2012 Triumphs and Tragedies

Here we are in the final days of 2012 and I thought, let's take one last look at what was this past season.  Sometimes I struggle with thinking I have not accomplished very much.  Frustration sets in.

Then a glance through a season's photos, my but there's been some changes.  It wasn't all bad was it?

The flower bed that started out like this in April.  Weedy and bare.  Grass creeping in.

At the end of summer, although not complete, the flower bed actually had flowers.

I still have frustration that this bed isn't complete.  Part of me asks why it wasn't possible to finish the darn thing.  But then, what's the hurry?  Regardless of what I accomplish this season there will still be weeding, mulching and planting next season.

I was surprised and delighted to find how quickly columbine will grow from seed.  On the far right of this bed you can see a bare triangle of dirt.  I threw some columbine seed taken from my Bowen garden into that triangle patch.  Would they take hold?

Obviously columbine seed has a fairly good shelf life.  Several years and several moves later not only did the seed take hold they GREW.  

To the left and behind the hosta are the bright green leaves of columbine

By the end of August the plants were full size.  They did not bloom but they will next season, and what a surprise that will be.  Columbine like to party amongst themselves in the promiscuous sense (cross pollination is the technical term) and I had a collection of different varieties in my previous garden.  These seedlings should prove to be an interesting mix of sizes and colours.

I recently discovered a lovely triumph.  After a very hot and very dry summer I thought the transplanted spruce we put in the meadow and hedgerow might be done for.  The grass and plants grew up around them and we couldn't find them to water during the summer months.  They should have been toast.  But in November as the grass died and fell back we discovered lumps of green.  The shade of the weeds preserved these evergreens and they appear to be growing just fine thank you very much.

These tiny spruce were planted in spring and then disappeared under a wave of grass.

Not all was great this season.  I made some bad choices.  I moved the red elderberry from the flower bed and it choked.  I put it in the new mixed shrub border and I guess it doesn't want to mix?  Only one branch is alive now.  If it survives this winter I will have to try another location come spring.

Elderberry buds held such promise in spring.  Now most of the branches have died.

Another issue - that darn mock orange eludes me again.  I bought this shrub my first gardening season here and it sat for months in a pot while I looked for an appropriate location.  My first choice was by the shed in front of the house.  After languishing a year it looked half way dead.  This year I thought, try another spot, not enough sun, it will be happy.  Well the good news is it didn't die - yet.

This is a dreadful photo but there's no point dressing it up, this plant looks awful.  Buried in grass, some leaves at the base but otherwise dead branches poking everywhere.  I'll try and clear out around it next season and dump some compost but I get the feeling this plant just doesn't like me.  We were not meant for one another?

And then there's my never ending urge to dig things up out of the ditch and bring them home.  You can blame my mother for that tendency.  She never left home without a shovel.  The problem is I never seem to know what it is I'm digging up.  The Cornus alternafolia I was so gleeful about has turned out to be a Beech.  Nothing wrong with that particularly.  In fact, beech should be preserved as they are falling prey to canker and this one would otherwise have been taken out by roadwork that was completed shortly after I took it away.

Those ridged leaves mean beech not dogwood!

But it's not the flowering dogwood I so prized.  Identify, and then dig, girl!