April 2017 Garden Journal
4 April (Tuesday): 2:45 pm; 53F, 66% humidity; cloudy; feels like it could rain but weather forecast indicated no rain before tomorrow morning. Earlier today I was at Menards. Purchased a few bedding plants, including flats of stock and hybrid violas, which I will plant in several containers. I’ve long been intrigued by the references to “stock” in English garden books, but I’ve never been sure what they are. The ones I purchased have lovely small blossoms and are supposed to be fragrant. I also purchased one perennial, a Candy Stripe Creeping Phlox (same phlox I planted last year in the “K” bed). I will put this new phlox in the rock garden to replace the sedum that is such a fierce spreader. This candy stripe has large, 5-petal white blossoms with tiny yellow/orange centers and light pink/magenta stripes in each petal. It also has tiny dots of darker, almost burgundy spots where the petal emerges. Very attractive and supposedly Zone 2. All the creeping phlox in the garden have survived, several already with blooms. Wonderful plants if one can keep weeds and grass out of them.
6 April: 4:30 pm; 54F; 33% humidity; sunny and windy. Was a crisp morning, temp into the 30’s, but it has warmed up nicely—though breeze necessitates keeping on my fleece jacket. Hoed weeds/grass in gravel walkways. Ground is moist because of rain yesterday, so the grass clumps pull up easily. Also dug up several dandelions, one ready to bloom. At 3:00 met with Chad and Cara to discuss permanent bases for the two metal spheres, Ringo and Sisyphus. Reached agreement in about 3 minutes: round, concrete base with bolts driven through spheres into the cement. I also asked Chad to secure the NE bench so it won’t blow over.
After they left, I focused on cleaning up the A1 bed; pulled up the straw covering the buddleia and crocosima. Several crocosima had just emerged. They were thin and leggy because of their effort to stretch through the straw. Should have pulled off the straw earlier. As for the buddleia, the primary stems appear green but no evidence of opening buds. I cut down stalks for coneflowers and boltonia in A1 and cut off seedheads on stonecrop in the “B” and “C” beds. Raked up leaves in “A” beds and cleaned up leaves stuck into honeysuckle next to fence in “M”. The new honeysuckle looks healthy, many leaves budding out. The bleeding heart in “M” has also emerged. Many peonies are now six inches tall. I love those emerging red-wine stalks and leaves, a welcome addition to the relatively barren landscape. Also two of the creeping phlox in the rock garden are beginning to put on a dramatic flower display.
7 April (Friday). 4:25 pm; 62F; 22% humidity. It’s been sunny all day, slight breeze; chilly this morning, but by 3:00 I had shed my jacket. Quite nice in the sun. Worked in garden all day. This morning focused on sanding, filling in cracks, and spray painting one of the benches. It does look better, but the spray paint did not provide satisfactory coverage. I’ll use a real flat gloss paint for the next coat. I like the reddish-brown color, but I’ll opt for a rosier shade. I sanded the top of the book end table (which I have had sitting next to the SW bench), applied a silicon sealant on the big crack in the middle, and spray painted the top with a bluish gray color that matches reasonably well with the existing gray. Still evidence of small cracks, so I will need to keep my eye on how this weathers.
I moved the white rock cress from the SE corner of the rock garden to an area with better drainage and less likely to be covered with leaves or overrun by the sedum. The irish moss I planted there last year didn’t survive. The rock cress produced wonderful white blooms last year, but this year the surviving plant is much smaller and does not look very vigorous. I hope the new location and improved drainage will improve its demeanor. Planted the Candy Stripe creeping phlox in the SW corner of the rock garden. Two older creeping phlox are already in full bloom, and with this new addition, that area looks very attractive. The thyme in that bed is mostly brown stems, but new leaves are emerging. I should have cut it back further than I did.
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We can see the progressive transformation from forest to forest glade, to meadow, to garden, to lawn as a metaphor of increasing control over, or sublimation of, the raw sexual content of nature. In this progression, the garden is middle ground, where sexuality is controlled but still potent and available. ~Robert B. Riley, “Flowers, Power, and Sex”
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12 April; 11:45 am; 68F; 45% humidity. Did a quick walkaround, counting flowers in bloom. There are 9 different varieties of daffodils in bloom—many now at their max, though we still have a lot of buds yet to open, or even to appear. The creeping phlox in the rock garden look spectacular: four varieties in bloom, plus one other in the “K” bed. Some tulips I planted last fall in “J” have just opened with red and yellow blooms; the tulips in “E” are a couple days behind, as is almost everything on the south side. A bunch of anemones are in bloom, plus several hellebores under the SE flowering crab. All the peonies are up. Several need to be transplanted—including a big one jammed together with the large tansy at the east end of “D” bed. Last task this morning: I dug up the newer chives in “A1”, split it, and planted in the raised “E” bed, not far from the thyme. Another step in the transformation of the raised beds into an herb garden.
Link to complete Spring 2018 Garden Kalendar