June 2014 - Page 2 of 2 - The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Good riddance Northern Sea Oats

Posted on June 6, 2014 by jmarkowski Posted in Garden problems .

Just short of four years ago, I raved about a plant that I had only recently discovered at that time.

I implore you to please ignore that post as I am here today to take everything back I had gleefully written on that balmy July afternoon in 2010.

I can now state with 100% confidence that I despise and will never entertain the idea of planting a Chasmanthium latifolium (Northern Sea Oats) again in my life. In fact, in terms of worst garden decisions I’ve ever made, planting a mass of NSO in a moist and open location ranks only behind my asinine decision to plant mint in a raised bed that had zero means of containing said thug.

While the grass has its appeal with the oh so pretty little oats.

It reseeds like a mutha f’er in every possible nook and cranny and they are impossible to pull out cleanly.

In the Fall of 2012, I attempted to control the reseeding by cutting the grasses down early and removing the “oats”.

That failed miserably and did not make a dent in my quest to control the seedlings from taking over. They were everywhere that spring. I was SOL with the NSO and it made me an angry SOB, PDQ.

As this spring approached I looked back on some of my old photos to see if I could justify keeping these around any longer. As you can see in the pic below, they aren’t exactly “appealing to the eye” in front of the three Panicum ‘Northwind’. Yes, you can question my design sense with that combo, but you really can’t question the fact that these ain’t all that good looking.

While I am kind of the king of over promising and under delivering (for proof, click here and here) I vowed to finally take corrective action this spring. And I am happy to report that is exactly what this world class gardener recently accomplished.

I dug out and disposed of the mass of Northern Sea Oats and a trillion seedlings, planted two new Clethra ‘Ruby Spice’ in their wake, placed cardboard down over a large section of the “affected” area and mulched heavily.

It is truly only a start, but “Operation NSO Removal” is underway.

More to come.

Wordless Wednesday – More critter chasing

Posted on June 4, 2014 by jmarkowski Posted in Critters .

A little bit of everything

Posted on June 4, 2014 by jmarkowski Posted in Blooms, My garden, Spring .

We are at an interesting time out in the garden right now. OK, all times are interesting in the garden but I needed a solid introduction and thought the preceding sentence would cover it.

Moving on.

As the weather has warmed up significantly this past week, so have many of the plants made significant strides forward.

Like these peony blooms:

With plenty to bring indoors as well:

The first blooms have emerged on many of the plants.

Ninebark ‘Diablo’:

Geranium ‘Brookside’:

Iris ‘Ruffled Velvet’:

An unknown Lilac I have virtually no memory of planting last Autumn:

Veronica ‘Royal Candles’:

Spirea ‘Snowmound’:

Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’:

And there are some others that are holding on to their fading blooms for dear life.

Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’:

Amsonia tabernaemontana:

Iris versiclor:

And others who are just about ready to strut their horticultural stuff.

Astilbe ‘Amethyst’:

Astilbe ‘Deutschland’:

Itea ‘Henry’s Garnet’:

Or foliage putting on good amounts of growth.

Cimicifuga ‘Pink Spire’:

Eupatorium ‘Gateway’:

And yes my friends, the ornamental grasses are making an impact.

Panicum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’:

Miscanthus ‘Variegatus’:

However, with the more extreme temps, we are now starting to see some flaws in what was originally our wonderful fresh and clean spring growth. It is inevitable but that doesn’t mean I have to like it and accept it.

Dwarf Russian Sage not so happy: