Fertilizer Friday -- Reblooming Daylilies and Some Other Stuff

Daylilies are one of my all-time favorite perennials. I was at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago, and they had them on their half-price rack - only about $4.50. How could I pass that up, especially since my garden had so few? The great thing is that although they had bloomed out scapes on them, since then they have produced more, and are now reblooming!

Daylily 'Entrapment'

These next two I bought at Bluestone Perennials. The fans are small, but they still flowered.

'Pardon Me'

'Barbara Mitchell' (Bluestone said it's 'Barbara Mitchell' but it doesn't quite match the one I had at my previous garden, still pretty)

Agastache 'Tutti Frutti' has been blooming for a while, but I think this is the first time I've posted a pic of it.

Dahlia 'Dracula' -- love the dark leaves and bright red flower, but not sure it looks right in the bed where it is, we'll see.

Dahlia 'Mystic Dreams' also has dark foliage, not seen in the pic. This one is growing in a pot. Hmm...maybe that's the best way to show these off?

Centaurea montana 'Amethyst Dream'

Coreopsis grandiflora, another half-price purchase at Lowe's (about $1.50). This one was near death, I cut it back and nursed it back to health. What a lovely reward!

Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' might be an annual, might come back next year, we'll see!

My first eggplant blossom. I think it might be too late for it to ripen into fruit, but who knows? I have tiny tomatoes too, the result of the cold, wet spring and not enough hot weather. I'll do a few things differently next year. I need to do a post on lessons learned from the vegetable garden. Some things were a great success, and some -- not so much.

That's it for today! Head on over to Tootsie's to see who else is flaunting their flowers!

Death, ReBirth and That Equally Mysterious State in Between

I have a confession to make, and it's one that makes me feel guilty. We have a lawn service. Hey, I have more than enough to do just planting and caring for this garden. Cutting the grass and blowing leaves out of the beds is just not my idea of fun. You need to know this in order to understand the Death part of this post.

I've posted recently complaining about the ravages of animals in my garden -- cats eating the Nepeta, raccoons tearing apart the plantings along stream. I forgot about the most dangerous critter of all -- the two-legged one.

I have this shady area at the back of the garden, near the shed. It's planted with native bleeding hearts, Tiarella, Pulmonaria, various ferns, Jack in the Pulpit, and several clumps of Columbine that I winter sowed.

Well, I had this brilliant idea a couple of months ago to direct sow all the remaining Columbine seeds that I had into the open spaces. I had a lot, and my stash was getting old, so I didn't want to try winter sowing them this coming winter, figuring I might not have the greatest success rate. Well, lo and behold, quite a few of them sprouted! I was thrilled,  I could see this area just swimming with Columbine next year.

I didn't realize the lawn service guys would think they were weeds. See, occasionally, the lawn service guys haul out grub hoes, and do a cursory once-round patrol of the beds. I weed pretty faithfully, because I just hate that overwhelming feeling that the weeds are getting away form you. They've never grubbed out anything except grass. Until last week. I was away when they came, and when I did my round of the garden when I got back, I was dismayed to discover that they had grubbed out my little sprouts!

You can see them all dried up in the upper left area of the picture. A couple that escaped the hoe are in the upper right.

I was bummed! I thought about writing a note to the lawn service asking them not to weed the beds any more. But I wasn't sure I could keep the right tone of voice. I racked my brains for a couple of days trying to come up with a solution to prevent them from grubbing out any more sprouts, because I am going to try again with seeds there.

My solution is to sprinkle the seeds, and then cover them with a tent of hardware cloth, held to the soil with ground staples.  That should be enough of an obstacle.

ReBirth -- One of the first shrubs I planted in my new garden was a tiny little Annabella hydrangea that I bought from Bluestone Perennials.

If you've ever ordered from them, you probably know how small most of their plants are. Small but healthy. Well, the Annabelle hydrangea got trampled soon after planting when we had our Douglas firs windsailed. I didn't hold out much hope for it, the branches all got torn off right at the base. However, I dug it up anyway, and potted the roots, and stuck it away in a corner of the patio, with some empty pots and a couple of other plants that I haven't planted out yet. The other day I noticed growth! Despite being neglected and ignored, it had resprouted! Sweet!

I'm going to give it the rest of the summer in the pot, and then replant it, maybe in September.

It gave me hope that I might be able to save my Corylopsis. It was the very first shrub I planted here back in March. I didn't site it correctly, because it has declined steadily ever since. I put it in a spot that seldom dries out. The leaves have been drying up and falling off,  but the branches are still green, and it does still have a few green leaves holding on.

This past weekend I dug it up, severely pruned the roots and branches, and put it in a spot that is well-drained. Keep your fingers crossed that it lives!

Fertilizer Friday -- A Red Letter Day

It's also a red flower day, just about everything that's blooming right now in my garden has red flowers. (Or pink, but that's related to red, right?) I hope the pictures turn out ok, red is always so hard to photograph.

This tall Phlox is called 'Starfire.' It really glows, it's so bright.

I just love it, but one of its drawbacks is that it has lost a lot of its lower leaves. They just crisped up and fell off, leaving the lower third of its stem bare. It's unfortunate because its leaves have very nice reddish edges. I also have just the one in this bed, the front foundation bed. That bed is suffering right now from a 'One of this, One of that" look. I've already rearranged things in this bed once this year. This is the bed that I wrote about in a previous post, where I removed the sunrose that was overgrown. What I did there will be the subject of a future post. It still needs work. Maybe this weekend I'll sort it out.

Back to the Phlox. I need to buy some more this fall, I love the flowers, but I think it will look better in a grouping. And I need to figure out what I can use to hide the ugly, bare lower stems.

Behind the Phlox is a grouping of Pennisetum 'Karley Rose.' It has lovely, long pink panicles that are also hard to photograph. The camera always wants to focus on what's behind it. But I managed to get two good pics of it. Here it is in the front foundation bed.

I also have a few clumps of it growing in the back, beside the stream.

My Monarda 'Colrain Red' is also almost too bright to look at. It's really more magenta than straight red, though. I haven't seen any hummers at it yet either. I keep waiting and hoping they'll find it. Maybe when the clumps are bigger.

That bed also has Cosmos 'Dazzler' flowering. They are not as tall as I thought they would get, maybe because of the strange spring and early summer weather we had. I'll let them self-sow and see what I get next year. In my experience, gold finches love the seeds of Cosmos, and they always scatter a few around.

Finally, the Lobelia cardinalis, which the raccoons chewed on, is flowering, after being relocated away from the stream, into an area that stays moist.

Well, hop on over to Tootsie Time and check out all the other Flower Flaunters! I have found some really cool blogs to add to my Follow list there.

Fertilizer Friday -- Hey, I Do Have Some Flowers!

My garden is so new, I always go out to take pictures on Fertilizer Friday thinking there will be little to flaunt, but Surprise! Surprise! Today I do have some flowers to show.

My camera's batteries died as soon as I turned it on, and I didn't want to wait for them to power up, so I took my pictures today with my new iPhone. Keeping my fingers crossed that they look ok.

Hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit'

Jacob's Ladder

Astilbe

Aquilegia 'Songbird'

Geranium 'Ballerina'

Squash blossom, you can't see it in this picture, but there is a tiny baby squash growing behind it!

These two plants, Chocolate Joe-Pye Weed and Meadowsweet, are still sitting in a tray of water waiting to be planted. I bought them several days apart, but I really like the combination of foliage, so I'm thinking I will plant them together.

Closeup of the Meadowsweet flowers

Well, that's it for me today. Please don't forget to head over to Tootsie Time to check out all the other bloggers who have posted for Fertilizer Friday.

Raccoon Damage

At least I think it's raccoons. There's too much damage for squirrels, and the garden is fenced, so it can't be deer. I suppose it could be possums, but I'm betting on  raccoons.

For the past week I've been waking up to signs of havoc near the stream. Plants not only squashed from being sat on, but buds and ends chewed off, in some cases, plants actually ripped out, roots and all, and sent floating down the stream to the end near the pump, where they float like dead plant carcasses.

Such a disheartening sight to wake up to.

They chewed the buds, just about to flower, off one of my Lobelia cardinalis, which I had planted right in the stream, knowing how much they like boggy conditions.

I had also left a couple of plants still in pots, Japanese forest grass, in the stream awaiting planting. It looks like they played a game of raccoon football with the pots. One had no plant, and no soil either in it, the empty pot was just sitting sideways in the water. The plant was several feet away, still intact, but not a single bit of soil left on its roots.

They tried to chow down on the marsh marigold, but I don't think it was to their liking.

And they keep knocking over my little rusty duck, a gift from a friend. Poor thing.

So....I pulled the Lobelia out and planted it elsewhere in the garden, somewhere I knew it would still get plenty of water. I planted the Japanese forest grass too. Cut back the damaged leaves on the marsh marigold.

I've spent the last few days thinking about how to deal with these masked marauders. I could plant poisonous bog plants in the stream. Water hemlock, anyone? But I've seen Chester chewing on some of my ornamental grasses, and while the little rascal might be smart enough to stick with grass, and not chew on poisonous plants, I don't think I want to chance it (although if it comes down to it, I might).

I could buy one of those motion-activated water sprays, but since they're already playing in the stream, I don't think they'll be deterred by more water, unless it has the force of a firehose. And a firehose wouldn't do my plants any good.

I suppose I really should be glad they seem to like spending so much time in the stream, and haven't really bothered the veggies at all. But I'm sure at some point, they will.

Anyway, I decided my first line of defense would be to use a product called Shake Away. I ordered the ones based on fox and coyote urine from Amazon, but they won't arrive for a couple more days. I hope they work. We'll see.

Northern Flickers, Neighborhood Cats, and Nepeta 'Walker's Low'

Three Northern Flickers showed up in my garden this morning, foraging on the ground. Two males, and one female, I'm pretty sure.

The female has the plain brown head, the males have the red stripe on the side.

According to my book Birds of Washington State, "Flickers are partial to ants, which form a substantial part of their diet and serve as unwilling participants in flicker hygiene. After bathing in a dusty depression to remove oils and bacterial, a flicker will pick up ants and preen rigorously. Ants contain formic acid, which is lethal to small parasites on the skin and feathers. Many other birds use this method, but the Northern Flicker is the only one to eat ants in quantity."

Well, since I had ants in my kitchen twice last week, I say "Go, Flickers!" They didn't seem to be doing any sand bathing, but they were certainly chowing down.

Not long after I took these pictures, I heard them making what sounded like an alarm call, after which they flew up and clung to the bark on the Douglas firs. And, who comes strolling along but Chester, a neighbor's outdoor cat. Chester has been, I'm sure, the culprit in the destruction of my Nepeta 'Walker's Low', which has been chewed down to the nub.

Chester, looking not the least bit repentant

I don't mind, really. It's the nature of cats to hunt birds and if I'm going to plant Nepeta, I have to expect cats to interfere with it. They really have chewed it down, though.

But I think I may have come up with a solution that might save the Walker's Low. I was reading an article about cat deterrants, and it mentioned that cats DON'T like smelly plants like lavender and rosemary. So I went to Lowe's and bought some of both. But I didn't want just blue/lavender flowers there, so I thought, "Hmm, what else is smelly but has maybe yellow or orange flowers, that will make a nice contrast to all that blue? Marigolds, of course!"

So I now have a stinky bed, and I figure, if the Walker's Low doesn't bounce back, at least I will have something else in that bed with spiky lavender flowers.

Also, if it doesn't bounce back, I do have it flourishing in another bed, where they have left it alone, maybe because it is surrounded by lots of other plants. Hmmm......not many of them are stinky.

Here's what Walker's Low should look like.

Oh ME of Little Faith!

OK, I have to admit -- despite my intense pride over the lovely carrot I pulled up the other day, I really didn't believe that my carrot patch would produce anything of note. I don't know why, just not enough faith in myself, or maybe just knowing how Mother Nature can sometimes defeat even the best gardener.

Today I noticed that one of the carrots was about to flower, so I figured, well, time to pull at least that one! Well, it was a disappointment, small and skinny and white! So, I started to pull others, thinking, I need the room for planting something else. Well, lo and behold, gorgeous, bright orange, real, fat, lovely carrots. They even smell carroty! Having never grown them before, I didn't realize that they make a snapping noise when you pull them out of the soil. What a kick!