Blooms in waiting, plus garden design class

Some of my lovely crocuses are juuuuust about to bloom! Mostly yellow in this batch:

Some of the daffodils have blooms readying themselves, too - I think the Rijnveld's Early Sensation is living up to its name.

And the first of the Spanish bluebells is peeking up leaves:

This shows the bluebell plant (up against the wall) in context, with the Pink Wonder daffodils poking up in the foreground. And a dandelion, which must die.

Last week having been so uncharacteristically warm, the magnolia tree is on the verge of massive bloom. It has cooled back down this week, though.

And in my mini-greenhouses, the alyssum has started to germinate.

I am two weeks into a garden design course at the South Orange Maplewood Adult School. It turns out to be taught by the sister of my friend Matthijs, whose daughter goes to preschool with Emma. I would say "small world," but it's not as if we didn't know that about SOMA.

Anyway I have learned all sorts of interesting things, though it has not translated yet into a design for the sad patch on our back patio that I have plans to redo.

Some of the things I've learned:

• Plants with variegated leaves are nice for reflecting moonlight if you'll be enjoying a garden after dark
• Plant grape hyacinths with daffodils because they have shoots in fall that let you know where you've already planted daffodils - plus they're cheap
• We can plant plants hardy to Zone 7A or any lower number
• This area has quite acidic soil. And trees increase the acidity in soil - which is why grass doesn't grow well under them, and moss takes over. You can decrease the acidity with lime.
• Lavender likes well-drained, rocky, limey (not acidic) soil - not clay! (explains why the plants in front did badly)
• Boxwoods don't like mulch
• Epsom salts contain phosporus, which promotes blooms, eg. for hydrangea
• If you want to get moss to grow on something (e.g. stones), mix some moss with yogurt and water in a blender to form a thin paste, then paint it on!
• Lawns should receive about 1" of water per week - if you're watering, give it to them one long (eg. 1.5 hour) dose
• Master Gardeners hotline: 973-228-2210
• Soil tests are especially important for places where you're growing edible plants, to test for contaminants.
• There are a couple nearby gardens that I'd like to visit: Durand-Hedden garden in Maplewood, and Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills

Helen (the teacher) recommended a book listing all plants - National Gardens (there is also a Northeast version), by Sunset publishers.

Garden happenings

For Mother's Day, a week ago, my request was to spend time gardening. I did, and picked up a case of poison ivy from the patch of shrubs, ground cover, and (belatedly discovered) poison ivy in the front of our house, by the trees by the sidewalk. I look like I have smallpox, and want to scratch all my skin off.

This is the patch with the offending plants. I will forward this picture to our lawn people and beg for assistance.

Meanwhile, I've been doing a little weeding/trimming of the rest of the landscaping. It still doesn't look like much. The lantana plant has perhaps spread the most so far.

Phlox, stock, begonias, geranium. I planted a ready-made "plant pot" with 3 zucchini seeds in it behind the flowers last week. We'll see whether it comes up.

Geranium, begonia on the other side of the front step

The view down the steps. On the right is a peony plant that looks poised to produce beautiful blooms.

I pulled out two of the small boxwoods along the front pathway - the ones I'd haphazardly tried to prune earlier. They were looking more and more dead. The third, visible in the last picture above, still looks mostly healthy.

You'll see a lot of brown debris in the pictures - the trees in both the front and back yard shed an ENORMOUS quantity of those bits. On a windy day, they floated down so thickly they might have been snow.

Garden Happenings

I found a tag to tell me what these half-dead shrubs are: English dwarf boxwood. I have pruned off the dead parts as if I have any idea what I'm doing.

Magnolia = Magnificent

I only hope deer will not eat our two tulips before we get to see what color they are.