So I’m in the mood for color this year, apparently. I put all of my mother’s orphaned bearded irises in a bed. Then I thought, there should be color all summer, so I started looking for reblooming iris. And I found that there are several different sizes of bearded iris, with bloom times roughly associated with size–the smallest ones bloom first. But still, there’s a gap during the summer… gladiolus! Variegated irises! Needless to say, I’ve gone a bit overboard.
Gardening log for March-April 2019
I’ve been planting the backlog, and went to a couple of sales—Duke Gardens plant sale on 30 March, and the Pi Alpha Xi NCSU sale 5 April.
Designing the flood plain
There is an ephemeral stream running parallel with the road on my property. I realized this winter that feral ligustrum had sprouted up all along the western end, so I pulled all that out. It’s a nice space without the Japanese stilt grass (Microstegium vimineum), poison ivy, and common dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum); I decided to accept the challenge and try some native plantings.
New Year’s Day 2019
Last year, the high temperature was 27°F, and the low was 14°F. Today, those temperatures were 70°F and 65°F, respectively. Tree frogs are chirping, wasps and flies are in the air, and my native azaleas have bulging, green buds showing. I saw a bat last night, flitting about for some food.
Neither day is ideal.
Gardening log for 29-30 December
Gardening for me is like searching the internet—I get distracted easily and next thing I know, I’m down the rabbit hole. Take today, for example. Got out about 1:00 to enjoy the 60°F weather, with plans to plant some more trees and shrubs. I took the tiny sourwood to the woods along the driveway to find a spot. I saw an evergreen shrub with dark berries, and the Plant Identification group on Facebook confirmed my suspicions: Ligustrum, or privet. I had a couple of these from previous owners and they had spread. The originals were cut down last year. So of course, I had to cut this down first. Continue reading “Gardening log for 29-30 December”
Gardening log week of December 24
We have officially had the most rain in a year on record (since 1944): 59.2 inches as of 28-Dec. Average is 41 inches. 34 of 52 weekends, we have had rain. We are within 0.6 inches of our wettest winter ever–57.10″ so far. So when I get both several days without rain AND holidays, I get to work!
Seeds from Wood Thrush Natives Nursery
Wood Thrush offered some seeds this year, so I consulted my new list of compatible plants and bought a few (lol).
More seeds to plant…
In the interests of planting more compatible wildflowers, I bought some seed from Nancy Ondra, who has the Etsy shop Hayefield. Details of the seeds and how to plant them are below.
2018 Fall Planting
I haven’t posted in a while; more on that at the bottom of this post.
After observing my small prairie garden and the rest of my yard during this wet summer, I noticed the tall grass and goldenrods were falling over. More of this weird grass had sprouted up as well. I showed this picture to the person at NCBG’s grass area during their fall sale, and with his ID, suddenly it all clicked.
- Wool grass, Scirpus cyperinus
Gardening log week of May 15
Another week of putting things in the ground before all the rain that’s coming our way.
