A little progress in the back corner

Southeast corner

This back corner is on my list of areas to focus on this year, but as you can see I haven't done a lot since last month. There actually won't be much to show all summer because I'm only planning maintenance work: keep chopping out Japanese/giant knotweed, blackberries, ivy and shoots from the old plum trees as they all try to grow. The knotweed started to come up this month, so I'm cutting it every week, sometimes can pull some of the roots up which I think will help kill it.

I found a comparison picture from 2012, we had just removed the remains of the tree on the left, which fell over in an ice storm. The remaining tree had to be taken down later. You can't see the knotweed because it hadn't sprouted up for the year, but it covered the whole back of this area - and was worse in the neighbor's yard. 2012 was a much colder year, we actually had snow fall on the day this picture was taken.

March 17, 2012

I did cut out one of the spurge laurel (daphne laureola) this month, still have to cut the larger one that's against the far (south) fence. I wasn't sure what these were but now have identified them and they are listed as a noxious weed in this county, so I don't want to contribute to spreading them. It's also poisonous. There are so many other nice bushes I can grow here!

I thought this might be comfrey until it bloomed, looks like it is evergreen bugloss (pentaglottis sempervirens), which can also be invasive but not classified as a noxious weed here.  I like the big leaves and little blue flowers so I'm letting it grow. 

Evergreen bugloss

The bulbs I planted in the fall have are dong nicely, luckily the squirrels don't seem to have eaten too many. Daffodils are almost done, tulips are in full bloom, grape hyacinth are just blooming, and anemone have buds.I'm a little worried about the bluebells, I've found some of them but not as many as there should be and no sign of blooms yet.

Grape hyacinth

I ordered native hazelnuts to plant along the fence line, just waiting for them to ship (from Raintree Nursery).
In the fall, I want to finally replace the old plum trees that grew here. I've been looking at native plants and I'm leaning towards a crab apple tree. Also considering Indian plum, mock orange and vine maple, which could all grow under or near the crab apple and should mix well with hazelnuts.