Too much procrastination

Well, I didn't get anything done outside this weekend. It was a cross between my knees having so much pain and my lack of focus that kept me from making it. Of course, it's raining today. Plus it's my planned inside work day. I'll try again tomorrow or the next day.

In the meantime, I thought I would show you some of the growth that's happening in my pots. Now, I grow a variety of perennials in pots, everything from daylillies to hosta to astilbe to sedum. This winter was hard on the plants in the pots. I lost some sedum and hosta but the daylillies, as usual, continue to soldier on. These picture are of some of my pots from a few weeks ago. This first pot is simply a clump of daylillies I put there for later processing. They're still sitting there and are happy to grow.

I had an interesting experience a couple of years ago in this corner. I had a bunch of annuals waiting to be planted and I was rearranging the plants when a pair of garter snakes came out of them and ran over my feet. A little startling, but the worse part was that I was wearing sandals without socks.

This next set of pots have sedum, astilbe and hosta in them. None are growing in this picture, and I was worried that I had lost them all. As it turns out, I hadn't, but there were some losses. The round pot has two types of sedum growing in it, a green one with small round leaves on a stem, and dragon's blood sedum. Nothing up in this picture.

This crappy looking area has quite a few pots with daylillies, sedum and some other stuff growing in them. They've been there for at least five years and have done fine until this winter. Nothing growing in this photo.

This is the square pot in the previous photo. As you can see, I have one small clump of hosta's growing and the astilbe survived. I had two varieties of hosta in this pot, and I'm not sure which one survived. I'll have to wait to see more of the leaves before I know. This pot receives only morning sun.

This pot had the green and red sedum growing in it. Only the green sedum seems to have survived. No sign of the Dragon's Blood sedum. I'll let it go and see what happens. If the red is really dead, I'll get a fresh start of a different red variety.

Here you can see that my daylillies are going to town. If I were to pick up a pot, the roots would extend into the leaves and humus that has formed at the bottom of the leaves. More information on this area as the plants begin to bloom.

While it looks messy now, I'll be cleaning up this area and the pots in it. It takes me a while to get things done, but I will be making progress. No sign of the daylillies from QVC yet. I'll post on them as I get them. Also look on Pintrest when the plants arrive. I'm hoping to re-pot a lot of these plants this year.

Summer means gardening!

Hi All!

Yes, I'm back again in another attempt to get my blog going. This time I'm focusing on summer gardening. It's been a long, bitter winter, and I'm ready to start. I went out and looked at the areas I'm going to work on this year, mainly in the front yard, with some tree removal in the back. I'll have pictures of the areas as I work on them, and on some of my pots I raise plants in.

Here's a couple of the areas I need to work on. The tree with all the suckers and Mulberry trees trying to grow under it are a result of my not being able to get out much and so anything in the yard. You can see in the second photo the instrument panel of the scooter I use to get around when I'm outside. Not really designed for yard use, but I have to make do with what I've got. The area in the second photo is between a small path of concrete and my patio. Lots off leaves and trees that have been growing for a couple of years.

In the picture below you can see what I've done to the suckers under the tree. Oh, by the way, it's an Indian Magic Crab Apple I've had for quite a few years. I planted it to put some depth to the front yard. Anyway, the suckers are gone and I spent the rest of that day and the next cutting down all the wild trees I could with my lopper. I treated the stumps of the trees (not the suckers) with brush killer, so I hope they won't regrow.

I haven't gotten a lot done, because of all the rain. I had a lot of winter kill in my plants. My prairie cactus were all wiped out. Quite disappointing, as I have had them growing up next to the house since the '90's. Most of the other stuff in the ground did survive, albeit in rough shape.

That's enough for today. I'm planning on going out and chopping a Chinese Elm tree that is growing in my Magnolia and maybe working in the bed on the first photo. I am waiting to receive two shipments of daylillies, one a re-bloomer and one a continual bloomer. We'll see how they do this year. I'll be following up on them every week throughout the year and we'll see if they survive the winter. They're QVC purchases and I've never purchased plants from them before. Keep watching.