Hi! I’m back!
I’ve now been blogging for two years, or rather for two growing seasons. I try my best to share gardening tips, lore and recipes all entwined with anecdotes about my life and family from May to September. Sometimes I run a bit late or go a few weeks longer, but my goal is to share during Wisconsin‘s growing season.
Looking back to last year’s posts I was struck with how little I talked about any immediate issues. Obviously last year the biggie in all the garden circles in my neighborhood was the drought. Who was coping and who wasn’t. Personally I lost four shrubs, a few heuchera and lots of grass. This spring is revealling how many of the drought stressed plants made it through winter.
Ninebark Center Glow
I’d love to hear your stories about what you did to save your gardens last year and how you are rebuilding this year. In fact it would be a great kick-off if all my friends and family shared their flower and vegetable garden plans, woes and ideas.
To get my “green on,” I shopped the November 75% off sale and have been nurturing two evergreen shrubs in my basement to replace a few losses. I couldn’t decide which of the Ninebark shrubs I liked the best Coppertina, Amber Jubilee or Center Glow (finally chose a Center Glow from Menards). And I need to slit and patch seed several spots where the grass just isn’t going to come back.
Kary Beck, a gardener 
I was at Rick’s this weekend. He had a number of tress cut down and I decided to plant lilies and cannas in the holes where some of the trees had been. He wanted to plant potatoes, too, so Yukon Golds are going in the rest of the holes. Most everything made it through last summer’s drought except one very small patch of grass (sod). We think that particular patch didn’t have any shade and the full brunt of the sun caused the grass to burn out even though Rick watered quite often.
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Sounds like fun. Lilies and potatoes.
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Our experiences are similar–I’m looking at drought losses, too, in my Southeastern Wisconsin garden. It looks as though I lost all of my delphiniums and a few heuchera. Oddly enough, the water-hungry astilbes are coming back, if smaller. City water limitations put a crimp on my watering, so I focused mainly on my hosta collection when watering and had to leave the rest to fend for themselves. At any rate, it’s good to finally have things growing again after such a long winter and chilly start to spring.
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