Bloom Day--May

There are lots of things in bloom around here, particularly in the shady half of the front bed, where my beloved red maple has put out robust leaves within the last couple weeks. Here's some Lily of the Valley, with a Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans) peeking into the frame...

He's so nice, he deserves his own shot:

Here's another look at the shady section.

There's a shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia) back there and the two Dicentras. That Lily of the Valley is being engulfed by a tulip that didn't bloom this year. Somehow, I planted the Lily without realizing it was on top of a tulip! There's also Yellow Pimpernel (Taenidia interrigima) that hasn't bloomed yet. It's new this year, so it may not bloom at all, but I'm interested to see how this plant does here. It's supposed to grow in dry shade, and I certainly have no shortage of that!

The last of my single-late tulips are in full bloom. These were planted by the previous owner of the house, but I like their hot pink color. It kind of spices up an otherwise quiet part of the garden right now.


My lilac is in full bloom and the columbines are starting to blossom, and my peonies and irises are ready to burst soon. I hope you're enjoying many May blooms as well, and be sure to check out May Dreams Gardens for more Bloom Day fun!

Have you seen me?

Can anyone help identify this shrub?


I realize that's not the best picture, so here's some more characteristics: It's about 8' tall with small, pinnate leaves and pink flowers that bloom at the same time as lilacs. Here's a close-up of the leaves and flowers:


I don't have many shrubs in my garden, just a lilac and a forsythia, and I don't know as much as I should about shrubs, aside from a few natives (arrowwood, elderberry, etc.) and I know this isn't one of those. So if anyone out there has seen this shrub, please let me know! Here's one more look:


On a different note, I missed an intense rainstorm earlier this week while I was out of town, but I received a report that my rain garden was filled to capacity and performed admirably. I checked on the sedges when I got back, and I found that this Pennsylvania sedge got a little beat up...


...but the owl-fruit sedges (C. stipata) are doing great! They were a last-minute addition, and I'm very glad that I gave in to an impulse buy.


Hopefully the C. pensylvanicas will get a little stronger as they get better established. The forbs arrive next Saturday, and I'm very excited!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I'm hoping it warms up a little today so that I can spend my Mother's Day working in the garden. I wish the same for all of you!!

Almost there...

The rain garden has come a long way and is almost complete! I finished digging and shaping it, and then I planted six sedges: 4 Carex pensylvanica and 2 C. stipata. Here is what it looks like now:


It's still a little rough, to be sure, but when the forbs arrive it will look more filled out. In general it's going to look rather skimpy this year, but by next year it should be much fuller. The layer of mulch is kind of measly, and I intend to add more after the forbs are in. Here's a (slightly) closer look at the two sedges in there now...


That's C. pensylvanica on the left and C. stipata to the right. The former already flowered; the latter, if it flowers this year, will do so near the end of this month. C. stipata is more upright and has wider culms (stems) than pensylvanica. I intend to bury the downspout extender a little more once we get a good rain and I'm sure that it's in a good spot and the flow is moving well. All in all, I'm thrilled with the progress!

Now this has nothing to do with rain garden, but I just have to say that I love bleeding hearts. Don't misinterpret that; I just find it utterly fascinating that nature developed such a curious-looking flower. Really, what was the evolutionary advantage of this bloom? Maybe this Dicentra spectabilis was bred to have a more exotic, unnatural flower, but I don't really care. It's just so unique!


And yet I don't have the native version of this yet, D. cucullaria. Instead I have D. spectabilis and the tiny D. eximia. It's really only a matter of time until the native joins its cousins here, I guess!

I will be away from the garden for most of this week, and I'm hoping that the rest of my tulips will be in full bloom when I return. I'm afraid they'll peak while I'm gone. Hopefully next weekend the weather will be consistently warm enough to transplant some seedlings. I look forward to finding gifts in the garden when I get home!

Garden Blogger's Muse Day--May

Can you believe it's May already?? I'm astonished at how much faster time seems to move every year. But that's not actually the subject of my musing. This post is kind of an add-on to Carol at May Dreams Garden, who feels May is the most exciting gardening month. I must agree that May is the most garden-centric month for me, mostly because it's the time when blooming really gets underway and the risk of frost here in northern Illinois is reliably past. As a result, May is the time to weed vigorously, plant copiously, and enjoy unabashedly.

I will be picking up two large plant orders from the Wild Ones this month and trying to squeeze in some trips to local plant sales, and I also need to plant my containers, transplant my seedlings, and add new mulch. I feel like I'm already lagging behind! But we're really underway with the gardening season now; I hope you're as excited about it as I am! For more musing, visit Carolyn at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

Dirt Therapy

It's been a rough week around here. In response, I took out my frustration and anxiety on the rain garden, which needs to be dug by Saturday because some of my sedges will be arriving that day. Ironically I haven't had time to finish it because of all the rain, but hacking away at clay and rocks to dig six inches down is a surefire way to release stress!

These pictures are pretty ugly, but this is the reality of creating this garden. I look forward to seeing how nice the "after" pictures are. So here it is last week when I removed the sod...


As you can see, this rain garden breaks the cardinal rule of being at least 10 feet away from the house. I discussed this issue with Dr. Stacy James of the Prairie Rivers Network, a local environmental NGO, and she concurred that it shouldn't be an issue. Here's why: this spot was a natural depression even before I removed the sod, plus my house is on a slab so there's no basement to get flooded. More importantly, water has been pooling in this spot for years anyway with no damage to the foundation, so putting plants there will absorb the water faster than it would drain without the garden. I can't say that everyone should disregard the 10-foot rule, just that in this situation it shouldn't cause damage.

This is a picture of the "garden" doing its job today. The trench to the right is the depth that the whole garden will be once this rain stops and I can finish. The berm will be more even as more dirt is dug, and I've rounded the corners a little so it's an oval shape. My poor photography skills don't really capture that, but hopefully you can get the idea. You can see how this spot retains water. (That's a leggy spirea in the foreground; it will not be in the rain garden but is on the other side of the berm)


Digging this reminded me how amazing it is that anything grows in my corner of the world. The soil was nothing but compacted clay intermixed with fist-size rocks. I cursed the barrenness of the soil and the glaciers that left my property with the grimy table scraps from their earth-moving, rather than the nourishing humus of areas farther south. On the bright side, I'll be picking up my Pennsylvania sedges this Saturday, and the rest of the plants will be here in two weeks, so there will be many more in-progress pictures to come. It's not the prettiest process right now, but it's good for the soul and I'm hopeful for its future!

Arbor Day 2009

Happy Arbor Day! Be like me and hug a tree! (Or better yet, plant one.)

Happy Earth Day!

I must admit that I'm not really doing anything special to commemorate Earth Day. Today is a day of work and child-rearing like any other. I hope that my everyday actions are sufficient to make just a little difference, and I intend to continue doing those things (i.e., recycling, composting, remembering to bring my reusable grocery bags to the store, growing land-friendly plants, reducing my driving time in my very un-green SUV, etc.)

The weather has finally cleared up around here after yet another sputtering gasp of winter that kept things cold and rainy for the last few days. So in honor of Earth Day and the lovely weather it brought with it, I'd like to say thanks to my little corner of the planet for the following things that I am very grateful for:

This great blue lobelia (L. siphilitica) has been drowning in the overflow from my gutters lately. I purposely put it in such a poorly drained spot, and it's performing beautifully. It's getting bigger and greener every day!


This tulip is the first one in my garden to bud, and I hope that with the sunny, warm weather that's coming tomorrow it will flower soon.


I lost the plant tag for this goldenrod, which is now about three years old. I've been waiting patiently for it to get established and really flourish, and I think this might be the year! Its foliage is off to a very good start.


Last year I was angry with this astilbe for being such a water-hog, and I was sure my neglect killed it. It withered and disappeared early in the summer, and I felt guilty but also resentful. To my surprise, it's still alive and growing quite well. I just discovered it last week, still being a trooper despite my poor treatment of it. I have resolved to be nicer to this plant and I truly love its fuzzy foliage and unique flowers. I'm glad it's back!


So enjoy Earth Day everyone, and remember to be nice to the planet not just today but every day!