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...

Bulb Planting

 My daffodil bed is all yellow and white.  The red tulips died out a few years ago.  So I decided that purple tulips would look good.  I planted 25 in groups of 5 yesterday.  

And I planted 50 hyacinth in groups of 5 in the front yard.  They are unusual-looking. and supposedly deer-resistant.

I was bit worn out.  The drill auger helped.

Both the purple tulips and the hyacinths will be great to see next Spring.  And the hyacinths will spread fragrance all over the front yard.   It was worth the effort.

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!

Flowerbeds Part 5

The current view.   The late white daffodils.

Close up...

The edging specimen daffodils.  Separates the lawn from the perennial flowerbeds.

Some lucky tulips that the voles haven't found (yet).

Top shot of the same showing the neat dark centers.

Some tulips planted in mesh cages are still blooming nicely.

A 2nd patch.

I am thrilled about these.  They are a perennial flower called 'Maltese Cross'.  I planted a dozen of them in a temporary space and they all seemed to have died late last Summer.  Seriously, they just died back and disappeared.  But here they are growing early and healthy!

More of the species daffodils (they were on sale cheap).  They love it here.  I planted one per foot several years ago and look at them multiplying now!  I originally had the edging filled with crocuses, but crocuses are mole-candy.  But they don't eat daffodil bulbs!

Close up...

I've been renovating my flowerbeds and fence-plantings.  Some divisions I put into temporary storage hoping they would survive.  The tubs were originally for growing Yukon Gold potatoes, but since they sell them in the grocery stores now, no point to that.

So I have fancy hostas I can replant.

Autumn Joy Sedum divisions I can replant.

More Sedums...

My naturally-growing hostas are emergibng too.

I'm behind, but catching up.  Sometimes, that is all you can do.

Flower Pictures

After the Spring Bulbs are gone, I'm offerring a cascade of pictures of them.  Just to share and remember.