Yardwork

With 500 Spring Bulbs arriving in a few weeks (what was I thinking?) I had to prepare some places for them.  

Most are daffodils with different colors/flower shapes to add to the existing daffodil bed around the bird-feeder.  Some will go into the front yard daffodil box for the same reason.  I decided that masses of the same flowers needed some additional/contrasting colors.  

The hyacinths, tulips, and crocuses have to protected from deer and voles.  Both consider them candy.  The voles eat the bulbs below ground; the deer eat the flowers.  I can protect against the voles by planting with wire cages underground.  I can only protect them from deer because the deer won't jump the tall fence into the back yard.

So I mowed one 10' diameter bed in the back yard. and one larger one in the front down to 1/2".  I have never grown pollinator plants in it (as I intended it for), but a few dozen hyacinths will smell sweet in Spring and I can try other plants there (slightly shady in Summer).

The crocuses will go into the back lawn in mesh cages too.  I need to keep the moles away.  They don't eat the bulbs, but the voles use the mole tunnels to travel around and they eat the bulbs.

I need taller edging around the various beds.  6" is not enough.  Set 4" deep just to stay upright barely protects against mowing.  I need 12" edging.  Or landscaping bricks that stack securely.  

Flower Report

Spring is such a lovely time of year.  I love daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths.   The tulips don't last very long (in terms of years) even when planted in wire cages to keep the voles away from the bulbs.  But they vary in lifetime.  I have some 10 yer old red tulips.  The fancy ones die young.

And once, I planted some yellow tulips among the yellow daffodils.  What was I thinking?  They showed up like ice cubes on snow.  LOL!

The hyacinths live longer, but they need cages from the voles too.  Tulips and hyacinths are vole-candy!  But the daffs are slightly toxic and seem to live forever.  I recall driving past a Washington DC hillside where Lady Bird Johnson had them planted in the 60s.  40 yers later, they were still growing and blooming wild.

So I love daffodils...

I planted a front yard box of a mix of early and late varieties 30 years ago.  They are still growing great!  Here are the late ones (and they are fragrant, which is unusual for a daffodil).

Some of the surviving red tulips...

In the daffodil bed, I planted a few caged tulips, 9 each cage.  Some still last.

But what happened here?  I don't recall planting any mixed colors in a cage.  And I'm pretty sure they don't change colors!  

My guess is squirrels.  I've read that sometimes squirrels dig up bulbs (thinking they are nuts they buried) and replant them elsewhere.  That doesn't really explain why "all in the same spot", but who knows how a squirrel thinks?  I do know that there are crocuses in my lawn where I never planted them.

But I enjoy whatever Spring flowers I get...

And speaking of flowers...  The pansies I planted last Fall had a hard time of it over Winter.  I thought none would ever bloom!  But about half of them are perking up now, so I will enjoy what I can of them before Summer heat kills them off.  

Years ago, I put in a flowerbed edging of "species" (old simple ones) daffodils and purple&yellow crocuses.  The voles ate the crocus bulbs (mostly), but the daffodis remain.

They looked like this, back then...

This last is the cat memorial garden.  I took the boxes off (don't worry, I know where each one goes) and covered the area in cardboard last Fall.  By Summer, all the weeds should be dead.  

And then I'll put down weed-blocker fabric so the kitty-angels won't be insulted with weeds.  OK, OK, I know they don't actually care.  But it matters to me.  I look at the spot often enough.  And they were my daily companions...

Back Yard

 The back yard has flowers and blooms too.

Asters  are growing from a deck pot.

The sawhorses ready for more lettuce and small crops in trays.  I tightened a lot of bolts yesterday,

Some stargazer lillies (so named because the flowers point up) are coming up nicely.  I really love perrennial flowers!

I have some Autumn Joy Sedums to be moved to the flowerbed,  I had 3 for years, but they all suddenly died.  I'm happy I rooted some clippings just before that.

I have several dozen Nandina clippings are growing.  They will be a border along the drinage easement side of the front yard,  They are tough.  And evergreen with bright red berries in Winter.  

In a few years, they will look like this...  A whole hedge of them!

Back yard daffs...

A sourwood tree just starting to grow well...

Which will look like this someday...

There is a far back daffodil patch,,,

And some in the sides of the back.

A few hyacinths the voles haven't found yet,

Even a red tulip still uneaten...

The daffodils love it here.  The original 5 have multiplied, as have many planyings.  But this one is best at that..

And the y thrive even under the trees,

Sometimes, I just walk around admiring them.  

The back yard has a saucer magnolia too.  Actually, larger than the front one, but neighbors don't see it.

Some years, frost kills the blooms. But this was a good year.  Sometimes, I just stand on the deck and stare at them.

Front Yard

 The saucer Magnolia tree is in full bloom.  I love that tree!  

The front box of Daffodils is in full bloom too.  As are the Nandini shrubs.

There is a later bloom of daffodils just emerging.  I get to show the front yard off twice that way.  And those have some fragrance, which is nice.

Early Flowers

It's nice when some flowers nbloom or emerge at the same time...

The early daffodils are blooming.

Therre are still some crocuses.

And the daylillys are emerging.

And because I love daffodils and crocuses so much, I ordered 500 for planting next Fall.  And a few dozen hyacinths and tulips too.  I will be busy In October.  LOL...

The deer and voles don't eat daffodils (some bitter taste), so I plant tulips and hycinths among them.  They last many years that way.  

Daffodils

 I musn't ignore the daffodils!  They are blooming well.  It was a wet Winter and they seem happy!  Yeah, they want it dry during the Summer/Fall but late Winter rain seems to suit them...

Yesterday, I had the first good blooms.

OK, those last are getting ready to bloom, but they will open in a series of weeks as there are early to late bloomers in the bed.  I did that deliberately.  I wish I had just mixed them all up instead so that there would be blooms all through the bed.  Seeing the bed in quarters of blooms isn't as good as I imagined.  So I think I will start sneaking different-time bloomers among the earliest and latest ones.

There are a few empty spots where some died out so I will mark those spots and plant opposite-time bloomers there.  When you change your mind about some things, there are usually ways to adjust over a few years.

Tulips And Other Flowers

The tulips were generally at their best yesterday.   

I used to have a lot more, but there are 2 problems.  First, the voles love them!  They find them almost anywhere.  Second, the fancier ones have short lives.  They are hybridized within an inch of existence for color rather than length of life.  Even if I plant them in wire mesh cages  (small enough to keep voles out but large enough to allow the stems to grow through), they still die younger than standard red ones.

Years ago, I planted perhaps 100 tulips in 2 years.  The first were among the daffodils around the backyard woods.  And some near the deck.  The following Spring, all I found were holes where the voles dug down and ate the bulbs.  The last 2 pics are of the only survivors (and notice they are solid colors). 

You can see how many there used to be...

So, when I established the 25x25' daffodil bed around the birdfeeder, I put the hyacinths and tulips in wire mesh cages.  But even that didn't help much.  At  8 bulbs per cage, about 10 cages, 80 bulbs...  I have 8 left and a few that are just leaves this year but might bloom next year.

I plan to dig up the cages in June when the leaves die back and try again.  But this time with standard old red tulips in the Fall.  They will stand out among the daffodils better anyway.

I have no idea why the caged hyacinths all died out.  They are usually long-lived if not eaten by voles.  Maybe the hyacinth stems are too thick for the wire mesh.  Maybe I'll try putting them in slightly larger mesh and surround them with sharp gravel chips.  I've read that deters voles very well.  

I want more hyacinths.  The fragrance is wonderful!