The Name Game

Every day brings new discoveries and uncertainties. Back in Boulder, I chose and planted every flower, shrub and tree, so I knew exactly what grew where and when it would appear. But here, I'm always puzzled. Is it a weed or a sprout? I think I pulled up a bunch of yarrow but I'm not sure. Every day is a game of "name that plant" and I'm not doing as well as I'd like. I need to just let go and enjoy the sights.

But if you'd like to put my mind at ease, feel free to correct me, fill in the blanks, or confirm my guesses:

Astilbe -- maybe?

Viburnum -- or?

Closeup of magnificent flower below

What is this magnificent flower?

Every day for the last week or so has been in the 90's -- cruel weather for weeding. Not only is it physically difficult, the weeds love the heat and a new crop sprouts up the day after I've cleared an area! 

I wanted to make sure that I was pulling up the right stuff, so I went to The Mercer Education Gardens to look at their Weed Identification Garden. I was surprised to see that it hadn't been weeded! I really expected each weed type to be neatly separated from the others in a tidy orderly display. But among the jumble of familiar looking plants, I found name tags. The good news is: I didn't pull up yarrow, I pulled up mugwort. 

Ground Ivy

Mugwort -- thankfully, not yarrow

A nice Master Gardener helped me learn how to tell the difference between the Common Blue Pansy that's a weed and the Wild Ginger that is not. (Though she couldn't tell me if it was edible -- wouldn't it be cool if it was?)

Wild Ginger

Common Violet

Can you tell the difference?  If so, you're invited to come and weed with me any time.

 

Raspberry Jungle

Raspberries Gone Wild

I have lost count of the hours I've spent trying to tame the tangle of raspberry bushes we inherited. Their existence and abundance are partly why I fell in love with this house. We had raspberry bushes in our garden in Colorado that I would pick through every other day in July. If I was lucky, my neighbor Ann and her family would go on vacation when her berries were ripe and I could pick quarts of berries that I would freeze and eat throughout the winter. If I was really lucky, she would be home and make her fabulous jam and share that with me.

One of three wheelbarrows full
of raspberry trimmings

The raspberry bushes were so overgrown, that as I cut back the dead canes and thinned out four rows of bushes, I hoped that the berries had been neglected for several years and that this amount of maintenance doesn't recur annually. But I'm not complaining. Not at all. I loved every minute of it -- and I was able to get caught up on several of my favorite podcasts.

A rain-free day wasn't all work. It also allowed me to explore the latest new blooms.

Siberian Iris (Iris Sibrica)
"Caesar's Brother Blue"

Yellow Flag Iris
(Iris Pseudacorus)

Any day now, the peonies in the right center of this
photo will explode - stay tuned

Basking in the Sunshine

The clouds lifted for a moment and I was able to run out and stir the compost and take some photos. What fun!

These are all familiar faces:

First Peony arrived today!

Ajuga

Columbine (Aquilegia)

Wooodland Geranium

These are new discoveries:

Hydrangea

Mahonia bealii

Monks Hood

A moth in some white flowers

?

A Special Guest

Similarities and Differences

Lamium

It's been fun to see the same flowers I had in Boulder blooming on this property: Lamium, Columbine, Lupine, Bleeding Heart, Vinca (with even more excessive abundance), Ajuga and Iris. The Peonies are about to burst while the Coral Bells and Hosta are still in leaf form.

Wild Onions

They all have the same quality that made me choose them in Colorado: Deer don't eat them. Of course, this property is much larger, so it needs a lot more flowers and shrubs for the deer to not eat. Linda, the previous owner, gave me a list of 214 plant species (including trees) that are growing here. So most of what I see is new and different. Although, the wild onion that grows everywhere reminds me of the garlic that grew wild in the open space behind several of our gardens on Snowberry Court.

I'd like to post a picture of the tiny blue Iris that has popped up outside my office window and compare it with a photo I have of the tiny blue Iris that bloomed in my Boulder garden. But it's been raining for several days and promises to rain through the week. I learned that New Jersey gets almost 42 inches of rain a year. Colorado gets 15.3 inches.

Add caption

It'll be fun to ditch my zeriscape gardening mentality and learn how to grow Rhododendrons. I once tried to grow an Azalea bush in a spot that got over watered by a neighbor's sprinklers. It didn't stand a chance in the alkaline soil. So that's another big difference: pH levels. Linda left behind a big bag of limestone they used to lower the acid levels. I guess I'll ditch the Miracid fertilizer along with the zeriscaping.

Transplanted

I've got my office set up

Looking out front our first morning
with azaleas framed by red maples

Looking out back our first morning
with the sun rising over the pond

I've been taking a lot of pictures and imagining lots of blog posts in my mind but this brief installment is all I can manage for now.

Unpacking a house full of boxes has taken a lot of valuable time away from my gardening aspirations. I manage to weed a few minutes a day. Actually, I'm compulsive and can't help myself. With all this acreage, there's a boundless supply of weeds to feed my habit. But there's been little time to do much else. This weekend, I dug up a small patch of beautiful soil to plant herbs and lettuce with a border of morning glories and sweet peas to grow up the fence.

Today, after 2 1/2 weeks here I managed to plant the iris rhizomes that I brought with me from Boulder. We'll see how they do (3 months since I dug them up). They are very resilient and I hope they will surprise me and send up some flowers this summer. Actually, I hope I can revive as well. This moving stuff is really overwhelming.

This is such a beautiful place and my surroundings fill me with joy whenever I step out and look around.

Another early morning photo with
the sun sparkling on the pond

A tranquil bench view of the pond