Stormy Night

We got barely a quarter inch of rain and a little sleet last night. It thundered and stormed all night long. 

Now, this morning it's 40 degrees, cold and sunny, and everything looks so clean and green and vigorous, even the tiny things I just planted. It always does after a real rainstorm.

I water and tend and it never looks like it does after a night of cold fresh rain.

Birdbath and Peacock

It's still early -- not even May quite yet. But I have been frantically trying to get all my plants in the ground or potted up. It has been 35° or above at night, and pleasantly warm in the day time. It's predicted to stay that way through May 8, so I think I'm good to plant.

I moved the birdbath to a spot in front of the fence and it is perfect there, providing something to look at against the fence, and resolving that end of the strip of plants.

It doesn't look like much with the vine barely leafing out all sketchy, but from inside the house and from the patio it definitely provides a focal point and I like it.

Instead of a tree in the spot where the parrotia was (my third try . . I took it out, it isn't coming back) I moved the metal peacock off the deck and plopped it there.

It complements the birdbath and provides another focal point in front of the vine.

Now the scene from the patio looking at that wide expanse of fence seems composed, making the flagstone area below the patio all part of one space.

Rather than screening the fence, I've connected it to the whole patio, drawing the eye out toward it with some focal points and low plantings.

With the birdath sited just beyond the corner of the deck now, I don't need an item standing on the deck itself. I can leave that corner open, and you see the birdbath just beyond it.

This works. 

I do wish I could grow a vertical tree in the spot where the peacock is, but really, the open view over the fence (where the neighbor's aspens were taken out) provides a distant line of sight and makes the patio a bit more expansive, not so closed in and surrounded. 

Still, I'd like more shade on the middle part of our narrow back yard!

Sort of Genius

The iron trellis we inherited from the former owners never looked like much against the coyote fence, it just blends in. 

And growing a vine on it has been problematic. Too much shade I think. 

The purple Jackamii did okay but didn't show up well against the fence, the white Jackmanii died, and the recently planted Alba Luxurians is not coming back. 

On a whim I took it out. The feet had rusted away, but I propped it up behind the emerging Gro-Low sumacs, and it's kind of genius. 

It pops against the stucco garage wall. 

It's not really stuck in the ground since the feet rusted away. It's just propped up with rocks to sort of stabilize it. The sumacs hide the piles of rocks at its base.

I don't want it to touch the stucco wall, since it will make rust marks. It looks like it is leaning against the wall, but it's out away from it, and I'll need to stabilize it more, with more big rocks I guess.

I'm not going to plant a vine on it. The structure alone against the wall is nice, backing the redbud and providing something visual to fill the flat blank space.

And the spot gets full shade half the day and then gets blasted with western sun and reflected light and heat off the wall in the afternoons. 

The sumacs do fine there, but I'm not going to try anything on this trellis.

I had pondered lots of other ideas, like a rain chain from the canale in the middle of the garage wall, or a big rain barrel below it. 

I even thought about staging the bbq grill up against the wall for convenience but also to fill the space. But no.

In the end I liked the square patio table there, with some pots on it, and a newly planted Cardinal penstemon to fill the space below in front of the table.

The redbud needs to gain size, but even when it is bigger that wall is a blank space. The trellis doesn't really do anything but it adds interest and it goes with the slightly formal, structured idea of my circle garden, paired with the black metal table nearby.

A Perfect Morning

Cold morning, still air, sunny sky, warming quickly. The air was clean and fresh. I enjoyed it so much as I walked around the plant displays at Plants of the Southwest. I just wandered, feeling how pleasantly perfect it all was. 

Shopping for plants is so rewarding, my garden seems lovely as I pick out lush, full, healthy plants and imagine them at home. Perfect . .  until I plant them, watch them shrivel and then make do with stunted versions of what I saw at the nursery. But on a cool, beautiful morning it all seems so promising.

Here's what I got:

Penstemon cardinalis

Hardiest, native, 30 inch tall spikes on a rangy spreading shrubby plant.

It will go in front of the black table by the garage door. I wanted the Windwalker Red autumn sage there, but it's not seeming to come back this spring. I had potted it up, but nothing is showing at all. 

I'll wait, but meanwhile this penstemon will be the filler -- a little rangy and spreading -- in front of the table.

Flowers are deep red. from July to September. Foliage is big and deep green.

I got the Panchito manzanita I wanted for the spot by the gate where the black hollyhocks had been. Plants of the Southwest had a ton of them.

Rosa woodsii

It looked like a narrow climbing rose in its pot, but it is a big, wide 4 foot tall suckering wild mountain rose. I got this to put in where the failed Alba Luxurians clematis was behind the bench. 

Not a climber. Big and tall and wide. Suckering has to be controlled. It just won't do in that spot.

But it is a large filler, with red fall color and it's one of the few roses to bloom in shade. So I'll put it in the dining room window garden, where I had planned to put the fragrant knockout pink rose.

There's a fairly big spot for it there, and it will fill the window at 3 to 4 feet tall, and once the cottonwood leafs out it's pretty shady.

The knockout rose can go in the swale just below the circle, under the Chinese privet, which I limbed up.

I got two blanket flowers, the aristata native ones, but yellow. I'll add them to the few orange firewheels I still have behind the bench.

Also, a sulphur buckwheat. I'll add it somewhere in the circle. The little one I have  -- Kannah Creek --is so tiny and stunted, but it does have some cute pom pom flowers and excellent fall & winter red color. 

It's just so small. Will this one bulk up better?

And I bought a strawberry for a pot on the table, variety is Fragaria Ft. Laramie, everbearing, with large and sweet berries, and very cold hardy. 

Just one plant, so, an experiment. I tried strawberries before and did not do well with them.

Hummers in the Snow

First sighting today -- in a pretty steady snowstorm. The feeder was cased in snow, it was 34 degrees, and the hummer still flew in to feed.

They've likely been here before this, but today was our first sighting.

Watering Before the Rain

Cool and windy today.

I watered everything today by hose. 

Unsettled weather is coming tomorrow with some rain (possibly) and even snow, but not a lot. The expected bit of moisture added to the watering I did will be able to soak into damp soil I hope.

It's going to be near or below freezing overnight, but warmer April weather comes back after Easter and things should really pop then. 

I need to fertilize. Coates has not been by yet to do the tree and shrub fertilization.

Mid April

We got back from California yesterday and my plants survived. The sprinkler worked to keep the pots watered, the other stuff went a week without but they're fine. The seedling pots indoors were okay.

Today is very windy but warm and sunny. Rain, snow and 30 degrees is expected over Easter weekend. I have to remember it is still only mid April, so even though many things are greening up (columbines and one geum are even starting to open blooms), other things may not yet show.

But here's what I can tell so far:

Signs of Life I looked for

🔺 Radio Red sages that were in the ground are coming back. The several that wintered over in pots are showing absolutely nothing.

 

🔺 Clematis vines are leafing out and stretching -- at least the Summer Love, Jackmanii and Venosa violacae. I need to get those fertilized soon.

No signs of life

◓ Windwalker Red sage that I had planned to put in front of the table by the garage seems very dead. I wintered it over in a pot in the garage, but it looks like a goner.

◓ I lost one of the dwarf purple Midnight sages in the circle. 

Bush clematis going gangbusters

And no sign of life in the small Cubano cuphea in the terra cotta trough. No sign of life in the various Kent's Beauty oregano pots at all.

◓ Despite the other clematis vines leafing out nicely, the pretty white Alba Luxurians has nothing up yet at all.

◓ I lost all of the scarlet monardellas that I had potted up and kept in the garage. And no sign of life in the small Cubano cuphea in the terra cotta trough. No sign of life in the various Kent's Beauty oregano pots at all.

◓ And one of the coreopsis plants in a terra cotta bowl is gone. The other looks good, coming up green.

Jury is Still Out

No sign of leafing out on either ironwood, the Persian Spires in the ground or the Vanessa I potted up. And yet the Vanessa by the guest room window, tall and graceful is fully leafed out. I'll wait. 

 

Coreopsis pots -- one looks good, one doesn't

Okay, that's the early inventory. There may yet be something to show in the next month as the late ones come to life, or maybe not.

While we were gone the crabapple bloomed, but we came back to mostly green leaves. The viburnum is gloriously fragrant and flowery right now.

The crabapple and the viburnum are well underway

Snowy Update

All that lovely warm, summery weather we had for a while is now no more. It's snowing today, wet and heavy.

We need the moisture of course. Pretty badly -- it's been really dry. This is good.

Not so good is the roar of the furnace while it's 30 degrees outside and overcast. The new HVAC system installed in March is not quieter than the old one. It's more efficient I hope, but no quieter. It roars loudly (it's the air going through the blower, not the actual machinery of the furnace that makes the noise).

I had hooked up the hoses and watered quite a bit in late March. The hoses and nozzles are disconnected now, and pots are in the garage. I guess it was too early to hang the hummingbird feeder.

Whoosh

Gusty and very windy all day. 

Warm still, but it will get cold and below freezing at night starting tonight, so I moved all the pots into the garage, and the smaller new things into the bathroom.

I unhooked all the hoses and took the spray nozzles off, but left the hoses on the ground and didn't completely drain them. They should be okay.