Real Life Work is Priority #1

I have fun blogging, and lots of ideas to post, but the garden needs me ! It has been fairly bursting and it was not helping to visit the nurseries. I came home with some great buys on trees and just had to get those in. The weather was gorgeous on Saturday, but I spent half of it in traffic and in the stores. So got right down to work on arrival home.

Two new little spruces, San Juan variety, are in the ground and an Eastern Hemlock. I have wanted one of those for so long. It is now ( happily, I hope) planted in my front yard. I much prefer these to spruces, but spruces do well here and their stiffly formal shape ( in their youths) are more preposessing for front yard landscapes. I am so tempted to go get another hemlock, though. The prices and plant material are very good this year. Makes me happy. I have had a restricted pocketbook for so many years that this year, with a little put by for plants, has been ….nice. I realize that as I age I just won’t have time to see trees mature, so it is now for the planting of these lovely trees. Have I said enough that I love trees? I think they have personalities sometimes…although my own mind chides me when I think that way. ( But ,secretly, I do)

Viburnum Burkwoodi

This shrub is in its glory this year. It exploded into bloom on Saturday in the warm weather. It fairly sparkles with its fleshy pink bloom in little balls of individual flowers. Most years much of the bloom has been ruined by late frosts, but not this year. All the springtime trees and shrubs have looked spectacular. These Viburnums release their fragrance to the air, although I prefer the V. Carlesii, Korean Spice Viburnum. I have one of those, but it wasn’t blooming yet- in a more shaded environment.

The Burkwoods are very tall and give the garden a screen from the road, a background from my sightpoint. They were among the first things I planted some twenty years ago now. Doesn’t seem possible that I have gardened here so long. The prairie environment has been harsh, and exacted a tax from my garden efforts. The Burkwood Viburnums turned out to be a lasting investment. I grow them very free and well spaced. If you have a smaller space for them I think the Korean Spice is a better choice and lends itself to espalier.

Which Reminds Me

The pear tree also bloomed. Lavishly, and wildly. This was also planted long ago …maybe the first thing with the apple trees. I moved it from its first place where it languished, and it has done well in its newer location. Pears take forever to bloom and fruit, it seems. That is why the idea of espalier reminded me – I think a pear would be best espaliered in a garden. Quicker fruit and it needs lots of pruning, anyway.

The blooms on it this year outstripped the cherries, by far. It was a bit later and the bloom of the cherries had blown, so maybe that is not a fair comparison. It is a dwarf variety that self-pollinates. Honey Sweet or something. I have never been much impressed with the fruit, but that is true of what I grow on this land. The tomatoes are not as good as those I used to grow either. Soil will produce different flavors in fruits and vegetables. Witness ‘Vidalia’ onions, etc. I don’t know whether adding certain amendments would change that or not…something to research when I have time. yeah. Not any time soon. I still have a few trees ( I couldn’t help it! Another Prairiefire crab, because they smelled soooo sweet in bloom, and a bald cypress…for I don’t know why, just lack of control). Plus there is the China Boy holly to provide pollination for the China Girls. And …. well that is enough, I couldn’t resist a couple small perennials ….. I must work in the garden tomorrow and get this all in the ground. The clock is ticking on the good weather and growing conditions.

For summer will be here soon enough, and I read in the Farmer’s Almanac that we will have some hot dry months. I hope not.