This Week

Soren Track

Soren had a track meet yesterday and did so great in the 400m!  It was a tight race and helped Soren get a PR of 57 seconds.  We will get the official time today.  He is a really fast runner!  Sadly because his three events were back to back, he puked after his race and didn't have enough recovery time for the other ones.  Alpine days is next and his events will be on different days so much better that way.

Another Semester Down

I'm finally finished with my semester!  Only two classes, but school four days a week plus homework and drive time was not ideal.  Thankfully I'm done and I really did learn so much.  I was shaky there at the end, but finished strong and probably have A's in both.  Now its time to really reinforce what I've learned by practicing and studying on my own.

There are still so many things I want to learn.  The classes that sound so fun: Hardscapes, Irrigation methods, Soil Science, Trees, Grasses, Lighting, plant propagation and another sketching class.  Honestly I know I could learn some of these things on my own or in a job/internship.  I'd love to not have to pay tuition!  And its a bit of a bummer to be a post-baccalaureate student.  I don't really know that I want to do that anymore.  Grades go on my transcript.  But its not the same as working toward an actual degree.  

Yard Edits

Make way for more flowers! We removed the big blue spruce.  Thanks to Peter from my class.  I met so many knowledgeable, intelligent and eager people that love landscaping and are looking for work.  And in my area people are really looking for this!  Its been fun to connect them.  Peter had the spruce down in 40 minutes.  I was shocked.  And then the hard work of loading it all in the dump trailer in the hurricane that commenced.  It was a rough day for trees!

Everything was so warm in March that the leaves on my hydrangea, oaks, Japanese maple and sycamore trees were out a month early.  And then we hit 25 degrees.  This froze the leaves and they will likely take a month or more to releaf.  My fruit trees are covered in little tiny fruits, not looking good for their survival.

I am excited that Jared got the stumps all ground out yesterday!  We also used the stump grinder to remove the roots that have been heaving up in the lawn.  We got a new zero turn Ego lawnmower for a great price on FB.  We are all excited for an upgrade and don't want to have roots wreck the blades.  

Now all the things that are the big things are done and I can make the decisions on how to do my gardens.  

I need to get foundation plantings like shrubs in.  Then I am going to use spray paint like for athletic fields and mark off the sections.  String to keep everything straight and to create nice circular lines.

This year we are going to have to water a lot less.  No watering the lawn for awhile.  Which will be dry but lawn recovers easily.  And honestly if its between the lawn and my plants, the plants come first.  Thankfully most of what I plant is tolerant of low water.  With some hydrangeas mixed in there too, mostly panicles which don't need that much.

I bought thornless raspberries which are great in bouquets and now need to find a place to plant them.  

Wedding Season

We have three nieces leaving on missions soon and three more weddings for nephews and nieces in the next month!  Lots of fun!  We are hosting a shower for cute Kate on Saturday.

Ethan's Graduation

So happy for Elise and Ethan!  He's graduating from BYU Friday in Entrepreneurship.  He's been working full-time and in school full time.  Its a lot of work!  I'm sure he's excited to have more down time.

Elise's Pregnancy

She's looking so cute!  I'm so happy for her and excited to meet this little baby boy.  She has been pregnant for a year.  Its so long to have a miscarriage and then start over.  She's really feeling that right now.

Miles and Simone

These two are back in Virginia for another sales trip.  These trips take a lot of mental strength and they learn to dig deep. They are doing amazing things.  Pretty soon Simone will be in New Zealand.  Miles and Jared started this business together and I'm so impressed with all he thinks to do and how his mind works.  They are both working a lot.  Jared loves having people to collaborate with and its awesome when its your son.  Miles has a lot to figure out and is as resourceful as he's always been.  

Wedding Flowers

I'm very excited about Miles and Josie's July Wedding!  She has some beautiful flowers that she's been saving.  And I am hoping to grow some!  Look at her gorgeous inspiration photos:

I have these colors in my lisianthus, dahlias, feverfew, and Orlaya

This one also has the white cosmos and zinnias

So because flowers generally take a certain amount of days in the ground to bloom, we are going to need to start them earlier than usual.  

I generally plant my dahlias around Mother's Day, and the first blooms come at the end of July and they are plentiful in September.  I'm hoping for dahlias that are about a month early.  I start Cosmos and Zinnias from seed.  They are so easy to start from seed outdoors just doing direct sowing.  However, again I need them to be blooming a bit earlier. 

So I'm starting the Afternoon White cosmos, Precious Metals zinnias, and lots of peachy dahlias indoors and hoping they will have a head start.  

I plan to early plant my dahlias in mid April instead of May.  And I'm pre-sprouting them.  I have frost cloth and a low tunnel to help get the ground warmed up and in case of a frost.

This past weekend I started them inside on an old rack I had in my utility closet.

I got some lights at Costco awhile back.  And some heat mats.  I plan to get a new bigger rack that will accommodate more seed trays.  But for now my little laundry room grow operation is working out great!

So to start seeds inside, all you really need is some light seed starting soil and these trays from Amazon.  They have domes and are helpful.  But since I'm going to be planting quite a few and plan to do this for years to come, I invested in these trays from Neversink tools.  

Very excited about these "Precious Metals" zinnias from Floret.  Pretty colors!  
And I will save the seeds in the future.

Today--lots of tiny baby plants

Fingers Crossed!  We are taking out the big spruce and expanding everything this next week hopefully.  Lots of work to do!

Spring Plantings

I have done a fabulous job visiting garden centers and restraining myself from purchasing.

But today, I am looking ahead!  My Snuck Farm plugs will be ready to be picked up on Friday.  I'm excited.  

We will have A LOT of lisianthus.  Like at least 600.  Hoping to have them blooming earlier for the wedding!  I'm going to plant them all in full sun this year.  The ones with more shade did not do nearly as well.  They like it hot.

The tulips are looking good! They are all super early which is a little troubling.  Also still no sign of the 200(!) Cheerfulness Daffodils!  I will be very disappointed and confused if none of them come up.  Daffodils are considered very easy to grow.

Impatiently waiting for the other shadier side of my walkway to bloom so they will be symmetrical
But YAY for Deer Out and Liquid Fence!  Applied twice when the deer started munching the leaves on the emerging tulips.  But they haven't touched them since they were sprayed. 

Jared installed my retractable hose.  Gamechanger!  Now I need one for the front yard.

I have a shady north fence.  And I am very excited to have these anenome bare roots coming.  I wanted a BIG variety.  I like the pink color and think it will stand out against the white fence.  It will get 4 feet tall and bloom in August through the fall.  Last year my Honorine Jobert bloomed into December in my front yard!  This Queen Charlotte is a RHS award of Merit winner.

I'm hoping that my delphinium will also look really beautiful with that light blue.  And since the Delphinium like cooler temps, hopefully I'll have a rebloom with my anenome.  

Last week I listened to 3 audiobooks while cleaning up the yard and then when I finished I sat on my porch swing and was so happy that I planted this Daphne years ago.  This Daphne x Transatlantics "Eternal Fragrance" smells a lot like Jasmine and is so nice!  I love that it is evergreen and is super happy where it's planted, above my retaining rock wall where it has super good drainage.  Mine has hardly needed water and the soil is very rich but dry.  I put it here because I wanted a small shade tolerant shrub and I think the person at Cooks recommended it.  I'm so grateful they did!  

Daphnes are less common and most people are not familiar with them.  Another variegated variety is the Carol Mackie.  Sun River has that one in full sun and she gets pruned hard.  People always want to buy it but they are hard to get your hands on!

I didn't know what it was called for a few years.  It's one of my very favorite shrubs.  I think they are best placed near seating where you can enjoy the amazing scent!  They are usually 2-3 feet and can be short lived.  I'm a little afraid to prune mine!  But I love it.  According to RHS, they don't like pruning or being moved and sometimes die easily.  So I've just really left mine alone.

From Left top:  Eustacia Vye, Alnwick, Sceptered Isle, Teasing Georgia, Queen of Sweden

Bottom from Left: Gabriel Oak, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Evelyn, Princess Charlene de Monaco, Strawberry Hill.

When I first started planting my roses I didn't pay attention to their names.  I've finally figured out what varieties I have.  Some just had their tags buried!  One of them always gets tall and leggy during the season.  And finally it occurred to me that I planted a climber (duh).  So I need to support my Teasing Georgia (the creamy yellow one) with an obelisk this year.  

I bought an Olivia Austin and Generous Gardener climber that I'm going to grow on the side of my house that I will attach to the rock.  I got two bare root roses yesterday finally delivered from David Austin.

These roses are varieties I haven't had much luck finding in the stores.  So I just ordered them and hopefully they will successfully root.

Olivia Austin

Generous Gardener Climber

I also planted 5 iceberg roses last year.  3 are doing great!  2 not so much.  Hopefully they all survive.  

Also going to buy some thornless Joan J, Polka, and Canby raspberries!  I love my raspberries.  But the area they are in would be perfect for a gate to the front yard.  So we are going to try to get a new patch established and then eventually do something different there.