Behind the Blog Title, in a Hodge Podge Way

Yesterday, I found time to visit blogs in my sidebar.  While catching up on a few blogs, I came across a post written by Shady Gardener telling the story about the title of her blog.  She was joining in on a meme started by Monica, from Garden Faerie's Musings  and Bren, from BGgarden from December 5th.  If there was a prize for the most scatterbrained blogger, I'm pretty sure I would win it.  I clicked on my link, "blogging" to see what I'd written already about my blog title, and found out I had written two posts in October for my blog turning three years old.  One of my most recent posts was done because I had come across Catherine's from A Gardener in Progress post about her third blog anniversary, and I thought I had forgotten to write about mine in October.  Oh, my!  Well, I have also written about my title, but I am going to again, because I had fun going through old photos and wanted to post them.  I decided to show some changes in the front yard over the years of blogging, mostly from the views of or from the corner, since that is how the blog got its name.

Hey, I just went to my very first post, and here it is:

It's time for bed!

I have been thinking about starting a blog to help me keep records of my gardening exploits and to help me make plans.  I finally got it set up after an hour and a half.  I am slow and sometimes have trouble making up my mind.  I just want to get this done to make sure it works.  If you buy a new car, you don't just leave it parked, you need to drive it!  

Part of what took me so long, was the names I was choosing for my blog were not available.  My choices were:

1.  My Corner

2.  My Corner Lot

3.  Corner Gardener

4.  Corner Garden

Each of these had variations with my name, but I couldn't use an underline symbol or apostrophe in the address for the blog.  Here I was, so tickled that I'd thought of the name for my blog very quickly after realizing I'd have to have a name, and I had to think of something else.  

Then, when I was writing about me, I didn't realize it was going to be on my blog page, I thought there would be a link to it.  I may go in and change that tomorrow.  Well, here I am, blog!  We'll see if I keep you up.  

Looking back, I wish I would have put more thought into a title, but, since we live on a corner lot, I got stuck on that.  I had even thought of playing with, "My Corner of the World" but didn't think of a variation.  A number of people have come to my blog doing a search for corner gardens.  The garden is on the corner of the street, not in a corner between structures.  Sorry searchers!

This photo is from May or June of 2008.  I have already done a post about the painting of the fire hydrant.

This is from the other direction, in June.

I've shown this, taken the first week of June before, too.  This is the only time we've rented a sod cutter.  It was harder than Larry thought it would be.  I was tickled to get this new area to plant.  It started out to be for large annuals, but there aren't many places left for them.  I do have some great self sowers in there, though.

The photos are in order by date, but I forgot to write the dates down as I was exporting.  I'm thinking this was early July, 2008.  The little area to the left of the sidewalk had been put in after the neighbors across the street had to have their water main replaced a few years before this, which involved digging in our yard.  There were some tense moments deciding how large the area was going to be.  It was smaller than I wanted, and larger than Larry wanted.  Still, the next year, he offered up the area on the other side of the sidewalk, so it would be symmetrical.

I was pleased to find a red crocosmia, that I planted on the back left corner in this bed, but it did not survive winter.  It is hardy one zone warmer than ours.  It sure was pretty that year, though.

 

 This must be from August or September of 2008.

 The next ones are from April of 2009.  I had used mini blinds to mark where I planted things in the new bed so I wouldn't plant over them.

From the other direction, you can see the old shape of the curb planting area.

This is July of 2009.  The different varieties of perennial geraniums did very well against the curb.

We had gotten plenty of notice that we would need to remove plants within 18 inches of the curb, and that we would be given 2 weeks notice before the work was to begin.  I probably did more than one post about all of this.  It was a very good experience, considering all the worrying I had done.  I had taken the plants out ahead of time, so they wouldn't have to be moved in the heat of summer, and replaced them with rose moss plants.  The work took place in August.

I moved the rose moss to other places, which I was glad to be able to do.  Most plants wouldn't survive such a move in the heat.

The guys were awesome!  They let me dig my own dirt and put it in containers to put back in place so I wouldn't have to have anyone else's dirt.  One young man even helped me finish digging, and a couple helped me put it back.
 

Knowing this work was going to be done, and because the grass next to the curb wasn't doing so well, Larry had asked if I wanted to extend the planting area.  I was giddy, because we had argued over the size of the original bed.  When the time came he said he wasn't sure, but he ended up saying if I was going to do it, to find someone else to till it.  I called a number from the paper, and someone came out the same day!  I had to check with the curb crew to make sure that was OK with them.  Larry decided it was OK with him, as well.  The milkweed had just come up that year as a volunteer.  It sure has spread since then.

The next two must be the end of August or September.

As I was working on this post, I realized I didn't have any from 2010.  This was in June, and the next one, July.

 It is now, April of 2011.  Seeing the photos of the silver maple tree coming down brought back the sadness we felt about losing it.  It is good that it was taken down when it was, though, because we had some storms where a number of trees fell into homes.  There is a good chance this would have.

 These guys were great to work with, too.  They were very careful around the flower beds.

I think the next two were taken in June.

The next ones are from August.

I have enjoyed taking lots of photos of the house for my header photos.  I try to include Heidi and Larry with the grandsons when possible.  Oh, and the fire hydrant makes a regular appearance.  This is from September.

I think this is October.  The joe pye weed had gone to seed, but the kiss me over the garden gate was in full bloom.

Here's the first snow we had, I think, the first week of December.  It didn't last long.  A number of us have been wanting more snow and seasonal temps, hoping for a warm spring.
 

The next two were taken today in the cold.  We did get about an inch of snow a couple nights ago.

I would rather live in a more private place, with a big back yard, instead of all the chopped up places we have, in full view of the street.  When I was in my twenties, my dream was to live on an acreage, but Larry convinced me neither of us is handy enough.  I will be content, though, because I talked Larry into moving here 13 years ago.  This is the house he grew up in, and he has no plans to move.  The nicest thing for me will be that when the loan for the kitchen remodel is paid, the house will be paid for.  I am hoping to retire in the next 7 years, get the place organized inside, and be in the garden as much as I want to.  I never would have imagined that Larry would give up this much grass when we first moved here.  I can be content with what we have.  Plus, the kitchen works much better than it did when we first moved here.

Thanks for visiting my corner garden.  I know I wrote a lot.  Sometimes I read all what people say, and other times I skim or skip a little.  I'm assuming others do it that way, too.  If you didn't know how my blog got its name, now you may.  :o)

Echanaceas in our Yard

I have been doing some stewing about what's going on with my coneflowers.   I went around and took photos of all of them, and after doing some thinking, have come to some conclusions about my dilemma.

When we first moved here 13 years ago, a neighbor lady gave me a start to the honeysuckle vine that is behind this coneflower, and some purple coneflower.  At some point I forgot that she told me not to plant other kinds, because they would cross pollinate, and then we could lose the native ones. I'm thinking that I thought it would be OK to plant the 'White Swan' in front, since I put the ones she gave me in the back yard.  Those are gone now, I'm sad to say.  At some point, the white one quit blooming white.  When we put in the east front bed, I moved some of this over there.

I planted 'Kim's Knee High' next to the ones I moved, and the native thinner leafed kind in front of them.  In the back of this bed, I planted 'Harvest Moon'.  I'm not sure if the original plants are still there. I had lots of seedlings last year, and they are now blooming.  This photo shows the front of the bed.

It looks like there is some 'Harvest Moon' in this plant.

 This is close to where the original plant was.

The bright colored bloom reminds me of 'Kim's Knee High'. 

There is also a white bloom in there!

I like the shape of this one.

I don't like this one as well.  Its stem is thick, and the cone is larger.  I will take it off so its seeds don't get planted.

This is the back of the bed where 'Harvest Moon' was planted.  The original plant is gone, and a little way over is a new clump.

There are lots of buds, but just a few opening so far.  This does not look yellow, like 'Harvest Moon'.

There are pink and white ones now.  I should check to see how many plants are in this clump.

When I started planting the new area on the west side of the front yard, I moved a couple small plants from the front of the east bed.  They did well, and are starting to bloom.  It looks like this one is pink.

 

This one is right next to the pink one, and as you can see, it is white.

When we expanded the curb bed to the west in 2009, I got 2 'Prairie Splendor' echinaceas thinking they were an older variety. 

The plants are loaded with blooms, and looking quite healthy, except for a few odd looking blooms.

I've been looking online, trying to figure out it this is aster yellows.  From what I've read, the leaves should look abnormal, too, but they don't.  I need to get these cut off, though.  Have you had any flowers look like this?  I guess I did have some last year in the east bed, too, and tried to figure out then what was going on.  They looked fine other than a few like that, too.

I planted these two plants in 2009, also.  They are east of the previous ones, and may be 'Magnus'.

Continuing east, up to the sidewalk, this is a volunteer I've shown before. 

I have a yellow and white flower scheme with some red leaved plants in the small area in front of the vegetable garden.  I think these are 'White Swan'.

The 'Magnus' I planted in the back yard are not blooming yet.

These may be 'Ruby Star' that I planted in the flower bed across the street a year or two ago.  They look to be struggling a bit.

I planted 3 small Echinacea purpureas in the new growing area.  I've decided that I am not going to plant any more hybrid echinaceas.  I am planning on keeping an eye on any new plants that come up, and keep the ones that look more like the native ones, and maybe deadhead the ones that I don't want to reseed.  I may even pull a few plants out if they are crowded.  So, it looks like I'll have my own "hybrids". 

I know there are gardeners out there who love the new hybrids, and my aim isn't to say folks shouldn't plant them.  We have to do what works in our own gardens.  There are those who do not like them, saying they aren't as hearty, and the pollinators do not like them as well.  I saw bees and butterflies on all of the coneflowers the last few years, and couldn't tell if they had a preference.   You may share your experiences or thoughts on these matters if you like.  I just don't want a heated debate.

Our land phone line and internet were down most of the day.  I went to a bookstore to use their internet to work on this post because the cable company said they weren't going to be able to come work on the phone and internet until Tuesday.  When I got home, Larry said the internet is back up, so now, I am finishing up.

We are having both sides of our family come over for the fourth.  I need to clean and organize the toy room.  That's where the internet connection is, too, so I need to free up space for a cable person to work if they end up coming over.  I hope to make it your way to see what is going on in your garden this week, too.  Have a great week!