This Week in My Garden

Normally I only post an overview of what is happening in my garden once a month, for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month, but so much is happening so quickly in the garden at this time of year that a lot gets missed between Bloom Day posts. So, at least during the height of the garden season, I plan to provide a weekly overview of what is happening in my garden.

This was my second week in Maine; and during this seven day period, the weather first improved from cold and rainy to sunny and seasonably warm, then reverted to cold and rain for a day, followed by several days with temperatures in the 90s (F). The past seven days provided plenty of evidence to support  Mark Twain’s quip that “If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.”

What’s in Bloom

In the heat of the last few days, the garden has been making a rapid transition from late spring to early summer. The large rhododendron (variety unknown) on the back slope is in its full glory and a busy site of bumble bee activity. In the Deck Border, Rhododendron catawbiense album has just begun to open its first flowers. The buds of these turn deep pink as they mature; the flowers then open a pale lavender and fade to white.

Varieties of hardy geranium also began to bloom this week. The first to open were two cultivars of Geranium maculatum – ‘Espresso’ in the Serenity Garden and Geranium maculatum album at the front of the Bedroom Border. This morning, other geranium species began to join in as the first flowers opened on Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ and Geranium sanguineum.

My morning tour of the garden today also revealed the first open flower on Amsonia hubrichtii and the first Siberian iris bloom. (Iris sibirica always blooms first along the south-facing foundation at the back of the Iris Bed, where it joins the flowers of Tradescantia ‘Zwannenburg Blue’ that began blooming earlier this week.)

Not all blooms are so welcome. Blackberries, which grow anywhere that I don’t pull them out, are in bloom in several places where I don’t want them. I have also seen tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) blooming in two different locations at the edge of the woods. This plant is an invasive pest in Maine that thrives in edge places. It is well established along rural roadsides in my part of Maine and is spreading along a stream that flows through my neighborhood. I’m sure it got into my garden courtesy of the birds. While its blooms are making it highly visible, I will take advantage of the opportunity to cut down and uproot the plants on my property. I can’t eradicate this plant, but vigilant action can keep it from getting a foothold in my garden.

Garden Chores

During the beautiful gardening weather between the cold rain and the hot muggies, I managed to make considerable headway on early season garden chores. First I got the knee-high grass mowed in both the front and back yards. Then I bought annuals at a local nursery and planted them in containers on the deck and a hanging planter at the back door. I got the screen house set up on the deck so that I can begin eating meals outdoors. Relying on notes from last year, I moved several plants around – moving hosta ‘June’ forward a few inches to get it out from under the foliage of Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ in the Serenity Garden, swapping the places of Tradescantia ‘Osprey’ and Hemerocallis ‘Final Touch’ in the Fence Border, and switching around two hostas and an astilbe in the Deck Border. I also planted morning glory seeds along the fence at the back of the Fence Border and cleaned up the small herb bed by the back door, adding a seedling of Italian parsley and a chunk of oregano moved from an inconvenient location where it had self-sowed on the back slope.

There are still many chores waiting to be done. High on my list for the coming week are dealing with those tatarian honeysuckle plants, removing the last of the deer protection from the Serenity Garden, replacing a few plants that were no-shows this year, getting this year’s truckload of compost delivered, and getting all flower beds weeded and mulched.

Wildlife

I haven’t seen any deer in the garden (or any evidence of their presence), but I have seen the repeated predations of my garden nemesis, the woodchuck (Marmota monax – also called a groundhog in some parts of the United States). I have learned over the years that woodchucks have individual tastes, and the damage to my garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) leads me to believe that this is the same individual that has been residing in a burrow under my deck for the past three years. All the phlox plants in the back garden – ‘Blue Paradise’ and two plants of ‘David’ in the Blue and Yellow Border and another ‘David’ in the Fence Border – have been eaten down pretty much to the ground and seem to get munched anew every night. I have been tempted to try spraying the phlox with something like cayenne pepper to make the plants less appealing, but I am afraid that the woodchuck will then transfer its attentions to other plants that are currently unmolested. (Delphinium, Rudbeckia ‘Herbstsonne’, Echinacea and Baptisia have all been victims in other years.) So I’ve decided to write off phlox for this year in hopes that it will satisfy the voracious woodchuck appetite.

On a pleasanter note, the arrival of warm weather means that I am now able to sleep with the windows open, being serenaded by a chorus of tree frogs as I fall asleep and a chorus of birds as I wake up. I saw a number of familiar birds in the garden this week, including robins, a crow, blue jays, phoebes, and a mockingbird. I also encountered a tufted titmouse (not a frequent visitor) in the mock orange outside my bedroom window. I only regret that I didn’t have my camera at hand; this is a bird with a face so expressive that it looks like a cartoon character. The warm weather has brought out the bees, and I have seen several tiger swallowtail butterflies fluttering around the trees.  I look forward to the arrival of more bees, birds, and butterflies in the weeks to come.