Mulching the Shade Garden

As you know if you've followed me in my shady yard, Norway maples hang over the yard. Not my trees but they've allowed me to embrace shade. The problem with Norway maples is that they have shallow roots and my yard is evidence of this. Some are visible on the surface of the soil. In the past I thought of sawing them out but with better thought knew that wasn't a good idea. Roots anchor trees. Cut enough and the tree might fall. Not a good idea. So, I thought of pavers which I'd love but would have to do the work. I  the thought of gravel which I love but cleaning all the falling leaves and branches that shed would be a problem with gravel mixed all in. Mulch wins. A nice texture mulch would be nice but haven't yet seen the texture in nurseries I'd like. Until then, brown much this year. Yes some gets raked up with leaves in the fall but mulching the ground is the best I can do for now to keep the soil less dry in summer and give it some protection so the soil doesn't leech away. I read an article recently that mulching flower beds is not recommended because it may make the soil in the flower bed too acidic. Organic mulching is recommended. I'll add some of the leaf mold I've made over the years to the flower beds and leave the wood mulch for the ground. Over the years I've learned that shade provides a beautiful serene respite in the mist of summer heat. Along with the chorus of song birds and shade loving plants, shrubs, perennials, and annuals, it's beautiful. Working on improving it every season. Each year is a canvas. 

I need about 5 more bags. The uncovered area under the bench is not covered. It fills in every season with beautiful green moss. I'd love to move a small patch in the hope that it would cover that whole area. Several types of moss grow in the yard. I feel lucky.

Put down 2 bags and need about 5 more.

Going to clean up those 2 pots for hydrangea from last season.

Pakera Obovata. What a name. Nice to have daisy like blooms that'll do well in shade.

Brought my elephant ear to the yard from the sun porch. Wasn't doing well with our extreme weather different every day. It's felt like summer for the past 2 days. 

I have to read whether little lime hydrangea can be pruned now or if pruning will cut off the future blooms if it'll bloom again. This was the first year I got a hydrangea to survive over winter in a container. Now to see if it'll bloom. I love hydrangeas. Found out they bloom on new wood so tomorrow a good pruning. It will hopefully stimulate even more growth and lots of buds for blooms.

I'll miss phlox when it's bloom time is done for the season. The foliage stays green. Hopefully Sun King will take over and shad it out. Bergenia recently planted looks to have grown some already and I'm thankful snails and slugs haven't eaten my foxglove. Received 2 more in the mail yesterday. They are tiny and Gilbert H. Wild and Son should be ashamed. First they didn't send the 3 ordered and when they sent the other 2 they didn't look good. I sent them an e-mail and pictures of the conditions of the seedlings and poor packaging. And the brunnera is just beautiful. Hope the 2 seedlings I planted this spring will eventually look like this.

Ferns, vinca, and dicentra in the cedar planter. The planter is over due to be coated for protection.

My raspberry that I cut all the way down in the fall. Probably no berries but it's never given me many in shade.

Will mulch this area next.

Thought I planted lettuce seeds but looks like something else. Growing nicely in dappled shade.

A job for another say. Wiping down the containers, planting something in the other 2, and scraping and painting my railing.

Another hydrangea that survived on the porch, actually have 2.

Need to clean this up and throw out broken clay pots.

Replanted today. Pansies removed. Lets see how this does. Begonia, vinca, pink impatiens, and nasturtium.

I like the shorter amaryllis.

To prune or not to prune.

Will  work on this flower bed another day. It used to get more sun, hence the peony that hasn't bloomed since the maples shaded it out.

Happy Mother's Day

Didn't plan on gardening today although I know a lot of people do their planting on this weekend. My plants so far have survived nights in the 30's with 2 more nights expected next week. Covering my planted zinnias and coleus didn't help, they don't look good at all. Everything else was okay. I'll probably start more, it's early. As I removed the cover today a neighbor walking past said,"I don't think you should do that yet." But I'm not covering them again. The damage has already been done. Next year I'll wait until the end of May to plant zinnias and start them indoors later. Okay, you told me not to plant them before Mother's Day.

Removed this ceramic planter with the container on top and replaced it with a new light weight cement container. The ceramic one can now act as a table when I sit and drink my coffee. It's amazing that it didn't crack during the winter because it's been outdoors for years.

The container had a nice sized hole already drilled. Added 3 1/2 bags of moisture retentive potting mix. Planted 1 Himalayan fern, one Japanese fern, 2 hosta, 2 begonias, 2 white blooming anemone, 1 turtle plant, 2 vinca, 1 red blooming tobacco plant, and 1 heuchera. Sorry I didn't include the genus and species for each. I'll look at the tags another day and add it. Broke m blue bell before it bloomed. So upset I'll have to wait until next spring to see it.

Added some twigs that fell from the trees hanging over the yard. Especially liked the one that was already curved.

My little flower bed is filling in. I still have 2 flats to plant. One bergenia made it into the soil as well as that yellow flowering native plant between the containers. It blooms up until summer and is native. I add the name of it later. Any plant that blooms, draws pollinators, and adds color in the shade is welcome.

Cleaned some and fresh water added for the birds. Mr. cardinal must know. At dusk I spotted him in the tree outside my bedroom window singing. What a beautiful boy. Amazing that the squirrels rarely come into my yard since I haven't refilled the bird feeder. I love them also but not all of their behaviors.

My dwarf amaryllis are opening.

Ordered 4 more phlox for the yard. Hope to see a sea of blooms next spring.

Thought they were beautiful, the pink hanging flowers. I came home yesterday and my daughter had hung them. Think I'll keep them there. Would be nice if the roses could be ever lasting. Dinner below. Chicken parmesan with fresh basil and black krim cherry tomatoes, pasta with a sauce made from butter, garlic, and fresh basil, and steamed broccoli. So good. My daughter did well.

Hope you had a beautiful day.

Winter's Return

Hard to believe that the Northeast has winter like weather this weekend, in May. Isn't Mother's Day weekend supposed to be planting time? So to the yard early this morning to cover my lettuce and some purchased annuals and perennials that haven't been planted yet. The lettuce is making good progress. Glad I planted it.

I saved some boxes. Came in handy day to cover the lettuce. Now to weigh it down as we're expecting it to be windy.

Tulips pulled a couple of weeks ago from containers out front. I bagged them up to give to a neighbor. Maybe she'll want to clean them up when all the foliage dies and replant to see if any bulbs emerge next spring. The table looks better without them although the whole yard needs cleaning up including washing down the fence. Maybe next week I can start after this weather.

Hosta, heuchera, and a Japanese fern won't be covered but will be put on the steps with other clutter against a wall and with a over hang that should give it some protection from the cold rain and expected winds. They should do fine they're perennials an up all are usually up at this time out of the ground. Impatiens, tobacco plants, vinca, brunneras, and some other annuals will be covered with plastic because I'm not using my bed sheets. Our temperatures are supposed to go down into the 30's but may not hit freezing. I know plastic isn't the best thing since the leaves of plants possibly could be damaged where the plastic touches them. But it's that or die without covering.

Finally the perennial planted last fall off the discount rack is visible. It's supposed to grow huge and develop berries later in the season. Hopefully birds will enjoy them. We have a lot of song birds and I'm hoping to plant 1-2 shrubs this season that have berries. They should enjoy that especially the blue jay that's been visiting the yard for the first time this year. Discovered that many of the birds stayed out of the yard due to squirrels at the feeder. When I stopped filling it all the birds returned. Cardinals, different types of sparrows, robins, doves, and other varieties I don't know the name of. Haven't heard our resident wood pecker yet this spring.

I remembered the name, Aralia cordata (sung king plant). It's not native though. Native to China, Japan, and Korea. Sorry for the blurry pictures and any that follow.

My azalea is filling out from the bottom. Next spring it should be fuller with more blooms. The salmon colored blooms are pretty. I believe it's also a reblooming azalea.

Phloxes planted this spring are doing well. I ordered more. Anticipating lots of color from them next spring. They've become my favorite with the added benefit of being aromatic.

White woodland phlox. Thought it stayed short but suddenly took off in height.

Wild ginger went to sleep during the heat of summer last year but arose from hibernation this spring with the baby below almost a foot away. It must spread under ground.

Did you say, clean that up.? In time. One of several corners to be worked on. Have to throw out broken clay pots. No I don't save it to cover holes in containers.

Norway maples maple tree have shallow roots. Doesn't look pretty.

My little lime hydrangea is making progress.Going to leave those seedlings until I can identify them. I had some annuals planted in this container last spring. May they self seeded.

Last spring I cut the foliage so I had no narcissus this spring bloom. So, I'll try to be patient and let the foliage dry up but I am going to tie it up. Laying all over looking messy.

Covered annuals and some perennials with plastic. Hope they'll do okay. Should have brought them inside to the porch but we shall see.

Nice to have more than 1 Solomon's seal this year. Next season maybe more. From 1 to 4. What does next year hold?

I believe this is the Virginia chain fern I planted last fall. Glad to see it survived among the camassia.

Removed bulbs from the table. It needs to be wiped down another day and the yard cleaned up. Didn't want to put more much on the ground but it would look better with it. Maybe I'll have some delivered.

The canopy has arrived with shelter for cardinal nests.

Going to move this pot and the container it's sitting on for something long and flat. I may have to move around some plants. Looking forward to that next week.

Now to get the ceramic pot out of the ground without breaking it. And maybe I'll try once again to dig up the rose and place it in a sunnier spot. It would be exciting to have roses in the yard.

One of many pops up a year later. Think that's a hyacinthoid. I may order more for fall. Don't think critter like them so it won't be eaten.

Got tired of plants all over my porch and planted it for summer. The first planting. Lets see how it does. Added creeping Jenny, vinca, begonia, sweet potato vine, coleus, euphorbia, and a sad looking nasturtium not liking being transplanted. I have lots of them doing well on the porch. If it dies, I'll add others. It should be doing well since they don't like heat.

Alliums

Not a good picture but my native honeysuckle with the branch sticking out has a bloom. Only took 3 years. It's about time. Hopefully that won't be the only bloom.

It's allium time. Kind of early for them it seems.

The green hopefully to be filled soon with blooms and pollinators.

Nothing can bother pansies. This is pansy weather.

Asters, blackeyed Susan or echinacea and bee balm.

Zinnia seedlings. Some look already damaged by cold. I'll cover them today and remove the covering on Monday.

Digitalis seedling starting to form buds. Hopefully it'll self seed again for another year. I planted them from seeds sown indoors in 2018. Didn't have much luck with them indoors this winter but now that my seed shelf is almost empty I'm going to sow some more especially for the yard. They would be beautiful in mass in the yard.

Zinnia seedling that I'll also cover.

Might be nice to buy 2 more of these heuchera and this container would not need any other care year round. I love the orange. Hope the salvia planted here will survive this weekend. Sprinkled seeds of thumbelina zinna seeds and some dwarf sunflowers in both containers. Too cold to emerge yet but soon.

That's a chocolate coreopsis bloom starting to open.

Isn't it early for alliums? Thought they bloomed in June. My neighbors flower bed had beautiful blue bachelor's buttons today about 2 feet tall. What will happen to them this weekend. It seems early for them also.

Looking forward to them opened and then will relocate to another location. They're seedlings under the foliage.