A new moving day

It looks like there will be some major moves in the garden this fall and coming spring.  The garden beds are going to be rearranged more than a bit.   Often when the gardens have been enlarged not all of the short plants have been moved up front and the tallest moved to the back.  So there are several that need to be rescued and moved where they can be viewed and reached for hybridizing.  Others need to be moved to other locations so that more of the hybridizing plants are close together.  I think I can hear the alleged apprentice burying the shovels now.  Plants like Bark At Me that I want to use for hybridizing are buried back by the fence and out of reach.   That is going to be corrected.

So for now the short plants that need to move and that can be reached will be the first ones moved.  Then as the ripened pods are harvested and out of the way the other plants will be moved too.  Yes those tags mean that I did finally reach Bark At Me.  But it was not nearly as often as I wanted.  Life a series of adjustments.  And double oh yes, there will be a few more dents in the lawn.  Awe shucks !

The garden – part 2

There are some beds between the house and the garage.  And I am skipping those to keep things simple.  Both for the post and not to over tax my photography composition skills.   This will kind of walk you around the edge of the yard.  And look from the back of the yard towards the front.

  

  

The garden – part 1

A couple of people have asked about the garden.  To be specific what it looks like.   I am not sure how this will work.  I have picked some pictures and I am going to split them up between a few posts.   I know I have mentioned it in a few places, the turf is mulch to hold the soil in place until all of it can be changed over to garden.  It may become obvious that I was not totally joking on that point.  Anyway here goes.

A couple of pictures as you enter the yard

  

and skipping the middle part between the house and garage on to the back gardens.

  

Seed saver or sorter

How about both.   Sometimes you get more than you bargain for.  Or to be precise, sooner than you planned.  The harvest of one opened pod can easily break off other immature pods.  That is when you get to switch from seed harvester to saver.

Immature pods can be placed in a glass of water.   Add  some sugar, change the water every couple of days and it is possible to harvest those immature pods.   Seed saver.

Then comes the sorting.   Take the seeds out of the pods, dry them, place them in envelopes and label.  Oh did I mention recording,  AKA entering each seedling cross into a spread sheet ?  If you have unlimited  space you might plant them all.  If  you are confined by limitations then you may fall to sorted sorting solutions.  That would be my happy (not sad) sorted state.   One box of sorted  and consolidated seeds complete.  And two boxes to go.  1665 seeds, 89 different crosses in one box and some more waiting to counted and recorded to join them.

Soon the the difficult choices will begin.  Will this seed be good enough to get the dirt ?

Trimming the verge… horizontally

I trimmed the verge twice today.  Once in the customary vertical dimension.

And more importantly once again in the horizontal dimension.

The first time the trim was made using the daylily design.  The old Jacobs field pattern has been retired.  And there is little hope that the progressive field pattern will ever take hold here.  The daylily design is just a quick cut at the best height to keep the turf green through the summer season.  That means cranking it up to the highest setting so the roots are shaded and it stays moist as long as possible.

The horizontal trim was in the daylily dominance design.  What can I say, the verge is just on the wrong side of this equation !

If this were the ballpark it would start just behind second base and spread out in all directions!

It is not a little late for trimming the verge.

  It’s just too late for the verge!

Final Score :  Daylilies 1 Verge 0

How much is that daylily in the garden ?

Where is Harold Hill when you really need him ?  Just how big and shiny do you want that trombone ?  Or how sparkly and petite that penny whistle ?   Harold would have know what to say at this moment.   Without ever having sold a daylily he would know how to jump from sousaphones to daylilies.

Anyway its time to make that transition from trombones and penny whistles to daylilies.

Let’s just say you have choices all the way from Harold’s “trouble” to traditional.  From large to small and short to tall.   Shapes from stars to undefinablely twisted and dancing and on to ruffled spheres.  Toothy sharky monsters that can help you with your bite.  And colorful rainbows that escaped from a kaleidoscope factory.  The latest models are a bit pricey.   However there are plenty of last year’s choices to be had and they look just as pretty and amazing.

And actually if you are going shopping don’t look in the garden.  No one garden can hold them all.  Look in the window – the internet window.   You will have more choices than a kid in a candy shop.

Lawn beware.  There might be a new gardener and daylily collector sneaking up on you.  You are about to loose a turf battle !

Now as Harold often said ( to himself ) my work is done… gotta go (time to run.)

There are scapes in them thar gardens…

Finally !   There are scapes on the daylilies.  I saw a few here and there the other day.   And now they are starting to show up on lots of plants.  ( Insert boisterous gardener’s exclamation of uncontrolled mirth and excitement here ) …. _________ !

All of the arrived new arrivals have been planted.  Including Lemon Pixie which the postal service placed on the porch this afternoon.  Lemon Pixie cooled its jets in the shade this afternoon and was planted right before dinner.   It even came safely with its own gently packaged scape, Thanks Sandy!

There are still a few spots waiting for plants still in transit.   And the expanded garden is looking pretty full.  Too bad about the ever shrinking lawn.  Then again I would rather enjoy the garden any day and spend less and lest time cutting the lawn.  Lawn grass could end up an endangered species around here.

There are scapes on Kate Carpenter, Orchid Lady Slipper, Stella’s Ruffled Fingers, Schnickel Fritz, and several second and third year seedlings.  The real exciting stuff (to me at least ) is the first year seedlings.  There are a few of those that are ready to bloom too.  Walking the seedling bed is like having Christmas all summer long.

One is a cross of Stella’s Ruffled Fingers and a seedling ( Little Rainbow x Talon ).   If nothing else it likes being early like it’s parent Stella.  Now if it will just at a bit of the ruffle from Stella and some of the twist and pinch from Talon… well there will be dancing in the garden path.

First year seedling - Stella's Ruffled Fingers x (Little Rainbow x Talon)