Upright Autumn Joy Sedums

Each year in the past, these plants have been beaten to the ground by a combination of the weight of the flower masses and rain.  This year an intervention was attempted.  Since there has been no significant rainfall on these flowers, it would be presumptuous to assume that my meddling was completely successful.  Still, there are eight huge plants supporting impressive masses of flowers in an upright position.

When this was an active dairy farm several decades ago, the cows were brought from pasture and held in the area of my garden until they were ready to cross the road to the barn at milking time.  This is the most fertile ground that we own.  Decades of manure was worked into the ground and allowed to decompose naturally.  Actually, this ground is excessively rich in nutrients as is shown by the size of these plants.  Our more common poor dirt should have been mixed in to thin this ground before the plants were placed.
 

These plants are not old since I frequently dig and divide to obtain enough sedums to complete the row.  We started here with only three plants.  If we are able to prepare new ground next season, this monster will be split in half.  One piece will be replanted here.  The other division will add to the length of the line.  Our plan is to have sedums and iris fill the area between the stone wall and the trees.  No new plants of either variety will be purchased.  Divisions will supply needed plants.

This picture was taken on June 16, 2015.  A 2" X 4" welded wire cage has been placed tightly around the quickly expanding plant.  The cage would make future weeding impossible so a final weeding was part of the process.  The cage needed to be surrounded by future growth so that its existence would remain secret.  Perhaps the cages need to be a bit larger.  We will try these again next year but do allow for the possibility that heavy rain could break the stems where they contact the cage.

Last evening we enjoyed the lunar show.  Since we live near the base of a rather narrow valley, celestial observations require some creativity.  By definition, a full moon rises as the sun sets.  We had to drive up out of our valley to see both an amazing sunset and a rising super moon.  Forty-five minutes later the moon finally appeared above our ridge.  The first moon rise that we witnessed happened in the bright light of sunset.  The second moon rise for us happened in darkness.

As is so often the case here, clouds rolled in and blocked out the sky.  We are persistent and kept checking for an opening in the cloud cover.  The clouds cleared in time for us to watch the orange moon go dark surrounded by a sea of stars.  These are the kind of experiences that will live in our memories if it ever becomes necessary for us to leave this special place.

A Garden By The Road

It has been more than one year since we started a new garden next to the road.  Our existing gardens exceed our ability to adequately care for them so the question " Why more?"  looms over the project.  We really need to do this one right.  Grass clippings were piled deeply here to kill pasture weeds that tend to persist no matter what.  Rotting for a year seems to have eliminated the weeds.  Bark mulch has replaced the grass clippings and we are ready to begin planting.  Siberian iris and Clara Curtis chrysanthemums will be moved next to the wall.

Our land came with very little road frontage.  We only own from the fence line in the weeds to the far edge of the stone wall.  Our only use of this area was in and out of the driveway.  Only a small area adjacent to the road was mowed so that we could see if it was clear to pull out onto the road.  The new owners of the farmhouse took pride in their home and kept their acres mowed.  Their tidy area next to our wild mess prompted them to ask about a fence.  I promised to clean up my mess and to replace it with a short stone wall and a long garden.  The wall is in place although I have talked about making it longer.  The garden is beginning to take shape.

Autumn Joy sedums alternated with Blue Flag continue the line of the stone wall.  Both of these plants are tenacious.  They will be able to cope with pasture grass's incursions into their area.  This spring I harvested two sedums from the garden at the house.  Both were sliced in half with a Bowie knife.  The four new plants found their present location and were placed with the flat side facing in.  That proved unnecessary as the sedums quickly restored their round shape.  As fast as new land can be made ready, the sedums can be redivided.  Blue Flag will also produce more plant material than I can use.  These two plants will soon grow together forming a continuous wall of green.  That should look better than any fence.

Starting a new garden is exciting.  Here the soil is deep and fine relatively free of stones.  Its ability to retain moisture carried the plants through the drought.  Working here will be quite different from tilling the gravel that underlays the main garden.  We received some overnight rain.  This could be a perfect time to move plants to their new home.