enjoyable?"

The article pointed out that it is unlikely that these places are the same. It suggested that identifying high maintenance areas should then help us to make good choices about which garden features to alter or eliminate.

They suggested replacing a fast-growing hedge with a fence. We pulled out our dying hedge and put in a fence last year. Another hedge, generally low maintenance, will have dying shrubs pulled out and replaced with new ones this spring. 

If each of these changes is the right one, then it should mean less work and energy will be needed to still have a satisfying garden. Whether I am really moving far enough and fast enough in the right direction remains to be seen. 

A new fence

I posted these first two images in the summer of 2020 when I was writing about garden reality versus the pictures we post on FB, Instagram and our blogs. 

This was the state of our Arborvitae hedge along the west property line after almost 20 years. It was being shaded out by trees we planted and damaged by snowfalls and snow piles from our neighbor's parking spot. 

In December of 2020, we had a big snowstorm which brought down one of the trunks of the neighbor's Arborvitae tree (rear of the scene) and almost flattened our hedge on the right. This year we kissed the hedge goodbye and Mark took it out. 

Mark checked with the neighbors and the city and located the lot line. Then we decided on the kind of fence we wanted to put in, in place of the hedge. It's cedar, board-on-board, meaning the front and back sides are the same. The boards are the same width as the ones on the neighbor's fence, so ours will complement theirs (below). Ours will also fade to the same subtle gray color. 

We used a company called Amerifence. The gentleman who came out to talk to us and give us the estimate and the team who put in the fence were all pleasant and professional. On Tuesday of this week they put in the metal support posts. 

They came back the next day to attach the boards. 

We get along well with these neighbors and have a gate into their garden in the fence that separates our properties farther down this side of the garden. They knew we wanted to hide their white vehicles, so they were fine with the type and height of fence we put in. 

There's so much greenery on both sides that the fence will be much less noticeable in the growing season. 

The crew was very respectful of the plantings and followed the gravel path through the front garden; which meant walking along meandering curves to avoid dormant plants and a lot of "fern crowns."

Even thought the fence was just a long straight line, I was amazed to watch it all come together so quickly. 

Look at the way those River Birch trunks show up against it.

It's such an attractive backdrop, I think I will plant more big ferns in front of it. 

It really changes the view of the front garden as you come down our street. Mark thinks the fence will become the landmark people look for when they come to our house in the future. I think he's correct for now. But I'm guessing it will be barely noticed once the garden is green again. 

December delights

Despite overnight lows down into the teens and snow flurries a number of times last month, my garden is surprisingly green for December 1st. Of course, my conifers are the green mainstay once serious snow arrives. For now, however, quite a few plants are still providing bursts of greenery.

Many of  my Carexes retain their color, but none looks better than C. plantaginea. I have it growing in ground cover swaths as well as specimen plants like this one along the stone steps up into the front garden. 

At the top of the steps is one of many Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides), all looking good. This fern takes a while to attain a decent size; but once there, it is an instant garden treasure. 

Not far from the Christmas fern is this big patch of Epimedium perralchicum 'Weihenstephan'. This is one variety that retains good looking green foliage longer than any other Epimedium variety in my garden. 

This Helleborus foetidus functions as a shrub in the back garden. 

Luzula sylvatica 'Solar Flare' is interspersed among Hellebores and spring snowdrops. It keeps its bright yellow green color until the snow covers it. 

Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' is a Zone 6 plant that has survived for three years in my Z5 garden. It always looks good but the plant is shrinking rather than growing. 

Last spring I moved and divided my Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance'). It has taken a long time for me to finally find the right home for this fern but all of them settled in beautifully and are still looking sprightly. 

I keep adding interesting ferns when I see them. Polystichum makinoi is from a PNW nursery but has done well here. 

The deceptively delicate-looking Adiantum venustum aka the Himalayan maidenhair fern. When this fern is happy it can be a bit of a monster. Another clump of it is currently eating an Epimedium that may not survive the process. 

There are a number of Digitalis seedlings in the garden which make it look like spring is almost here!

In a vase on Thanksgiving

A few weeks ago, when we closed up the Tea House for the winter, I decided to re-use the vase and its contents that had been on display there. The ivy had faded and started to dry out, so I added more dried items: A fern and a Hydrangea flower. 

I always get pomegranates as soon as I see them in the grocery store. I love their shininess, as well as the way the red echoes the trim on the gold screen on the wall. They are my not-so-subtle nod to Christmas waiting in the wings. 

Soft faded colors always look good with the big guy. 

Hope you all have a safe and satisfying holiday. 

Pond re-design: Filling it back up

Mark said he would build a "bridge" over my Carexes that edged the east end of the pond. That way he could move fill material into the empty pond without harming my big sweep of this fabulous ground cover. My notes suggest I only ever planted one Carex siderosticha 'Variegata' on Oct. 1, 1997. Since that was the end of our first summer of building the pond, I may have just bought one as an accent plant. 

No matter how many plants I started with or how many times I've divided it, I never tire of this plant. I also never see it for sale anymore, so I did not want to take a chance on losing any. 

I told Mark they would not survive four months under a wooden structure. So he dug out a big patch of them where his bridge was going to be. I was happy with his response, but it meant I unexpectedly had another planting project that had not been on my radar at all. 

While I tried to keep my Carexes alive and find new homes for them, Mark added all our concrete debris from last year's deck re-do, along with big concrete blocks discarded by our neighbor. 

He smashed some of the larger pieces up to make everything fit as solidly as possible into the deep center pond area. 

He screwed a board at the end of his bridge to stop the wheelbarrow and hold it in place while he tipped it up and dumped debris. 

The next layer was 4 tons of washed pea gravel which was delivered in mid-June. At this point Mark had been working on the big pond or the Upper Pool since the beginning of April. 

The pea gravel layer is the base for the two finishing layers.

Mark or his very able assistant, Angelo, would bring a barrow load of gravel from the pile in the driveway into the back garden. Then they would empty it into another wheelbarrow down in the pond. 

Mark's main job was to then spread the loads around the pond surface.

Though we had a very dry summer, we did get enough rain at times to let us see how water was being absorbed into the ground in this area. 

Almost ready for the finishing layers of fill. 

The next two pictures show what the edge of the pond looked like at this point. Most of the decorative stone from the edges has been put out of the way of the work. 

You can clearly see where the original water level in the pond came to on this rock which was within the pond. 

Mark carefully calculated the depth of each fill layer he was putting in the pond. That way the final layer would be at the level he wanted. 

Meanwhile I found places for my many bins of Carex siderosticha 'Variegata'. 

I had been planting the big slope above the pond since 2019 when I replaced weedy dying grass with a swath of Hakonechloa macra across the lower part of the hill. Though I planned to use Carex pennsylvanica to fill this area, I decided it would be a good spot to add my variegated Carex as well. 

I put some of the Carex along the edge of the path between the two hills and then started filling in down the slope.

I decided the Carex would bring a little visual light to the area while it functioned as green mulch. I also added a couple of my boxwood seedlings that had attained a reasonable size.

This area is where we took out one of the Scots pines on the slope last summer. Sensitive ferns (Onoclea sensibility) had seeded themselves around its trunk. They are lovely when they first show up in spring but want more moisture than they are getting in this spot. Plus they disappear early, making a very visible brown spot.  

I moved a lackluster shrub — Chamaecyparis obtuse 'Hibari' — into the center of the ferns. I am hoping it will get more light here and do better. I am going to move the Sensitive ferns to a new home come spring. This photo (below) is not in the correct order of the process but it shows the areas of Penn Sedge that I planted on the left and right sides of the slope this spring.

The area with the ferns etc. is above the newly planted Carex Pennsylvanica on the left. The variegated Carexes are in a big clump behind the trunk of the Scots pine on the left. The bright greens are Penn sedge higher on the hill and Japanese forest grass across the lower part of the slope.

Next up: The finishing layers

A nice hit of rain

Woke to a gently falling rain this morning that made it a pleasure to have Saturday coffee at home. We usually meet our friends at our local coffee shop, but all the news about the COVID variants made us wary of coffee indoors, anywhere but here. 

We got .41" of rain and are hoping for a bit more this afternoon. 

Speaking of ferns

I did not pay attention to the names of the first couple of ferns I planted in my early gardening days. They are absolute workhorses, producing offsets, standing tall and never being bother by pests or disease. Below are a few of my current favorites to whose names I now pay attention. 

Cheilanthes lanosa 'Mighty Tiday' aka hairy lip fern. About 6" tall and planted in the rock garden in the sun.

Dryopteris felix-mas 'Linearis polydactyla'. This is big, lacy and can take dry shade. I bought one in 1995 and another in 1997. Since then I've cut off divisions to create clumps of this fern all over the garden.

Adiantum venustum aka Himalayan maidenhair (bottom). Fancy Fronds says "rip 'em apart for propagation and that's just what I do.

Adiantum x tracyi. I have had great luck with the straight Maidenhair fern and so am trying others in that family.

Adiantum aleuticum Imbricatum aka dwarf Western maidenhair. The rabbits ate one of the three I planted a year or so ago, this spring. Luckily it seems to be reviving. 

Polystichum makinoi (Makino's holly fern)

Polystichum retrosopaleaceum aka narrow tassel fern

I seem to have the right condition for the basic Japanese painted fern as it tends to seed around the garden. When I am happy with where it plants itself, I let it grow on. This is a moist location with a Larch and new primroses. I am planning on having an almost solid fern ground cover here.