Dogwood Winter?

Wintertime is back! I can't believe how cold it is. I went outside to check on things, and my hands froze. Tonight is going to be even colder. I'll have to move some stuff into the garage, and I guess I should cover up my irises with buds.

I don't plant many annuals, but I do love Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia).

Photo from 2007 garden.
I usually buy violet/blue, but pink is beautiful too. I just love the form of this flower.

I also bought a few African daisies (Oesteosermum) Saturday. I needed some round flowers in my roadside/St. Francis garden (the names!).

Photo from this morning. Thank goodness I followed the rule about not planting annuals until April 15! I'll have to move these (still in pots) to the garage tonight.

I went to Farmhouse Gardeners's open house Saturday. Even though I didn't buy much, I just love to wander around that place. It's so beautiful. I did get a few things:

Hosta 'Brim Cup' (for under the River birch shade garden/Dot's Garden/Angel Garden)

Miscanthus s.'Variegatus' (for Pond Hill)

Heuchera brizoides 'Bressingham Mix' (for shade garden)


Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Daruma' (for Pond Hill)


(I'm trying really hard with the Latin-esque thing!)

Here's my little shade area:

I have several things ordered to plant here also. Notice the concrete angel (Concrete Angel would make a great song title. I'll have to work on that.). My mother's beloved angel. I moved it into my garden from hers, and look what happened to it at my house.

Look even closer!

My guilt is huge about this. It did break off in (mostly) one chunk though, and I'm going to try to glue her face back on! Ha. How sad.

Here's your daily moment of chicken:




Oh, and we're on The Unimpressed Chicken! Yay!

First Iris

My first iris is blooming. I can't identify it now, but I'm going to check notes and figure out what it is. It's really beautiful.

Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra. Sidebar: I read a rant about the evils of writing about plants using their common names, instead of proper Latin ones, and now I'm all nervous about it. I go back and forth in real life.) are one (are one?) of my favorite flowers. I love their delicacy. This is in my shade garden, under a River Birch. I have lots of new stuff to plant there. Its official name is Dot's Garden, after my mother, aka The Angel Garden. I have a real problem with garden names.

Rose arch with 'E. Veyrath Hermanos'. I can't wait until this blooms. This leads into my Secret Garden, which is a huge mess at the moment.


My front garden aka Garden of Good and Evil (Previously know as The Fairy Garden. See what I mean about the name problem?!). I want need this to be FULL.

Today's gardening consisted of weeding (which includes cutting dead crap out of roses) on the Pond Hill. The chickens and I got about a third of it done. Clementine, especially, is my faithful garden companion.

Watch out for hose hell!

Catching Up Already

So last year I thought it would be really funny to put this rubber snake on a stone in my front garden. How funny when I scare someone, haha! Of course, I grabbed it while weeding, jumped a mile and screamed bloody murder. It was rubber snake karma, I tell you!

I've been doing lots of weeding and cleaning up. I'm ready for planting and plant relocation.

I placed orders at Bluestone Perennials and Wayside Gardens this week.

From Bluestone:
BRUNNERA Jack Frost
DIGITALIS Obscura
DIGITALIS purpurea Apricot Beauty
DIGITALIS Hyacinth Hybrids
CAMPANULA Kent Belle
ECHINACEA BIG SKY™ SERIES Summer Sky
TRICYRTIS Taipei Silk

From Wayside:
Astilbe 'Purple Lance'
Ilex Southern Gentleman (Male Pollinator)
Epimedium 'Pink Elf' PP#17,228
Hosta 'Aureonebulosa'
Heuchera 'Frosted Violet' PP#15,085

Some happy chicken photos.

Saturday Jumpstart

Went to Lowes and Home Depot today to check out their perennials. It's still really early, but I found a few things.


The haul.


I'm trying to fill up the little roadside garden. I planted Mediterranean pink heather, sedum 'Stonecrop', lithodora 'Heavenly Blue', and stachys 'Silver Carpet'. I also planted a hardy geranium 'Striata' that I never got planted last year.


Stonecrop.


Heather.


Planted hollies in pots and geraniums. I'm thinking of toning down the blue doors with some stain. I really just need new front doors.

I also bought lettuce seeds, gourmet greens mixture, and sunflower seeds.

I moved my good and evil girl.

Pitiful pansies! I haven't finished weeding this garden. I'm hoping to fill it up with lots of foxgloves and other cottagey flowers.




Bad chicken!

It's Spring

I've been weeding front gardens. I checked my journal from last year, and I'm getting over a month's head start, so that's a good sign, right? I'm trying not to have unrealistic expectations, but I really do hope to have everything looking nice again this year. I have lots of work to do.


Roadside garden weeded and ready for the planting of more beauty.


I have a few things leftover from last year that I never got planted (and they actually lived through winter), one of which is a Bartzella peony. I think I bought it from ebay.

Paeonia'Bartzella' has flowers of deep sulphur yellow with red flames at the center; some blooms can be 9" across. Plants are very big; they can ultimately reach 4' with a similar spread after 5 yrs, although more likely to be 2-3' in height and spread. Plants can take 3-5 years to reach full maturity. 'Bartzella' is a very rare plant, a hybrid of a herbaceous and a Tree Peony. While 'Bartzella' more closely resembles a Tree Peony in growth habit and flower form, its culture is the same as any herbaceous peony, except that it will tolerate partial shade as well as full sun.

It sounds wonderful.

Went to buy chicken feed this morning and found lots of sweet chicks! I resisted.

Long Time No Garden

I love moss. My happy place is a bed of moss under a tree by a stream. I want to plant moss under my Japanese Maple, around my fountain.

This moss wall is what I really want:

(photo from Moss Acres)

Chicken Fever

I am so in love with my chickens!


Lucinda, Magloria, Arlene, Clementine, Frida, AmieRuth


I read some Faulkner to them, but Frida obviously wasn't impressed! Maybe it was just the yucky Oprah sticker on my book.



Lucinda is my sweet girl.


AmieRuth's namesake and Godchicken. Isn't she beautiful?


Steppin' out!