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.
Gardening log for March-April 2019
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.
Spring at last!
After several false starts following freezes, we are finally in the spring-time weather, although the last two days had lows in the low 40s. I’ve been busy planting!
