Sunday, October 15th, 2006
As I have said a million times, or maybe about eight times, the best time to go to the nursery is in mid to late October. The nurseries are just about ready to throw everything in the dumpster out back, so either go in and purchase what you want for half price or wait until nightfall and take your chances at the dumpster.
I got everything for half price…even the mulch. The first type of plant I picked up today was a Silver and Gold Chrysanthemum. These are really pretty cool looking and grow to about 12″-18″. I planted three of them and I think they will fill in quite nicely. As stated on the site I linked to above, you can divide these after a while. That’s great, because like bulbs, once you make the initial investment, you can play for years to come.
The second type of plant I picked up was an Ilex Glabra Shamrock. This one grows about 3′-4′ tall, so I planted it towards the middle, so it will surround the new pear tree. This is a really good looking shrub because it has glossy leaves and some berries. I will have to keep my eye on these because of the deer.
Lastly, like I mentioned above, I purchased 2 bags of great looking “Black Forest” mulch. This will keep all the bulbs and iris covered and protected during the winter. It also just looks so damn good. Take a look…
I am really looking forward to Spring so I can take some pictures of all the freshly sprung bulbs…almost as much as you’re looking forward to it, I’m sure.
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Saturday, October 14th, 2006
There won’t be many more days to get my plantings and gardening done this year, so I better finish up fast. Today was the day of the triangle. We have a triangle garden right in front of the house that was just a mess. There were 3 patches of Iris and Mint (well, it smelled minty) that had run wild. Both the Iris and the Mint spread underground, so you really don’t know the extent of their growth until you start pulling. There was also some Hosta. Over the past year, we haphazardly planted a wide variety of about 50 bulbs in this garden. None of them have bloomed yet. As I started pulling out the mint, I started stumbling across these bulbs, that have started rooting quite nicely. I also found many bulbs under the iris. Great bulbs, I’m sure…just strangled, that’s all. I placed all the bulbs in a bucket for use later.
Well, all morning I pulled and pulled and pulled, until the garden was cleaned out.
I moved the Hosta to the front corner and left the pretty little tree where it was. I also planted our new Bartlett Pear tree. This is going to be very cool when we get our new pears. I placed this tree here because it is going to be surrounded by Boxwood, and deer don’t like boxwood. Also, it is right next to our peach tree and is in full sun, like the tree label said to do. I got it for a great deal of only $12. That’s the beauty of buying these types of trees late in the season.
As I mentioned above, I had to wrestle with some iris. There were three areas, and here is one of them…
This should be a real treat for you if you have never seen overgrown iris. This is why iris doesn’t bloom that well after a few years. It strangles itself. I pulled the iris apart and made a trench along the rearmost border. I layed the separated iris in the trench and covered it up.
I then made two trenches on the other two sides and placed all the bulbs I collected in them. I placed the largest bulbs towards the center of the garden and the smaller ones towards the rock walls. This way, I will have good height proportion come Spring.
I am going to pick up a few bags of mulch this week and cover the entire garden with it to protect the bulbs. I am also going to grab about five boxwood shrubs and place them towards the center of the garden, so they surround the pear tree. This should look good…green at the center, tree in the middle with nice color along the edges.
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Posted in Autumn, Gardening, Home Improvement, Landscaping, Trees & Shrubs | 3 Comments »
