Last week I forgot to mention that I attended an Earth Day event where two local nurseries were selling natives: Riverview Nursery and Chapman Lake Nursery.
From the former I purchased three culvers root, 3 rattlesnake master, and one spiderwort, and from the latter three common ironweed, three swamp milkweed, and three dense blazing star.
The four Aronia Low Scape Mound chokeberry shrubs, also in the above photo, arrived from Bluestone Perennials. So now I have some planting to do.
I also have some mowing to do. It keeps raining, which means twice-weekly mows. The temps are going to be low this week, which I don't mind as it keeps the spring flowers blooming longer.
On the birding front, a white crowned sparrow hung out with the locals under the millet feeder this past week. They don't summer here, so I don't expect it to stay. A pair of bluebirds are busy with their nest building. I hear wrens but am not sure if they have taken over the wren houses yet.
Around the yard... what I thought might be a mullen patch turned out to be dame's rocket, an invasive that I don't mind as it seems to just come and go with no rhyme or reason.
I severely whacked back one honeysuckle vine that was threatening to run rampant, then wondered if it would recover, and it is. So is the tree that has been growing up through it, but its days are numbered.
After several relocations and not enough sun, the rhubarb "patch" is finally getting established, just in time for pie season. My SO dug up a neighboring goldenrod clump to call his own, which helps with the sunshine issue.
I usually drag planters into the garage over the winter, but just didn't feel like it last fall. The catmint survived despite the frigid temps, so I repotted it (and will take better care of it going forward).
Out of the twelve coneflower cultivars I planted in the bed along the front sidewalk, only one survived the winter - lesson learned. Two ninebark shrubs are dead, dead, dead, along with one of the Canadian hemlocks. I'll give the ninebarks another chance, but that hemlock has already been replaced once, so a gold mop will go there. Some of the winterberry shrubs look peaked, but we'll see how they do. Otherwise, things look hale and hearty. Fingers crossed!
