Another River Running Through My Yard

We all know that gardens are always in flux. Some plants survive, some thrive to the point of taking over and sometimes you just want to change things up. Last year we looked at our front yard and decided that buying sod every year was expensive and labor intensive to install on a regular basis. What's a gardener to do? (we all know---you make a new garden bed!) The wet winters and dogs running over wet grass made the lawn thin and excessively needy.

I had big plans, make a giant mulch bed in the front yard. I haven't measured the size of the area we were looking at making a new garden....let's just say it is a large area. Maybe I will go and measure it one of these days. 

We left a mower sized width of grass along the driveway and between the gardens. In the center of this new, massive garden is a Little Gem Magnolia with daylilies around it. Once the plan was hatched, mulch was needed. Lots of mulch. We had ten yards of mulch delivered.

Because we had some grass and a lot of weeds the plan was put cardboard or newspaper under the mulch as a weed block. Before you jump all over me, I have since read information from the Garden Professors about not using anything under mulch. Their recommendation is to just have a good layer of mulch (inches deep) and it will smother/block the weeds. Good information, just after the fact. 

Moving forward we used tons of cardboard, mountains of newspaper and still ran out. We had help with the mulch from our kids who came to visit last July. With their help the mountain of mulch was spread. Hallelujah!

Liebling was a great help

 Fast forward to this year. I planted three Japanese maples last fall-one Red Dragon, a Butterfly, and Green Viridis. Also added three Hydrangea quercifolia 'Little Honey' and a Cryptomeria globosa 'Nana'. Found a few abelia in the garden that needed moved- think they might be Abelia grandiflora 'Rose Creek'- so what better place to move them than this huge new space?

I brought a birdbath home from my Mom's house. In front of the birdbath I planted some Agastache 'Blue Boa', Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising', Stokesia laevis (Stokes Aster) and other plants for pollinators. The maples were doing well, the flowers were thriving but there was a problem with the garden...........WASHOUT. Some Liriope and an Amaryllis were added to try and slow the water flow. They didn't. 

With every rain we had a trail of mulch running downhill through the grass. Not happy. I had scooped/raked up mulch multiple times. Something needed to be done. You see some rocks in the photo above. I didn't grab a before photo but the mulch was still in the grass so it is a good example. The rocks that I have had leftover from other projects are all in the lower part of the yard. Our property is on a good slope. Moving enough rocks was going to be a lot of work just hauling them up the last part of the hill.

My great plan was that my lovely assistant (daughter Rachel) and I would load up the rocks into the cart that attaches to the lawn tractor. My husband just needed to drive the tractor to the bottom of the yard, wait for us to fill the cart, then drive the tractor back up to the front yard. 

Me mud splattered

Rachel muddy from rock hauling

 Well, the yard was wet, the lower the yard, the wetter the yard. We pushed and pushed the tractor to get it moving and got sprayed with lots and lots of mud. Yay. Plan B was to take the tractor through the woods in our wooded lot where we had a path cut. Well, that only worked part way. We got my garden wagon and the wheelbarrow and moved three or four loads each out of the cart until the lawn tractor could make it up the rest of the way. Spreading the rocks went pretty well. Making the new dry creek bed curve gently through the garden, following the washout area, was not as hard as bringing the rocks uphill!

View from the top of the hill

We are due to get more rain sometime in the next few days. Cross your fingers!  I want the "river" to be slowed and the water diverted as to not move the mulch. 

View from the bottom of the hill

 Speaking of mulch, that's the next project...more mulch. We are battling nut sedge and Bermuda grass popping up in the garden, especially where the mulch had gotten washed out or thinned. Weed control is an ongoing challenge.

©Copyright 2019 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

If a Tree Falls......

....in the yard and you are calling to report a power outage, do you hear the thud?  Earlier last week we saw there was a dead tree hung up in the branches of the tree next to it.  The trees are on the adjoining property, in the thick summer undergrowth of any one of poison ivy or smilax or raspberry briars, not the ideal place walk.   Since it was hung up in another tree we were unsure of how to get it down without hitting the Magnolias.  

The tree broke off its trunk during a storm sometime ago.... we aren't really sure.  Wednesday night with another storm, it twisted, broke the branches of the supporting tree and fell.  It fell in the perfect place!!   The tree was about 40- 50 feet long, about 30 feet of it in our yard.

It missed all three Magnolias, missed a transplanted dogwood, missed all the daylilies, and missed the wax myrtle up the hill.  

You can see the rotted stump in the woods.  The rot came from the ground up.

Charlie got the chain saw out yesterday and cleared the tree out of our yard.  The fallen tree can remain in the property next door for the critters to enjoy.
I walked around the yard on Thursday to assess the damage and see if there was any poison ivy in the area where the tree fell.  Have all sorts of blooms--- here is a volunteer Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica.  The rains have caused it to fall over.  Hoping it will reseed and there will be lots next year!

A purchased Lobelia  speciosa, Cardinal Lobelia is blooming now in the bed with the daylilies and Magnolias.  The hummingbirds like it.

Another new plant that is finally blooming-- Heliotrope amplexicaule 'Azure Skies'.  Hoping this one will be happy enough to come back.  I have some areas in my back garden that plants don't like.   Have been watering this area more and have amended the soil with each new plant added.

Lots of foliage under the Edgeworthia chrysantha.  I planted Caladiums, Japanese Painted ferns, and the Corydalis I just bought.  It is a nice shady area, the ferns and Caladium are happy...crossing my fingers for the newly added Corydalis.

Clematis 'Prince Charles' is blooming again!  

A super long blooming daylily is Hemerocallis 'Strawberry Candy'.  It has been blooming since mid-May!

Finally I have a bloom on my Resurrection Lily!! Lycoris radiata has been in the ground for more than two years and it finally had a bloom!  

Love these long anthers!!

In the woods next to our property is a large stand of Aralia spinosa, Devil's Walking Stick.  Love seeing all the pollinators all over the blooms.   There was constant motion from so many wasps, bees, and butterflies.  

Speaking of plants that attract pollinators, Lantana camara 'Miss Huff' is a magnet!!  

Long-tailed Skipper Urbanus proteus (thanks Randy!!)

Hoary Edges, Achalarus lyciades

All these were taken in the span of a couple minutes.

Dark form Eastern  Tiger Swallowtail, Pterourus glaucus

So many butterflies and moths!!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

I have been trying to get caught up reading all your blog posts.  At this point in time I have 100 posts in my Google Reader.....working my way through !!!!  Have made some headway--- there were almost 200!



©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.