Monday, May 31, 2010

Thinning Out A Bit

This spring I had more annual seedlings come up than in previous years, probably because of the unusually warm weather we’ve been having in the area. In the back yard there are a few clumps of cosmos seedlings, probably a few hundred plants. I took out a small clump the other day and potted them up for my sister, there were 50 plants. I think I’ll plant some between the garage and the fence, they are tall and self-seed so they may keep the weeds there under control. In the front gardens there are alyssum and snapdragon seedlings galore but most are too small to move yet.

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As for the perennial flowers, the clematis liked the winter weather, they are blooming like crazy. I thinned out the gooseneck loosestrife in front of the clematis the other day, it was growing around the flagstones. They multiply pretty quickly, I think I will have to confine them in the future. Here are some before and after photos:

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I don’t see any butterfly bush seedlings coming up yet but the winter was so mild that the bushes didn’t quite go dormant so they didn’t get pruned back this spring, there were still leaves growing on the bushes in February.

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I have to thin out the ribbon grass around the pond soon, Maybe I’ll plant it in the back border garden after the fence is replaced, it will keep the grass in the alley from creeping under the fence, I hope.

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Speaking of thinning out, the birch tree looks like it could use a trim too. It has been growing for six years now and is at least 25 feet tall, in 2004 it was less than 3 feet tall. We brought it back from my sister’s cottage in 2003 and it died back over the first winter and had to start growing from the ground up again. We were surprised that it grew at all but it is doing great.

After we get the deck finished we will be re-setting the patio stones and fitting some interlocking natural-looking pavers around the pond. When we are getting ready to work on the pavers, I’ll have to move the purple coneflowers and columbines that are growing in front of it, we had sandstone bricks in front that fell into the pond over the winter and they flowers are growing between the liner and the patio stones. The interlocking pavers will hopefully stay put when we put them in.

My hummingbird flowers need to be thinned out also. I planted two that I bought at our town horticultural plant sale two years ago and there must be two dozen now. They don’t have much more space to expand.

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Since building the new deck, I had to remove a flower garden and now have several clumps of spiderwort, astilbe and spotted dead nettle to find a home for. Maybe I’ll plant them in the back after the fence is done. I have to move a butterfly bush from the back to the side yard beside the other two also. It is getting too big and crowding out the peony.

In the front gardens, the swamp mallow has to be dug up before the front porch can be extended next month. It is still small enough to put into a pot, but it has to be done soon. I have some pink creeping phlox, a couple of hostas, lily-of-the-valley, coneflowers, a couple of small butterfly bushes and loosestrife to move before the porch gets started too, but I can replant them in the raised bed we’re making in front of the porch. I’ll be planting my new climbing rose bush in the raised bed as well, I have to get a trellis for it to climb on though. After the raised bed is finished I’ll split up the spring bulbs and replant them, they need to be thinned out anyway.

I think I have a whole summer’s work to get done in the next month, I’m sure glad that we are going on vacation afterward, we’ll need it.