Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Wildflower meadow

I spent the weekend doing a final weeding of the prospective wildflower meadow. All the yard waste has composted down to a couple of inches and now that it's raked out it looks like brown velveteen. The seeds have either arrived or are on their way and in a few more weeks when it looks like the weather will stay cold I will sow the forbs and grasses.

Things I will plant next spring

  • 3 more Sunshine Blue blueberries to replace the ones that got trampled.
  • A couple more southern highbush blueberries to keep in reserve.
  • Rosa alba maxima to be planted as a neighbor for Souvenir du Docteur Jamain
  • Rose 'Safari', a tiny thing from Heirloom that is a gorgeous pinky, salmony color.
  • A dozen Dodecatheon meadia, Shooting Star, ordered bare root from Prairie Moon, to be planted in front of the oakleaf hydrangeas with the Virginia bluebells.
  • Magnolia virginiana ‘Moonglow’, a sweet bay magnolia. This will go in the front yard in the space that became plantable after my neighbor removed the dying maple tree.
  • Aesculus pavia, red buckeye. This will go in Hagen's Woods to replace the redbud that quite mysteriously died.

Autumn projects

The weather finally cooled off, we had a couple of good, soaking rains that softened up the ground and I've finally made some progress on fall chores. The yard looks pretty respectable now.

  • The bed along the fence is edged and weeded.
  • The sprawling roses are now tethered to the fence.
  • The daylilies and irises are planted.
  • The pot ghetto under the apple tree has been cleaned up.
  • The seedlings and rooted cuttings are outside where they will winter over.
  • The 'meadow' is weeded and raked and ready to be sown with wild flowers and native grasses.
  • The seedling wildflowers are planted in the 'meadow'.
  • The asparagus has been cut back.
  • I have started building this year's compost hump.
  • The blueberries are weeded and ready to mulch.
  • The fig is wrapped in row cover and mulched with a couple of bags of leaves I begged from a neighbor.
  • Dug the red twig dogwoods out from under the big pine tree, planted 4 in the back hedge and gave the rest to my neighbor.

Still to do:

  • Mulch the blueberries. I'm going to fill in around them so they become an
    extension of the mulched edge at the back of the lot.
  • Shovel up last year's compost hump and see how it did under the burlap
    cover
  • Weed and mulch the main rose bed.
  • Once I'm sure the weather will stay cold I will sow the 'meadow'.
  • Repair the garden shed roof. The poor shed needs to be replaced but this
    should get me through the winter.