Is there a more encouraging sign in spring than the emergence of the peony stems?

These tough as nails performers come back year after year without fail; and that’s saying something when you have conditions like mine.

Soon, we’ll see these:

Turn into these:

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I use this ground cover EVERYWHERE. It survives wet conditions, drought, trampling from the dog and gives you sweet spring blooms and awesome foliage color the rest of the year. Not to mention, it couldn’t be easier to divide. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

As I surveyed the rest of my garden yesterday, I found myself excited from all of the new growth, blooms, etc, but quickly moved on to “glass half empty” mode. I can’t help it, it’s who I am. It drives me insane but also drives me to keep on tinkering and improving.

Here are some examples of my thoughts as I strolled through Le jardin du John:

“Uh oh, the dreaded hole in the middle. Time to divide this 4 year old clump of Siberian iris. Do I do it now? Wait until after bloom? Where do I go with the divisions? My head hurts.”

“These daffodil blooms are nice and all, but only 3? I must have planted at least 8-10 bulbs two years ago. Why do I bother? Will I remember that these are there when I add more plants over the next few months? Actually, wait, can I handle letting this foliage die back naturally first? I need a friggin plan.”

“Candytuft blooms coming. Nice, but they would look better in bulk. Do I have room for more? Wait, they need good drainage and this is one of the few spots where I have decent drainage. So I can’t fit more. What was I planning on doing again?”

“Every f’n year I take a close up of these Viburnum ‘Aurora’ blooms. Do you think readers know you only get 2-3 blooms on this shrub a year because the deer eat the buds in the fall/winter? Think they wonder why I never photograph the enrtire shrub?”

There you have it.

Me in a nutshell.

This gardening thing is fun but so damn maddening at the same time.

All of the Ajuga (Bugleweed) ‘Chocolate Chip’ busted out in a big time today. I’ve only got one photo for now since I waited too late into the evening to take it.

More to come soon. It is EVERYWHERE … and that is a good thing: 

By early to mid summer, this grass looks fantastic and is a consistent performer year after year.

So what do you say we make some more?

I divided this warm season grass once before, about 3 years ago, and turned one plant into four. Here are two of the four as of summer 2012: 

Not quite full size but definitely on their way.

The grass to be divided for today, sits at the corner of my deck and has clearly outgrown its space as seen in the two pics below:

So there was no better time than now to get down and dirty and cut me up some ornamental grass.

The first step was to dig a trench around the perimeter of the grass so it could be lifted out of the ground and cut into pieces:

And that sounds a hell of a lot easier than it truly was. We’re talking major shovel work and pounding and serious assistance from a giant shale bar. The root ball was covered in sticky ass clay (shocker) and so heavy, that I couldn’t lift it out of the hole.

Originally I thought about chopping away at the grass while it was still planted in the ground but the effort was futile. I couldn’t chop through the roots cleanly enough so I moved on to plan B where I settled on lifting the plant out of the ground just enough so I could then chop it up into smaller pieces.

Exhibit A – 1/2 of the grass in the front with 1/4 pieces in the back:

The cuts were relatively clean and I know this process worked in the past so I was ready to do the same again. All I know is, thank the heavens for inventing the shale bar:

I then moved on to cutting the 1/2 piece into 1/4 pieces and that couldn’t have been easier. A few massive stabs and boom:

I now had four grass divisions to work with. One went back into the same hole it just came from but moved away from the deck a bit more so I won’t have to divide again for a few years.

Another went to a new locale fillling in where an arborvitae had recently been removed:  

I then decided to cut the two remaining 1/4 divisions in half. If my mathematical genius serves me correctly, I now had four 1/8 sections left to plant.

I planted them all near each other at the edge of the woods on my property figuring they would have plenty of time to mature into a nice mass of kick ass grass: 

This project felt awesomely painful and was a stark reminder that my nearly 41 year old body isn’t what it once was. Wait … check that … I still got it and could keep up with any twentysomething. I ain’t giving in that easily.

I’m even proud of all the cuts and bruises I’m dealing with now as a result. The sting in the shower was a reminder that gardening season was friggin back.

All in a day’s work.

John 

Yeah I got some blooms to enjoy:

Yeah I’ve got some shrubs leafing out with promise of blooms on the way:

Yeah I am enjoying the warmer weather and the sunset in full view from the back deck:

But my heart is still heavy after the events in Boston yesterday.

We witnessed both the worst and best of humanity.

We are doing our best to explain it all to the kids but I don’t even understand it anymore.

I want to see them deeply affected by it and not numb because it has become so commonplace.

Hug the ones you love.

Enjoy the birds, the blooms and the sunsets.

John   

Crocus I swear I have no memories of planting:

The reliable Summer Snowflake (seems immune to overly wet soil):

So many trees are leafing out or forming buds, like this Serviceberry ‘Autumn Brilliance’:

I’m a hardcore foliage guy and one of my faves is the Hypericum ‘Albury Purple’:

The “cool season” ornamental grasses (like this Calamagrostis ‘El Dorado’) are putting on mad growth:

Because I am always paranoid about losing plants over the winter, I am that much more excited when welcoming them back in spring.

My beloved variegated iris:  

Astilbes in their odd early stages:

The consistent performance of Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ is not lost on me:

Lady’s Mantle, always at its best after a rain:

The Dappled Willow ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ is firing on all cylinders:

I’ll even take the non-descript blooms of the boxwoods:

Some how, some way, the Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ survived an extremely wet area and appear to be on their way to blooming. Color me shocked:

And I think I may end every post from this point out with a new photo of a Robin. They are everywhere and they are assisting me with my bird photo training:     

It’s here my friends. Let’s enjoy the hell out of it!

John

Good bye Spirea ‘Goldmound’ or maybe it’s ‘Goldflame’ … who knows. I just don’t like them very much and find the pink blooms on chartreuse foliage to be a bit garish if you will.

Actually, the foliage on this shrub looks good when it first emerges:

A nice contrast to dark foliage too.

But then as the weather warms up, the color starts to fade:

The coneflowers are ‘Sunrise’ and I’m anxious to see how they perform in their new locale:

Eventually, they will be backed by a flock of Karl Foerster ornamental grasses:

And in a few years, will be next to a Baptisia hopefully making for a nice yellow/purple color combo (see the small plug to the left of the coneflowers):

And they will all be backed my this monster of a Ninebark ‘Summer Wine’:

Speaking of which, as you can see, this Ninebark threatens to destroy everything in its path as it has grown out of control and has moved way beyond its so called “maximum size”.

So on a whim, I chopped her back hoping to keep her in bounds a bit more this year:

Yes, I am sacrificing a ton of blooms as a result of the pruning, but truthfully I enjoy the foliage on this shrub way more than I do the mid spring blooms:

So what do you think? Am I going in the right direction? Are you angry at me for disposing of the spirea? Will the Baptisia take over and make this all a moot point?

Please, do tell.

John

And this:

And this:

They are all perennials I had planted last fall in hopes they would hold on through the winter and come back to life this spring. I knew these plants were not very wet tolerant, but how can you resist the end of year sales when you can grab these plants as cheap as a $1.99 a piece?  

But as is the case year after year, my wet soil never allowed them to gain their footing and now they are very, very dead. Or maybe they heaved due to the frost/thaw cycle. Either way, they are goners.

You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now but every once in a while, a plant survives against all odds. Like this Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’:

     
In fact, six of these survived the wet winter (not too mention the swarms of deer) which serves as yet another reminder to stick with what works. Or I should say, stick with what your conditions allow you to grow successfully.

Speaking of deer (and you knew I was going to go there too), don’t plant a bunch of Liriope and expect those darling creatures to ignore them:

And don’t plant heucheras right in their path and expect them to say “no thanks”:

Add a redtwig dogwood to that same equation: 

I repeatedly smacked myself upside the head as I walked into my garage, trying to determine why I make the same mistakes year after year, when I came upon my most recent plant order that arrived in the mail this week. I took a quick inventory of what I had purchased:



When all else fails, the old reliable Catmint is there with visions of better things to come:

Spiderwort doesn’t care about wet feet all winter and that is why she is allowed to stick around year after year:

I have stocked up on all sorts of Bee Balm the last year and they are all spreading as anticipated. I can already smell those delicious minty leaves:

It has gotten so bad that I am way too overjoyed at the site of soon to be boxwood blooms:

And after all of that exploration, there was some time to sit back and wait for the birds to discover my daughter’s newly constructed bird feeder (assuming the daily 125 mph winds don’t knock it down):