In bloom this week: Feb. 28, 2017

Amaryllis

Hello, spring - wait, have some more snow! I still love the snow but also waiting eagerly for spring in my garden. I guess that's a good thing, I'll be happy no matter what the weather is.

Indoors, one of my amaryllises put on a nice show, with three flowers. This is one of two that I've had for years, plus a bunch of baby bulbs that I hope will someday bloom. Two of my African violets are blooming, and a third has buds. A spider plant has been blooming all winter and shows no signs of stopping. And I've been buying tulips for the kitchen window, which one of our cats loves to chew on. 

Cat nibbled tulips

Outdoors, we are definitely lagging behind last year with nothing new in bloom in the last two weeks, except a gorgeous witchhazel 'Diane' that I just planted this weekend. The hellebores, rosemary and pieris japonica are still lovely too. 

Witchhazel 'Diane'

A little snow doesn't bother witchhazel

Hellebores stay cozy and warm

Pieris japonica

Pieris japonica doesn't mind snow either

Rosemary wishes it had a snow picture too

What's next? Crocuses, hyacinth and a daffodils are coming up, but I wouldn't bet on blooms within the next week. The forsythia is close though.

Forsythia

Building a woodland garden

The picture above gives away the fact that I've been slow to post updates, but I'm already hard at work on the first major project for this year.

This has been a sunny garden area next to the south side of the house. It's outside the kitchen window, which sounds convenient, but it can't be accessed without going downstairs. I've been using it as a vegetable garden, with flowers encroaching in recent years, but the soil is full of clay, it's soggy far into the spring and hard as a brick in the summer. Our yard is full of sunny areas, and really what I want is more shade. A tree here will provide shade to the kitchen in the heat of the summer and a nice cooler area just off of the back "deck" (large concrete slab area). Plus, more privacy from the neighbors on this side.

Starting point

There are railroad ties under those bricks too

The start of the plan was to remove the railroad ties, fill in the slope to its more natural shape, and plant a shade tree. Our yard has three separate retaining walls built with railroad ties that are now rotting. This is the smallest and the only one that we'll be able to tackle on our own. And.... this part is close to done!

We pulled out the railroad ties, which was actually not as hard as I expected except for a couple that were really buried. Still have to get someone to come haul them away, but they are out and without serious injury to the laborers. My husband had some scraped fingers and my back didn't feel so good after the last two!

I've been hauling organic matter from around the yard to fill in the slope: a couple of miscellaneous weed piles, rotting wood, grass that was dug up in the process of unburying railroad ties, and wood chip mulch. It'll be settling for a long time, but I don't need to plant anything right on the edge.

First day progress

Railroad ties around the edge are out

Then, planted a maple tree. This is an acer rubrum 'Franksred', which should have lovely fall color and grow fairly quickly to 30-40 feet. It's not really visible in photos, but it's planted raised up about 6 inches, the whole area will be heavily mulched to try to help with the clay.

I got it from a big block hardware store and ended up having to do surgery to clean up circling roots, but I think it will be ok. I took a chance when I saw it because it's exactly the tree I wanted and a large size. Well actually I thought about it for two weeks, because I rarely do anything hastily, and but then went ahead and took a chance!

Status today

I had to move my strawberries to pots to get them out of the way, which was a good opportunity to divide them. If anyone local wants strawberry plants, we have plenty! I still need to figure out where to plant a few vegetables, that'll probably be a raised bed, which will solve the clay soil issue. The flowers will need to move too, a few will be going nearby just outside of the old retaining wall boundary, but most don't need to be moved yet.

Next, I need to haul more material to fill in the slope and then look at what else to plant. There is room for one or maybe two rhododendrons further up the slope, and salal and sword ferns near the maple - just to start with. The area under the kitchen deck, visible in the top right of the photo above, will be planted similarly for a nice partly native woodland theme.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - February 2017

Lilac branches and amaryllis

February is living up to it's dark and stormy reputation today, so I have no new outdoor pictures and even my indoor pictures are dark. But the hellebores, wintersweet and pieris japonica continue to bloom cheerfully, see pictures from earlier in the month. They look just the same now!

Which is a little surprising because in the meantime, we had a snowstorm last week, 8 inches of wet heavy snow. Luckily we didn't lose any branches but one large tree in the neighborhood came down and there were a lot of broken branches in yards and parks.

Chimonanthus, wintersweet

Helleborus 'Cinnamon Snow'

Last year was much warmer, with crocuses blooming already and one very early flowering currant bloom. I planted a lot more bulbs in the fall and they're coming up, but nowhere near ready to bloom yet.

Various bulbs and aquilegia this week

Indoors is more cheerful, with one amaryllis about to open and a vase of lilac branches looking like they will bloom. The lilacs are leftover from much needed pruning last week (just before the snow), and I wasn't sure if they would bloom indoors but now I'm hopeful.

Lilac branches and amaryllis

My forced hyacinths are all doing well except the one on the right may not bloom - it's not growing roots. Notice the wintersweet out the window, and tulips from the grocery store!

Thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting the monthly Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

In bloom this week: Feb. 4, 2017

Hyacinth in kitchen window

Now that I've crossed over a year of blogging, it's very interesting to compare with what was blooming last year. This year has been much cooler and overall drier (certainly not dry today!), but so far there isn't a lot of difference in what's blooming. I'm enjoying camellias and hellebores now because I planted them last year, and observing what else is in bloom around the neighborhood that I could plant this year. Perhaps snow drops and witch hazel!

Chimonanthus, wintersweet

Oregon grape - has weeks to go before real blooms

Pieris japonica - not new but I kept forgetting to take pictures last year

Rosemary

Camellia 'Yuletide'

Helleborus 'Pink Frost'

Helleborus 'Cinnamon Snow'

Indoors, my one African violet expanded to four somewhere over the course of the year, and two are in bloom now.

African violets

I've been experimenting with forcing bulbs this winter, and most of these hyacinths are coming along nicely. The two on the right were the worst looking bulbs, but I also put them in the vases later. They all cooled in the fridge and then the garage for the same time though.

Hyacinth indoors, wintersweet out the window

What's next? Lots of bulbs coming up, and I do expect to start to see that those are later than last year. I also planted many new bulbs in the spring... now to see if I remember what's where!

Daffodils