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A WEEKEND IN THE GARDEN: IT’LL CURE WHAT AILS YOU

April 13, 2015


After one of the more challenging weeks of my working career, I was absolutely spent going into the weekend. I desperately needed to just stop thinking about everything for awhile.

Thank goodness Mother Nature cooperated and presented two nearly perfect spring days for me to get lost in the garden. And that’s exactly what I did, getting caught up on some cleanup and a few small garden projects.

chive hedge
Right now they are just little clumps of chives around the perimeter of the circle garden, but soon they’ll form a mini hedge.

The best thing I did in the garden was continue to work on the chive hedge in the circle garden. I started this as an experiment a couple years ago on just one section of the garden but was so thrilled with it, I’ve been slowly working toward extending it around the entire garden, including the interior borders. The lovely thing about chives is that they are so easy to grow and divide. The entire hedge has come from dividing the chives I had and dividing a few from my mother’s garden. Because they grow quickly, I can sometimes divide them again at the end of the season.

I’ve made it almost all the way around the perimeter, and the one section is completed on the interior as well. I’m growing a few from seed as well and as soon as those plants are hardened off, I should only have a small amount left to do.

I love the hedge for a variety of reasons. For one, I think it lends structure to this garden that has always suffered a little bit from an identity crisis. I think that’s a factor of having too many gardens; I spread my efforts across too many spaces so it can take a long time for one to be just right. But it also has the benefit of keeping out rabbits. I don’t fool myself into thinking that the deer will give a rip about chives, but I think bunnies will. And lastly, they are so beautiful when they are in bloom and they are a huge draw to pollinators. Plus, why not have a hedge you can eat.

Unfortunately, in my much-needed Zen state of gardening, I failed to pause and take photos. If I had you might have seen an interesting development in the skinny patio garden. Things don’t grow there like they should. The results of a soil test shed some light on that, but I’ve always felt like the inability of the climbing rose to thrive there was indicative of a larger problem. Turns out it probably was just the rose.

Since I’m completely redoing that bed—digging out everything and moving it or tossing it and replacing the soil—I dug up the climbing rose in order to move it. What I found was roots, in the perfect shape of gallon container, trapped in a circle. Although I purchased it in a two- or three-gallon container, clearly it had been grown in a gallon nursery pot for too long, then transplanted in a larger pot for sale, but remained rootbound. I’m irritated about it and frankly I’ll be a little more careful about where I buy roses from now on. I trimmed up the roots to get rid of some of those that were strangling everything and moved it over by the veggie garden. Honestly, I don’t give it a great chance of thriving there, but I’ll continue to nurse it along.

Virginia bluebells
While cleaning out the beds I unearthed the tiny purple tips of the Virginia bluebells popping up.

So many leaves fell last last fall that the gardens were really messy. I ended up just using the leaf blower (I detest leaf blowers because I find them obnoxious but I recognize that they have their place and I’m pretty sure this is it) to clean out the beds. Unfortunately I also blew away just about every plastic plant tag, so I made a mental note about being better to use my metal plant labels.

Of course there were little projects along the way as well. I divided a few perennials, pruned some clematis and swung by my mom’s garden to give her some help digging all the plants out of a garden where a new deck will be situated.

In a couple months a weekend of this kind of hard-labor gardening (as opposed to plant shopping and planting) will seem dreary and monotonous, but for now it was glorious respite from the more serious bits of life. My hamstrings are sore and my fingernails are gross but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

chive hedge leaves roses spring cleanup
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
13 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: FRIDAY FINDS
next post: FRIDAY FINDS

Comments

  1. Lisa Greenbow says: April 13, 2015 at 8:49 pm

    Tis the season for crusty hands and broken fingernails. Interesting to have a chive hedge. I hope the rabbits realize this is not for them.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: April 21, 2015 at 8:21 pm

      The good news is that if the chives do not fend off the rabbits, the very large, beautiful and healthy fox I saw just down the road the other day probably will.

      Reply
  2. Elizabeth says: April 13, 2015 at 11:14 pm

    I was outside much of the day today in the gardens (mostly the vegetable one, planting potatoes) and it is definitely glorious! I am pretty tired too! But I did get most of the potatoes planted, yay!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: April 21, 2015 at 8:22 pm

      Good for you for getting those taters in!

      Reply
  3. Stephen Andrew says: April 14, 2015 at 12:27 am

    I am glad you found some relaxation this weekend! I'm stealing your chive hedge idea in my sad, sad, sad herb garden. I'm on a little trip now but as soon as I get home I'm going to buy a few flats of chives and get it going. I know I should divide and all that but I'm an even more impatient gardener.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: April 21, 2015 at 8:21 pm

      Yay! I want to see it when you do it.

      Reply
  4. Heather - New House New Home says: April 14, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    So fun to finally be in the garden!! I'm fighting the urge to get the rake out as I'm still unable to do anything too heavy. But I did get out and clean up the clematis and leftovers in the veggie patch. It looks like another glorious weekend ahead, so there will be lots done again!

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says: April 14, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    Are you using a variety of chives that will stay where you put them? I find chives are a bit invasive.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: April 21, 2015 at 8:18 pm

      Chives always get bigger and they do seed around a bit, but it's never gotten to the point where I'd consider them invasive. Plus there seems to be no limit to the people who are more than happy to take some off my hands.

      Reply
  6. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: April 15, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    Do you think it is only chives that will keep out rabbits or will other ornamental short alliums work also?

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: April 21, 2015 at 8:20 pm

      Well, I've given up trying to predict what the wildlife will do, but I do believe that the ornamental plants that I have planted near other alliums ('Summer beauty' comes to mind) seem to have less damage than other places in the garden so maybe there's something to that.

      Reply
  7. EmsyDoodle says: April 17, 2015 at 3:07 am

    What a wonderful idea a chive hedge! We've just divided up a large clump of chive and handed them out to neighbors and co-workers I make space for other herbs and garlic chives in the veggie garden.

    I wonder if planting a mixture of them (onion and garlic chives) as a hedge would help deter carrot fly in the bed and our wayward toy poodle from the area!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: April 21, 2015 at 8:19 pm

      I bet it would help with carrot fly. We don't have those here to my knowledge but I've seen the damage they do and they are nasty buggers! I would have to think that the scent of chives and garlic chives would certainly mask that carrot smell that attracts those little buggers.

      Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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E R I N 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I had a rather unpleasant realization last night w I had a rather unpleasant realization last night when I remembered that I’d not yet ordered tomato seeds. And I’m not going to rectify that until I dig into my seed stash, because I don’t go through tomato seeds quickly so there are definitely some lurking down there. 

I never used to grow tomatoes from seed because there are great varieties to be had in garden centers (including many heirloom varieties). But it’s almost non-negotiable for me now that I’m a convert to dwarf tomatoes. If you’re not familiar with the #dwarftomatoproject championed by @nctomatoman and others, these are heirloom varieties that are crossed with dwarf varieties to create plant that produces all the flavor and interest of an heirloom in a short (usually less than 4 feet) plant. 

They are particularly great in my tall raised beds. Of course I leave room to try new non-dwarf varieties every year (I loved Sun Dipper from @panamseed last year and I’ll grow it again).

Last year was a good tomato year and the photo shows some of the varieties I harvested in one day. I hope this summer will be equally good for the tomato harvest. 

One of my favorite questions to ask gardeners is: What is your favorite tomato variety to grow? So have at it in the comments because inquiring minds want to know!
And this is why I leave my winter containers assem And this is why I leave my winter containers assembled until at least March. A dusting of snow gives them a whole new look (even if it’s shades of gray). Also, I think I love my Limelight hydrangea even more in winter. Fabulous winter interest!
I’m going to look for opportunities to add more I’m going to look for opportunities to add more ferns to my garden this year. They are such interesting plants and often real problem solvers, bringing texture and color to places that many plants aren’t interested in. Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern) ‘Crested Surf’ grows well for me in part shade (even pushing a bit into part sun) and looks great next to Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’.
Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled o Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled on) foliage, and texture galore. I can’t wait to have moments like this again. The star, by the way is Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ which looks so good with the bold foliage of Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’ next to it. 

With the new path, this area will be getting a small revamp. It’s the next spot I’ll be focusing my planning on.
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