May Day! Mayday!

Good May morning, everyone! Today I am going to share my first 2023 update of my landscape garden. This is our second spring in this home. We moved here in October 2021, and my biggest undertakings have been in overhauling the landscaping.

If I never see another lily-of-the-valley it will be too soon. An invasive, poisonous flower which was originally planted in my shade-loving side garden beneath a [now gone] pin oak tree, this 'pretty' little flower has given me much grief over the past two weeks while digging it out. Like my mother always said, pretty is as pretty does. It wasn't pretty. Once they started invading my newly planted grass, it just wasn't pretty.

Here is a before and after picture of my side landscape with lily-of-the-valley project undertaking (and my before is actually after 7 hours of digging out the leftmost strip).

Whew, it may not look like a lot, but that's over 20 hours of digging. And I know I'll still have more cropping up next year until I can get every single little stolon (those white, eye-like part of the plant that grow horizontally) and rhizome out! What is normally known as a May Day basket token flower was more like a cry of Mayday! Mayday! for me.

So, as a PSA for those who are still convinced this is a great little planting, just know I share my saga of ridding them as a warning to contain them, either by a deep edging or even a container. Or else, you will need to dig deep and make certain you rid every little stolon and rhizome. I had over 30 bags of heavy yard waste, often playing beat-the-clock, right up until my sanitation workers would drive by and pick up. I only had two takers for pass alongs.

In other landscape news, my concern over last fall's Hinoki cypress came to be the ultimate demise of the one plant specimen I'd hoped to keep in this side landscape (north-facing). 

In August of 2022, the tree was healthy, by mid October, it started showing signs of yellowing on the side facing the house. By mid November, it was rust colored throughout. I had it removed on March 1st this year. What to do?

Well, last year I had a crepe myrtle volunteer on the western edge of this part of my landscape. I dug it up a couple weeks after the Hinoki was removed, and planted it. Whether it makes or not is yet to be seen. While I am seeing leaves on most crepe myrtles in my Zone 6b -7a region, I still have no leaves. But that's okay. I will try again with a new plant from the nursery. And have you checked prices of plants in your local nurseries yet?! Talk about sticker shock.

Let's talk about pretty things now. Peonies! The collage below are my Itoh peonies (a hybrid blend of tree peony and herbaceous). Looking at the bottom frame of the collage below (L to R): Cora Louise (transplanted last fall where it was formerly smashed behind and between the other two); Coral Sunset, and Bartzella.

A big shout out to Mary from Home Is Where the Boat Is, who advised me on a great suggestion in supporting my herbaceous Karl Rosenfield variety peony. Last year it totally flopped to the ground after the first rain when the buds and blooms were heavy.

With Mary's suggestion of an obelisk support late last fall, I was able to find one in January. Once the eyes started emerging on the new growth, I secured the base of the obelisk around the plant (late March). It's now ready to bloom.

Another variety that grew but did not bloom last year has yet to surprise me this year. Could it be a Sarah Bernhardt? Only time will tell, but it is a herbaceous variety.

Transplants I dug up last year and planted for early spring color included these woodland hyacinth (bulbs). I mistakenly identified them as Spanish bluebells last year. 

I'm still assessing winter damage (mostly to my Dee Runk upright variety boxwoods that were more exposed), but my in-ground pansies surprisingly bounced back. The picture below shows the difference between late March and April, respectively. I didn't wait for the container pansies - they looked awful, so I replaced those in March, shown above.

This year I placed my wreath on the outside of my storm door. Big mistake. This was the second day of cleaning up the nest mess (no eggs), so I ended up placing the wreath between the storm glass and wood door. You can see the reflection of my leaf blower. I had to blow away a lot of debris on the doorstep too.

Early spring blooms: the daffodils, snowdrops, woodland hyacinths and Star of Bethlehem are all still sort of randomly growing, soon to be transplanted for a more mass planting for 2024. The fothergilla (bottle brush) and boomerang lavender plants have already bloomed.

Last year my sister gave me pass along poppies (which I also had in my landscape we downsized from), as well as a few buttercups (evening primrose) mixed in. Just a few buttercups bloomed last year, but the poppies have started blooming, and the buttercups will soon follow this year. I have two clematis intertwined in the center of these. One came from a friend (the white with raspberry stripe), and the purple one I found in this landscape last year. The latter is a double bloom, but so far just the outer part has opened.

My first iris blooms came out yesterday (April 30). They are also pass alongs, which came to me originally from a 76 yr old friend's grandmother's garden. When we downsized I transplanted some to my daughter's home, and once we moved back here, I took a few starts in fall 2021.

Lastly, I've bought a few new plants to add to beds which I waited just to see what would grow within last year. I added a couple bee balm, coneflowers (the magnus is to replace one of two which got waterlogged and died last year). The Hidcote lavender replaces a Grosso variety that grew great guns last year but died with the Christmas arctic blast in late 2022.The purple gem rhododendron was planted in the north landscape. I've reserved two skip laurels to also plant in that north landscape, to camouflage our HVAC units from the street view.

Most of my landscape plants in the north bed will be moved, possibly this week since our weather remains somewhat cool and the dirt is turned from removing the lilies. Mr. P. wants more grass, so I may try to make that happen now. Otherwise I will wait till fall. The line drawn below is what I'm thinking for grass to be planted below, plants  moved upward to adjust. The skip laurels will be planted near the fence line at the top right.

I try to impress this landscape is a process of patience, but I think Mr. P. understands that. What he really deplores is the look of mulch. The plants I have have yet to really re-establish and fill out. There have been so many changes since moving in in late 2021 (and a few more transplants since). One thing's for certain - even a downsized landscape is a lot of work! 

Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to hear your input on any and all of what's happening. We gardeners love sharing our dirt (and plants). Here's a photo of our lawn, after the first cutting in mid-March, which has really come in beautifully where we took down the tree and removed all the boxwoods. (Note: the house and landscape behind ours is currently being renovated, so it is changing right alongside my timeline).

If you'd like to see prior posts to on what we've done to this landscape, the links below are good for that:

Cottage Landscape: One Year Later

Mid-Summer Cottage Garden: First Year

Btw, I've been thinking about changing my gallery wall grouping of vintage botanicals I have above our landing bench just inside the house from our garage. Do you think it would look weird if I take away the lily-of-the valley botanical??😉

UPDATE:  I'm so excited to include the 8 hours spent the day after (May 2, 2023) this blog post published that I wanted to share it here. I've already transplanted many plants and sown grass seed in this section of my landscape. From top to bottom: top frame shows vision for grass line (follows gravel path). Middle frame shows squiggly lines for various plants to be moved. The two X's are where new skip laurels will go. Bottom frame: Most plants moved, grass sown. A hard day's work! (ps: house behind ours is currently under home & garden renovation).

Rita C. at Panoply

Parties I Share With: Pieced Pastimes, Love Your Creativity, BNOTP, All About Home Common Ground, All About Home Follow the Yellow Brick Home, A Stroll Thru Life, My Wee Abode, My Family Thyme, French Ethereal SYS, Eclectic Red Barn TFT, Follow the Yellow Brick Home TFT, Southern Sunflowers Home Matters, Grace at Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, Our Hopeful Home, Karin's Kottage, County Road 407 Farmhouse Friday