Fertilizer Friday - 16 days until spring!

It's been awhile since I've had a chance to join in on Fertilizer Friday, but I made sure I had time to take pictures yesterday between rain and hail showers.  Every so often the sun would pop out and then shortly after it would pour rain again.  In between showers I ran outside to fill the hummingbird feeders with fresh sugar water.  This was made a bit tricky by Gracie, our dog, trying to to drink it every time I set the container of it down.  I ended up balancing on a step stool half sinking in the soggy dirt reaching for the feeders with one hand and holding the sugar water in the other.  As much as I love our dog, she definitely makes simple jobs much more difficult when she's around.  But, it was worth the circus act because I was greeted with a beautiful male Anna's hummingbird drinking from the feeder this morning.  I've only been seeing females lately, so maybe his arrival means they are thinking about nesting soon.

First thing I did outside was check the winter sowing.  I've now got Verbascum, Hollyhock, Lupine, Foxglove, Flax, Canterbury Bells and Poppy 'Lauren's Grape' germinating.

This Pulmonaria has been way ahead of the rest so far, the others have lots of buds now though.

Hellebores under the Cedar tree.

Pansies in the window boxes.

The shed garden coming to life.  This will be the first spring in this garden and I've already found Hellebore seedlings here!  Lots of bulbs are coming up too.

One of my favorite parts of the shed garden.  Daffodils, tulips and Bluebells are all coming up.  I'm beginning to doubt the variegated rhododendron will ever bloom, good thing I bought it for it's foliage.

Mexican Orange (Choysia ternata) was one of the shrubs I moved when I put the path through the front garden.  Aside from constantly being blown over with all the wind we've had, it's looking really good.  I've got it staked up better now and hopefully the roots will have a chance to take hold.

I'm really hoping for some dry weather this weekend, we are planning to finish off most of the front garden project and moving soil in the rain just doesn't sound like fun.  I've looked at four different weather forecasts, and all four have different predictions for the weekend.  I'm going with the one that says "cloudy with a bit of rain".  I like that better than the one that says 70% chance of rain.
I hope you'll visit Glenda/Tootsie to see what she and other gardeners are sharing today for Fertilizer Friday.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

October bloom day on a Fertilizer Friday.

I haven't joined in with Bloom Day or Fertilizer Friday for awhile and thought this would be the perfect time to join in since they both land on the same day.  I always forget just how much is still going on in my garden in October.  If I think about the October garden in May I'm pretty sure I've forgotten by then that there are actually plants still flowering.  It's nice to be reminded that even though it's slowed down, it hasn't quit yet.  Several plants are blooming again, a few have been blooming for months.  I'm really trying to enjoy each flower this fall since all we keep hearing about is how bad a winter we are supposed to have this year.

 No surprise to see Sedum 'Autumn Joy' blooming now.  I've got several different Sedums blooming, I love watching how intense the red becomes as the flower ages.

 Chocolate Eupatorium/Joe Pye Weed has finally bloomed.

 The Impatiens will bloom until the first frost.  This is the time of year I really appreciate them.  They almost seem at their peak right now, the plants are big and full of flowers.

 Heuchera 'Caramel' as well as many other Heucheras are blooming again.  Hardy fuchsias are blooming behind them.

 Linaria was cut back and is now reblooming.

 Mexican Orange (Choysia ternata) is blooming for a second time.  It's first bloom is in late spring.

 Now this was a surprise, a Primula blooming.  Looks like the slugs found it already.

 Rose 'Abraham Darby' had a couple of blooms left although smaller than they would be in the summer.  'Lady Emma Hamilton' is full of flowers, and 'Tamora', 'Julia Child' and 'Iceberg' all have flowers.  'Honey Perfume' has quite a few buds too.

 Nicotiana grown from seed from Lona is still blooming as is the Nicotiana 'Limelight'.  I saw that a hummingbird had discovered these ones today.

If anyone remembers this little Meyer Lemon tree was overwintered inside last winter.  It bloomed and was hand pollinated by the Littlest Gardener back in December of 2009.  It looks just about ready to pick.  I saw that there are about 4 little baby lemons starting on it too.

To see what is blooming around the rest of the world visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Tootsie at Tootsie Time for Fertilizer Friday.

Blooming "bones".

One thing I've learned from gardening is that getting the "bones" of the garden planted first is important. The bones of the garden are usually trees and shrubs, but can be things such as arbors or trellises, that add structure and height and often provide a backdrop for the flowers and foliage to shine against. I remember reading this advice many years ago, but because I'm rather impulsive I had a very hard time following it. I wanted instant gratification so I kept planting flowers. As time went by I started realizing something was missing, it just never looked right. It was the "bones" that were missing, they did matter and I needed to try to go back and fix that. Trying to go back and add them is not very easy, and so whenever I talk to someone that is just starting out with their yard I try to stress how important it is. I've done a pretty good job now, especially in my front yard, to add mostly shrubs that will eventually reach enough height to provide some year round interest and most importantly to let the perennials planted in front of them a background to show off in front of.
Since I'm really a flower lover most of the bones of my garden also put on their own show of flowers, many of them Spring bloomers, which works out perfectly since the taller perennials won't be blooming for quite some time. Now I have flowers that are blooming up higher as well as the Spring blooms that seem to mostly be shorter plants.
Here are a few of the blooming "bones" of the garden now:

Mexican Orange (Choysia ternata) is an evergreen shrub that handles our cold winters pretty well. The fresh white flowers do have a bit of a citrusy scent. Some people find the smell of the leaves not very good, but I've never been bothered by it.

This little Deutzia 'Pink Minor' has been shown a couple of times lately, but I just had to show the flowers up close. They almost look like they are made of wax. Once the flowers fade it will fade into the background, but now it's loaded with flowers in an area that not much else is blooming yet.

Weigela 'Minuet' will stay on the small side. Hummingbirds love the flowers. Once it finishes blooming the Peony and roses nearby will take over.

Weigela 'Shining Sensation' was planted mostly for the wine colored foliage, but I do love the red flowers too. I'm hoping this will fill up a space in front of our back fence and plan to add perennials in front of it.

Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) 'Ludwig Spaeth' is part of the summer background for the butterfly garden once it finishes blooming.

Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls' is another one that was chosen not only for it's flowers, but for the foliage color.

Most of these shrubs haven't reached their full size yet, but eventually many of them should help add more structure in the garden, as well as making the garden easier to care for since none require any pruning. What are some of your favorite "blooming bones" in your garden?

Front yard - what I've been working on.

With the nice weather we've been having off and on over the past month or so I was able to get a project crossed off my list already. I've gone outside to work on any day that it hasn't been raining. I can't believe how much easier digging and removing grass is when the ground is really wet. The grass practically came off in strips as I pulled it out. I remember removing grass in the summer and it was very difficult to dig out. If you need to get rid of grass, try doing it while the ground is wet from a good rain.

I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of the front of the house for a long time. I used to have front of the house shots as my blog header, but for now I just can't part with that cute hummingbird. Here you can see just how long the grass is already. I've seen people out mowing their grass, much earlier than usual. Ours is about half grass half moss right now. We're just leaving the moss, it's actually pretty looking.

The crooked line of edging was what I had wanted to fix. I had enlarged two different parts of this big bed last summer and didn't do a very good job matching up the edging. Removing the grass and dirt here took a couple of days.

This is after I moved the edging back and refilled with about 18 bags of soil. All that blank space equals more room for new plants.

This is looking down from the other side after I was able to do a little cleanup and weeding here. In the new area I sprinkled in Poppy seeds, moved some Veronicas out that didn't have enough space and planted the Siberian irises from Linda. Even though the edge isn't perfect I think it looks much better.

Another place I cleaned and even moved a couple of plants around. Look at all that bare space, I can't wait to fill it in with seedlings from winter sowing and the dahlia tubers I dug up last fall.

I can't believe how long the grass is, maybe I should at least edge it. I love how the light shines through the Spirea 'Magic Carpet' new red growth.

And a view about halfway down. The closest shrub with the green leaves is an Abelia and the one in the middle is a Mexican Orange (Choysia). Both are evergreen and add some much needed green during the winter.

I still have more to do in the rest of the front yard, but what a great feeling to get something accomplished already!