…sometimes must be changed.
While I won’t claim my plans were laid down to the last detail, they are definitely having to be changed. Much of what I envisioned doing this year is already and clearly going to have to wait until next year.
In the fall I cut some divisions of a wild dogwood shrub that had volunteered itself alongside my arbor. It was a different wild dogwood than the other growing in another part of my yard. I didn’t want to simply remove it because it’s a plant that supports and incredibly variety of animal and insect life. (Something like 80 birds use this dogwood shrub’s berries for food, particularly the fall migrating birds. Others eat the insects which are attracted to this shrub). So, I moved some divisions of it to the area where my thicket is supposed to grow, and then I waited for spring to see if they’d taken. They had.
And then my husband mowed them down.
He missed one. That lone division is bravely growing on its own. My husband now knows where it is. Truthfully, when I think about it, I don’t think there’s a year yet where he hasn’t mowed something I planted. So, now he’s gotten that out of the way for this year!
Dogwood shrubs (as opposed to the pretty ornamental trees) are scrubby things. Mine are not something people generally would seek out. They are perfect for my purposes of providing a thicket and using many native plants that are food for many animals and insects. So, while they are not ornamental, they are important to me. These shrubs sucker and will form colonies, as the one growing next to my arbor was. I cut some of those suckers off and that is what I planted last fall. They were about 4 feet tall, but single twigs. Even though they were tall, I guess they didn’t register when he mowed. The ironic thing about it is that I had mowed all of the yard but one little piece– and part of that piece was where those divisions were. I assumed he’d see the branches and remember that I’d planted some there. Nope!
So, I’m debating whether to move some new suckered plants over there, or to simply pot some up and let them achieve some size and density before planting them there. The over-doer in me says I should do both. At the moment I feel like doing neither. Eventually I’ll get around to doing something.
Anyway, my prairie area didn’t compost as well as I thought it would, so I don’t want to plant in it yet. All that material I added is at least succeeding in my goal of suppressing the grassy weeds and, most importantly, the poison ivy that was thriving there. (Poison ivy berries are loved by birds. Knowing that, I’d consider leaving it except that that plant is growing all over the neighborhood. I don’t need to fight more of it). So, no planting of prairie plants unless I am able to throw a layer of soil on top of that. And since I’ve loaned my garden wagon, I’d have to transport a whole lot of soil one or two 3-gallon buckets at a time. I just can’t face that yet. So, at best, my prairie will start being planted in the fall. My front border? Half of the echinacea I was growing for that died in the great flood of last week (my fault, which makes it hurt more) and the native shrubs that will be the backbone of it are being grown from seed. They are adorable– but they are about 2 inches tall. They won’t be ready to be planted out there this year, either. And the thicket? In addition to the dogwood shrubs, my plan was to add some native rose bushes and a couple other native bushes. The native bushes have sprouted and are growing, but I have the same issue with them as with the shrubs for the front border: they simply aren’t big enough to plant yet. And of the rose seeds I winter sowed, a grand total of ONE sprouted. I’ve grown thousands of roses from seed (literally– no exaggeration), but those were all from hips I harvested and handled myself. These native seeds were purchased from a reputable company. I remember thinking how many I saw that were obviously bad seeds when I was planting. I didn’t plant any that were obviously bad, but apparently there were a lot of bad seeds that looked okay. So, I now have one rosa setigera growing out of the 3 kinds of native rose seeds I sowed. That’s pitiful. My thicket is going to have to wait for next year.
Where does this leave me for this year? I’m not really sure. I guess I’ll have a random assortment of plants I can add to the garden in general. Many of those were plants for the prairie. And since my garden already is quite random, oh well. What’s a little more, right? When I run out of things to add to it, I guess I can focus on weeding for the summer. I did pretty well last year, but it’s going to take multiple years of concentrated effort to reduce the weed problem. And sometime in the next two weeks, I’ll probably start more seeds with the intention of being able to plant them this fall. They won’t have this summer’s growth for next year, but they’ll be ahead of any babies I plant next spring.
So here it is, the beginning of only May and already my plans are upended.
admin | 
06 1st, 2010| 
