Category: sunday mornings in the garden.

Good morning from the garden!

Before I get on with today’s post, I have to tell you all that I totally dodged a bullet in the garden this week.  Storms blew through our area on Friday night, and some areas very near me (including my sister’s house) were hit with large hail.  If you’d like to get an idea of how much damage some gardens saw, check out this video from Laurel Rose Gardens.

Fortunately I only got pea sized hail in my garden and it didn’t do any damage at all.  Thank goodness.

Now on with our regularly scheduled programming.

During the course of my recent occasional sale, I received quite a few compliments on my gardens.  People especially loved the fairy garden.

Everybody loves a good miniature, don’t they?

But my full sized gardens got a few compliments too.

Someone asked me what my secret was for having such lush gardens, and I had to honestly say it just simply takes time.

I’ve been gardening in this space for 38 years.  And really, it has taken that long for my gardens to look like they do now.

Of course, this isn’t the first year that they’ve looked good, but I bet it took at least 20 years or so before they really starting looking pretty good.  It definitely does not happen overnight.

You know the old adage, the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.  But I would say it takes five years or more for most plants to really fill in nicely.

However, I must admit that the Sun King Aralia (a.k.a. Golden Japanese Spikenard) is an exception (the chartreuse shrub below).

I just planted that last year (replacing the previous one that died during the ‘bad winter’) and it has already filled in.

But most of my best looking plants have been around for a decade or more like this clematis.

Not only does it take time for plants to get established and fill in, it also takes time to learn what plants perform well in your particular space.  There are so many factors to consider; is it sunny or shady, what kind of soil do you have, how harsh are your winters, is it a protected spot, is it wet or dry, what about deer or rabbit pressure, and how about insects?

For example, I’ve given up on roses because I can’t deal with the Japanese beetle problem.  I’ve also given up on tulips because the damn deer kept eating them.

I tried growing fern leaf bleeding heart near one of my fountains and quickly realized that they hated being wet all the time whereas astilbes and hostas love it.

Speaking of astilbes, they are always categorized as a shade plant but in my garden they don’t perform at all in full shade.  They need either morning or evening sun to bloom.  They also need wet shade, not dry shade.  They shrivel at the first sign of drought.

I also tried the Endless Summer macrophylla hydrangeas for years before realizing that they were never going to flower the way I wanted them to.  I would only get 2 or 3 flowers every year.  The paniculatas, like Limelight or Quick Fire Fab, work so much better for me.

Not only does it take time for plants to get established, and time to learn what works well in your garden, it also takes a fair amount of time to maintain a garden.

In my opinion, there really isn’t any such thing as a low-maintenance garden.

True, some gardens require more maintenance than others, but they all require a bit of work … especially in the spring and fall.  But I am out in my garden pretty much every single day in the summer too.

I don’t have a ton of weeding to do since my gardens are really full.  There isn’t a lot of room for weeds to take hold.  I do get out in early spring and try to remove weeds and put down mulch (I like to use Espoma Land and Sea compost as mulch) before the plants fill in which also helps prevent weeds.

But there is a lot of other maintenance to do like deadheading, pruning, treating for pests if they become a problem (those darn earwigs!), pinching things back, and fertilizing annuals.

And then there is the dreaded dividing.

I have to admit, dividing established plants can be pretty back-breaking work.  Especially ginormous hostas …

Which is why so many of mine go undivided.  FYI, from left to right that is Sun Power, June, Krossa Regal (not 100% sure of that one) and Guacamole.

However, I did decide to tackle dividing my purple irises this past week.  You may remember that I said they looked better than ever this year.  Here they are in bloom a couple of weeks ago.

But they were really packed in there.  Plus there was a huge daylily that was growing amongst them (and guess what, deer love chomping off daylily flower buds almost as much as they like tulips).  I also have a short iris in there that has been almost totally taken over by other things.  I really like this one, and it’s one of the earliest to bloom, so I wanted to give it more space to thrive.

So it was time.

It’s actually not that hard to dig up irises, they are very shallow rooted plants.  But the problem with dividing irises is that the garden looks pretty ugly when you’re done.

They will recover, but it will take some time.

In this case, I also pulled out the hostas that were creating a front border in this section of the garden.  As you’ll remember, my neighbor had a huge maple cut down and now this garden has far more sun than shade.  As a result, those hostas were getting scorched.

So out they came.  I’m replacing them with Rozanne perennial geranium and Lady’s Mantle …

But it’s definitely going to take time for this section of the garden to fill in again and look good.  Probably a couple of years at least.  Plus, I’ve never tried Lady’s Mantle, so it remains to be seen whether or not it’s a good choice for my garden.  Time will tell.

In the meantime, I’ll just focus on enjoying other areas in my garden that are still looking pretty good this year and thankfully haven’t been damaged by hail.

So now you know my secret weapon for creating a spectacular garden, time.  Speaking of which, I need to go spend a little time in the garden right now.  I hope you’re getting out in your garden today!

Good morning from the garden!

First up, thank you to everyone who came out to the Carriage House Sale.  It was a lot of fun despite the fact that it rained and the temperature dropped to the mid-50’s.  Brrrr.  I thought it was ironic that we had hot weather (mid-80’s) for our October sale last year, and cold weather for our June sale this year.  Welcome to Minnesota!

Anyway, the rain has cleared away leaving some beautiful, although probably cool by most people’s standards, weather behind.

Personally, I like a sunny day with temps in the upper 60’s and low 70’s.  They are perfect for gardening!

Today I thought I’d share a tour of my clematis.  I know I’ve shared most of them here before, but I do have a couple of new ones.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of my favorite clematis.

This one always looks amazing.  I should knock on wood because I’ve had other clematis over the years that have gone from looking fantastic year after year, to then mysteriously disappearing over the winter.  Fingers crossed that this one won’t do that.

My Roguchi clematis continues to perform its head off too.

This clematis doesn’t have the massive showy flowers that so many do, instead it has these charming violet bell shaped flowers.

But it blooms all summer long, it’s super vigorous and it’s in pruning group 3, ie. the easiest, most fail-proof pruning group.  The rabbits take care of that for me over the winter by chewing them off at about rabbit height.  All I have to do is pull the dead vines off my arbor in late winter/early spring which takes about 2 minutes.  The plant comes back from the bottom and climbs to the top of the arbor again by early June.

That’s it on the right side of the arbor above.  Last year I planted a Rebecca clematis on the left side.

It’s doing OK, but now I kinda wish I had just planted a 2nd Roguchi on the other side so that they could grow up and meet in the middle over the top of the arbor.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I need to keep an eye out for another Roguchi, huh?

I have another bell shaped clematis called Betty Corning (also a group 3 clematis).

This is its third year, or its ‘leap year’.  You know, first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap.

It’s sharing a trellis with another clematis that I’ve had for years.  I’m fairly sure it’s called The President.  Back in 2024 it was absolutely stunning …

It filled out most of that trellis.

The we had what I like to refer to as the ‘bad winter’.  That was 2024/2025.  I lost a lot of plants over that winter, and this clematis barely came back last year, and isn’t looking a whole lot better this year.

Part of the problem may be that it belongs to pruning group 2, which you aren’t supposed to cut back to the ground, however the rabbits don’t seem to realize that.  I’m still hoping it will fill back out eventually.

Another clematis that is finally coming into its own this year is the Huldine that I planted on an old ladder leaning on the carriage house.

This is another one from pruning group 3, are you sensing a theme here?

It has sweet and simple white flowers that work beautifully against the red carriage house.

It is said to be a vigorous climber, growing up to 20′ tall.

This next plant isn’t a clematis, but it’s so gorgeous that I had to share it with you.

This is a Grandpa Ott morning glory, and I also planted it on the ladder together with the Huldine.

You may remember that I planted several clematis under my lilac hedge.  One of them died after the first year, but the other two are doing well.  Both have gorgeous blue/purple flowers.

The first is called H.F. Young …

and the 2nd is called Diana’s Delight.

They are still rather small plants, but I’m hoping that they eventually really take off and fill in where the lilacs look a little sparse.

I still have a few clematis that haven’t bloomed yet this year.  One is an Issey clematis that I planted at the far end of the lilac hedge earlier this spring.

Another is my Jackmanii clematis.  I think of this as the most common clematis out there, you see them everywhere.  Here is mine in bloom last year.

This one took so long to break dormancy this spring that I was sure I lost it.  As a result, I pulled out the obelisk that it was growing on.  When it did finally come up, I quickly popped in another support for it, but now I realize it’s far too small.

Oh well, hopefully I can rectify that problem next year.

How about you, do you have any clematis growing in your garden?  And do you have a favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Good morning from the garden!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know all about my fairy garden.  However, just in case some of you are new here, I’ve had a fairy garden of some kind for many years.

I love gardening in miniature!

I use a mix of shrubs, perennials and annuals in my fairy garden which is planted in an old wheelbarrow with plenty of rusty holes for drainage.

Typically I add several inches of chopped up leaves and then a burlap cover for winter (we have pretty harsh winters here in Minnesota), but this past winter I never did get around to the cover (although I did add the leaves).  Unfortunately, I ended up losing everything that was planted in there as a result.

On the bright side, last fall I removed the miniature hostas and planted them in a somewhat protected area in the ground to overwinter and that worked out perfectly.  I also potted up the Myrtle topiary and kept it as a houseplant over the winter.

Also on the bright side, losing almost everything meant a chance to start over with a clean slate!

I started with mail ordering a bunch of miniature plants from TwoGreenThumbs.com.  They shipped my plants out quickly, and they were in really good shape when they arrived.  I will say that a few of them were a bit root-bound in their pots, but that’s an easy fix.  Just rough up the roots a bit before planting.

In addition to the plants that are specifically meant for miniature gardens, I also picked up a few ground cover type plants that always work well in miniature;  mecardonia (the plant with the yellow flower above), a creeping thyme, and a small leaf wire vine.  You can usually find those at any nursery or garden center.

Another good option is alyssum, which is sold everywhere.  I didn’t get any this year, but I’ve used it in the past.  It’s the purple flower shown below.

I began with placing the larger items including my fairy house and the myrtle standard that I saved over the winter.  It works perfectly as a ‘tree’.

I’ll probably prune it a little for size after it recovers from any transplant shock.

I added a Jean’s Dilly dwarf spruce under the myrtle, as well as one of the Pandora’s Box hostas that I saved from last year.

As for that little plant with the white flowers that is next to the hosta …

well, I have no idea what that is.  I bought it at Bachman’s, but it wasn’t labeled.  It sure is cute though.  Do any of you know what it might be?

Over on the other side of the house I planted two shrubs, a variegated English boxwood and a Gemstone Hinoki cypress.

I ‘divided’ my Frosted Mouse Ears hostas and put two of them in front of the shrubs.

I planted another chunk of the Pandora’s Box next to the arbor.

I planted the wire vine on the other side of the arbor and I will train it to grow up and over.

It will eventually try to take over the entire fairy garden, so I’ll have to clip it back quite often later in the summer.

I purchased a couple of Dwarf Mondo Grass plants from Two Green Thumbs, and I was able to divide them right out of the pot before planting.

I’ve never grown these before, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they do.

Around the back of the fairy house I planted a couple of the creeping thyme plants and several of my Feather Boa hostas.

I have a patch of the Feather Boa hostas in the ground near the potting shed, so I just take a chunk out of it for the fairy garden.

Today’s q tip on growing miniature hostas;  hostas are classified by their mature height into five categories, miniature, small, medium, large and giant.  The hostas in my fairy garden are all in the miniature category.  If you keep the miniature hostas confined in a small planter or pot, they will stay quite small.  If you put them in the ground, they will grow quite a bit larger and spread more.  Here is my patch of Feather Boa hostas in the ground.  Behind them on the left is another miniature hosta that originally came from my fairy garden, but I don’t remember the name of that one.

In addition to being perfect for a fairy garden, these miniature hostas make a fantastic front border for a shady garden.

Unfortunately, I do not have a good mail order source for miniature hostas.  Two Green Thumbs doesn’t carry any.  It looks like there are quite a few options for mail ordering them online, but having never ordered from any of them I can’t make a recommendation.

However, for my local readers, this past Friday I once again stopped in at Dragonfly Gardens in Amery, Wisconsin and they had a couple of miniature hostas available.  I purchased the Funny Mouse.  After I looked their supply over I found a pot that looked full enough that I could divide the hosta before planting it.  I ended up with three plants.  I planted one in my neighbor’s mom’s fairy garden, and two in my own.

I also found that Dragonfly had miniature trees!  I was able to pick up another Primo Arborvitae for $20 (the tall, skinny evergreen on the right in the photo below).

I had added one of these last year as well, but lost it over the winter.  I’ll try harder to save it this year.

I just can’t tell you how much I enjoy gardening in miniature.

If you don’t have space for a full sized garden, or you just don’t want to work that hard, a miniature garden is the way to go.  All you need is a container of some kind and a bit of imagination.

Have you got a miniature garden?  Or have I inspired you to consider adding one?

Before I let you go today I wanted to update you on my experiment with ordering ‘plugs’ online.  I ordered three apricot snapdragon plants from Holland Bulb Farms in Milwaukee.  It took them two weeks to get them shipped out, and that was only after I finally inquired about the status of my order.  When they did arrive, they looked like this …

They were bone dry and two were completely shriveled, with the 3rd one well on its way.  I have to wonder how long they were sitting in their packaging before being shipped out.

Shockingly enough, I paid $25 for these three snapdragon plants.  The plants were $15, with an additional $10 in shipping and tax added.  Somehow at that price point I expected a much higher quality plant.

I reached out to Holland Bulb Farms to let them know that the plants arrived in very poor condition and that I doubt they will survive being put in the ground.  Their response was that the plants still look green (I sent the pic shown above) and I should give them two weeks “with proper care” and they should bounce back.

So I’ve put them in the ground and they are starting to look a little bit better, but definitely are not thriving.  I think it will be a miracle if I get any flowers on them by July.

Well, I guess I’ll let this be a lesson to me, and possibly to you too.  Ordering annuals like this is probably not something that’s worth doing for me.  How about you?  Have you ever ordered plants this way, and did you have any luck?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Good morning from the garden!

Late May and early June is when my now-sunny border really puts on a show.

If you’ve followed me for long, you’ll remember that my next door neighbor took down a huge tree back in 2024.  As a result, I now have a lot more sun in the backyard.

At the time I was quite bummed out about it, and I do still feel like our backyard is much more exposed.

But looking on the bright side (pardon the pun), the irises are really thriving now.

The purple irises above were originally a garage sale purchase.  Last year (or maybe the year before?),  I also purchased another purple and white iris at a garage sale that is just starting to bloom.

I’ve had the yellow irises forever.  In fact, at this point I’m not even sure if I originally planted them or if they were already here when we bought our house back in 1988.  I don’t really remember.

I’ve moved them around a few times over the years and now have them in a couple of different spots.

They work great in the garden next to the carriage house.

I always have to remind myself not to use pink in that particular garden bed, it really clashes with the red siding, but the yellow seems to work.

I planted some Mount Everest allium here two years ago, and they just opened up this week.

If you have a garden and you haven’t discovered alliums yet, you should definitely get some.  I shared a blog post all about them back in 2022, so check that out for more detail.

My Purple Sensation allium are on their way out right now, but you saw them in my garden post last week …

I’ve got some Globemaster allium that aren’t quite open yet too.

If you add a few different varieties of allium you can really stretch out their bloom times.

Some of my peonies are starting to open, mainly just this single version so far …

The peonies behind the carriage house in my cutting garden are still just loaded with buds.  So we still have those to look forward to.

Before I let you go this morning, I want to share another amazing plant that I think is underrated. Geranium macrorrhizum, or Bigroot Geranium.

This is a a rhizomatous semi-evergreen perennial, so in plain English, it’s a plant that spreads by rhizomes that sit just on the surface of the soil, it can stay fairly green all winter under the snow (well, maybe not quite green, but let’s just say alive), and it comes back every year.

It is almost indestructible.

I encouraged it to grow on the west side of our house on a small slope that has black plastic with rock over it (installed by the previous home owner).

Let me elaborate a little on what I meant by “I encouraged it to grow”.  Basically I pulled some chunks of it out of another area, cut a small slit in the black plastic and tucked it in there.

And it has taken off and filled in the entire space.  It looks so much nicer than the rocks ever did.

This is its first, and always best, flush of blooms for the year.  However, it will continue to bloom all summer long, just not as robustly.

If you happen to be battling creeping bellflower, a.k.a. the worst weed ever, Bigroot Geranium will create a dense, weed-suppressing mat that can help keep it in check.  Another plus, it is deer and rabbit resistant.  It will also grow in anything from full sun to dry shade.  Best of all, it is nearly maintenance free.  You do not have to dead head (although you can if you want to encourage another flush of blooms), cut it back, remove dead foliage or really anything.  I literally do nothing for that patch alongside the house, I don’t even water it.

As for cons, I will say that it wilts quite a bit under a hot afternoon sun which looks a little unsightly, however it does bounce back by evening.  It also can really take over an area, even one that is mainly rocks on top of plastic, as you can see above.  That being said, very little effort is required to keep it in check by yanking it out.

If you are local, you have the chance to see my gardens in person by coming to my upcoming occasional sale.

Feel free to wander around and check them out while you are here.

I’ll post my address later this week, so be sure to stay tuned.

In the meantime, have you tried Bigroot Geranium in your garden?  How about alliums?  Or maybe you have irises that are in full bloom right now.  Leave a comment and let me know!

Good morning from the garden!

I was watching a YouTube video the other day by Alexandra Campbell from The Middle-Sized Garden about cottage gardens.  I’ve always said that my gardens are cottage style.  They certainly aren’t formal, or modern, or tropical.  I don’t have a Japanese garden or a Mediterranean garden.  Surely I must have a cottage garden, right?

However, Alexandra listed a handful of characteristics that define a cottage garden, and now I’m starting to wonder if my garden qualifies.

One characteristic of a cottage garden that is mentioned in the video is a mix of flowers and vegetables.

Nope.  Not a veggie in sight.  And actually, there aren’t even a lot of flowers in sight in the shadier areas.  I’m more about the colorful foliage.

I am starting to add a lot more flowering plants in the back where I have more sun now though.

Next up, having lots of self-seeders.  Um, not really.  I have very few.  My beloved Verbena Bonariensis is a self-seeder.

And so is the Serendipity Allium.

But I tend to be a ruthless weeder in the spring and early summer, so I mostly destroy any seedlings that dare to come up.

She also mentioned that if you have more garden than lawn, you have a cottage garden.

Hmmm.  I’m not quite there (my front yard is almost all lawn, or should I say mostly creeping charlie).  I’m working on it though 😉

She listed some of the must-have plants in a cottage garden and the first one was roses.  Clearly she hasn’t had to deal with Japanese beetles.  I used to have a few more roses, but I’ve pulled all of them out now except for one.  I just can’t deal with those pesky beetles!

But she also mentioned peonies, and I have those in spades.

Lastly, another characteristic of a cottage garden is that plants are absolutely crammed in.

OK, I definitely have that one covered!  And P.S. both my alliums and my irises are looking amazing this year.

Another characteristic mentioned was having garden ornaments that don’t look brand new.  My latest acquisition, a lovely concrete cherub that I purchased at my friend Lisa’s shed sale is perfect for a cottage garden.

And you know me, I have plenty of things in my garden that don’t look new, almost all of them coming from garage sales or hand-me-downs, like my rusty bench.

Ultimately, Alexandra says you don’t have to have all of the characteristics to qualify as having a cottage garden.  So I definitely think I can continue to call my gardens cottage style.

How about you?  Do you have a cottage garden?  Or perhaps you have another style.  Leave a comment and let me know!

Good morning from the garden!

It has been awhile since I’ve sent out a Sunday morning in the garden post.  In fact, the last one was on December 14 of last year!

Things are definitely looking a bit different now.

Once again, I am out in the garden.  I’ve been super busy getting things cleaned up, mulched and weeded.  I’ve also been shopping for plants!

I know I’ve said it here before, but just as a reminder to my local readers, Country Sun Farm in Lake Elmo has far and away the best annuals around.

I’ve been to nearly every garden center in my area over the last week or so, and they outshine all of them.

And no, this is not a sponsored post in any way.

As for prices, at $6.99 for a 4.5″ pot they are no more expensive than the same size from Fleet Farm or Bachman’s.

They do only sell annuals, no perennials, and they get picked over fast.  I purchased a couple of gorgeous caladium on my first visit, and then the rest were already gone when I went back a few days later.

I also visited Dragonfly Gardens in Amery, Wisconsin last week.  It’s a garden center that focuses on native plants.  I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of native plants.  I know they are good for wildlife, low maintenance once established and are less prone to pests.  But honestly, not too many of them appeal to me.

However, what I discovered last week is that Dragonfly also sells plugs.

If you aren’t familiar, plugs are young plants cultivated in individual cells, typically in seed trays, that are ready for transplanting into larger containers or directly into the soil.  They are much more cost effective than perennials that are already potted up.  For example, a one gallon perennial at Dragonfly is $14.99 and a plug is only $7.99.  So that’s almost a 50% savings.

If you are planning to plant some perennials en masse … or even just in a grouping of 3 or 5, this is a much more affordable way to do that.

You might be thinking that planting something this tiny must mean that it takes forever for them to turn into a full sized plant, but from everything I’ve read online, theoretically they catch up in just one growing season.

I’ve never planted plugs before, mainly because I’ve never seen them sold in a garden center.  I know you can order them online, but it just never has occurred to me to do that.  So I’ve decided to give it a go.  I purchased three Candytuft plugs and three Brunnera plugs.

At Dragonfly, you simply pop the plug into a small paper sack to take it away.  Just keep in mind that you have to plant them fairly quickly … or otherwise keep them from drying out until you can.  I planted mine right away the next day.

Another big benefit to planting plugs is that it’s easier to get them in the ground.  You just need a small hole.  That works especially well if you’re planting around tree roots, or, as in my case, you don’t want to disturb too many of your scilla bulbs.

Another reason to purchase plugs is if you don’t have the space or the inclination to start things from seed yourself.  You can purchase all kinds of annuals as plugs too, including many vegetable plants.

I plan to update you all near the end of the growing season to let you know how the plugs worked out for me.  So be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, have you ever planted plugs?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Good morning from the garden!

Brrrrr!!  It has been cold here!  Sub-zero temps in December are not my favorite.  However, we had some really beautiful snow earlier this week, so I thought some of you might enjoy a tour of the winter garden.

So bundle up, grab a hot beverage, and let’s go!

Cossetta (my statue) has her feet buried in snow, but it’s not quite above her knees yet.

Here she is in January 2023 when she had snow up to her waist!

Will we get that much snow this year?  I don’t know, but we’re off to a good start.

Most of the plants that I left standing in the garden have been buried in snow already, but for now the allium is still standing.  I like how the snow looks like little pointy caps on their heads.

If we get much more snow, they will eventually end up buried as well though.

Speaking of buried, sometimes I’m not sure why I bother with winter window box arrangements when they will just end up covered in snow.

Then again, you never know.  Last year we barely had a dusting of snow by Christmas, so I was able to enjoy my winter window boxes much longer.

Besides, the spruce tips do look pretty covered in snow …

and even in icicles in some cases.

If you remember my post about these winter arrangements, you might be wondering if the ornamental kale and the heuchera that I kept in place are surviving.

I was hoping they would at least last through Christmas, but again, I never expected sub-zero temps this early in the season.  So the answer is no, they didn’t even survive much past Thanksgiving.

We had a bit of wind with this snowfall, so some areas drifted more than others.

I’m glad I didn’t leave my red and white skates on the bench because they would definitely be buried.

They are still looking good hanging from the chippy sled though.

The potting shed is looking festive.

I’ve hung one of my sleds beside the door, and although you can’t see them very well in that photo, I have some star burst lights hanging from the roof on the right.

They do a good job of lighting up the garden after dark.

I had grandiose plans of putting a Christmas tree inside the potting shed this year, but I let it go too long and now it’s far too cold to be out there setting up a tree.  Maybe next year?

Even though I cut quite a lot of my hydrangea flowers to dry this year, there are still plenty left.  I like to leave them in place for the winter to add some interest to the garden.  They catch the snow quite nicely.

Especially the large Limelight hydrangea to the right of our front door.

It ends up looking like a snowball bush!

As always, the carriage house provide a festive pop of red in a snowy landscape.

It’s definitely looking like we’ll have a white Christmas this year.

Now it’s time to head back inside to warm up with some hot cocoa.  But how about you?  Have you had much snow where you are?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Good morning from the garden.

I just realized that the title of today’s post might come across as a little click-bait-y.

No, I’m not throwing in the towel on blogging.  What I am considering is throwing in the towel on my lilac hedge.

Yep, after 14 years of struggling to grow a proper lilac hedge I want to give up.

Let’s start with a little history on the hedge.

When we purchased our house in 1988 there was a hedge that ran all the way across the back of our property.  I have no idea what type of hedge it was.  You can sort of see it in this photo which dates back to 2009.

See it back there behind the potting shed?  It was a tangled hot mess, and it was next to impossible to prune.  However, it did a great job of providing privacy in our backyard.

I was tired of how messy it looked though, so in 2011 we pulled it out and replaced it with a row of lilacs.

I thought lilacs would be easy.  They grow like weeds, don’t they?  I see them everywhere here.  I know people who have literally cut their lilacs down to the ground and they still bounce back.

They require full sun, which I happen to have along the back property line.  So it should be the perfect spot for lilacs.

I also love the flowers, so a lilac hedge seemed like a no brainer.  A big, fairly low maintenance shrub that would provide privacy in the summer (not so much in the winter when they lose their leaves).

But aside from some lovely blooms in the spring …

I have had exceedingly poor results with mine.

I initially planted around 10 lilacs, and after 5 years, the hedge looked like this …

Really sad, right?

But I was determined.  I kept pulling out the scrawny lilacs and replacing them.  I decided that maybe the problem was the hybrid (ie. fancy) lilacs that I was choosing.  Maybe I needed a basic common lilac to get the result I wanted.

So I put in two of those, and they did quite well for a while.  Here they are last summer when I thought maybe this lilac hedge was going to work out after all.

As an experiment, I planted three clematis to grow up amongst the lilacs last summer.  Clematis take a few years to really fill out, but I did get a handful of blooms this summer on the two that made it through last winter.

Unfortunately towards the end of last summer the lilacs ended up with leaf spot fungus and once again looked awful after losing most of their leaves.

They only recovered somewhat this spring.  I had plenty of flowers.

But the leaves never really filled in well.

To try and add some bulk down low, I decided to try to underplant the lilacs with some hostas a month or so ago.

I divided these from a row of hostas that I have in another area.

Hostas always look a bit sad after being divided, and to make matters worse, something is eating them now (I suspect deer, but it could be rabbits).

But they should look much better next year if I can keep them from being eaten.  I think I’m going to have to resort to using a deer/rabbit repellant spray.

However, once again this summer we have had lots of rain and humidity, the conditions that allow leaf spot fungus to proliferate.  So once again my lilacs again look pretty pathetic.

Every year I waste on trying to baby these lilacs is another year that a different shrub could have been growing to maturity.

So now what?  Do I throw in the towel?  Pull everything out and start over?

Or do I give them one more year?  Wait and see how it looks as my clematis and hostas fill in?

What would you do?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Good morning from the garden.

It seems like planting pollinator friendly plants is getting all the buzz these days (pardon the very bad pun).

I have to admit that I’ve never planted anything just because it’s good for pollinators.  That quality is way down on the list of things I look for in a plant.  I figure any flowering plant is better for the environment than just having a lawn, right?

I do sometimes choose things specifically to attract hummingbirds though, like Salvia guaranitica, or Black & Blue Salvia.

After all, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a pretty hummingbird in the garden?  I can verify that yes, the hummingbirds definitely love this one.

This year I’ve discovered that the Swallowtail butterflies really like my verbena bonariensis.

As do the bees.

So that’s an added bonus to growing it, but I would grow it anyway because I love the look of it.

And that brings me to my Serendipity Allium.

I planted these about three years ago, and this is the first year that they’ve really looked fantastic.  That’s about right, the first year they sleep, the 2nd year they creep, etc.  This is their year to leap!

I also had 4 or 5 seedlings sprout up around the main plant this spring, so although they aren’t especially known to re-seed freely, mine definitely is.

I have to say, these things are bee magnets!

Look closely at the photo.  Do you see how many bees are on there?!

Although the big fat bumble bees aren’t particularly aggressive, they still would prefer that I not mess with them in the garden.  I’ve never been stung by one, but they do chase me away by buzzing around my face and bumping into me which is just as effective.

So I’m pretty much avoiding weeding in this area for the time being and just letting the bees have their fill.

But to be honest, I’m just blaming my lack of weeding on the bees because they are a convenient scapegoat.  I usually get a little tired of gardening about this time of year.  It’s probably lucky that I live in zone 4b/5a because I don’t think I’d enjoy having a longer gardening season.  Even our short growing season is a bit too long for me.

One last thing, while we’re talking about bugs, over the last couple of years I have been approached by at least half a dozen door-to-door sales people trying to get me to sign up for their pest control services.

They always catch me while I’m out in the garden, and they always use the same tactics mentioning that they are only in the neighborhood because my neighbor John Doe (insert actual neighbor’s name here) uses their service.  The latest saleswoman was very charming, mentioning how amazing my gardens were and appreciating how much work they must entail.  And wouldn’t I like to get rid of those pesky spider webs?

I always say that I’m trying to encourage pollinators, not kill them.  The I’m told, ‘oh, but our product is plant based’ … um, yeah, but it still kills insects right?

Anyway, I recently did some research and found a press release from the MN Attorney General’s office warning people about door-to-door pest control scams (you can find that here).  Apparently they are running rampant in the Twin Cities.  So if you are local, or if this is also happening where you are, just be warned.  Send those door-to-door salespeople packing, no matter how charming they might seem.

I’d love to know which plants in your garden are the biggest pollinator attractors.  Leave a comment and let me know.