Wednesday
From the extended weather forecast, it looks like it could be good gardening weather for the entire 10 day forecast. Just a little sprinkle this morning which looks like it will only last an hour or two. Small chance of rain on Friday, but otherwise partly sunny, partly cloudy, and mild. I can get quite a lot done in the gardens with that kind of weather. I just have to pace myself. I wasn't sore yesterday after the hours spent at it on Monday, but I am sore this morning after the hours spent at it yesterday. Mostly aches and pains with my back. That is the part of my body that always hurts the most, sometimes upper back, sometimes lower back, but so far no repeat of the pinched sciatica nerve that had me incapacitated a few years ago. After running a bunch of errands in the morning, I spent about 7 hours in the gardens. Same pace - 20 minutes of work and then 10 minutes of rest.
One of the errands was to find two trellises for the Front Island Bed where I want to plant my two new clematis. I went to Lowes and found exactly what I was looking for. I got them placed in position but before I plant the clematis, I need to spray the mile-a-minute weed that started overtaking that bed last summer. That led to getting out my battery powered pump sprayer, but where the heck did I put the battery charger? I had been using it at one of the kitchen counters but after the season ended I "put it away". I found it after a bit of searching. Of course, with my OCD it made perfect sense where I put it in the basement with other battery chargers, but it took a while to remember 
The Front Island Bed was in full sun by that time, and although it would be perfect for weed spraying, it was so intensely hot that I moved on to a shady area instead. So, I need to do that sometime today after the rain stops.
The Lemon Garden was in shade, so I planted 18 new perennials that I had for that area. After taking stock of what is left in my plant haul last evening, I found one more that I missed. So, I need to circle back today and get that missed one planted.
When I take my 10 minute breaks while working in the Lemon Garden, I sit on the low stone wall that surrounds the back patio. From there I had full view of a nearby lilac and decided that some of the lowest branches needed to be lopped off. I got the loppers, laid down on my side on the ground, and lopped away. I raised it up about a foot, just so the ferns, columbines, and lily of the valley that surround it are more visible. Finished that little job up by hauling the branches to the burn pile.
Then I took a few minutes to disassemble the four paneled trellis that had been in front of the propane tank in the Lemon Garden. I moved it out of the way on Monday, but decided to disassemble it for easier storage until Mike has a chance to refurbish it.
Another little job that I did was to prune the wisteria off-shoots that were starting to wind themselves around the railing of the conservatory deck. I have been training it to grow as a single trunk that branches off into left and right laterals along a simple post type support like I saw one time at Mt Cuba. Last year it finally started looking like I wanted it to. Can't say that very often 
Then it was on to the Arbor Retreat to finish the cleanup that I started there on Monday. I worked on getting the accumulated leaves out of the shrub area. That part isn't all that easy. There is such a huge amount and using a rake isn't effective. I have to crawl in among the shrubs and hand pull the leaves out to an open spot, and then use the rake to gather them and load them into the big trashcan on wheels. It is uphill too to take the loaded trashcan over to the leaf compost area. I took a lot of breaks and didn't quite finish the job, but it is close. Maybe another 3 or 4 loads.
As with the breaks I took when working on planting in the Lemon Garden, I had full view of another shrub from where I sit on the Front Stone Steps when working in the Arbor Retreat. This shrub is a very mature hydrangea 'Quick Fire'. The more I eyed it, the more I thought one branch needed to be removed at ground level to fix the symmetry of it. Walked back uphill to get the loppers that I had left by the lilac, lopped that branch off, and hauled it to the burn pile.
By that time, I knew I had to sit down for a while, a lot more than 10 minutes 
Mike got home and started working on the gravel around the greenhouse. His brother Richard stopped in and we sat nearby. Thank God Richard was there to jump up to help Mike with the little things that he needed. I don't think I could have managed it. At some point Bonnie came over too at the end of her evening walk with River. She and Richard moved my big outdoor deck type boxes over to the newly spread gravel area on the south side of the greenhouse. Then she and I moved two nursery benches to the newly spread gravel area on the north side of the greenhouse. I finished the day out by moving all the various unplanted pots of things to this new staging area.
I have a bunch of tasks in mind to do today when it stops raining. If I can keep up the pace that I've been doing the last two days, I'll be a happy gardener 
Slow and steady progress, and taking in how beautiful my gardens are this time of year. The second and third weeks of April are the prettiest in my gardens. I wish my fellow online gardening friends could visit to see it in person!
Tuesday
I worked outside yesterday, really pushed myself. It was sunny and hot, but there were two quick 15 minute rain showers. I was dragging all day, so I got into a routine of working for 20 minutes and sitting for 10, but it still was quite a lot of working time with the many hours I was out there. I called it quits around 6:00, took a cool bath with Epsom salts - I was overheated and a hot bath did not sound good at all, then laid down with exhaustion and fell fast asleep.
I planted some of the plants from my recent plant acquisitions, making fairly good progress. I started with the 15 hellebores from Barry Glick that a few Mid Atlantic friends went in on. He has been raising his own strain and I've been wanting to get some for years. I planted them in the garden that I call the Pond Path.
Then I worked on the Arbor Retreat garden. I raked and hauled off accumulated leaves in the larger section, not the smaller section where the shrubs are. I got the loppers out and cut back a lot of dead branches of a lilac in that shrub area to make it easier to get at the leaves. I hope to finish that up first thing today. I needed to get on my hands and knees to pull out some of the leaves that get matted and tangled in a low growing mounding azalea and around the hellebores clumps. That part is pretty tedious and took an hour in and of itself. I pruned out dead peony stalks from last year and ratty hellebores leaves. Then I planted 6 phlox that look like phlox divaricata but are actually some kind of hybrid. The nice long swath of alliums that I planted along the walkway last fall are getting ready to bloom.
After that I moved the four panel trellis in the Lemon Garden. I had thought it would be good for hiding the propane tank for the kitchen stove, but it never really did the trick. Mike is working on framing the decorative screen that I hope will be a better solution. I got the black composite screen last spring, but needed something to frame it and anchor it in the ground. I recently found black composite 2x4s online, so that little project is now underway. I'll still use the trellis in that garden, but boy does it need some work. It is starting to rust so it needs to be painted, and parts of it where the panels attach to each other are falling apart. Mike has been talking about getting a sand blaster - seems like we have quite a few things that it would be really useful for.
Then I started working in the Turret Garden doing the same kinds of things that I did in the Arbor Retreat. Raking, cutting back ratty hellebores leaves, and some planting. I got the 11 lamium 'Purple Dragon' planted from the recent Black Creek haul. I love the way this plant looks along the low stacked stone retaining wall. It started dying out in recent years and it has been on my list to fill it back in.
For the planting, I've been using my "Laura version" power planter auger. It works really well. With the sturdy handle on the high powered drill, it doesn't often get away from me, but every once in a while it catches on something while augering and takes me by surprise. It happened just once yesterday - really wrenches my arm when it does and somehow it put a big bruise on the back of my left hand. Still, much easier for me than using a shovel!
Before calling it quits for the day, I started cleaning out the garage. I do this every couple of months because Mike tends to clutter it up to the point where there isn't much room to walk. That is one of the things where we are complete opposites. I can't concentrate on any job at hand if there is a lot of clutter about, whereas he just pushes stuff out of the way enough for the work surface he will be using. I hauled out at least 15 empty cardboard boxes, consolidated all the tools and various bits of hardware which he left out into a single pile for him to put away - he says my idea of where they should go isn't his idea of where they should go, threw away a dozen half full bottles of water and soda, emptied pails of water that he had been using to clean something, folded up a tarp, and other miscellaneous stuff like that to reduce the clutter footprint. Looks better but still could use a full day to actually put things away.
I was so physically exhausted by the end, but so mentally satisfied. I was wondering if I would be stiff and sore this morning, but I feel ok. I hope to get another full gardening day in today too 
Sunday
Wednesday was my annual road trip to Pennsylvania to the amish nurseries. Mike drove me and two Mid Atlantic gardening friends in his big boxed in service truck so we had plenty of room for plants, shrubs, and soils. The five hour round trip and all that shopping make for a long day, but boy did I get a nice plant haul!
Our first stop was Conestoga Nursery where they sell trees and shrubs. I got two nice sized sky pencil hollies to plant near the grotto. In addition to the hollies, I got three shrubs - lilac 'Monge', cryptomeria 'Globosa Nana', and a Coral Berry 'Proud Berry'. The Coral Berry has been on my wish list, the cryptomeria wasn't specifically on my wish list, but something evergreen, shade tolerant, and deer resistant for the Stumpery was, and I looked at several possibilities before choosing the cryptomeria, the lilac was pure whim. Also at the shrub place I picked up another 'Spotty Dotty'. I love this Chinese Mayapple and it is the only place that I've ever seen it. I have two from previous trips and they are doing well. I was also really excited to find tree peonies for $28. That is almost unheard of. Tree peonies run upwards of $75 - $100 wherever I've seen them before. I picked up two different pink ones.
Then we went to Black Creek Greenhouse, our favorite place. I found Bergenia 'Peppermint Patty' that I had on my wish list after seeing it on Garden Answer a few days ago. Picked up two clematis, both are pink - 'Princess Diana' and 'Rosalie'. I also got a bunch of Pulmonaria 'Raspberry Splash' and Lamium 'Purple Dragon' which are needed to fill in gaps in lines of previous plantings. More groundcover - Sweet Woodruff and Lady's Mantle for the Lemon Garden. Also for the Lemon Garden I picked up two yellow dianthus 'Hello Yellow' and two white gauras 'Graceful Blush'. Two hostas to add to Hosta Haven - loved the name 'Yellow Polka Dot Bikini' so I got that one and the other is called 'Wrinkle in Time'. The other perennial odds and ends are a few Pulmonaria 'Raspberry Frost' and Lobelia Starship 'Blue'.
Then it was on to the annual and herb section of Black Creek. I just couldn't pass on those Proven Winners annuals. My friend Jill spotted the double impatiens we've been wanting, so I got 'Wisteria', 'Apple Blossom', and 'White'. A few Superbells, Supertunias, and Superbenas too. I got fresh mints to put in my 5 mint containers - even though mints are perennial and basically thugs, I keep them in containers and they rarely survive over winter. And last but not least, two nice hanging baskets of streptocarpella as the thriller and creeping jenny as the spiller.
It rained on Thursday and Friday. It was sunny yesterday but the winds were horrific. The weather has really been awful for gardening so far this year. Only a few days here and there where it hasn't been cold, raining, and/or windy 
Today may turn out to be ok, and if so, I'll try to make the most of it. That new plant haul won't get planted by itself missy.
Monday
The 'Seascape' bare root strawberry plants were delivered in the mail a few days ago. I unpacked them, soaked them, and then potted them up in the pockets of the vertical Greenstalk planter. These bare root strawberries from Park Seed are much more robust than the ones I picked up a few weeks ago from Tractor Supply and Lowes. I've always been skeptical of those bare roots sold at the big box stores. I always wonder how long they've been sitting in that packaging. Those other strawberries aren't doing much of anything yet. I will be very curious to see how they do over time and how they compare to the new ones from mail order that I just planted.
In an effort to finish what I started, I spent about an hour moving each planted tier of the two Greenstalk planters from the greenhouse area to the back patio, and then assembling them. Each tier holds 1 cubic foot of potting soil and I had already watered them before I decided to move them. Dumb on my part - it made them pretty heavy. I ended up loading three at a time in the tractor bucket which made it easier than doing them one at a time in the wheelbarrow. Still heavy to lift in and out of the bucket, but a lot less trips back and forth than if I had been using the wheelbarrow. It is always something though - climbing on and off that tractor is pretty cumbersome for me. The assembly of the Greenstalk planters was straightforward, but after I was finished and took a look at the results, I realized that the back patio has a slight slope for drainage run-off so the planters have a slight lean to them. I should have put something underneath to level them up before I started stacking the tiers of top of one another. I know it will drive me nuts, so tomorrow I'll probably disassemble them, level the base, and then reassemble them.
A few weeks ago I also decided to try some of those bare roots that Costco always sells this time of year. I purchased two boxes of Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts and one box of Christmas Ferns. I potted them up soon after purchase and have been checking on them every day since. I am starting to see the slight beginnings of growth on the Bleeding Hearts but not anything with the Christmas Ferns.
Growing from bare roots is an experiment for me. I think the strawberries from mail order will do ok, and if I decide to grow other fruits from bare root next year, it will be from a reliable mail order source - not what you get in the big box stores. Costco bare root perennials may just work out. If so, I'll definitely try more again next year.
The weather was really nice again today. Two days in a row - must be a record I got a little sunburn on my face and arms, wasn't really expecting that. Mike was in and out multiple times today, only here for 15 minutes or so before heading back out, but in one of those short times here he dug holes for the two shrubs, a deutzia and a camellia, from Wilson Brothers that I needed to get in the ground. I swear, what he can do effortlessly in 10 minutes would take me hours. Oh lordy, how I wish he loved to garden
Sunday
We have FINALLY had a good weather day here. A bit windy, but sunny and high in the 50s. Even though I have plenty of things to occupy my time inside, I was going a little bit stir crazy with the continuous crappy weather. This is the time of year you think you will be in your gardens, so that was more the trigger for going stir crazy than anything.
I took advantage of the last few days by getting a start on updating the alive/not alive status of plant records in my database. I went through all 2300+ records and marked those that I knew off the top of my head that were no longer alive. Sad to say that the number came out to about 750. I am already starting to see trends.
Many of that total were the first plants that I purchased back in the 1990s when I was initially starting out with gardening and very naive about it all. There are a few that have survived though, going on 30+ years now. Those just warm my heart.
There are plants that I have liked and tried numerous times that I just don't have any success with at all. Most people tend to give up after three attempts. From my records I can see that I have given about ten attempts before I call it quits, but even then I may keep trying anyway Agastaches, anemones, astrantias, digitalis purpurea... I may have too much shade for agastaches, but even when I've planted them in full sun they never reappear the following year. All purchased cultivars of japanese anemones, except one, have completely disappeared. 'Mont Blanc', the one which is still alive, was purchased in 2012 and had actually disappeared for many years, making a reappearance about 3 years ago. How crazy is that? I've tried the Pretty Lady series, 'Pretty Lady Diana', 'Pretty Lady Emily', 'Pretty Lady Julia', as well as others like 'Pamina', 'Queen Charlotte', and 'September Charm' readily found in the nurseries. There is a noid pink anemone which has been passed along from a fellow gardener from DC at our Mid Atlantic swaps that is absolutely thriving though. From a few plants, it has grown into a nice swath that blooms in the early fall. As far as astrantias, I won't be trying those anymore. In theory they should do really well in my shade conditions, but I've never had luck with a single one, ever. And digitalis purpurea is one I will keep trying for as long as it takes. It is such a favorite. I'm stubbornly optimistic that I will get it right at some point.
Then there are plants that I seem to have a 50-50 percent type success rate with, such as astilbes, camellias, clematis, dicentras, ferns, polemoniums, pulmonarias, rhododendrons,... I have no idea what triggers the success or non success of most of these. With ferns, I've noticed that the native ferns fair better, as do the japanese painted ferns. The named cultivars are the ones that seem to have more failures. Same with polemoniums - the straight polemonium reptans is prolific but any named cultivar has completely died out. The dicentras are a puzzler. They had been very dependable, returning year after year for 20 years or more, but at least half have started to disappear.
Another whole group can actually be thought of as short lived perennials. For me, this includes aquilegia and dianthus. From my records, I can see that I purchase a few of each every single year. They are fairly cheap at the amish nursery, so in my mind I think of them as consumables that are worth the money. If they last two or three years, great, but I'm not that disappointed if they don't.
Oh, and I have a deer problem 
Hostas were a big casualty, as were hemerocallis, hydrangeas, phlox paniculata, tricyrtis, ... Several young trees were obliterated by deer rub too. I have changed my gardening strategy to acquire only plants that the deer tend to leave alone, and either protect or pass along anything still alive after the deer damage.
The most depressing group are the plants that I acquire, full of optimism, that never make it out of the staging area for one reason or another. Life happens. Unexpected things take priority. It has happened on and off over the years, but the worst case was in 2022. After my parents passed away in the winter, I really went overboard with the spring amish nursery spree. I thought that I would have an abundance of gardening time that I hadn't had in years of caregiving. Then my brother switched gears on me about getting the house on the market - not the leisurely "give it a year" timeframe that was initially discussed. I wasn't happy about it, but it was what it was. I had to devote months to it. Most of the plants from that spring spree didn't survive.
On a much happier note, what really stands out are the plants that have nearly 100 percent success rate year after year, except for a very few single instances. Galanthus, calycanthus, digitalis grandiflora, hellebores, hyacinths, paeonia, and narcissus are what come to mind. The only fail with narcissus was the Daffodil Trail concept of 2002 and 2003. This was a project that I remember very fondly because Mike helped me plant a few thousand bulbs along a logging trail behind the house. We had glorious weather and a good rhythm with the planting - he would drill holes while I laid back and basked in the fall sun, and then I would plant the bulbs in the holes while he laid back and basked in the fall sun. It was one of the few times that he truly enjoyed helping me with gardening stuff. The concept was fun, but not practical - way too much shade for those bulbs to thrive and way too many fall leaves that accumulated in thick mats on top of them. Never did have much time back then for the maintenance needed to rake away the leaves, and they eventually completely died out. The only paeonia fail was a group of four from a 2019 purchase that I am pretty sure were flooded out with an overabundence of rain one year. They were directly in the path of excess water flowing down the hill from the front porch landing area. The only hyacinth fail was when a lot of new hardscaping work was being done where I had planted them, and most were casualties to back hoe digging. All in all though, all of these are, and should remain, go tos for me. Hellebores and paeonias are pricey, but with the success rate and longevity, it is a lot of bang for that buck.
Now that I've made a first pass at it by sitting at my computer during the rainy and cold weather, I'm armed and ready to start verifying the rest. I did get outside to verify more narcissus ids a few evenings ago while it was still light outside. It was cold and even though I was very satisfied to be making more ids, I was more than happy to get back inside.
With the much better weather today, I spent my time clearing out the accumulated fall leaves in the deer fenced in Hosta Haven. Very slow going with lots of breaks, but then Bonnie showed up and of course it went fast with her help. So, that garden is spruced up and I was ecstatic that the slate markers I put in last year are 100% accounted for - no displacement or disappearances and the labels from my Brother P-Touch label maker haven't faded a bit.
