Front Yard Island

I've mentioned finally setting up a front yard planting island before.  I bought 60 bare-root Astilbes in early Spring.  I thought they would do fine planted in Spring instead of Fall since they were dormant.  I nestled them down into the 3" of 50/50 compost/topsoil mix and expected great result. 

Well, for one thing, a site I visited that listed deer-resistant flowers mentioned Astilbes.  And for perennials, Astilbes bloom a really long time.  Most perennials bloom a couple weeks and are done.  Plus, it is a shaded spot both under a small Saucer Magnolia Tree and shaded in the afternoon by tall trees in the neighbo's yard.  Seemed perfect.

Well, deer have a funny way of eating.  The don't nip leaves off, they just bite and pull.  And, apparently, deer don't mind eating Astilbe at all.  But when they pulled on the new plants, they just came out of the ground.  So I had to keep replanting them every few mornings.  The deer got nothing from them, but they kept trying.  So I draped chicken wire over the plants so the deer couldn't keep pulling them up.

Sadly, the constant air exposure to the roots killed about half of the Astilbes.  But the remaining ones seemed to be surviving.  With that problem solved (until they grow higher), I ignored them while doing other projects.

Weeds are insidious.  They grow just a little each day.  So one day, they are a few small ones and you think "I should pull those weeds" and the next week it looks like overgrown lawn!  And the weeds were suddenly 12" high with 4" tall Astilbes hidden among them.

So I went out to weed then Thursday (I'm a bit behind on the posts).  Naturally, Thursday was the hottest day of the year so far.  96 and a heat index over 105 with 90% humidity.  So I thought, OK, I'll do some today closest to the Astilbe and water the whole areas.

I did 30 minutes and then went inside for 15 (a good habit in hot weather).  Then did another 30 and 15.  Then another.  Well, to my surprise, I had done the entire 30'x15' island! 

Some of the Astilbes are surviving with only a leaf or 2, some had been pulled up and I didn't notice so I planted them again deeper, most of the surviving 30 of the original 60 were healthy and 6" tall.  I will plant new ones in the gaps next Fall, but my focus this Summer is on the survivors. 

Having ridded the entire island of weeds now, I am hoping that the 3" of compost will smother most new ones, BUT I will watch them more carefully the rest of the Summer!

And THEN there are the 30 Astilbes I planted in the back yard!  No deer there, but more sun.  And different weeds too.  The front island weeds were mostly crabgrass that came up easily in the loose compost.  The backyard weeds are some kind of grass that spreads by runners under the soil. 

I let that get away from me earlier, but it was a smaller area.  I went in with a trowel to get the runners out.  I din't expect the sun to be causing a problem, as there were some older Astilbes that do just fine there.  It seems new ones are more sensitive. 

So after digging out the fewer weeds left, I shaded them.  2' metal rods supporting shade cloth (like a loose-weave cheesecloth) attached with twist-ties.  And I'm watering them deeply every few days.  The good news is that some are doing just fine, a few are recovering, and the ones with only a couple weak leaves seem to be starting some new ones.  I only lost about 25% of those.  New planting are always difficult. 

One thing I didn't realize was that the area received more sunlight than it used to.  One reason is an huge mature oak tree I had removed 3 years ago.  It was losing large branches and I became convinced it was dying.  And it being on the west side of the house (from where the stormwinds blew) it might have fallen on the house.  As it turned out the top half of the tree was hollowing, so it was a good decision.

But that meant more sunlight (where I didn't need it).  And when I rebuilt the deck (25 years old and deteriorating) that gave more sunlight to the Astilbe bed.  I may put up a shade fence or move them in Fall, but again my focus is on keeping them alive through Summer.

One project of many, LOL!

And, BTW, the Astilbes in the front only cover 1/3 of the island.  In the Fall, I am going to move most of the several dozen Japanese Painted Ferns I have elsewhere to the island.  Deer DON'T like those at all. 

Minor Yard Work, Part 2

Yesterday, I stopped with some plantings completed and equipment batteries being recharged.

So, they were both charged.  I used the hedge trimmer to cut the seedpods off the Spring bulbs.  It worked wonderfully.  I trimmed the tops off some leaves, but that won't cause any harm.  The leaves with rebuild the bulbs just fine.

Then I pulled out the weed whacker.  It's a powerful one.  A Ryobi 40 volt lithium/ion battery.  Lasts a good 30 minutes.  Lithium/ion batteries take some getting used to.  The battery doesn't weaken and slow down gradually; it just suddenly stops!  Which is actually very nice; you KNOW when it is done, LOL!

I had 2 purposes for it.  First was to cut down the weeds growing between the raised framed garden beds.  That went easily.  The second purpose was to cut down Some Damn Vine.  The neighbor planted it in his backyard years ago.  When he realized how invasive it was, he just mowed it in open territory until it died.

But by that time, it had crept into my backyard.  My backyard is not so open and amenable to mowing.  I have shrubs, I have piles of flat rocks (to be used someday, LOL), I have flowers.  The stuff is worse than forsythia (and I have those from him too).  I can dig out the forythia suckers that sneak in (an annoying annual project) but the vine is not diggable in any practical sense.

So I weed-whacked half of them yesterday (the battery drained).  The idea is that when they are weakened by leaf-loss  and start to grow new leaves I will herbicide them.  I hate using stuff like that, but nothing else has killed them.  I tried boiling water, vinegar, and a propane torch.  The roots are too deep.  I'm going to put large sheets of corrugated cardboard (saved from some flat assemble-yourself bookcases) against my garden enclosure to prevent drift on a windless day and spray them with coarse spray (less wind-drift) very close in short bursts.

Then I will lay the cardboard down on top of the whacked and sprayed vines and put boards on top to keep it in place.  For a YEAR!  I have a spot where I overturned a trash can on them last Summer.  The vines are white, but not dead yet!  If spraying AND covering them won't kill them, I don't know what will

Worse, they are among my fenceline flowerbed.  I can't spray and cover there.  Fortunately (in a sad way) most of the perennials in the invaded area have faded away over the years.  The remaining ones are large and movable (daylilies, sedum 'Autumn Joy' or easy to move like columbines).  The shrubs against the fence are either unwanted ('Golden Euonymous) or about dead (20 year old butterfly bushes).

So there, I'm going to empty the infested part and spray and cover it with black plastic.

The neighbor abandoned the house to the bank last Fall.  I'm thinking of sneaking over there some night and hitting everything within 6' of the fence with Roundup before the place is sold.  I'll have to remove a few fence boards to get at it unobserved...

But I did some positive things too.  I had a LOT of pulled weeds and cut junk saplings.  So I collected the tree debris into a pile (along with a big pile of Winter-fallen tree branches).  I have a trailer-load of that.  I'll bring them to a County recycling place and return with a load of free mulch.

That was enough for the day.  So I went inside and pursued another yard project.  I set up an edged island around a Saucer Magnolia Tree and a 3' boulder I had delivered in place 10 years ago.  I always meant to make a planting island around them, but never did until last year.

I filled the space with 3" of fallen leaves and 3" of compost, assuming it would smother the grass.  It mostly did, but there were some places the grass can through.  I raked the leaves and compost off those areas, laid down packing paper (I save that stuff that comes in shipping boxes).  It's 2' wide and up to 20' long.  So I laid that down on the exposed grass (like I should have all over the island originally) and raked the compost back over it.  That should pretty much take care of the grass.

I planted 50 red 'Fanal' Astilbe nearest the house there, but they didn't take as much space as I thought.  Well, the whole new idea for the front yard is to plant stuff deer don't like.  BTW, I got most of the Astilbes on eBay at a great price (this is no ad, just saying).. Most places are $90/25, eBay offerred them $60/25.  And they were growing and healthy, not bare-roots).

So I went inside and really searched for truly deer-resistant shade-tolerant perennials.  There are lots of lists and few agree.  But I found a GREAT spreadsheet listing plants by degree of deer-resistance.  Do take a look at it.

http://njaes.rutgers.edu/deerresistance/

The site divides plants into 4 categories of deer-resistance; and gives the common name, Latin name, and type (annual, perennial, groundcover, grass, shrub, tree).  I was sad to see that Astilbes are only "Seldom Severely Damaged".  But I got a good list of "Rarely Damaged" shade tolerant perennials to fill the rest of the area.

Some are ones I already have in abundance.  Japanese Painted Ferns, Bishop's Weed, and Ajuga (Bugle Weed).  But there were also some others I liked that I don't have.  Lamb's Ear, Lenten Rose, Lungwort (Pulmonaria), and Spurge (Euphorbia).  If you know anything bad about those last ones, please tell me.

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 2

Yesterday was about tomato-planting.

Separately, I've gone big on Red Astilbes this year ('Fanal' if you want to know).  I've planted 75.  25 in the backyard when an entirely useless flower called Teucherium was growing for 10 years and never looked much different from weeds.  50 in the new front yard island I created last Fall surrounding the Saucer Magnolia tree and a 3' boulder I have delivered in 2006.

The island is irregular shaped, but about 30'x15'.  I set in 6" edging all around last Fall and covered the area with 3" of wet fallen leaves and covered it with 3" of 50/50 compost and topsoil mix to smother the grass.  You know that brown paper that is used for shipping boxes?  I saved it, smoothed it out (pull it as smooth as you can, put it on the driveway, and use a push broom on it; flattens it out nicely).  I considered putting that down to cover the grass before putting the leaves and compost mix on it but decided that it wasn't necessary.  Wrong.  I had to rake up a lot of the leaves and compost where the grass grew through and do it right the 2nd time.  Always do it "right" the 1st time.  It would have been SO mush easier.

I got most of the patches of grass that managed to grow up through the leaves and compost mix covered with the 3' wide paper.  It will degrade by Fall but it won't be needed by then.  Any new weeds will be surface ones that blow in.  You can't stop THAT.

So I had a routine for planting the Astilbes.  First I planted landscaping flags (endlessly useful things or marking spots anywhere).  I stuck the flags every 2' along the top (closest to the house) edge.  I used a bulb planter to make the holes.  They don't need big improved holes like tomatoes and the lawn soil was "decent" (after 30 years of gradual improvement here).

At each landscaping flag, I laid out a bare-root Astilbe.  I brushed away the compost mix, pushed the bulb-planter to full depth, brushed in some compost mix, set the bare-root in just below soil level and backfilled.  Then a 2nd offset row (I tend to make triangles).  Then a 3rd (and none within 3' of the Saucer Magnolia because I intend to put a 3' carpet circle around it).

Carpet is great!  It is water and air permeable, lasts forever, and weeds don't grow up through it.  Just don't use "outdoor" carpet.  It is rubber-backed and air and water won't get through it.  Look for a neighbor renovated the house or talk to a carpet installer.  To them it is just trash.  You can get it free of cheap.

So I planted the last of 50 front yard island Astilbes this afternoon (listening to the Washington Nationals baseball team game against the Philadelphia Phillies on radio - We won).  Then I soaked the planted area thoroughly.  50 Astilbe 2' apart don't use up as much space as you might think.

As existing plants go, they are relatively inexpensive.  I got the 1st 25 for $60, unhappily sprung for 25 at $90, and found the last 25 for $60 on ebay (those last arrived in outstanding condition, BTW).  Yeah, that seems like a lot of money, but try to find Astilbe SEEDS.  :)

And those only covered 1/4 of the island!  I chose Astilbes because the area is 1/2 shaded.  I need something else to cover the rest.  The front yard is open to deer and we have a LOT of them here.  Astilbes are considered deer-resistant and they already pulled 2 up.  They didn't like them much and I was able to replant them.

I need something more deer-resistant.  I found some lists that suggest good choices.  Most aren't shade-tolerant, but Heucheria (Coral Bells), Oriental Poppies, and Japanese Painted Ferns seem good.  I have a lot of Japanese Painted Ferns scatterred around, so I think I will consolidate them to the streetside of the island.  I might add some short ornamental grasses in the mix.

Tomorrow, the small garden crops...