The Grove Garden Journal

an excerpt

The Grove Garden Journal is an ongoing feature appearing in The Hermit's Lantern. Click the link for more information about this valuable resource.

The Dancing Circle, May, 2004 ce. At the right is the wrought iron arch. Behind the hawthorne is the garden barn.—photo by David Burgdorf

Looking west from over the Dancing Circle to the Beyerls' cottage.—photo by David Burgdorf

March 29th

I’ve been diligently saving my garden notes since putting The Hermit’s Lantern to press at the end of the last gardening month. Sunday we didn’t garden (I worked on the Lantern). It rained much of the day although gerry did go out and plant fifteen anemone corms which had been soaking in water overnight. We ended up with .70” of rain.

With no rain on Monday, despite the soil being wet I was eager to work outside. I cleaned up under the weeping willows on the south side of the garden. I did get about half of the Willow Circle bed done. Trying to move a full water barrel (a 30 gallon trash can) so I could level it, I ended up pretty wet myself! I also got the east side of the Cairn Bed cleaned up. Our globe thistle is doing well. There are now several clumps of new shoots coming up. The paths were a mess of willow leaves and endless pieces of thin willow branch ends which accumulate over the winter. After lunch gerry and I both went out. I started work on the edging on Carol’s side of our deer netting and gerry worked on the path and adjacent areas at that entrance. We have a number of horehound babies coming up, some of which needed to be transplanted from the path back into the bed! I got about 40 feet of the property line (grass edging) cleaned up.

Tuesday I was eager to get outside and finished the edging all the way up to our Rose Hill Bed, finishing after lunch when gerry joined me, working on the west end of the Plum Thicket Bed and then in the Rose Hill Bed. I worked on Carol’s side under the roses. We had .25” of rain.

Wednesday morning I worked in the Mound House, filing and organizing, including taking out old financial records, papers from former students which reached their ‘recycling’ date. I filled a third of our recycling container! In the afternoon gerry and I spent a concentrated hour, working on the areas just south of the tool shed. I cleaned up beneath the grapes, gerry went after weeds and we both worked in the Evening Primrose bed. The rainfall? .31”.

Thursday I finished sorting garden catalogs in the Mound House. The newest ones I keep in the office for reference and for the catalog reviews. The next generation are kept in alphabetical order in storage, brought out to carry to the Community Colleges’ spring gardening courses (which begin in less than two weeks). And the old ones? Another huge stack for the recycling bin! The yard waste bins were emptied and we’d anticipated a weekend of yard work so took the afternoon off from gardening. .03” was the day’s precipitation.

Yesterday I hoped to garden but … Like the previous day unseasonably cool weather slid into various areas. On Thursday there was snow in a few scattered areas and yesterday, by late morning, the rain was a little slushy coming down and, at times, we had major ‘snowglobe’ snow coming down with the air all swirling with big, wet flakes. No gardening, although I unpacked the shipment of plants from Bluestone Perennials and am quite pleased. We had .31” of rain and snow. The rain gauge is able to collect the snow so we can melt it for accurate water measurements.

April 3rd

Last Saturday we had .37” of rain/snow. It kept us from any garden time. And then, it snowed more over night, although it didn’t really stick and on Sunday, we worked outside. I worked near the old cherry tree on one side and gerry on the other. We got enough done that three each of three new columbine species were planted. I also put in a new Mohawk viburnum in the Cherry Hill bed, which promises to be a floral display in future years, and a new coreopsis. The ttoal in the rain gauge, much of it from overnight, was another .40”.

Monday I worked outside in the morning, working in the areas of the Sumac Garden. I first tried to saw the stump of a hawthorne which was cut back last year as it leaned perilously toward the neighbor’s house. Alas, I worked diligently but need to have the chain sharpened. I cleaned up around the yellow flags, taking out an abundance of rocket. I also tracked down and dug up numerous sumac runners. Although we set the sumac into a large hole surrounded by a thick bamboo barrier (impenetrable) nearly 36” deep, the sumac went deep and under and continually tries to take off in all directions. I continued there after lunch, working along the row of lavender (some day to be a hedge) and cleaning up the campanula and wooly lamb’s ears. gerry did a great job cleaning up the red raspberries, leaves and weeds, and they look terrific. Just .02” in the gauge.

Although Tuesday was a Stafford Creek day (driving to Greys Harbor on the coast and back), it was a beautiful day for gardening and we took a 1½ hours of late afternoon for gardening. I worked near the Sumac Garden at the edge of the Memorial Grove beneath the cedar. In just the short time I managed to fill a yard waste bin half full! gerry worked near the juniper just south of the tool shed, then a little in the California poppies at the west end of the Plum Thicket garden and next he to finish up by the raspberries. .11” of precipitation as April showers continue to promise a flowering May.

Wednesday I started out in the morning cleaning up in the Magnolia Garden, working along the row of cedars we started as volunteer seedlings, moving them there nearly ten years ago. They’re now more than twenty feet tall! I got quite a bit of that bed done and just a little more after lunch. That’s when gerry cleaned up the path which starts out by the dahlias, running between the Magnolia Garden and the Herbwalk Garden, and running all the way back to the cedars. The path was still deep with cottonwood leaves, maple seeds, and assorted weeds. Meghan (daughter of herbal-student-to-be Elaine, was here with her mother for a garden tour following a natal chart reading).

And today… I took the chain saw in and managed just two hours, but it was enough to get the area in the west of the Dancing Circle weeded so I could plant the three new (red!) astilbe and get a start over by the jack-in-the-pulpits as well. And now, we’re soon off to start the spring quarter gardening classes at Seattle Central.

April 10th

I didn’t get any gardening done on Friday. It was damp (only .08” of rain, however) and the chain saw was done so it was a good day for desk work.

Saturday, after the morning class, I had gerry come out and help me. We worked in the fairly wet clay on that tough hawthorne stump. With the chain saw, two spades, and two men (us) it took us three hours working together but we got that stump out! Saturday’s rain was .36”. And Sunday, another .10” kept us indoors as well.

Monday it was still damp and we had fairly empty yard waste bins so I headed back into the woodland garden. In the morning I spent two hours cleaning up odd branches and then weeding and cleaning up the patches of trilliums which grow well north of the main path. They still had a lot of leaves and it was obvious that last year we did not weed the maple seedlings. Just a year old, those giant-leaved maple seedlings were already about five and six inches tall with a major root, all the more reason to get this year’s crop out! After lunch gerry and I went back into the Memorial Grove, this time working to clear out the area at the ‘T’ end of the path (where it goes left to the Overlook and right to the Stone Circle). We ‘rescued’ the other patches of trilliums and worked to clear the crocosmia that Charly and Cat planted last year. We’re cutting back the sword ferns as well. The new fronds are beginning to unroll themselves!

Rain on Tuesday morning - just enough, meant no garden time until after lunch. We went back to the same area in the Memorial Grove and after two and a half hours it was time to stop. There’s a lot left to do but oh, how wonderful it now looks way back into the woods. The rain measurement at 5:00 pm was .07”

Yesterday when my telephone conferences were done I went out and planted the new plants from Horizon Herbs. Three new hyssop (the old ones, very old, needed replacing), some wood betony, a lobelia, a motherwort, and then, after some working of the Herbwalk Garden where the hyssop grows, I went over to the Catkin Bed where I spent the remainder of the morning and then, after lunch, returned. By the end of the afternoon, we had three full yard waste bins. I’d cleaned up the Catkin Bed (mostly, with a few areas along the fence to do) from the Prostrate Coastal Redwood to the west side of the black pussywillow. I also got most of the winter savory cut back and rescued a peony, both of those across the path in the Dancing Circle Garden. gerry worked in the east area of the Dancing Circle Garden, gently pruning a horehound or two and cleaning up the astragalus, as well as weeding a large area. We had .02” in the rain gauge.

April 19th

What? Over a week? It’s been that type of week - with two days when I was at the two prisons, two other days when I was teaching at the two Community Colleges. I inevitably feel like I’m behind when it’s like this. Last Friday was a wonderful day. I worked in the South Border Bed which is in front, along the south property line. I got in two hours of good work. We had limited afternoon time but managed, in an hour, to cut back Carol’s weeping birch. She later told us that finding it done was just a wonderful birthday present for her.

Saturday was even warmer. I started the garden course at Cascadia that morning and then, after we got homne and had lunch, we planted the two new rock roses and set out garden signs, then planted our spring seeds - late - but the weather here is more like the upper midwest! Next I worked in the ajuga and yellow loosestrife around our coastal redwood and gerry worked nearby by a very old horehound and a lavender. While I was weeding near the base of some 20’ tall trees, I finally got them identified for there, all about, were pussy willow catkins. Saturday was near 80° with, again, no rain!

Sunday afternoon brought us three hours of good gardening. We had a go at the southwest area of the Dancing Circle Garden. gerry cleaned up some paths, the New Zealand flax, the the corner of the garden among the black-eyed Susans and fennel. I mostly worked in the plumbago beneath the south grape arbor. That and the lily of the valley (and oh, my, has that multiplied since we first bought some!) really needed some work. The white and pink bleeding hearts are now weeded, as well as the blue cohosh and Solomon’s seal. We had just .01” of precipitation.

Monday? Rain. Willard’s pest control came out. This past Friday night the sound of a critter scratching inside one of the walls was a definitely bother. By the time Tom from Willard’s arrived, the rodent was a goner but he did some thorough checking and improved the seal along the foundation. We had .31” of rain which kept us indoors. Tuesday was my day at Stafford Creek Correctional on Greys Harbor. It was a good day for the drive, for another .31” of rain would have meant no garden time.

All this rain had meant our yard waste bins were mostly empty so on Wednesday we did some hard-core cleanup. I got a lot of leaves and weeds cleaned up from along the fence at the north edge of the Herbwalk and Magnolia Gardens, finishing (mostly) what I’d been earlier working on. I also cleaned up along the Chinese latnerns and angelica, and transplanted two holly babies. gerry worked in the Dancing Circle Garden in the southeast area, rescuing some horehound seedlings and weeding like mad. We had .02” of rain and took three bins - each about ? full - out to the curb.

Thursday was a mostly inside day. I was preparing for my Seattle Central class and Elaine was here. I did get an hour of garden work done before gerry came home and then, after lunch, we were off to Seattle. We had .04” of rain.

Yesterday was a near holiday although I did get in an hour spot weeding the paths up near the house. We took a group of friends out for dinner last evening for our 15th anniversary, so we were at our desks and also having baths and haircuts! .21” of rain but some areas had … snow!

And snow again over night although ours was limited to white roofs and touches here and there. After teaching this morning we did work outside for nearly two hours. We first finished removing the bubble wrap and duct tape from the greenhouse, then worked more south of the house. My goodness, we have a lot of lupine seedlings this year! It’s wonderful. Twice while we were working we had a quick flurry of teeny almost-hail, and then a mixture of icy rain picked up so we ended our garden week.

April 22nd

Saturday’s snow and rain combination amounted to .51” of moisture, a significant amount of moisture. Sunday the snow turned to rain yet we did have two afternoon hours to do some wonderful work in the southwest corner of the Dancing Circle Garden and the east end of the Plum Thicket Gardens. gerry worked along the black-eyed susans, past the lilacs and into the sage at the corner. I did a hard pruning of the forsythia and cleaned up around the (ever messy) rose campion. I also got quite a bit of clean-up and weeding done beneath the weeping birch. We had .22” in the gain gauge.

Two hours of morning labor were good for my spirit. This coming Saturday the Spring Gardening class from Cascadia Community College begins meeting here for three weeks so I’m on the lookout for the worst weeds. I worked on the outer edge of Quince Corner, that area out near the street adjacent Carol’s property. The weeds were bad! After lunch I went back out but now worked the front edge of the gardens along the ditch starting by the driveway. Cleaning up the mess of pine needles, leaves, fir cones and needles and weeds, my day’s work filled one garden waste bin ? rds full! gerry worked in the coriander bed, always a slow, meticulous job to get the weeds but leave the new, tiny seedlings. It looks just wonderful! He also got some weeding done in the Lower Bush Garden around the blueberries. We had .04” in the rain gauge.

What a month this has been. We had near record-breaking high temperatures (almost 80° a week ago Saturday) and then, just a week later, near record-breaking snow! It must be spring.

[A map of the beds can be found elsewhere on our web site.]

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