April showers bring May flowers...

It's 35 degrees right now.
It snowed today, there were actual flurries.  I watched them from the windows at work and wanted to cry.

Rain, snow and cold wind... that's what Chicago experienced today.  By now most people are saying they are done with winter.  And we (like everyone else) agree.  But, love it or hate it... this weather is great for our plants. 

With the ground being consistently wet this time of year, you want to avoid walking on it  to prevent compaction to your soil.  This is where the wind will help.  The wind helps to dry out our soil from winter snows and the recent rains. With all the rain we've had, make sure that you get out there and clean up your beds.  I cannot stress this enough.  You don't want to lose your plants to root and crown rot.  These two brutes occur when there is excess soil moisture.  Clay soil and low areas are especially prone to holding too much moisture.  You can help to improve your soil texture by adding plenty of organic material when you plant your perennials.  Remember, peat is your friend.  If you have a low area that is holding moisture, consider installing a raised bed for improved drainage.  When you mulch, do not pile mulch right up to the plant.  Give it some "personal space" to avoid crown rot. 

Overall, our temperatures are steadily rising and our days are getting longer each week.  Spring is here.  The bulbs that we planted last fall are blooming.  Later season plants are beginning to grow.  Summer is just around the corner.  

But don't be fooled just yet.  Nighttime frosts are still a possibility this month.  Keep some newspapers or sheets of plastic handy in the event you have to cover vulnerable plants if temperatures drop.

Enjoy the weather when you can, but don't risk putting out too much, too early.

What should you do in your garden today?

FERTILIZE:  If you haven't yet fertilized, definitely now is the time to do so.  Clean up your beds by pulling back mulch, fluffing up soil with a rake and apply your fertilizer.  Make sure to replace your mulch.  Now is also the time to fertilize your trees and shrubs.  Areas that need the attention the most are your vegetable and fruit gardens, annual borders and your plants in containers.  These plants take the most nutrients out of the soil, so feed them to keep them in a healthy state. Also make sure to fertilize your lawn, it's hungry too.

If you're planning to plant any trees or shrubs, today is the day to do it!  Spring and fall are the best times to plant trees and shrubs.  Make sure that your tree/shrub is watered thoroughly before putting it in the ground.  While you are in the planting mood, now is the time to plant your summer bulbs like gladioli and lilies.

Photo courtesy of Clare Bloomfield

WEED AND DIVIDE PERENNIALS:  while you are out there tidying up your beds, take the time to pull out any weeds that you see.  Any plants that are taking up too much space can be pruned and divided at this time. Remember, any shrubs that you prune need to be fertilized at this time.  Make sure that you are dead-heading any spring bulbs that have bloomed.  KEEP THE GREEN FOLIAGE, remove only the spent flower!  If you haven't trimmed down your ornamental grass... get out there and do it today. 

REMEMBER:

A little work now... will go a long way in a few months!

Stroke of genius!!!!

It worked!  I have successfully made a trellis on the picket fence that you CANNOT see at all.
On the flip side, I also realized that I am completely unable to work with fishing line and tie knots.  It took forever to create two small areas on the fence.  I don't know how people work with this stuff.  I am either an idiot or this stuff is really slippery.  WHATEVER.  either way, it worked.

Please don't pay attention to the bottom of the pickets... they are in desperate need of paint.  Just add it to the TO-DOs.

Poltergeist?

Put on your helmet Carol Anne... THEY'RE HERE.
I let the dogs out and thought I'd take a quick photo of what I saw.

This is what happens every time Lex cuts the grass.  :)
Everything gets stacked on top of the fire pit as if we were about to have a huge bonfire, or as if we have spooks in the backyard.  Hence, the poltergeist reference.  It looks just like when the chairs were stacked in the movie.

We also have some new tenants in the purple martin house.  It looks like the starlings have been evicted, I haven't seen them in a few days.

I'm headed out to create my trellis.  First, I have to head downstairs and find Lex's fishing line.
I'm sure he'll be thrilled when he comes home to find that I have used his expensive fishing line to make a trellis.  I put some thought into this and figured that if I used chicken wire, it would show. I didn't want that so I thought about it some more and...fishing line woven into a net/trellis will blend right in with the fence.  After all it's meant to be invisible, right?  You don't want fish to see it... so based on this logic, I am off to build a trellis. HA.  I got it.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works out the way I hope it will.
-- Lisa

Tree ring... check

This morning my project was to create a "tree ring".  I dug up the bricks from the backyard around the tree near our pond.  Now... that whole area has to be re-done.  See what me mean?  Always, more projects to be done.  I loaded the bricks in the wheelbarrow... rolled them to the front yard and put them in place.   Yeah, yeah I know what you're thinking.  I should have dug a trench first so they don't "go ugly". BUT we have these massive tree roots just below the surface and I didn't want to try to dig through them or injure them; so I decided to gamble a bit.  It turned out nice.  I'm pleased. how it looks.

Note:  the cobble stones to the right of the fence.

A few days since the last entry...

In the past few days, we've done quite a bit of "maintenance and clean-up" around our property. 

Lex has worked on making the dirt pile smaller and I have completed spring bed clean-up on two sides of our house.  It's amazing how great things look when you turn your mulch.  It looks brand new.  It's almost like a whole new flower bed... but better because the plants are established!  Our grass should look much better in a few weeks.  It was re-seeded yesterday.  Yes sir-re.  Things are looking up at 13831.

The dirt pile is shrinking.  Lex was so pleased with himself, somehow he managed to create a tunnel right through the middle of the dirt pile.  It was like he was a 6 year old boy all over again. 

We pulled our our Japanese Maple yesterday.  It wasn't a surprise that It didn't come back.  When we put it in last summer... it was already in bad shape.  At least we have a 1 year guarantee on all plants.  So with that in mind we put in a ornamental plum, which is at least the same basic color as the maple was.  I was VERY pleased with the different shape of the tree in the shrub bed.  I realized that all things happen for a reason, and that I didn't really care much for the look of the maple at all.  So with me being as pleased as I was... I was motivated to finish off the shrub garden with a decorative rock border. 

My second revelation yesterday was that during the winter months, i need to start exercising/training for gardening in the spring.  I am using muscles that have not been used in months, and boy are they sore.  But, the yard looks great and when it comes to my aching arms...as John Cougar Mellencamp says... it hurts so good.

The shrub garden... FINISHED.  We added the rock border and ornamental plum tree yesterday.

The shrubs along our backyard walkway are coming in nicely.  I will be making a mowing strip along the outside edge of this garden.

Not sure if our paperbark maple is coming back...

Awww... aren't mini daffodils cute?

 -- Lisa

It was like meeting a rock star.

There is a house in our neighborhood that I have always admired (ok, envied) since we moved in.  They have the MOST perfect landscaping.  It was actually their house that inspired me to create our berm.  Today, after the 3rd plant run... after i had just planted the 28th plant... the woman, the legend, the owner of my favorite house came walking by with her dog.  I didn't know it was her at first.  After the initial hellos and pleasant conversation about how beautiful our berm looked, she introduced herself as the owner of none other than my favorite house.  I could have passed out.  She then went on to invite me over any time so that I could see her BACK YARD.  I could have died just then and there.  I do think I'll take her up on it.  I've always wondered what fabulous things they have in the backyard.
     PS - did I mention she works at Sids which is my favorite store during the spring and summer months.  Hmmm... wonder if my new friend can get me a job... :)
-- Lisa

I added some yarrow and salvia to the berm. 

It's filling in nicely!

I found lavender today... mark the pathway garden DONE!

a close up of the yarrow.  I really played up the yellow hues on the berm with the yarrow, yucca and euonymus.

I had to add a few rocks behind the hens-and-chicks.  I feared they were going to get too much run off from the sea thrift and silberlocke korean fir.

I put in a few more hosta, they really seem to light up the shade area on the northeastern side of the pine.  That big bare space on the right is being saved for the biggest mamma jamma hosta of them all... the empress wu.  I just have to buy her first.  hopefully she'll be in within the month.

Another day, another garden planted.

This morning I planted meadow sage, lithodora, and stella d'orro day lilies.  The trellis in the upper garden will (hopefully) be home to a climbing rose (red).  It was planted  yesterday. 

The empty spots the the left of each of the meadow sage plants will be filled by lavender.

eventually, there will be a stone walkway from our driveway to our front door.

Spring is officially here!  With two gardens installed and several plants already in, the front yard is looking great.  As you walk around the property, all our hard work this past fall is paying off.  We have spring bulbs EVERYWHERE.  Thanks to shotgun brand REPELS ALL...the bunnies have found somewhere else to live For the past 4 years I have had tulip stems with no bloom. The bunnies ate them as soon as they popped up.  

A picture of our daffodils.  In just a few weeks, the creeping phlox will be in bloom (spilling out of the barrel).

some pictures of our newest residents

Sparrows have decided to move into our backyard.  This birdhouse has been on the market for two years.  We finally got some buyers in.  The economy is looking up!   :)   

Two robins have made a nest on our garden bench.  Looks like I won't be cutting back the sweet autumn clematis just yet.

A picture of one of our resident Robins, Barry.

Thanks to my mothers vigilance in keeping our birds well fed this year, we have several more birds that have decided to move into our backyard.  We also have starlings living in our purple martin house, but they weren't active this morning for me to get good photos.  My mom has decided to name the robins Barry and Sunflower.   -- Lisa

Another day of work on the berm

Planting some hosta, coral bells and dead nettle.

Still many more plants needed to fill in this area.  You can see that 8 plants made very little difference here... now.  Give it a few years and it should fill in nicely.

Thanks to Connor and Cait the dirt pile is half the size it used to be.  THANK YOU GUYS!!

Isn't it nice... you can almost see the driveway. 

After I got off work today, we went to Meijers to get some "picnic" food and i (just happened) to pick up some more plants.   We still need many more plants to fill in the berm area (big sigh), which means more digging.  We are still sore and exhausted from yesterday.  We almost need a full day back at work to get away from the landscaping.  Thanks to Connor and Cait, our dirt pile is significantly smaller.  About another week and it will be gone!  Tomorrow, I will work on doing some planting in the pathway garden.  That's all for now, I have to make a Menards run to buy some salvia, stella d'orro, and lavender. -- Lisa