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

Focus for 2017

Everybody needs a cute squirrel picture

Happy blog anniversary! I wasn't sure that I'd even want to keep posting for a year, but I find that it helps me focus, keep track of what I'm doing, and remember what each season looks like in my garden. That was the point, so I'm happy that it's working for me - I hope my readers are getting some enjoyment too!

I looked back on my ground rules for 2016 and they still seem very relevant. I need to not start too many big projects, think about a full community of plants for each area, observe what is already growing, and use native plants where it makes sense. Now I have confirmed that mostly what is already growing is grass and invasives that I don't want, but I'm leaving that in because I think observing is really important. Like stop and smell the roses, but in this case, it's more stop and see where the blackberry is growing, then think about what to plant instead.

I'm again setting a few large garden project for this year.

Re-do south front yard
Planting yucca along the strip south of the driveway probably sounded like a good idea to someone who didn't realize that yucca isn't really removable. I've considered trying to dig it out, but don't think it's worth the effort. There is also a small pine tree in this area, a struggling rhododendron, and a few roses in front along the sidewalk. The rest is grass and weeds. I plan to at least trim the yucca, cover the grass and weeds with mulch and then plant perennials and perhaps a few more bushes.

South front yard withovergrown yucca

Remove small retaining wall bed and plant shade tree
This is a short retaining wall that was originally built to set a garden space into the hillside next to the southeast side of the house. The wall was built with railroad ties, which are now rotting. We have two other larger retaining walls with the same issue, but this one is small enough that we can tackle it ourselves. We plan to remove the railroad ties and fill in the slope to it's more natural shape - I say "we" because my husband will definitely be helping with this one! Then, plant a shade tree, probably some variety of maple.

Short retaining wall in the back

Replace grape and kiwi trellis
We put in a large trellis across a flat area toward the bottom of our hill about 12 years ago. The north section was intended to support two grapevines and a row of raspberries. The smaller south section was for three hardy kiwi. After a few years, the plants all did great - in fact, too great. The grapes shaded out the raspberries and I finally re-planted raspberries further down the slope last year. The trellis now needs to be moved and partially replaced, which will involve the dreaded fence hole digger.

The grape side of the trellis, hardy kiwi on the far end

Maintenance!
All of last year's projects are going to need careful attention in the spring, so I can't be too focused on new projects. I need to see what didn't survive the winter and make sure my plants can compete against the inevitable weeds. The meadow and back corner are going to need particular attention, I expect that it will be difficult to keep weeds and grass out. And I'll be fighting bits of knotweed for years.

A brief look back at 2016

January 20, 2017 - sunrise from my deck

When I started this blog last January and began to look at how to reshape my yard, my first rule was "don't take on more than I can finish and maintain". With that in mind, I narrowed my focus to three areas for the year: the rose garden, the back corner, and a section of sunny hillside.

Those links will show each area in reverse, so start from the oldest to see the full stories. I'm not big on recaps (ask me how much I hate annual performance reviews at work) but I just looked through each of those progress posts and I'm feeling pretty happy with what I started last year. Started, finished, and maintained - all are important. I started everything in my original plan and finished some, but of course already have ideas for changes, and maintaining goes on forever. I put a lot of work into my yard last year, I like where it's going, and that makes me happy.

January is a good time for gardeners to plan, and I've been thinking about what I want to focus on for 2017. I have a few new areas in mind, more about that soon!

Here are a few comparisons from last January/February to now. A garden never looks it's best in winter, but I like seeing all of the mulch instead of grass and weeds and knowing that my plants are there waiting to pop out in the spring!

Rose garden, early 2016 and 2017

Bottom section of rose garden, early 2016 and 2017

Back corner, early 2016 and 2017

Sunny hillside, early 2016 and 2017

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - January 2017

Forsythia in the kitchen window

The ground has been frozen solid for most of 2017, winter holds tight finally after warm temperatures the previous two winters. The winter blooming plants have been showing off for weeks anyway, they don't mind the cold.

Helleborus 'Cinnamon Snow'

Helleborus 'Pink Frost'

Last frosty blooms on the Camellia 'Yuletide'

Pieris japonica, only a few blooms open

A few plants are teasing with buds, but will be weeks before any real blooms.

Forsythia

Oregon grape

Probably a daffodil

Indoors, my collection of African violets is multiplying, paperwhites continue to bloom, and the forsythia branch that I accidentally broke and brought in to force in a vase is cheering up my kitchen window.

African violets

Giant paperwhite

Forsythia

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting the monthly roundup of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. It's nice to check out flowers from around the world in the dark of winter!

In bloom this week: January 4, 2017

Chimonanthus or wintersweet

Happy New Year! January brings dreams of spring to gardeners, and I have started planning for a couple of projects. But I like winter and I was happy to wake up on New Year's Day to a couple of inches of snow. It's been very cold so there is still snow on the ground in my back yard.

Some of these pictures are from December 31 and some are from January 1. Pretty easy to guess which are which. It is nice to have a few flowers outside in the middle of the winter!

Pieris japonica, just a few blooms are open

Pieris japonica

Pieris japonica

Rosemary

Helleborus 'Cinnamon Snow', recently planted

Helleborus 'Pink Frost', recently planted

Camellia 'Yuletide'

Snowy rose

And a few extras for other winter lovers:

Planting a meadow and native bushes

Snow! - in early December

This is a catch up post, one last update from the year. Remember my solarization project? I'm not sure we had the best summer for it this year, 2015 would have been better as it was much hotter. Nonetheless, I proceeded with removing the plastic in mid-September then waited a few weeks to see what would grow, and used very selective application of Roundup on a few weeds that tried to grow. There weren't very many weeds, more in the back corner than the front section, but there was some grass trying to grow which is concerning.

At the end of September, I spread a very thin layer of mulch and planted a mix of native wildflowers and grasses in the front section. Carefully, so as to not disturb the soil underneath and stir up seeds that may not have been killed by solarization. I did the same in the back corner in early October, after I planted the shore pines (more about that below). Both areas had seeds sprouting almost immediately, which may be good or may be bad if they don't survive the winter.

Front section, after planting

Along the edges of the front section, I planted a few native bulbs:

• brodiaea coronaria
• camassia leichtlinii
• camassia quamash

I also planted a wildflower only seed mix in a small section of the middle, over the non-native bulbs that are already there. This area didn't have plastic on it this summer, but it had cardboard for a couple of months. I suspect that won't be enough to kill the grass and weeds, but I didn't want to do anything more that might kill the bulbs.

Then I went native plant shopping in early October and picked up a bunch of plants. I planted native bushes around the bottom edge of the front meadow and across the middle. I'm trying to soften the green wall of arborvitae, and connect with the flowering currant on the south end of the hillside.

• 2 vaccinium ovatum, evergreen huckleberry
• 2 oemleria cerasiformis, Indian plum or osoberry
• 1 holodiscus discolor, oceanspray
• 3 spiraea densiflora, subalpine spirea
• 3 symphoricarpos albus, snowberry
• 2 vaccinum parvifolium, red huckleberry
• 1 rhododendron occidentale, western azalea

Native bushes, early October

More native bushes, early October

Looking north from the middle, early October

In the back corner, I planted two pinus contora (shore pine). They are too close to some of the hazelnuts, but I'll move those once I figure out where I want them.

After planting the shore pines

And, on the bottom edge of the sunny hillside, where they will blend into the meadow:

• 3 festeca roemeri, Roemer's fescue
• 3 viola adunca, early-blue violet

I already had a few camassia and blue eyed grass at the bottom of the hillside too. I need more plants there, but that'll wait until spring.

Now the waiting game! I'm definitely worried about how many weeds will be in the meadow, since I can see shotweed growing now plus California poppies spread from the hillside above, but need to wait and see what happens in the spring. The only chore still to do in the winter is haul more mulch to put around the bushes. But the area has certainly changed a lot since last spring!

May 26 vs. December 30

Back corner, today

Looking north from the back corner, today