Gardening by Mistake

Grrr! Whatever it is, I’m going to get it.

For about 3 years now, I’ve had holes in my garden and the surrounding yard. Just a couple at first, but more each year. I have had a mole pay us visits. Oddly, several years in a row, in the spring, a mole would plow through one part of our yard. But just the once. I’ve seen signs of a mole in my garden, but not a great deal of activity. Again, just a single incidence of activity. I don’t know that the holes I find are related to the mole. I don’t think they are. They don’t look like the mounds moles make. These are definitely holes.

Two years ago, two echinacea plants next to some some achiellea suddenly wilted and died. I’m assuming it was whatever critter has been making the holes in my garden. Nothing else happened, so I did nothing. Now, this past week, a couple more echinacea and an achillea (different bed in the garden) have suddenly wilted and died. And I found evidence of a raised area of dirt nearby, under the mulch.

Whatever it is, something has caused some damage to my garden. I want it gone.

I’ve looked at information online, and I still can’t figure out what I have back there. I sure wish I had some snakes or ferrets or the like to take care of the problem for me. I’m debating trying to deal with the issue myself or call some pest removal/control service.

Today is overcast and intermittently rainy. I figure it’s not going to get any better for planting transplants, so I got my last 3 cuttings planted. None of them had roots to get excited about, although I think they’ll make it. Two of the cuttings were agastache and 1 was an ajuga.

The ajuga splits I planted in the garden a week ago appear to be doing fine. I wasn’t sure they’d make it, since I planted little plantlets without roots in some cases. They are making it. I may end up with a bed full of ajuga groundcover after all. (And it just figures: I’ve decided that wasn’t the ideal groundcover for that area. I need something with larger foliage. Well, the ajuga will just have to do until some other day (year) when I can replace it).

I gave up on the platycodon cuttings. It’s possible that they might root one day. They might be one of those plants which needs months to root. I don’t have the patience for that. I’ve pulled them because I want to empty out my propagation boxes and put them away until I decide what I want to try next.

My formerly pitch black cuttings thumb is now more of a dark gray these days. I had put a bunch of cuttings into a propagation box. Many rooted, but they didn’t like coming out of the humid prop box and promptly shriveled up and died. A few, however, have survived and made it to the garden. At this point, only 2 have actually been planted in the garden (1 ajuga, 1 agastache). They’ve been in the garden for 2 days now and are still alive, which is encouraging. I have one other (an ajuga) to go out yet. One veronica spicata may make it to getting planted outside, as well. Out of the dozens of cuttings I put into the two propagation boxes, that’s a sad record. Dark gray may be too generous yet. So far, I’m way better at growing things from seed than from cuttings. I’m hoping to have a misting table or bed next year and that might go a long way toward rooting cuttings successfully. The sad thing is that both the agastache and the ajuga would root in water and rooting in water is the only way I’ve ever had any success with cuttings. I was hoping that a prop box would expand my rooting possibilities. I think I’ll try another batch at some point in the near future.

Here is a portion of what is in bloom in the garden right now.

Two different achillea:

Coreopsis ‘Early Sunrise’

Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’

Some geraniums

A new addition to the garden, planted just yesterday: penstemon ‘Husker Red’

Shasta Daisies

Jardin de Bagatelle

That’s how many perennials got planted today. And I did a lot of weeding, too. I have 28 plants remaining yet. I ran out of steam and daylight today. It is amazing to me how little all those plants changes the beds at this point.  I know I need to give them a year and two would be even better. So I am definitely looking forward to seeing how everything looks next year when the plants have settled in and gotten some size. I’d take pictures of the new additions but they wouldn’t really show much.

Plants in today’s plantings included: artemisias ‘Powis Castle’ and ‘Silver Mound’, perovskia, echinops, echinacea purpea, ajuga, achillea, lemon thyme, phlox subulata ‘Emerald Blue,’ baptisia, shasta daisies (Crazy Daisy and ‘Alaska’) and Penstemon ‘Husker Red.’

Still remaining: phlox subulata ‘Candy Stripe’, several different asters, echinacea ‘White Swan’, dianthus ‘Bath’s Pink’ and ‘Firewitch’, a butterfly bush, thyme,  ajuga, and coreopsis ‘Baby Sun.’

We have had such an amazingly wet June. I’ve been glad for my plants (and my air conditioning bill– the rain has kept it cooler, if not cool). Unfortunately, that same rain has been enjoyed by the weeds, weeds which grow with wild abandon while I’m trying not to step on the wet soil in the beds, thereby compacting them.

I got out for a time today. I pulled the latest round of milkweed stalks. Because the weeds (mainly in the form of grass) have gotten so far ahead of me, I reluctantly used the RoundUp. My hope is that whatever I’m not able to hand weed in the near future will at least be dying while I get to it.

I went back to my local Ace hardware store today to see what remained of the plants. Several weeks ago I bought some really nice perennials for something like $2.49 each. I went back today and was absolutely delighted to find that the plants are now 1/2 price. While some are clearly showing the wear and tear of being in that outdoor, unprotected gardening area, many are still in great shape— especially for 1/2 price! I bought 27 plants, all perennials. After I got home I realized that I never had gone back for the asters I originally passed up but later decided to get. I went back this evening and got those asters… and a few others! I brought another 19 perennials home with me. The only thing that is not delightful about this is that now I’ve got to get them all planted! The actual planting part of gardening is something I do just to get the end result of flowers. That’s one reason I’m all about perennials. Plant once; enjoy for years and years.

Each one of those plants is just that much more of each garden bed which will not be growing weeds.

Many of my plants are just coming into bloom now. I thought it would be interesting to post pictures of the buds before they are recognizable flowers.

Achillea

Ornamental Allium

Echinacea

This is a seed head, rather than a bud, of a hardy geranium. You can see why it is sometimes called “cranesbill”

I did some more weeding this evening and (finally) got a handful of my waiting plants into the garden. I worked until the first blast of wind from the severe thunderstorm rolling in chased me into the house. It went from overcast to DARK in about 2 minutes. Scary!

Incidentally, yesterday I posted about wild milkweed, demon spawn. I had pulled every spear of it in my bed. Tonight when I was out, another spear had popped up and was already 4 inches tall. I’m not kidding. This is not a plant I missed yesterday. This happens often. Usually it’s multiple stems that tall the next day.  I’ll be very surprised if I don’t find a bunch tomorrow.

Before that storm drove me inside, however, I did remember to take a picture of the clover (trifolium rubens). My intent is to take another picture of it in 2 days or so as it opens upward.

And, finally, a view from one of my garden beds. The red rose in the middle left is Crimson Glory. The yellow flowers are coreopsis ‘Early Sunrise,’ and the blue flowers are a hardy geranium.

I didn’t always hate the rabbits. The first year I grew roses from seed, I proudly planted 8 of my baby rose plants in the garden. The next day, 5 of them were gone, eaten down to the ground. The following day 2 others disappeared. The only rose which was never eaten might as well have been. It turned out to be a pitiful plant. Maybe the rabbit knew that. Anyway, there was one plant in that first batch that I just loved and when that rabbit killed it, my hatred of rabbits in my garden was born. There are rabbits all over the neighborhood— they are not in short supply. And there are rabbits in other parts of my yard. I leave those alone. (Well, okay, I do sometimes run at them, yelling, scaring them out of the yard). Two years ago we put up a wire fence in what turned out to be the foolish hope we’d keep those varmits out of my garden. It has helped, but it hasn’t stopped them as much as I’d hoped. So, inside the garden fence, all rabbits are fair game for my dog.

I’ve been suspicious the last two or three days that there was a rabbit in my garden again. Well, there was: a juvenile. A juvenile is probably worse because it’s unlikely it’s the only one in the garden. Thor removed that one for me. Then a couple hours later, I came across another. Unfortunately, by the time I brought Thor around to the garden, the rabbit had hidden itself. Tomorrow morning, after the kids are in school, I’m going to let him loose to see if he has better luck.

Last summer the rabbits seemed to leave the garden alone entirely after a few patrols by the dog. I’m hoping that maybe his presence will have that effect again this year. Maybe the rabbits smell him, realize he’s a predator, and go elsewhere. I’d much rather keep them out of the garden than try to get them out once they are in.

It’s been a great couple of days for Thor. Thursday he caught a groundhog in the backyard. I have never even seen one on our street, so I was stunned when suddenly Thor caught one. Fortunately, the kids were unaware of that event.

I know I’m not the first person to make this mistake, and I won’t be the last, but perhaps you can learn from my own ignorance.

About 4 years ago, these tall plants started popping up in just one part of one of my rose beds. For a year, I ripped it out whenever I came across it. Then I found out it was wild milkweed. I knew just enough to cause myself years of trouble. “Milkweed,” I thought. “Hey, that’s the plant that monarch caterpillars eat as their sole food source.” I had the brilliant idea that I’d let that milkweed grow and do the monarchs a favor.

All went well for 2 years. I did have a lot of monarchs in my yard. One year at the end of the growing season, we brought in a monarch egg on a leaf and watched the entire cycle of egg to butterfly. That was really cool. The kids and I enjoyed that a lot. That seemed to validate my reason for allowing the milkweed to grow. And one year I found a hummingbird enjoying the nectar from the flowers. The flowers are funky in design and the smell quite nice. Finally, bees of all kinds love these plants to the point of delerium. More seemingly good reasons to allow it to grow, right?

Here’s a good reason for not letting it grow: it spreads by rhizomes and is, apparently, unstoppable once it gets established. I will be removing this plant from my gardens for the rest of my life, I think.

There are many kinds of milkweeds. Some, like the “butterfly milkweed” are “good” kinds. That is, they will not overtake the entire garden in two years. They are asclepias and monarch caterpillars will happily eat them. Then there are the “wild” or species milkweeds. These are now, in my book, “bad” milkweeds. In my garden it is asclepias syriaca which is so well established. I have been ruthlessly pulling out each new shoot as it erupts in my garden this year. It doesn’t seem to be killing them off. I make sure I get out and pull those (even if I don’t do anything else) every other day or so. I think this time it was 4 days since I’d pulled some. I don’t want to let them get large enough that they leaf out and begin making food; I want them using up their reserves in their rhizomes so that eventually there will be no reserves and, happily, no more milkweeds sprouting in my gardens.

After those two blissfully ignorant years of enjoying the wild milkweed in my garden, came year 3. This was the year when I realized I was about to lose my garden to the milkweed. The plants grow quite tall, about 6 feet in height. They towered above my rose plants, surrounding, dwarfing, and crowding them. About 1/2 way through the season, I went through and whacked all the milkweed down, thinking I’d keep it from going to seed and from getting so big. Ha! They didn’t even falter. I got busy and by the end of the season, once again that particular bed in the garden was lost to the milkweed. (That milkweed also went to seed, unfortunately).

So, this year I determined that if I didn’t do anything else, I would keep ripping out those spears of milkweed as they pop up. And I have, not that the milkweed have noticed. I suppose it will be interesting in an academic way to see how many years I’ll be pulling those damn things out of the garden beds. And all because I wanted to be nice to the monarchs. Now I’m growing some asclepias cultivar from seed. Someday my monarch friends will once again have buffet in my garden, but it will be something more manageable that won’t dwarf my roses or take over the beds.