Kaseys Korner

more of the spring garden

I finally made it out to the garden yesterday evening to snap a few photos like I promised you.  Things are progressing even tho I continue to complain about the less than ideal weather conditions.  Looking thru the camera lens it seems as tho the garden has filled in more than I've actually noticed in real life.  Maybe I'm on to something ~ during challenging gardening years it might help to view the garden thru photos instead of depending on our sight!  ha.  I think you can see what I mean tho from the slightly (or more than slightly) blurred photo below:

 
Hidden in the center of this photo is my small pond ~ I know ~ can't even see it anymore.  Crazy, right?  See how everything has filled in and grown?  I don't know when that happened?!  In the foreground are Primulas 'polyantha gold laced' and 'veris.'  The gorgeous spike in the center, right side of the photo is the first Camassia 'cusickii' bloom (remember I showed you the bud the other day??)  Here's a macro of that same bloom:

and one more from a different angle ~ looking straight down on the bloom ~ I thought it was a fun angle.

I am so glad I found and planted these bulbs two years ago.  There are quite a few massed around the pond area so in a week or two, it should be quite pretty. 

Other bulbs starting to bloom are the Spanish Bluebells.  I added both pink & blue varieties to the garden last fall.  Pictured below is a pink ~ Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Dainty Maid:'

You, yes you, garden bloggers are responsible for them being in my garden!  I saw them all over garden blogland last spring and fell hard for them.  On the list they went and now I'm so happy to have them blooming here as well.

Here's a blue ~ H. hispanica 'Excelsior' just starting to open:

What's really exciting to me about the above photo (even more than the bluebells) is the maroon foliage of Lobelia cardinalis 'Queen Victoria.'   All three plants from last season survived the winter which is a first for me!  I think I've finally discovered the secret to growing (and overwintering) them in Colorado ~ plant where they get lots of moisture ~ like they do here from the pond overflow and where they get extra warmth ~ like they do sandwiched next to the terraced wall.  Now that these have survived, I am encouraged about mixing in a pink or purple variety and hoping for the same success.  :-)

One final photo, a glimpse of the pond, showing the gorgeous Camassia bloom yet again:

 

The pink bloom in the foreground is Silene but most importantly (a bit to the right of the Camassia) is the first Water Calla bloom (Zanthedeschia aethiopica) ~ see that blur of white?  It took me completely by surprise since I hadn't even noticed a bud.

Photos don't lie, do they?  Spring marches on, cool temperatures and all.  Forecast calls for a possibility of snow tonight and highs in the 40's tomorrow.  Definitely not "normal" but hopefully one day soon, it will heat up and stay that way.
 

junking up the place

That's what I've been teased about doing in my front yard lately.  All because of an experiment I'm conducting with my little pond.  This year has been a real learning experience for me as you all know.  In early spring it was all fun (after the hole was dug and the leveling was done).  Picking out water plants then later small koi and goldfish was nothing but joy.  Even during the summer months there wasn't much work involved ~ mostly we just enjoyed the benefits the pond brought to our garden.  Then came fall.  Something had to be devised to keep the oak leaves out of the water.  That's when I tied the plastic netting you see below to the two long plastic stakes and fitted it over the pond.

Those are half frosted water hyacinths you see in the middle of the picture, that have long since been removed & discarded.  The netting wasn't exactly pretty but it did the job I needed it to do.  Once all the leaves had fallen, I removed the netting and moved onto my next idea.  That's when the teasing started.  Do you see why?

Yes, those are greenhouse panels, cut to roughly fit the size of the pond then secured in place by some large rocks.  I had thought of screwing the panels to the edges of the pond but then decided I might need to remove them and I didn't want to be bothered with going to the trouble of unscrewing everything.  Hence the rocks.   I guess it's not curb appeal 101.  But hey, the water temperature in my pond yesterday was still 48 degrees!  I'd say my idea for capturing solar energy is working.  Why not take advantage of our reported 300 days of sunshine?  I do have a de-icer installed in the pond but so far I haven't even had to plug it in.  (There is an air stone submerged & operating underneath the panels to provide oxygen.)  What do you think?  I'm hoping this contraption will help my fish survive the winter a little more comfortably.  As long as the neighbors don't get mad at me for junking up my front yard....

Not so brown afterall

This morning we woke up to our third "blanket of white" this fall ~ 8" of new snow fell overnight.  If I stay true to form, I should be depressed, right??!  No way.  Not this time.  This was the kind of snow Colorado is famous for ~ the kind that comes and goes almost as quickly as you can turn around.  Perfect.  Shortly after I got up, the sun peeked out, the clouds cleared and we were back to blue skies.  The snow is almost melted off the roadways as I type.  Yippee.  Now that the driveway & patio are shoveled, I can share a few surprises I found in the garden before the storm arrived.  Remember I told you everything was brown?  I guess I lied ~ but not intentionally ~ so please don't think less of me.  A spot of yellow I hadn't previously noticed caught my eye along the north rock pathway.  Getting down on the ground, I saw it was a lone bloom on striking Viola 'Tiger Eyes:'

I knew viola's and pansies were hardy but they have to really be sturdy to survive the few 15 & 16 degree nightly low temperatures we've experienced already.  I'm glad they are because just finding the one flower perked up my day.  Hopefully it will still be there when the snow melts.  Something else blooming that doesn't always thrill me ~ but this time of year is welcome as an exotic flower ~ a dandelion!

I'll happily leave it be because right now, it looks as pretty as my most cherished perennials.  I am desperate, aren't I?!!!  The color yellow must be the most cold hardy color of all (if color counts for anything) because there was one more yellow waiting to be photographed.  This one in the form of half a mum plant which somehow managed to survive in the vintage wheelbarrow arrangement.  Pretty amazing, huh?  The rest of the mums succumbed to the cold long ago and have already been composted.  Thank goodness for small miracles.  I think that's what the bee/fly (??) was saying too:

 

Heaven knows there's little else left for them to feed on.  Certainly nothing in the next two photos I'm going to share but these are interesting to me because they're still very much alive and green.  First the water lilies in the pond:

I don't have the heart to cut them back since they're still doing so well but I'm not sure if that's the right approach or not?  Having never overwintered pond plants before I'm a bit stymied.  Leave them until they're dying or cut them now?  If anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it.  The other water plants frosted long ago and were trimmed back and sunk to the bottom of the pond.  I planned for these to join them but I didn't figure they'd still be green after all we've been thru.  The last photo is of the artichoke foliage in the veggie garden.

 

I have zero experience with artichokes too.  I planted this one for my niece.  She absolutely loves them and I hoped she could pick her own from the garden when she visited this summer.  ha.  Dreamer that I was, it grew a bit but not enough to form any artichokes.  It seems very hardy tho ~ will it overwinter (zone 6)?  I thought I would try mulching it and hope for the best.  Maybe next year there will be a crop for her?  I'm just glad to find a few specks of color.  Thanks for indulging me.  I know a lot of you still have quite a bit going on in the garden so this is a pittance.  But I do know you understand how great color can be when there's little to be found. 

a slow comeback

I first want to say thank you to everyone for the well wishes & messages you sent my daughter.  They are so uplifting and comforting to read.  I think it's going to be a slow road back to "normal" but after one week at home I'm feeling more confident that we'll get there.  The biggest thing seems to be exhaustion at this point.  It's been a long time since she's napped twice a day so I hover and get nothing done!  If only I'd had a crystal ball in June, I wouldn't have ordered all those bulbs.  and then there's the garden ~ it's waiting patiently for me to put it to "bed."  It will happen, just at a different pace this year.  Remember that snow photo I showed you two posts ago??  The next morning (same day my daughter was admitted to the hospital) it looked like this outside my kitchen window:

Does that look like a fall scene to you??  Well, maybe ~ because there's still green foliage on the rose bushes BUT not anymore.  We set a new record low that night ~ 16 degrees.  Whew.  Pretty frigid, right?  As you can imagine everything is brown as a result.  So many trees and shrubs never even changed color ~ they went straight to brown (from green).  I've never seen that happen before.  Also, my poor fish ~ I didn't have a chance to "winterize" the pond or get the stock tank heater installed.  All the water plants froze which makes me wonder if they'll come back next year or not??

I did manage to get outside last week long enough to trim back the foliage and sink the pots to the bottom of the pond.  (I'm trying to be optimistic that they'll pull thru the freeze because they were expensive!)  I also cleaned out the water hyacinths and decaying oak leaves.  The heater still needs to be connected and I need to construct a screen to keep out the remaining oak leaves.  Another reason I needed that crystal ball I guess ~ maybe this wasn't the year to learn about ponds??  If I weren't so distracted, I know I'd be putting more effort into figuring out what I really need to do to keep the pond going over the winter.  Oh well.  That's a curve ball of life, isn't it?  I was also worried that I was holding up the "Gardening by Letter" project I signed up for ~ organized by Anna (flowergardengirl blog).  Our cards are usually due to her by the 20th of each month.  I missed that date but had fun making up for it one cold afternoon.  I thought you might like to see the results (hopefully that's okay to share?):

You probably remember the fall wheelbarrow arrangement??  Good thing I took pictures right after I fixed it because the only spot of color left now is the pumpkin (which is a bit mushy).  Here are a few close-ups of the card just for fun:

and one more with the cute butterfly button:

 

Some of the supplies are older (like the button) but it's fun to pull them out and breathe new life in them.  I enjoyed myself so much that day that I even created a special packet for the hollyhock seeds I'm sending along with the card:

I hope Ann likes the color pink?!

I know it did me good to get my mind off the serious situation my daughter has endured.  I also hope your fall garden has a lot more color in it then mine?  It was an abrupt end to the season for us.  Darn it.  In some ways it doesn't surprise me since we've had a strange weather year all the way around ~  why stop now, right?!!!  Here's hoping next season will be a little more "normal."

Tulbaghia update

This morning I thought I should give you a progress report on how Tulbaghia violacea made out in the pond this summer.  Remember there was some controversy in the spring over whether it was actually a water plant or not (if you want a refresher click here)??  After reading the comments from that post, I was worried whether it would survive the wet conditions of the pond or just turn to mush and rot.  I'm happy to report it is still thriving and has bloomed the entire summer:

It is somewhat perplexing as I followed up your comments with some research and confirmed it to be most commonly used as a xeric plant.  Practically every nursery I visited this spring was selling them in the water garden section tho??  As you can see by the number of blooms (and healthy foliage) in the above photo (and below), it definitely seems perfectly happy submerged on the ledge (10" depth) next to the pink pickerelweed.  Here's another view from the opposite angle:

 

I've certainly been glad to have it as it's the one water plant that bloomed consistently for me throughout the summer.  Pink Pickerelweed bloomed also but the rest (Calla, water lilies, iris & hyacinths) are suffering from a lack of sun.  They all sport plenty of green, healthy foliage and have grown and multiplied (especially the water hyacinths) but no blooms.  The water remains clear tho so even if they aren't blooming, I'm glad they're doing their job and solving the algae problem.  I'm happy to say I did not add any chemicals to acheive clarity which is something that was important to me.  I'm hoping to take a free class later this month (at one of the local nurseries) on winterizing ponds.  It would be icing on the cake to finagle a way of keeping all the water plants and the fish alive throughout the winter but we'll see how difficult that's going to be...  

sitting poolside

I wish I could say that's what I was doing the last two days of not posting but I'd be lying if I did.  So instead, we'll skip right over my absence and directly to this photo showing a section of the front garden bed.  Nicotiana sylvestris found its way independently to its spot at the very front of that bed.  I'm not sure I'm pleased with that position (it dominates/shades everything around it including the pool behind it):

 

but I've left it alone despite my reservations.  It's hard to mess with something that is so vigorous and healthy looking.  Lobelia cardinalis lines the terrace wall at the back of the bed and sandwiched in between the two is the pond (although you certainly can't tell by these photos).

 

If we had any hummingbirds this year, I imagine they would be working this area over very thoroughly.  Believe it or not there is seven feet between the front of the garden bed and the terrace wall.  Shows you how deceiving photos can be, doesn't it?  In the first photo it appears that the cardinal flowers are planted directly behind the nicotiana. Definitely not so.  Moving from the front yard to the back, I can't resist showing you how well the David Austin rose 'Abraham Darby' is doing.  (remember I bought him over July 4th weekend?)  I think I can safely say he's happy in his new location ~ there are twenty two new buds!

 

Wowee.   'Abraham Darby' is planted directly below my kitchen window so I can enjoy the beautiful blooms even from indoors.  Rarely do I enjoy it only from the inside out because I'd be missing the best part ~ the fabulously heady perfume of the blossoms.  They really are a sensory delight.

 

I'm really thinking purchasing this rose and adding the pond were my best gardening decisions/additions of 2009.  and that, my blog reading friends, is a good stopping point so I don't have to go into the worst ones! 

first timers

in my garden.  Those are always much anticipated blooms, aren't they?  It seems like I wait the most impatiently for them to open.  Like I've been doing for Cerinthe major purpurascens.  I started seeds in early May and was delighted they germinated so easily & quickly.  Yesterday I noticed the first buds on the young plants:

 

I can't wait for the tubular flowers to appear.  They are supposed to be very attractive to bees which is why I ordered the seeds.  The next new flower appeared in my little pond.  I inspect the pond daily, in hopes of finding a water lily bud.  Nothing yet ~ I hope, hope, hope I get at least one bloom this year.  However today I was pleasantly surprised with a lone pink pickerelweed bloom:

I hadn't even noticed a bud so that was truly an unexpected discovery.  I'm glad I'm getting a few blooms on the water plants but I think it would be a lot more if the pond weren't so shady?  I underestimated the amount of shade it would receive under the outer limbs of the Bur Oak when I selected that site.  A mistake I would remedy should I ever have another.  The last new bloom for today is Campanula 'pink octopus:'

 

The buds don't look so much like an "octopus" with the petals connected together at the tips of the blooms, do they?   When the petals separate tho, you can really see how this campanula acquired its name:

Interesting, aren't they?  I'm still making my way around the garden, trimming and finding new buds as time allows.  I'll be sure to share more in the next few days.

orange is suddenly

coming on strong in my garden.  I like the vibrancy of the color especially paired with other colors like purple, blue & white.  I have a variety of hues, some with red tones, some with pinkish/apricot tones but all predominantly that in-your-face color.  The latest to open (and first year in my garden) are the Tiger Lilies:

 

I have them planted by the pond where, I might add, they are not reaching their full potential because it's probably shadier than they would prefer.  I was thinking they could grow to a height of 48" but these are half that at best.  That's okay tho, they are still adding some great color in the exact spot and way I envisioned.  The next orange is 'Summer skies' Echinacea:

  

You all know that I am a "pink" girl but this color (for me) tops the readily available pink Echinacea by far ~ maybe because I see a little pink mixed in??  This way, I can have both my colors.  Whoever said orange & pink don't go together was infinitely mistaken!  Look at how it mixes even more exquisitely (and subtlety) in my new 'Abraham Darby' rose:

 

Can I say (without feeling as tho I'm rubbing it in) how much I am still thrilled by finding him??  I am outside at least one time a day with the sole purpose of visiting this bush.  I cannot get enough of him.  Everything is so captivating; the scent, the colors, the lushness of the blossoms, etc., etc. 

  

These photos were taken in morning light, which I've discovered, changes the color of 'Abraham Darby' ~ afternoon light for example makes him look more pinkish?  Or maybe that's only in newly opened buds where the colors haven't washed out so much?  I'm still learning about him but it's an education I will thoroughly enjoy.  I feel I could talk and talk and talk about 'Abraham Darby' so give me a nudge when that happens and we'll move along ~ like right now.  How about another orange:

 

a really true, hot one like Asclepias.  I only have one plant but this is it's third year (or maybe fourth??) and it's really making a splash.  I have zero butterflies on it so far unlike last year when we had an abundance of painted ladies that were always adorning it.  Maybe they are just late this year because of the cool, wet weather?  We'll see.  I will have to try and take some long views of all these blossoms too but you know me, I keep my macro on until I'm forced to switch it out.  Two more bits of orange are the:

 

'Zauschneria Arizonica' which has decidedly red tones to it.  The hummingbirds eat this plant up (not really, but you know what I mean!) so I'm glad it's starting to open.  I have a pretty good grouping of these perennials up by my front door (mixed with red hot pokers) both of which can stand the heat and less water.  I leave them alone to do their thing, it seems they like it that way.  Finally, my last little speck of orange:

 

in the pond ~ one of only two goldfish that have survived (originally five were added).  I don't know if I had the water ph wrong or what but three kicked the bucket about a week after they first came to live here.  This one and another seem happy & healthy.  I was thinking about shaking them up and adding a couple more?!!  Good idea or not??

the first bloom

to open on any plant is always the most exciting, isn't it?   Today, that bloom was in the pond ~ the bud on the water calla, Zanthedeschia aethiopica, was open and gleaming.  Wow, it couldn't be any more beautiful.  I'm already wondering how long it will last.  Here it is from a distance:

 

It's like having a wedding in your own garden (callas always make me think of weddings, I don't know why?)  Look how straight the foliage is too (remember I just figured out how to keep the pots upright?).  Intermingled with the Zebra Rush, it's just gorgeous.  Moving closer:

 

and then closer still (my favorite kind of photo):

How beautiful is that??  I'm thanking my lucky stars every day to have the pond.  So far, it's all the fun I expected it to be and more.  Just so the rest of my garden doesn't get jealous, one more "first" of the season, the salmon poppy (name unknown) is opening:

I bought this poppy years ago at ShopKo of all places.  The store has long since gone out of business but the poppy has flourished.  It's enormous (I'll try to take a longer view photo so you can see).  In fact it's so big, I have to hold seedlings back to plant around it when it dies back or I would have a cavernous hole in my front bed the rest of the season.  It's a good "problem" to have tho so no complaints here.  Hope your Monday is off to a great start too.

"the morning sun

when it's in your face really shows your age."  Oh wait, that's me I'm referring to, not the images from the garden.  Sorry.  None of these fresh face bloomers have any age on them yet!  Rod Stewart would probably never in a million years believe his song could be adapted to the garden ~ I'd bet serious money on that!  Now that you're paying attention tho, I'll share my latest discoveries with you, captured in the morning sun (as eluded to in the post title).  First, one of my all-time favorite Columbines, Aquilegia Chrysantha:

 

Also known as 'Golden Spur' Columbine, so appropriate considering the extension of their graceful spurs easily seen in the photo below:

 

As much as I like the Barlows, the Ballerinas and the Double Pleats, Chrysantha is much more of a necessity.  Ive had at least one plant in various gardens for almost two decades now.  Another happy discovery was the bloom stalk on Verbascum 'Pink Petticoats:'

 

It started out in my "Tropicanna" container last summer then got moved to the garden after getting crowded out.  The blooms are a delicious peachy pink color.  Equally important, and not to be overlooked, is the wonderful texture and form verbascums add to the garden.  They are another sensory plant which you can never have enough of ~ notice that gorgeous felty foliage.   Exciting for me, maybe not so much for you, are the water lily leaves that have broken the surface in the pond! 

 

It didn't take nearly as long as I imagined for that to happen.  Does that mean flowers aren't that far behind??  I can only hope.  Look who was resting among one of the floaters:

 

That's the best face of the morning, right?  and ageless to boot.  Sure woke me up and started my day with a smile.  :-)