Late Summer & Anemones Are Budding!

I am so excited!

This weekend my Japanese anemones  ( Anemone hupehensis) are in bud and I am expecting blooms shortly.  Or at least starting. I love those flowers so much. Doesn’t the site of that pretty pink flower just make you fall in love?  So I want to protect them and keep them growing.  I have the pink ones now but I am looking forward to add to my collection.

They are in a partially shaded area with decent moisture, but I hear they are prone to crown rot. I have read that it is best to keep about 1 inch of gravel as a mulch around their base to be sure moisture drains quickly.

I have heard these spread easily, so I hope I get more and more. Then I can share with others! The anemones seem to be spreading well.

 Chipmunks and Small Nesting Critters

I know we have a little problem with chipmunks in the gutter drainpipes. I don’t have a picture for this, but I heard of a good tip to keep the chipmunks out.

Put a leg of a pantyhose on the end of the pipe! or use a “knee high.” Sounds silly, but you can put it on the end and keep them from going in and building a nest or setting up a storage bin. Right?

And if debris and leaves or sticks start to clog it, just remove, empty and put it back on, or put that one in the garbage and put on a new one !

Note:  If you read an earlier post about Bees Nesting in one of my pots, they have vacated the nest and now it seems a chipmunk (?) has taken over the lease. What next?

 Damaging Vines on Trees

And at this time of year, we have a lot of exposed vines on the trees out back, and I like to try and keep them from killing and strangling a tree. We have lost too many to Emerald Ash Borer. We have some old ash trees that have come down and I wrote about that here.

But there is a lot of Virginia Creeper out there, and Poison Ivy too. So I like to cut the vine out of the tree if we can. Whether it is Virginia Creeper or Poison Ivy, let’s get rid of it anyway. Did you see my YouTube video on identifying poison ivy?  Here’s a link.

On our trees, we have a lot of old vines which go fifty feet up into the tree, some alive and some dead. So cutting the vine may get rid of that plant.

So the easy way is just to cut the vine against the tree and put some vine killer on that cut edge closest to the ground. You may stop one from continuing to grow and spreading these invasive plants.

I’ve heard that those little root hairs would be reddish if it was poison ivy. I hope I was fooling around with The Creeper!

Wire Hanging Pot Frames

You can use your unused hanging pot frames (the ones made of wire) as a cover guard for a plant you feel could get stepped on until you get a chance to move it.

Or maybe you want to mark a spot where the daffodil leaves died down and keep yourself from accidentally digging in that spot.

Just remove the wires or chains attached to the half-ball shaped pot, and ……there it is! Perfect  cover right?

 

Ready to Choose and order Bulbs?

And finally, planting little bulbs  isn’t very hard. But when we get to speaking about planting 50 tulips, and 50 daffodils, and many more larger bulbs, it gets to be a real pain. Many of you use an auger, but if you don’t, go get one. They save so much time and effort.

Safety warning: If your soil is fluffy and easy to dig, you shouldn’t have a problem. Hard packed soil may not work with the auger. It is rough on your wrist so be ready to hold it strong and steady when you drill your hole. Strong wrist!

Plan your spring garden. Get those bulbs ordered! How is your garden doing?