In the garden this year, there was a fair bit of wood getting cut. Apart from the damage the rabbits did to the burning bushes, we fairly drastically thinned the lilacs, turning them from a hedge into individual bushes at the bottom of the garden. The smoke bush (yes, I get confused with smoke bush and burning bush, too) was tickling the house gutter at roof level, and I took it down to eye level. Later in the year we had professionals trim the honey locust.
I left the lilacs with some straggly bits at the top so it had something with leaves left to feed the branches I wanted to keep. The idea was to let them fill in near the bottom, so next Spring I can get it to a better shape. I think that worked – have to see what I get next year. The smoke bush surprized us by doubling in height in one season – I’m going to have a serious discussion with it once the leaves come off and I can see the structure. Meanwhile the locust “rewarded” us with a bumper crop of seed pods, which are only just beginning to fall. I suspect I’ll be picking these up all winter!
The flower bed beside the deck did better this year due to us removing the sunflower seed bird feeder. Without all the shucks burying everything, and without the pitter-patter of tiny squirrel and chipmunk feet trampling everything, we had something resembling a garden. For the winter, I’m trying a home-made hanger to place the feeder over our compost bin. Naturally, last night “someone” decided to tip the bin. Now it has two pavers inside it to make that job harder.
I started alyssum and morning glory seeds indoors again this year. I should have thinned out the alyssum, but it thrived despite that and was still in flower out front when I last saw it a few days back. The morning glory was not so forthcoming. I started six containers and seeds came up in all of them. I transplanted 5 of them in front of the five screens by the pool, gave each one a dedicated water bubbler, and generally pampered them. The “spare” got stuck behind the pool heater, beside the smoke bush. At the time it looked like a decent spot, as the smoke bush had not started to leaf, but soon the bush began growing in every direction, and I didn’t see #6, let alone gave it any attention until late August. The five pampered plants had produced a few tiny flowers, but generally they all gave up. But #6 had climbed six feet or so in the dark and began weighing down the smoke bush branches and flowering everywhere!
It was also a fine year for roses, they all bloomed repeatedly and long into Fall. However, the real star was one of the five or six roses we planted next to a Blue spruce twenty years ago. As the tree spread out, I moved the roses to other spots, but there was one plant that I thought I had left for too long; last year it had one tiny live stem which was gone before winter. This spring I did dig it up and replanted it in the front garden, making my usual mistake of forgetting that a nice open space in April is a totally shaded area as soon as the surrounding plants begin to grow leaves. So the poor thing (which had provided proof-of-life with a tiny shoot) got moved once again into a nice sunny spot. There it produced three sets of flowers and developed into a fine small bush. If it survives the winter, I think it will be OK. Fingers crossed!
Tomato update: in 2021 I noticed a rogue, self-seeded tomato plant growing under the Mugo pines, and that produced a fine crop of cherry tomatoes. In 2022 we had several tomato plants, and more salad toppings. This year, I looked in vain for signs of a repeat with no luck at first. Then I found a single plant right near the edge of the lawn, where it would undoubtedly get damaged by lawn maintenance as soon as it got bigger. Unfortunately, I left moving it too late, and when I dug it up, the stem was in bad shape. In fact, the root ball totally separated. Undeterred, I planted four inches of stem sideways in a window box, leaving some branches and leaves above ground. I kept it watered and it thrived and even produced fruit until the first frost. I doubt that I’ll find any re-seeding next year, but that one rogue seed had a pretty good run!
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