Essential tools

There are two tools that I had never used before in the garden that now I simply could not live without.  First is the "ken ho" weeder.  I have 2 now, one is from the Asian grocery store and it works very well, and only cost about six dollars, but it isn't stainless.  The other is stainless a bit smaller but works just as well.  These suckers can weed!  They are especially helpful on things like ground ivy and not bad on crabgrass either.

The second tool is a real workhorse, the garden knife or soil knife.  It makes dividing perennials much easier and for really big weed roots it can't be beat.

Two more essentials that you may not think are useful in the garden shed are a pair of scissors, and a pair of pliers.  The scissors cut twine, shade cloth and all sorts of things.  The pliers pull out nails that seem to be stuck in fences and pieces of wood, weeds emerging from cracks in pavement, and even stakes that seem to have been cemented into the ground.

Peonies

It turns out that I have some lovely peonies in the yard that a previous owner planted.  They are gorgeous and smell divine.  Sadly, I can't bring them inside because I have read that they are poisonous to cats.  :(   My cat Zuzu will nibble plants I bring in so I will have to admire them when I am outside.  I made a bouquet of peonies for my sister the other day with roses and salvia.  Quite lovely if I say so myself!  At least someone will get to have them inside.  My sister and brother-in-law's German shepherd doesn't eat plants (although we are not too sure what she would do with a cat, lol). 

Just planted lavender between rain storms

Finally planted the lavender.  They were starting to look a bit shabby, at least the small ones.  The other ones, Super lavender, Goodwin Creek and Kew Red were still mostly looking presentable.  But the Lady lavender, the smallest look a bit under the weather.  Before I planted I need to have some bushes cut down and add some sand to the soil.  All of this had to be done in between several days of off and on rain and off and on energy!  At least I can rest now.  Well I can rest until the next round of planting and sowing which is, well, next week.  Yikes I better buy the tomatoes already.  Wish me, or the lavender, luck.  It should rain again soon.  Sigh.

Roses

The previous owners of my house planted a lot of roses.  Also a lot of Japanese holly (blech).  Anyway, many of the roses didn't make it through last years summer.  I think they were A) planted too closely together, B) not particularly hardy for this climate and C) not repeat bloomers and D) they had no scent.  My philosophy with roses is they must repeat bloom all season and have a nice scent, otherwise you just have a bunch of thorny canes growing most of the year, not very attractive.  So any roses that looked like the wouldn't make it or didn't have the above attributes were pulled up.  That has left some beautiful wild possibly rugosa roses with a great scent, a scent free Knockout rose, an orange rose that blooms fairly well but also had no scent, and a lovely Queen Elizabeth rose, likewise no scent.  Plus a few that I cannot name that look alright but don't smell like anything.  Last spring I planted a Zepherine Drouhin climbing which is a real winner in my book.  It blooms repeatedly, smells like rose heaven and has NO thorns.  I will have to gradually replace the older roses with winners like the ZD and other old garden roses.  Black spot be damned, I will have my roses!

Just changed to new photos

Just uploaded new photos.  The background is a Zepherine Drouhin climbing rose.  We have had such lovely spring weather in the last few days that I have been able to sit outside in the afternoons and read.  But of course the hot weather will come soon enough.  Please enjoy the photos of a snow pea, Japanese maple and seed pods, salvia and roses, ZD climbing rose, window box and squirrel topiary! 

I had a small salad of fresh greens from the garden tonight.  Yum. 

PS Please remind me to tone down the veggie garden next year.  Just too much stuff to take care of!  Next year I will plant a cottage garden in the side beds instead of veggies.  I swear, honest!

Just received lavender plants!

My order of lavender plants arrived from Richter's Herbs today.  They are tiny.  I kept thinking that I had to prepare a massive area in a side bed for these plants.  Of course they will eventually grow bigger but I really had grandiose plans.  Thank goodness the size of the plants and the amount of my energy (low) combined with a limited window of opportunity to get my neighbor's help will make the job much, much easier.  I was going to move a couple of shrubs and dig out some others (or should I say have someone do it for me), but now I see that one of these bushes is a lovely dark pink azalea and wouldn't that look stunning next to lavender?  Never mind that they require completely different levels of pH.  They will just have to live with the soil as it is!  Luckily I think they are both relatively adaptable plants and the soil there appears to be neither too acid nor too alkaline.  The other bushes are 2 Japanese hollies and a mystery shrub that doesn't flower and just takes up room.(why did a previous owner of this house plant so many Japanese holly bushes in so random of a pattern so close together?).   So out they go.  Or I should say off with their heads.  We plan to cut them down at the soil level and let the roots die off.  Well, that is the theory.  Wish me luck.

Mother's Day Gifts for Mother Earth

Instead of giving mom cut flowers for mother's day, why not give her a plant that she can plant in the ground.  This excellent advice was suggested by the people at "Plant more Plants", the organization to plant plants to help the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  Yes, planting perennial plants, shrubs and trees helps the soil absorb more water lessening runoff which ends up in the bay after picking up chemicals and unwanted waste products along the way.  Ironically lawns DO NOT absorb as much water and filter it through the root system as other types of plants.  In fact if one plants turf (a fancy name for grass) made of the typical types of grass (bluegrass, fescues and ryegrass for cool humid areas, and zoysia for warm weather. We live in an area where neither type does well), the density of the grass can slow down the absorption.  Even worse are the massive amounts of fertilizer that people use on these lawns.  Because lawn grasses do not grow well in this climate, we have to use much more water and fertilizer to keep them green.  On top of the heavy use factor is that many people use too much fertilizer, so much so that it is not used by the grasses and is washed out into the bay instead.  When it gets there it contributes to algae growth and other issues.  So do both of your mother's a favor!  Plant a plant!  If your mother lives in an apartment (like mine does) plant something she loves in your garden that she can come and visit! 

Check out "Plant more Plants" and also the Maryland General Assembly Bill SB487 "Fertilizer Use Act"