Gardening in the pandemic

I'll bet a lot of people will have fantastic gardens this summer. With all the commute time I have been saving every day, I'm getting more gardening done than I have in any of the past 15 years. So far we have planted about 70 trees and shrubs in the highway forest and have managed to keep them all watered in daily on a regular schedule.

Magnolia "Genie"

In the front yard, I planted a magnolia, two hydrangeas, a coralberry shrub, and several ferns and woodland perennials. The magnolia tree has begun to bloom. It is a Magnolia 'Genie', a spring/summer rebloomer with incredibly deep wine red blossoms. Really striking.

I had in mind to dig a small pond for that area but when I started digging the hole for the magnolia, I discovered an old concrete basin just under the grass. It still holds water, so I cleaned it out and made some adjustments to my planting diagram to accommodate this stroke of luck. I recently got permission to bring some mossy old cave rocks home from the grounds of the convent where I work. I believe these were once part of a grotto, likely from the early 20th Century or maybe even earlier. After some trial and error placements, and lots of thought about Zen gardens and wabi sabi, I found just the right arrangement. Once the ferns and other plants fill in, the stones will be partially visible poking out here and there around the water. I could not be happier. By the end of this summer it is going to look absolutely fantastic!

The little island in the middle of the pond is a part of the basin and it looks like a big knob of concrete and old slag glass. When we moved here twenty years ago, there was a planter in this location made of concrete and cave rocks. It was about four feet tall and was shaped like a fountain, with a basin atop a central pillar. The basin was filled with soil and planted with sedums. It looked really old fashioned so we took it down, maybe with a sledgehammer? I don't really remember. Obviously, this little island in the center of my new pond was the base of that planter. The "planter" and the basin were actually a pond and fountain. I wonder if this garden feature is original to the house?

So now I've covered that little concrete and slag glass island with a thick layer of soil and a top coat of moss. I stuck a few wild ginger rhizomes in under the moss as well. The idea is a little mossy island with some wild ginger leaves hovering over the moss. It should add a lush note to the overall composition.

Nobody puts on a show like the redbuds. Our little highway right-of-way forest has become something spectacular each spring with swathes of redbuds and wild plums in bloom. Next spring they will be joined by the first blooms of white dogwoods. In a few years this strip of forgotten land will be the most gorgeous spring display anywhere in the neighborhood. 

The pawpaw trees are loaded with blossoms. Last year was the first year I saw fruit. Perhaps this will be a bumper crop. Maybe I'll even get to taste one! Getting these trees to survive here has been a real challenge. The soil is dry clay, no topsoil really, and it is packed hard. 

My first attempt was to transplant a couple of wild trees from the woods. That was a failure. It seemed like the trees died instantly. Next, I bought two small potted trees from Stark Brothers Nursery. They died in short order as well. The next year, I ordered 15 bare root trees from the Missouri Department of Conservation. That was a bit better, with most leafing out just after being planted. A few of them survived the summer. The following spring, I went back to the woods and dug some soil from a couple of different pawpaw groves, brought it home and worked it into the soil around the baby trees. My hope was that any symbiotic fungi or bacteria in the soil where trees were already thriving might help my baby trees survive. It seemed to help as all the trees that were still alive lived through the following summer. I have since lost one or two of those though. 

A few years ago I got four potted pawpaws from Forest Releaf and they are now five to seven feet tall and just beginning to spread branches out to about five feet. Yesterday I was weeding and found a new stem coming up a few feet away from the trees. Clearly, the pawpaws are beginning to colonize this area. 

And then more happiness this morning -- the first butterfly of the season, a swallowtail, was fluttering around in the grass and perennials near the pawpaw grove. Sleek and new, this little lady may be looking for a place to lay eggs soon. Pawpaw trees are a great host plant for swallowtail larvae. I hope she survives the songbirds long enough to reproduce.

Everything seems to be bursting out in bloom right now.The bluebells at the base of the big elm, clove currants and celandine poppies, fragrant sumac, mint weeds and ubiquitous wild violets. Missouri wild plums stand at the top of the hill draped in white, and Jack-in-the-pulpits peek out from beneath the arborvitae. It's just getting started. There's so much more to come.