Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Weekend's Hard Work

Another weekend has come and gone and once again Jamie and I have spent a large portion of it working in the yard. We plopped a few more plants into their new homes and began putting out the new mulch. When the storm came thru it blew away every single bit of it right down to the bare soil. I can’t even begin to tell you what a difference it made in the appearance to replace it. It really defines the bed. Well, we were so pleased with the way it looked we decided to go ahead and replace the pine straw we had spread in the new patio bed. We knew when we put it down it wasn’t thick enough and since we like the way the pine bark looked we decided to carry it over to the new bed. We moved 1500 pounds of mulch four times, store to carts, carts to truck, truck to bedside and bedside to bed. Let me do some quick math for you, that’s six THOUSAND pounds of mulch, moved by hand, by me and Jamie. Do you think we were tired at the end of the day? The end results were worth it and we had a sense of a job well done.

Some of you may remember that one of our projects last year was to put in a new bed that ran along the back side of the house and down the entire length of the left side of the yard. We’ve been hard at work replacing damaged plants and shrubs and it’s really starting to come together and fill in some. I took these pictures this past weekend.

Side Bed2


Side Bed1


Side Bed3



This picture is a glimpse into what we would like the entire garden to become. We want the complete back yard to be one big garden with nothing but a little path to lead you on your way. If we are able to continue at our present rate, we might just get that goal accomplished.

The Goal



We have a long term plan drawn out and have a pretty good idea how everything will look when it’s completed. Rather than flying by the seat of our pants like we’ve been know to do in the past, we now have a template of sorts to draw things out on as we dream them up. Once we decide it’s a definite “do”, I add it to the layout. I’m really proud of myself for putting this together. I combined tools from Garden123 and Microsoft Word to make it.

Plans for Future_Print



This is Iris Ensata Variegata we found it at Petals From the Past about an hour north of us. The good thing about working in the garden right now is there are several things blooming and you get to enjoy them will you are puttering around.

Iris Ensata Variegata

Iris Ensata



Shasta Daisies have been a favorite of mine since I was a kid and I don’t know why I’ve waited until now to get some. Right now they are just tiny little clumps with a single bloom per plant. By next summer we should have a nice little clump of these or at least I hope so. We have two different cultivars. This one is ‘Crazy Daisy’.

‘Crazy Daisy’

Crazy Daisy



This is the very first daylily I purchased. I got it several years ago and it has bloomed faithfully for me every year. It has large beautiful blooms with several blossoms per spike. It’s such a shame they can’t be weeklilies instead of daylilies.

‘Fairytale Pink’

Fairytale Pink



About the same time I got the ‘Fairytale Pink’ I also got the one pictured below. This was the extent of the daylily collection until this year. Jamie and I have been running around like mad men collection daylilies since the beginning of spring. Now that we are up to 49 different cultivars we are going to have to start becoming a little more selective with our purchases… that is, until the new bed goes in. :-)

‘Little Missy’

Little Missy



Now that I’ve introduce you to the two that started it all, let’s take a look and some of the ones we got this year that are blooming now. I’m sure we will be adding to the collection on June 7th. I got wind of a Daylily Festival in a town named Headland about 120 miles south of here. If Jamie wants to and gas money permits we will be on our way.

‘Tiny Pumpkin’

Tiny Pumpkin



I can already tell this one is going to become a favorite of mine really fast.

‘Sweet Southern Sun’

Sweet Southern Sun



This is another one of the Daylilies I bought from the nursery way out in the country. I thought at one point I had identified it, but this bloom looks totally different from the first one it produced. I may have to wait until it blooms again and give it a second try. I guess there is always the possibility more than one type could have been planted in the same pot.

DNunknownlFC



‘Violetta’

Violetta



‘King Lamoni’

King Lamoni



This daylily was purchased as ‘Custard Candy’ it’s obviously a mislabeled plant, but now, I have no idea what it is.

Mislable

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos of the daylilies. I think your garden is looking great. Your plans for the future will make a very peaceful haven.

Jan
Always Growing

Randy said...

Thank you Jan we are certainly trying! I so glad we have a blog to document the changes. In another three years or so, it should be pretty incredible.

chuck b. said...

You guys have made astonishing progress. It looks professional!

I like Shasta daisies too--must get some.

Phillip Oliver said...

Very impressive - you guys are doing an excellent job. I wish I was blogging back when I started mine. I do have a garden journal but I find blogging much more efficient plus you can see the photos better. Don't get carried away with the daylilies! ;)

Randy said...

Thanks Chuck! We've been trying.

Phillip,
It's too late, we already got carried away with them. But, here's the good thing. We can always did them up an move them to the front yard.;-) Plus! We can always share. LOL

Annie in Austin said...

It's incredible how established your garden looks at this point Randy and Jamie! After hearing your mulch saga it's apparent you can tackle the plan for the future garden with ease! And you probably look just as toned as the garden after that workout ;-]

'Sweet Southern Sun' is a particularly fine daylily in both color and shape.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Randy said...

Annie,
Sweet Southern Sun, Little Mystic Moon and Regency Dandy are the most incredible bloomers I've ever seen. Sweet Southern Sun currently has 47 buds/Blooms on three spikes, the Regency Dandy has 73 buds/blooms on five spikes and here's the big one... the Little Mystic Moon has an insane 131 buds/blooms on four spikes. Plus there is no sign that any of them are slowing down.