I know I am a ‘creature of habit’ – what about you?
Different days, different routines: Sunday’s routine is usually baking our bread for the week and ironing. We have been off work for a week so things haven’t followed the usual routine but today I still did the ironing – I had to because I didn’t last Sunday and DH needs his shirts for work – and baked. Not bread though, but a selection of rolls, some croissants and, as a treat, an almond jam tart just to end of our ‘abnormal’ week. By the time I took this picture most of the croissants had already disappeared.
Back to gardening! The two weeks since my last post have mostly been spent cleaning up all the beds and cutting back shrubs and perennials. I don’t think I have ever finished my spring clean up as early as I have this year. I also de-leafed all the roses and sprayed a mixture of dormant spray oil and copper sulphate.
The first crocus and primulas opened on 23 Feb and I picked up some more bulbs: lilies and begonias.
I have been wanting to free up some more space for roses and iris so we took advantage of the weather on the good days this past week to remove two of the bigger conifers on the west slope. We also removed another two conifers which were in big pots on our terrace. A colleague from work took three of the conifers. I really dislike having to throw away plants but sometimes it is unavoidable. I am very happy that at least three found a new home.
One thing leads to another – new (small) project – a little retaining wall where the one conifer was. Before DH started digging, I had to lift and replant some rudbekia, waldsteinia and a whole bunch of orange lilies. When he’s finished there will still be a slight slope which will be ideal for some new iris.
Almost forgot to mention that I had my first ever iris seedling germinate on 24 Feb, 18 days after sowing!
The long term weather forecast is predicting snow and minus temperatures again for the week after next. I must say that I find their long term predictions very unreliable but time will tell. I have some transplanting that I would like to get done as quickly as possible but only if the temps are above freezing.
The last two weeks have been great – I really missed getting out into the garden!!
The term ‘dirt therapy’ is often mentioned by forum members and I think it's quite appropriate. How many of us suffer from the lack ‘dirt therapy’ during the winter months?
Typically, I am quite happy when the last autumn leaves have been gathered and everything has been put into storage for the winter months. Time for a rest! Christmas and New Year come and go and then the cabin fever sets in. I long to get out into the garden again and get some dirt under my nails but when the garden looks like this there is no option other than to wait!
This year’s season started a little later than usual, on 12 January when I sowed my rose seeds which had been in the fridge since the beginning of November - 600 seeds from 20 different crosses. The first germinated on 25 January.
During the last week of January, I put in an order for rose rootstock and as is always the case, I had to look if there were any other roses which I liked. In the end I put in two separate orders so I landed up with a couple more in addition to the 25 Rosa Canina Inermis rootstock:
Berolina (HT), Beverly (HT), Dr John Dickman (Mini-Flora), Erotika (HT), Ferdinand Pichard (Hybrid Perpetual), Ffion (Mini-Flora), Hocus Pocus (Miniature), Honey Milk (Miniature), Incognito (Miniature), Michael Mander (Mini-Flora), Pope John Paul II (HT), Speelwark (HT) and Winter Magic (Miniature)
On 29 Jan the snow cover finally melted and I was able to check on the new iris planted last season. Only Friendly Seas was a bit mushy and required a bit of surgery.
Delivery of the first rose order was announced for 3 February. I had enough pots but needed some soil so I dropped in at our local coop to pick up 5 bags of rose soil. Naturally I also had to have a look and see what else they had. I came home with three double packs lilies.
The roses arrived and I started potting up the rootstock. After having done about 8, it seemed as though the bundle wasn’t getting any smaller. I decided to count and lo and behold, I had received 50 instead of the 25. Even the label read 25! With too few pots and too little soil, I had no other choice but to call a rose-buddy and ask if he was interested in having them – he was – problem solved! It would have been a pity to throw them away!
I sowed my iris seeds on 6 February, very late but I had started stratification late because we were away in January. It was my first go at crossing iris last year. Wonder if it will work?
The fruit trees got pruned on 10 February. We only have three left so it didn’t take too long. Two plum varieties and an apple.
I had the potted roses in the storeroom but the day time temperatures were warming up and some of them were starting to leaf out so I moved them outside but put some winter ‘vlies’ over them to protect them at night. A couple got a prime spot in our entrance where they wouldn’t get any frost.
The weather last week was up and down, sometimes sunny, sometimes foggy, frosty in the morning and warmer, between 8 and 10C, in the afternoon. But mainly it was dry and so I was able to get out and start with the spring clean-up. The first thing I did was cut back all the periwinkle. I think the last time I did it was about four years ago and it had gotten rather thick again. Now is the ideal time for cutting it back because the new shoots are only starting to come up. It looks a little bare right now but in no time it will be green again.
Besides the general cleaning up, I also cut back the hypericum and hibiscus shrubs and cleaned up the primulas which should start blooming soon.
On Sunday, I tackle my three Hybrid Perpetuals. Since I planted them, I have always trained them into pyramids but this year I decided to try something different. I have pegged the longer canes over to each other forming two arches and the shorter canes back into the individual bushes. I am really looking forward to seeing the result in June.
Today has been a very wet and windy day – not my type of gardening weather. So when I got home from work I decided to start writing this post and in so doing, have brought my blog up to date!
Hurray!!
“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” ― John F. Kennedy
My original plan had been to try post a review of all the past gardening seasons by the end of December and then start regular blog posts from January 2017. That may have been a bit overambitious. No correction, it was! It’s already February but with today’s post I am accomplishing my goal and actually feel quite proud about achieving what I set out to do even though it has taken longer than intended. So here we go ......
The season 2016 started with a plan to get rid of the front Thuja hedge which had outgrown the troughs they were in. It would have been such a pity to chuck the 100 odd plants so I put an ad out with this picture taken on 20 January:
Thuja GRATIS! The response was overwhelming! It was arranged with the taker that he would come and dig out the hedge himself as soon as the weather permitted. First step of the plan accomplished!
10 days later the weather had turned, 12C and sunshine! The ideal weather to trim the maple again. It had been four years since the last trimming. DD and partner came to help again.
At the beginning of February I wanted to put my order in for 20 rose rootstock which only came to EUR8.00 plus shipping. It seemed a bit crazy not to order a bit more seeing as they had a flat rate of EUR7.00 for shipping. No need for more roses but they had some daylilies and unnamed iris. They quickly responded to my query regarding the iris names enabling me to search for them on the internet. If you ‘google’ tall bearded iris Stepping Out the first link that comes up is....
I had discovered ATP/NGA
I was totally WOWED by the then still ATP (now NGA) website. Besides the iris which I was looking, I found an extensive plant data base, forums and tons of features unlike any other gardening website I had ever seen. I opened my user account on 4 February 2016. NGA has since became a part of my daily life and added to making 2016 one of the most memorable gardening seasons I have ever had! NGA and the members on the iris forum are also partly responsible the addition of the close to 100 new irises added to our garden this year.
So in the end, I added 3 iris, 4 daylilies and 3 asters to my rose rootstock order. I also picked up a couple of iris rhizomes on offer in the big stores.
The first crocus, aubrieta and primulas were blooming by mid-Feb and the Daffs were already showing colour.
February through March was warm last year and the roses were already showing a lot of new growth so I started pruning around the middle of the month, two to three weeks earlier than usual. While I was pruning, I decided to stick a couple of the cuttings straight into the ground without any treatment at all. It was going to interesting observing the progress.
The iris rhizomes that I had potted were sitting in our sunroom along with some rose cuttings that I had rooted over winter – all looking good!
The potted roses that over-wintered in the storeroom were moved outside and we had progress with the removal of the front hedge. The young man who was taking the Thuja underestimated how difficult it would be to remove them, actually I did too! I landed up asking our farmer neighbour if he could help by using his tractor to pull them out. Still took the whole afternoon but we got it done and the hedge was gone!
The big job for us was emptying the troughs and sifting out the roots. We started at the beginning of April. Around the same time, our farmer neighbour agreed to let us use a strip of his land along our front border as trial beds. I promptly mowed the area to mark it.
By mid-April the garden had started blooming and so had the fields around us.
Periwinkle, artificial plum and Magnolia
I sprayed the strip of land which were destined for the trial beds and covered everything with black plastic hoping to kill all the grass and weeds. The troughs were then filled with soil and by the end of the month were already home to some new dahlias.
Photos taken in May 2016
Our June project was putting up the front fence and I also started preparing the front trial beds.
June is ROSE MONTH! The first flush is also the beginning of the hybridizing season. Ideally, you want to give the hips at least 120 days to mature before the first hard frost arrives.
I also tried my hand at hybridizing iris for the first time last year and by mid-June already had my first seed pods developing. The NGA iris forum is full of information on how to go about it and the more experienced members are very forthcoming in giving advice. I had bought quite a few potted iris from various nurseries but my first iris rhizome order placed with Cayeux, France, arrived towards the end of June and I was most impressed by the quality. Mika (Cliftoncat) from the iris forum also sent me a box of wonderfully healthy looking rhizomes from her gardens in France and England, increasing my iris collection even more.
In July, I had my first ever case of rose crown gall! I have since learnt that the bacteria are present in most soils but only infect a plant through fresh wounds caused by cultivation or even insect damage. Here is a link to an interesting article by Gaye Hammond, Houston Rose Society http://www.denverrosesociety.o...
Sadly, I discovered another case in September on my Westerland which I have had close on 10 years. Both roses were destroyed.
Pretty blooms in July
And rose bouquets
I had finished preparing all the trial beds by mid-August which were now home to my own roses and some iris.
September blooms
Last task of the season in November, when the leaves started to change was planting the fall delivery of bare-root roses, 16 in total. I actually take photos of all my bare-root roses showing the label - it sometimes comes in handy when you find out half a year later that it isn't the rose you ordered.
And last but not least, a look at some of the rose seedlings which bloomed for the first time in 2016
And there we have it, the year 2016 in SunnyValley!
As I mentioned in my very first post at the beginning of December last year, this blog is meant primarily as a diary for myself and secondly for my loved ones abroad so that they can see what I am up to all the time. In a total of 10 posts I have covered the gardening season 2007 through to 2016 and I hope that any other NGA members who have been reading my posts have found it interesting and have not been too overwhelmed by the lengthy posts and all the photographs.
The last of the snow covered disappeared around mid-Feb in 2015. The warmer days made it seem as though spring would be arriving early. We did have a couple of days below freezing but the day temperatures were quite mild. So much so that I moved all the cuttings and seedlings up from the cellar to our sunroom at the beginning of March. A couple more late germination from the previous season had bloomed and quite a few of the florist rose cuttings had taken and even bloomed.
The rose seeds from the 2014 crosses that had been in the fridge stratifying until mid-Jan started germinating around mid-Feb. I sow the seeds very closed in seed flats and then transplant them to cups as soon as the first set of true leaves appear.
The warmer temperatures turned out to be deceiving: I had thought we would have an early spring but it only really arrived in April - in actual fact almost two weeks later than the previous year.
I waited until mid-April to re-pot and move the rose cuttings and seedlings outside to harden off but still had them in a protected spot. The arrival of May saw all the new roses in the roof beds with lush new leaves – no space for vegetables anymore!
Blooming in May
Tree Peony, Helianthemum and Lilac
Allium, Iris and Rhododendron
Sea thrift, Campanula and Lupins
Dutch iris, Lobelia and Chives
June 2015 project for the garden – a new rose bed with some new roses already waiting to be planted.
Everything was planted by mid-June. In addition to the bought roses, I planted four standards which I had grafted myself. (Still quite a bit of space for more roses)
The June rose flush and other blooms
There were no more projects on the cards for 2015. I spent a lot of time with my rose seedlings. Selecting which to keep and which should enrich the compost is quite a difficult task. Here a small selection of some of the 2015 rose seedlings.
The keepers were potted up and the pot ghetto was growing.......
They say time flies when you are having fun!
July, August (1st Aug is Swiss National Day) and September
I ordered another 35 roses in September for delivery in November so I had about two months to dig all the holes and amend the soil in advance. Just as well because it was hard going - all those stones! In October we trimmed back the Ash (Sorbus aucuparia). It is not my favourite with all the berries and it is always the first to start losing its leaves but I don’t have the heart to get rid of it. We also did a whole lot of other cutting back. My little pick-up showed it’s worth once again.
Speaking of my little pick-up – it had been giving us a bit of uphill and in November we decided it was time to replace it with a new model.
The weather in November was still unusually warm and even though the leaves were already turning there were still a lot of roses blooming when our first frost was announced on 20 November. I took the opportunity to cut all the blooms for the vase. There were so many that I gave at least half away to friends and neighbours and only kept these...
The gardening season 2015 ended on a very rosy note!
When the days are dark and dreary and the temperatures constantly hover around freezing point, escaping to warmer destinations does wonders for the soul!
The two weeks we spent in the Maldives in January 2014 were a dream come true. The lush tropical vegetation, white sand beaches, crystal clear water and WARM, WARM, WARM! A real pick-me-up to start off the year!
Hardly home and we were off again in the beginning of March on another trip to visit the folks in SA. This time it wasn’t palm trees and orchids but African bush and wild life.
Having had two breaks from the Swiss winter made it feel as though the spring of 2014 arrived very quickly.
By mid-April it was a pleasure walking around the garden again.
And the roses I had planted in autumn the previous year were leafing out.
My experimenting with roses continued in April when I made my first attempt at air-rooting the canes which I had grafted. It proved so successful that I even wrote an article on the subject https://garden.org/ideas/view/...
Our new neighbours had moved in and we had been waiting patiently for them to secure the steep slope that they had created. To make a long and irritating story short, we landed up doing it ourselves! So mid-May we started. First all the smaller plants had to be removed from the corner bed and then we (I did help but DH did most of it) started digging a foundation AND that was not easy with all those stones!
The compost sifter was converted back to its original state so that we could mix the concrete for the foundation. Really ‘hard graft’ because the concrete had to be carried down to the foundation by the bucket!! Thank goodness we had some help!
The first flush for the roses started at the end of May as did my daily rounds with the camera. Click, click, click and click again – I just love digital photography! Remember the days with a roll of film? No click-click in those days!
Sutter’s Gold – 1st, 2nd and 3rd day – pity it blows so quickly!
Indian Summer, Astrid Gräfin von Hardenberg, NOID Pink
Of course there were other plants blooming in the garden – I even cut some for a bouquet
Through June, work continued on securing the slope. By the time we were finished we had a new retaining wall with a fence as well as four new compost containers.
The new roses planted in the roof beds were doing great. There were still some veg (potatoes, squash, cutting lettuce, beans and carrots) but far less than in previous years.
I actually think the garden always looks its best in June!
A little project in July 2014 was putting up two rose arches on the raised beds. I had ordered 45 more roses, four of which were the climber ‘Soleil Vertical’ which would be going on the arches. A few days before, the second robot mower was installed for the top lawn (first pic)
My first ever own rose seedling bloomed on 18 July 2014. It was so exciting watching the blooms develop that I wasn’t even disappointed that it was only a single bloom. It was proof to me that I could create something unique.
We finally finished all the lawn edging around the bottom beds in August. I can’t believe it but it took a full year to get the job done. It just was not an absolute priority. We also got two new beds done for the roses on order.
When the Asters start flowering around the end of September you know the season is slowly approaching its end. While I was busy in the garden with this and that, DH was busy with a little project for me. A self-watering seedling table!
And in October, when the leaves start falling and the weather man predicts the first frost it is time to cut the last of the rose blooms.
Normally, there is nothing going on in winter when everything is buried under snow ...
... but this year was different! I had some late germinations among my rose seedlings and didn’t want to lose them. We set up some lights and shelving and the seedlings bloomed for the first time down in our cellar in December 2014. This one had an interesting bloom and was very fragrant and as she developed during the next year, I knew she was a ‘keeper’ and so she was the first of my roses that I named.
‘Loving Lorna’ named after my mom.
Now with the lighting set-up down in the cellar, I also decided to try rooting some florist roses. The cuttings were stuck on 20 December and only time would tell.
Another year in our garden was over and the anticipation of what was to come was enormous, I could hardly wait! But, one thing I have learnt through all my years of gardening is that you have to be patient – nature follows her own timetable!
