Moving Plants

It is so good to be working out in the yard again. The sun was really warm and the sky was clear. However, the wind was a bit nippy and made sitting in the shade tough.

Pruning trees: took quite a few branches off the north pear tree and a little off the south tree. We also did some trimming on the tulip tree on the parking strip.

South of garage: We moved two ornamental grass plants, splitting the one so that we had three plants; one each edge of the garage and one in the middle. In between we marked the place for the cat mint with a stake. I still need to purchase that this spring. We planted the new lillium--16 plants in all. The Centerfold went in back with two plants and then one each of the Lollipop and the Algarve in front. I look forward to those blooming this summer.

Our next task was to plant the new peony and move one of the ones purchased last year. This was pretty easy since the beds were ready. We put the dark pink Karl Rosenfeld in line with the old white one toward the east. The pink one that was purchased last year we moved to inside the garden. It will fill in the space between the honeysuckle vine and the burning bush.

We then moved the other honeysuckle vine to the opposite side of the arbor. Wayne had to do quite a bit of digging to prepare the place and then we trimmed the old vine and dug it up. The roots were huge so I hope we got enough of them to get it established in its permanant home. Once the job was complete it looked good. Now just to see if they will take root.

We still have two more peonies to move, but that will have to wait until next week to do that.
I was pleased to find that the burning bush that gave us so much trouble has buds. This means that our uprooting it and replanting it as well as pruning back the dead, has saved it. I just hope we can eventually prune it so that it is a nice shape again. Right now it's a little lopsided.

Now that the vine is out of the planter on the south side we can get the wild grass cleaned out of it and make use of that bed. I need to spend time deciding upon more plants for the south east corner of the lot. When I find them, I can plant them in this area and tend them until they are ready to move. I look forward to doing that.

Fertilizer

Wayne put out the fertilizer on Wednesday. It was rainy and a little cold, but still good weather. The grass is just starting to show a little green so hopefully we got this in time.

Vernal Equinox

Vernal Equinox was on Friday. The weather has been quite cold and so things are still pretty dormant. We had one really warm day. The grass is starting to get a tinge of green. On Saturday we picked up some fertilizer and expect to get it on the grass this coming week.

The great news, though, was that I picked up two dark pink peony roots for very little. I'm very excited about them because I mainly have to get these things through the internet and then the shipping is costly. I also talked Wayne into Asiatic lilies. They will be tall and gorgeous along the edge of the garage during summer. We picked up three varieties with a total of 24 bulbs. I look forward to redoing that area this year.

Wayne needs to do a bit of pruning on the trees in front but they are really in good shape.

Spring is Coming

Yesterday we walked the yard and discovered lots of new life. The daffodills have poked up along with the grape hyacinths and the tulips. The lilacs and the pear trees have large, fat buds, which look ready to burst although we are several weeks away from that. In the back the dogwood faired the winter without rabbits nibbling on the bark. The trunk is getting much fatter although it's barely 6 ft tall.

Much of the edging has popped up and needs to be pounded down, but that is understandable from the frost heave we've had. The bushes along the north of the deck seemed to have survived. The one we moved to the south side of the house had tipped over. If it doesn't survive, it won't be that big of a loss.

After such a long hard winter, it was so wonderful to walk around and see all of our wonderful plants.

We have some pruning to do on the big trees in the front and we need to make a determination about when to prune back the butter fly bush. Work has begun.