Winter Sun

Who knows if my transplanted serviceberry will live. Or if it does and if it grows, will it look okay in this too small spot by the kitchen door?

But for now, I am caught by surprise each time I look out through the glass door or come in the other way through the gate.

Winter sunlight hits the thin limbs and slender whip of a stem. It just lights up.

Morning sun catches the tiny tree, and afternoon sun bathes it. 

It's such a nothing little set of twigs, yet in the winter sunshine it is a noticeable accent in the garden. 

I may rue putting a 15 foot tree in this enclosed spot and I may not be able to limb it up enough to eventually walk under, but it just looks right in its new spot and pleases me each time I see it.

  

A New Vision

At the very end of 2025, I impulsively took out the skinny Blue Arrow juniper by the fence and that unleashed a torrent of changes for 2026. 

I moved the birdhouse in front of the fence to have something to look at, then arranged a moss rock border in front of it and imagined the perennials I wanted to put in there.

Then I was ordering plants, lots of them -- penstemon and verbascum and then more things to enhance the other spaces I have and I even moved things like the serviceberry and the Jackmanii clematis. 

I ordered plants to weave among the rock border stones along the walkway, and things to fill empty spots.

Everything was suddenly in play as I imagined a new vision for my garden: lusher, busier, more filled up.

Before that one act of taking out the juniper I had been cautiously conservative about changes. I wanted to edit down, streamline, wait for structural items to fill in, keep a more open and spare garden.

I had originally created separate rooms and levels -- the circle garden bordered and surrounded by a line of rocks, cut off from the lower flagstone patio, which ended even with the raised deck, separated from the garden under the aspens behind it, which was further bounded by the step down to the potting bench level.

Now I suddenly wanted flow, with the entire long narrow space tied together. I envisioned lots of plants and a fuller look all blending together, extending from the garage wall down through the yard to the aspens, skirting the deck and patio, filling out against the fence. Yikes.

A whole new vision. 

Bun Balls and a Bud

It's still February and I have finished almost all my spring chores. It was just so nice and pleasant and after I spread mulch and prepped some new planting areas, I went out one afternoon and cut back the perennials.

I left the one Japanese forest grass alone, though. In winter it is tawny and dried, but still full of grace and movement. I'll cut that one back much closer to actual spring.

I also left the Blonde Ambition grasses uncut. They too are attractive in winter and almost the only thing to look at out there.

The three blue fescue grasses in the red pots got cut back though. I did not shear them in prior years and they have gotten overgrown and floppy in their pots. Two did not bloom last year. 

So this winter I sheared them right down to little rounded bun balls.

My plan is to take them out and plant each in some spot in the ground. They are big and mature and should add some structure and cool blue tones to areas of my gardens.

Most advice is to simply rake out dried grass fronds but not to cut back these cool season grasses. Other sources say to cut them completely down to a few inches. Maybe either approach is fine? Let's see what they do in spring.

And here's something - one of the two Spanish Flare hellebores has a big fat bud. I want more of these, but I'll wait to see how they look in summer when they go dormant.

Key points regarding summer dormancy:

• Appearance: Leaves might look tired, brown, or flat, but it is normal, they bounce back when cooler weather returns.
• Watering: Reduce watering in the summer, they do not need as much moisture while dormant. Overwatering in summer can lead to issues.
• Maintenance: Avoid cutting back foliage during this time, as they need it for energy. The best time to remove old, tattered leaves is late winter.
• Sun Protection: They prefer to be in shady areas, which helps manage their summer dormancy. They will resume growth and produce new foliage once temperatures drop.

Well, Why Not

On Sunday I spread 5 bags (2 cu. feet each) of bark mulch to cover the new areas where I had put down cotton bur compost and topsoil. I don't want it to dry out in the sun and blow away in the March winds.

Then I came in, showered and made myself a gin and tonic. Just like summer.

Why not -- it felt like summer, my body was tired from the work, the sun was lovely and after a warm day outside working hard I like to treat myself to a gin and tonic.

But that's always been a refreshing summer ritual after a day in the garden. A hot weather indulgence.

This is still February.

After the half inch of rain it warmed up again and I got the moist soil covered. And because the new mulch is chunky and light colored, I had to spread more of it over existing areas to match up and look cohesive.

I continue to marvel at the fact that I can still do this. I am 76.

I work slowly now but I get it done. Rock moving, mulch spreading all of an afternoon, and when the time comes in spring, digging and planting. 

With all these pleasant February afternoons and with new soil and fresh mulch I am ready for the digging and planting right now! My gin and tonic reinforced the summery garden-ready vibe and I despair to think we have two and a half months to go before I can make my garden vision come alive. That's 10 weeks at least.

Oh well, it's nice now. And my sparkling drink was so restorative after all that work.

 

Winter Rain

It's felt like summer on so many pleasant afternoons this month with hot sun, nights above freezing and little breeze.

Now it feels like refreshed spring. We got half an inch of rain overnight. 

Everything is dormant of course, but still, the soil and the air seem restored and clean. Especially the areas of fresh compost and topsoil that I had just put down along the rock borders and in the new strip of garden along the fence.

I even brought out the pots from the garage to give them a soaking and then let them warm up in the sun after the rain.

The rain barrel is capped for winter, so water just poured off it all around it.

This is so unusual. It's still deep winter!!

Fertilizers and Fungi

Many of my plants just aren't very full even after years, and some even look stunted. Last year I had poor flowering on several mature plants that should have been much showier. 

The Rose of Sharon bloomed sparsely, and the butterfly bushes weren't great. The caryopteris in front (in too much shade?) looked skimpy. 

Major Wheeler honeysuckle (also in too much shade perhaps) didn't produce much and I never even got a photo of it last spring.

The Venosa violacae clematis has always been spindly and it produces only a few blooms, even after six years in my garden.

Other plants were better -- the Cascade rose and the Kintzley's Ghost plants flowered well enough. The peony is okay, it had brief blooms. Sweet Summer Love clematis bloomed well.

I did rejuvenate prune the caryopteris and butterfly bushes this winter.

I used bloom booster fertilizer on most everything last year: water soluble fast acting Tiger Bloom 2-8-4 and Jack's 10-30-20, both lower nitrogen fertilizers with higher phosphorous. New Mexico soils are usually ok for potassium but the phosphorus is locked up and often unavailable.

Nitrogen contributes to overall growth and foliage. 

Phosphorous supports roots and blooms. 

Potassium assures disease resistance and hardiness.

Bloom booster fertilizing helped some things look a bit better, but I didn't notice greater flower production on anything.

I do notice when I dig up a newer plant or a struggler the root development is always very poor. And it takes three or four years for my new plantings to grow at all.

So here is my 3 prong approach to getting plants better established, growing bigger and putting out more flowers:

1. Mycorrhizae fungus - a powder diluted in water and applied as a soil drench. The fungi drench has to reach and touch the roots. I only got two one pound bags, not very much. I'll experiment with using it a couple times in the season on the smallest strugglers:

The potted cuphea

Electric Blue penstemon

Orange Kudos agastaches

The tiny sulphur buckwheats

Annuals (zinnias), applied directly to roots at potting time

And all the new plants I just ordered, applied at planting time 

2. Rose Tone - a standard granular NPK 4-3-2 fertilizer for growth and flowering. I got a 4 pound bag. I'll use it on:

The Venosa violacae clematis

Sweet Sumer Love clematis 

Red Cascade rose

Container plants, including Kent's Beauty oregano 

 

3. Dr. Earth Exotic Blend (for hibiscus) granular fertilizer. It is highest in potassium, low in phosphorous, with medium nitrogen. NPK 5-4-6. I'll use it on:

     The Rose of Sharon

     Delphiniums

Most sources give generic plant advice for Rose of Sharon to apply a balanced fertilizer 10-10-10 and add compost. But a couple sources have said that hibiscus, both the tropical and the hardy althea, want higher potassium. So I'll try it.

Also, the delphiniums in the dining room window garden apparently can use higher potassium, so I'll try it on them too.

The caryopteris and Major Wheeler honeysuckle need more sun, though.

(Yes, I should get a soil test done. The extension office is nearby at the fairgrounds, easy to get to. I just need to get the forms and dig up the dirt to do the test. But the test doesn't address a specific plant's need, like that of hibiscus needing higher potassium than most plants, does it?)

Why doesn't mine look like this, planted at Newman's parking lot ---

3/4 of a Cubic Yard

On these warm almost summery February afternoons with still air and sunny temps near 60° I have been doing more spring chores.

Cotton burr compost

I got ten bags of soil amendments at Newman's, each one 2 cubic feet (so three quarters of a cubic yard combined). 

Five bags were soil builder mix, which is cotton bur compost, and five bags were topsoil.

I'll mix them together to build up the areas I want to plant around the newly arranged moss rock borders. 

Note:

Cotton bur compost does not have much NPK -- nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. It does have lots of trace minerals from the inputs to cotton growing, and it adds structure for moisture retention. It helps mitigate alkalinity a bit.

I had used mushroom compost to plant around the circle garden, and I'm reading now that it may not be a good choice -- too high in salts and it adds alkalinity which I don't need and it's too fine to support soil structure. 

Could that be a reason I've had trouble getting things going there? As a small amendment to existing soil it might be good, but as a planting mix not so much?

The cotton bur amendment is much better for planting (and not just as touted by sellers, it gets high marks in independent reviews.)

So I used the cotton bur mixed with the topsoil and filled the new planting bed, then added a bunch of just the cotton bur compost around a bunch of established plants. 

I watered everything well to keep it from blowing away (actually hooked up the hose, it was like being out there watering in summer).

I need to get bags of bark mulch to cover the bare soil now. 

I schlepped all 10 bags to the yard and it wasn't even that hard. I'm a little amazed at how easy all my chores and rock moving and tree transplanting and now toting and spreading bags of amendments have been.

Of course, it's the luxury of doing things very slowly over many days and well in advance of the spring rush. 

And in cool winter weather -- although it feels summery, the air at 60° is cool enough for working outside comfortably. And I only do a little bit each day, with months ahead to get it all done.

Hot Afternoons

After a cold snap, winter has turned warm again. In fact the past several afternoons have been hot. In February!

The nights are below freezing, but the intense sun heats things up and when the air is 60 degrees with little breeze and no shade, the afternoons are almost summery.

I spent several afternoons in the garden, working slowly and getting almost all my spring chores done. I got pretty hot and actually sweaty and it felt good.

I even transplanted a small tree and it wasn't too hard and it reminded me of the pleasure I always get setting a tree in the ground. I'm still at it . . now 76 years old.

I dug up the serviceberry and put it in the center of the kitchen courtyard where the sundial had been. I watered it in and then made an AI image of what it might kind of look like in leaf. 

I will need to keep it narrow and limbed up to walk under it from gate to kitchen door. It's an experiment to see if I can do that. If it even lives through this winter transplant. But boy did it feel fine to be planting a tree. I played with images of how the courtyard might look . .  before and after.

(Whenever I dig in this little courtyard area I am confronted with roots. They aren't from the perennials I've planted there, they are much too thickly congested and woody and hard to dig through. The long gone aspen roots? The cottonwood's roots reaching this far over? The mature butterfly bush? There used to be roses planted, are their roots still thick in there?)

Here's what else I got accomplished over several hot February afternoons:

✔ Cut back the Karl Foerster grasses (always a messy job)

✔ Trimmed the boxwoods (more is needed for shape)
✔ Pruned lower branches of the crabapple (the start of a many year project)
✔ Trimmed the rose to go over the fence (some canes are long enough to reach the door canopy but I can't figure how to attach them, and damaging ice falls on that side anyway)

✔ Chopped down the butterfly bush in the kitchen courtyard to rejuvenate it (I hope) 

✔ Clipped tips of the fernbush (for fuller shape, blooms on new wood) 

✔ Cut down the caryopteris just above ground (a lot of dead stems, hopefully this will rejuvenate it) 

✔ Lightly trimmed the yellow butterfly bush in front (for fuller shape and maybe more blooms) 

✔ Cleaned up the dining room window garden (most stalks can just be crumbled by hand) 

✔ Took down clematis vines (hard to get Sweet Summer Love untangled from the slinky) 

✔ Tidied up the peony (an easy job)

I also rearranged the newly installed rocks along the fence line and I like the slight change of the shape of the rock border better.

I can't wait now to put some plants in there and soften the rock edges. I will need to get bags of soil to raise the hollows along here and along the upper rock border too.

After I took out the serviceberry I moved the spiral tower to the newly empty spot and dug up the struggling clematis and put it there. There are three emitters right there.

But the clematis rootball I moved was pretty nonexistent, so I may have to simply get a new Jackmanii plant and start over in this spot. A.I thinks it could look pretty nice.

When spring comes for real I will dig up the few remaining heucheras (Weston Pink) that are now behind the fragrant aster and put them where the clematis had been. 

It's an empty spot in front of the bare stems of the Peggy Martin rose and there are emitters there.

They grew well in the potting bench curve. The flower stalks will be tall enough to be seen above the amsonias in that corner. 

I took them out of the potting bench curve during one re-do when they didn't fit my plan any more, but they had been nice clumps with visible and long lasting flowers.

Only a few survived the move but I'll move them again to fill this now empty spot.