YAY! Temps yesterday flirted with the seventy degree mark. It was overcast most of the day. Very pleasant for working in the yard. I cleaned up the flowerbed around the mail box. Got all of the winter debris cleaned out and side dressed it with leaf mulch. The leaf mulch will enrich the soil, keep the soil somewhat insulated on any chilly nights and gives the bed a little more finished look.
The Ditch Lilies are magnificent. I am so looking forward to their blooms. I only wish that they had a longer bloom time. I have a cultivated Daylily that looks to be be doing well, also. I use the term "cultivated" to differentiate between a wild plant, like my Ditch Lilies, and one that was bred by a grower and purchased at a nursery. Granny always broke things down that way so this is how I reason it in my mind. Anyway, the cultivated Lily is a real pretty apricot color. It's not been very hearty the past couple of years. I was surprised to see it starting off so well. I hope it will continue growing at this rate.
My Stella D'oro lily has come back, too :) Last season was my first try at growing those. I have it in a pot right now but will most lilely transplant it out by the mailbox. Unless! I can find a cobalt blue planter. I would like to do some Stellas in a planter that color. I have learned through some online searches that I would prefer the Happy Returns lily. Happy Returns is a pure lemon yellow. Stella is the color of cheddar cheese. Not everyone is a fan of Stellas because they feel they are overplanted. I learned online recently that some people refer to them as Gas Station Lilies because landscapers use them in that setting so often. I know our city has used them extensively in landscaping a median strip. I'm a little put off at the tin soldier grid planting but it is otherwise pleasing ro the eye. Sure beats the usual overgrown strip of grass median . Ah well, to each his own. That is the wonderful part of gardening: no one can patently tell you that you are doing it wrong. If you like grid plantings and alot of manicuring, go for it. If one plant especially appeals to you, plant it with abandon. Do what makes you happy.
I have to say I was very happy out there yesterday! The crows were holding a convention. They kept calling to one another. One was very near me and another was far off. After a period of calling they took a road trip ( tree trip? ) and I could hear both of them in the distance chattering. Suddenly, I noticed a chorus of crow calls.. I looked up and the sky was full of them! They were circling like vultures, soaring way up high, and calling to one another. They would leave for a bit and return to circle and caw. I sometimes wonder what the birds are up to. I know all the cawing and circling was serving a purpose, I just don't know what that purpose was.
I also started on cleaning up the area by the garage where I have my container plants. An Aster and several pots of Mums. Yay! All of my Mums came back. I have a couple of Mum pots that I have been growing for years. I just leave them in the pot they were grown in, usually. Once I dismantle my Fall display I set them out by the garage and let them hibernate. They get plenty of winter sun and they do quite nicely. I leave them in their pots because I just plain do not have the space to plant them in the landscape. I have a small area in the yard that gets full sun. The rest is shaded by the hedge and two ginormous Southern Magnolias. I was also cleaning up the leftovers of my volunteer sprawling Petunias. Is that their name? Not Wave Petunias but they have a similar groth pattern. I had a hanging pot of them in the summer of 2009. The pot dropped seed and in Spring 2010 I noticed little baby Petunias coming up in the lawn. I asked G. to avoid mowing there. I was rewarded with a blanket of gorgeous volunteer Petunias. Purple and lavender and hot pink. So pretty! I went out every evening in the fall and faithfully covered them so I enjoy them for as long as possible. I was hoping for a comeback but I don't see any babies. I did, however, notice that one stem, deep in the tangle of stems, appears to be green and have life in it. For now I am leaving that little piece of the plants. Hopefully it will revive.
I wandered down into the lower 40, as I call it. It's a corner of yard that I don't often visit because it is so hilly and steep. There, I have a volunteer Autumn Olive shrub. It is so frgrant in the spring that it perfumes the entire street! When we moved in there was this tall trunk of a dead tree where the Autumn Olive now grows. G. had the city remove it, since it is on their easement for the public walkway. Not long after the tree was removed I noticed sprouts at the base of the stump that did not appear to be sucker growth on the tree. It is now a shrub that is 15 feet tall. I noticed a couple canes of the Forsythia had twined into the Autumn Olive and grew straight up on thier makeshift support. Yellow blooms fifteen feet up that appear be floating there. Crazy. As I said before, I lke growing things so I left it as is. I know most people would probably cut down the stray canes of Forsythia and prune back the Autumn Olive and make things more "controlled"! Bah. They wouldn't enjoy the fragrant Olive blooms in the spring or get to look up and see the yellow blooms in the sky. There is something to be said for that, as far as I can see.
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