First off, as promised yesterday, a few more pics of the blooming Ajuga (Bugleweed) ‘Chocolate Chip’: 
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I use this ground cover EVERYWHERE. It survives wet conditions, drought, trampling from the dog and gives you sweet spring blooms and awesome foliage color the rest of the year. Not to mention, it couldn’t be easier to divide. It is the gift that keeps on giving.
As I surveyed the rest of my garden yesterday, I found myself excited from all of the new growth, blooms, etc, but quickly moved on to “glass half empty” mode. I can’t help it, it’s who I am. It drives me insane but also drives me to keep on tinkering and improving.
Here are some examples of my thoughts as I strolled through Le jardin du John:
“Uh oh, the dreaded hole in the middle. Time to divide this 4 year old clump of Siberian iris. Do I do it now? Wait until after bloom? Where do I go with the divisions? My head hurts.”
“These daffodil blooms are nice and all, but only 3? I must have planted at least 8-10 bulbs two years ago. Why do I bother? Will I remember that these are there when I add more plants over the next few months? Actually, wait, can I handle letting this foliage die back naturally first? I need a friggin plan.”
“Candytuft blooms coming. Nice, but they would look better in bulk. Do I have room for more? Wait, they need good drainage and this is one of the few spots where I have decent drainage. So I can’t fit more. What was I planning on doing again?”
“Every f’n year I take a close up of these Viburnum ‘Aurora’ blooms. Do you think readers know you only get 2-3 blooms on this shrub a year because the deer eat the buds in the fall/winter? Think they wonder why I never photograph the enrtire shrub?”
There you have it.
Me in a nutshell.
This gardening thing is fun but so damn maddening at the same time.
All of the Ajuga (Bugleweed) ‘Chocolate Chip’ busted out in a big time today. I’ve only got one photo for now since I waited too late into the evening to take it.
More to come soon. It is EVERYWHERE … and that is a good thing:
This is the time of year when we cherish the first daffodil or tulip blooms.
We go gaga over the blooming magnolia trees.
We get all sorts of jacked up seeing the pansies blooming again.
They are all a reminder that the doldrums of winter are gone and better days lie ahead.
Good times.
However, for this goofball, the emerging foliage of my many perennials floats my boat more than anything else. Every morning is a chance to see what has developed overnight. New perennial foliage always looks so vibrant and healthy. No mildew to deal with yet. No crisping of foliage from days and days of dry weather.
It is all good.
As I surveyed my gardens today, I eyed up the daffodil blooms a bit but as expected, my focus was on foliage, foliage and more foliage. And here is a sampling for you: 
Heuchera ‘Blackout’ looking good, especially when backed by Summer Snowflake foliage: 
Sedum foliage always emerges so quickly and is a great foil to all other foliage it hangs out with:
The foliage color on Penstemon ‘Husker’s Red’ never looks more … ummmm … red … than it does in early spring:
The Astilbe, always a personal fave:
Too much yellow foliage can permanently distort your vision, but Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’ is a tough SOB, so she gets to stick around:
Nepeta (Catmint) ‘Walker’s Low’ never lets me down and fills in bare spots almost overnight:
Lady’s Mantle will soon edge the bulk of one of my garden beds and I look forward to their emergence each and every year:
Call me crazy, but Monarda (Bee Balm) and their square stems and minty sent scream Spring to me:
How’s your foliage doin?
John
The flowers continue to emerge quickly, in spite of the cold temps:
But nothing says spring more than baseball/softball:
And by the way, swinging with your eyes closed is way underrated:
How awesome is this Red Switch Grass (Panicum) ‘Rotstrahlbusch’?
By early to mid summer, this grass looks fantastic and is a consistent performer year after year.
So what do you say we make some more?
I divided this warm season grass once before, about 3 years ago, and turned one plant into four. Here are two of the four as of summer 2012:
Not quite full size but definitely on their way.
The grass to be divided for today, sits at the corner of my deck and has clearly outgrown its space as seen in the two pics below:
So there was no better time than now to get down and dirty and cut me up some ornamental grass.
The first step was to dig a trench around the perimeter of the grass so it could be lifted out of the ground and cut into pieces:
And that sounds a hell of a lot easier than it truly was. We’re talking major shovel work and pounding and serious assistance from a giant shale bar. The root ball was covered in sticky ass clay (shocker) and so heavy, that I couldn’t lift it out of the hole.
Originally I thought about chopping away at the grass while it was still planted in the ground but the effort was futile. I couldn’t chop through the roots cleanly enough so I moved on to plan B where I settled on lifting the plant out of the ground just enough so I could then chop it up into smaller pieces.
Exhibit A – 1/2 of the grass in the front with 1/4 pieces in the back:
The cuts were relatively clean and I know this process worked in the past so I was ready to do the same again. All I know is, thank the heavens for inventing the shale bar:
I then moved on to cutting the 1/2 piece into 1/4 pieces and that couldn’t have been easier. A few massive stabs and boom:
I now had four grass divisions to work with. One went back into the same hole it just came from but moved away from the deck a bit more so I won’t have to divide again for a few years.
Another went to a new locale fillling in where an arborvitae had recently been removed:
I then decided to cut the two remaining 1/4 divisions in half. If my mathematical genius serves me correctly, I now had four 1/8 sections left to plant.
I planted them all near each other at the edge of the woods on my property figuring they would have plenty of time to mature into a nice mass of kick ass grass:
This project felt awesomely painful and was a stark reminder that my nearly 41 year old body isn’t what it once was. Wait … check that … I still got it and could keep up with any twentysomething. I ain’t giving in that easily.
I’m even proud of all the cuts and bruises I’m dealing with now as a result. The sting in the shower was a reminder that gardening season was friggin back.
All in a day’s work.
John
Yeah I’m still chasing the birds:
Yeah I got some blooms to enjoy:
Yeah I’ve got some shrubs leafing out with promise of blooms on the way:
Yeah I am enjoying the warmer weather and the sunset in full view from the back deck:
But my heart is still heavy after the events in Boston yesterday.
We witnessed both the worst and best of humanity.
We are doing our best to explain it all to the kids but I don’t even understand it anymore.
I want to see them deeply affected by it and not numb because it has become so commonplace.
Hug the ones you love.
Enjoy the birds, the blooms and the sunsets.
John
Sweet looking Eastern Bluebird?
And a Downy Woodpecker?
The Woodpecker in action
And just like that … “Spring” arrives.
I’m a little worried that all of the plants got too excited after so many months of dormancy and put on too much growth too fast. It is friggin insane. We went from nothing to “something” literally overnight.
It was nearly 80 degrees and perfectly sunny most of Wednesday and then erupted into a violent thunderstorm with heavy rains and hail. A weather day like we haven’t seen in a long time.
And now today, after the warmer temps and significant rainfall, we are looking at some happy ass plants. I couldn’t be more jacked and pumped up for some serious garden time my friends. Here’s what I’m seeing today out in the yard:
Actually wait; before I do that I should remind you that I am a big fan of hyperbole and so “a lot going on” in my world may equate to “a little bit of action” in your world. Also, keep in mind that I have had little success with bulbs over the years and lose a lot of perennials/shrubs over the winter due to the age old water logged roots syndrome. With that in mind, and expectations hopefully lowered, my photos for today:
Some daffodil blooms:
Crocus I swear I have no memories of planting:
The reliable Summer Snowflake (seems immune to overly wet soil):
So many trees are leafing out or forming buds, like this Serviceberry ‘Autumn Brilliance’:
I’m a hardcore foliage guy and one of my faves is the Hypericum ‘Albury Purple’:
The “cool season” ornamental grasses (like this Calamagrostis ‘El Dorado’) are putting on mad growth:
Because I am always paranoid about losing plants over the winter, I am that much more excited when welcoming them back in spring.
My beloved variegated iris:
Astilbes in their odd early stages:
The consistent performance of Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ is not lost on me:
Lady’s Mantle, always at its best after a rain:
The Dappled Willow ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ is firing on all cylinders:
I’ll even take the non-descript blooms of the boxwoods:
Some how, some way, the Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ survived an extremely wet area and appear to be on their way to blooming. Color me shocked:
And I think I may end every post from this point out with a new photo of a Robin. They are everywhere and they are assisting me with my bird photo training:
It’s here my friends. Let’s enjoy the hell out of it!
John
I had close to 25 plants sitting in my garage this weekend from deliveries received over the past week. My initial instinct was to immediately put them all in the ground without a thought as to what made the most sense. It had been a long time coming after this nasty winter and the thought of actually planting wth an actual shovel was friggin exciting.
But I took a deep breath and carefully started to map out where they all should go.
That planning didn’t materialize very well and I ended up just staring at the ground hoping for some sort of spiritual guidance or a message delivered from the gods of garden planning.
My only thought was to walk around the yard hoping something would give me a creative boost … and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Something I’ve been complaining about for years now was about to come to fruition.
Time to ditch these:
Good bye Spirea ‘Goldmound’ or maybe it’s ‘Goldflame’ … who knows. I just don’t like them very much and find the pink blooms on chartreuse foliage to be a bit garish if you will.
Actually, the foliage on this shrub looks good when it first emerges:
A nice contrast to dark foliage too.
But then as the weather warms up, the color starts to fade:
By summer, I’ve lost all interest and vow to get rid of them.
So for one last time, here they are:
And then replaced by some new coneflowers:
The coneflowers are ‘Sunrise’ and I’m anxious to see how they perform in their new locale:
Eventually, they will be backed by a flock of Karl Foerster ornamental grasses:
And in a few years, will be next to a Baptisia hopefully making for a nice yellow/purple color combo (see the small plug to the left of the coneflowers):
And they will all be backed my this monster of a Ninebark ‘Summer Wine’:
Speaking of which, as you can see, this Ninebark threatens to destroy everything in its path as it has grown out of control and has moved way beyond its so called “maximum size”.
So on a whim, I chopped her back hoping to keep her in bounds a bit more this year:
Yes, I am sacrificing a ton of blooms as a result of the pruning, but truthfully I enjoy the foliage on this shrub way more than I do the mid spring blooms:
So what do you think? Am I going in the right direction? Are you angry at me for disposing of the spirea? Will the Baptisia take over and make this all a moot point?
Please, do tell.
John