Yesterday and today I spent most of my time working on lifting, dividing, and cleaning up four enormous clumps of blue Siberian iris in the lower part of the Front Bed. These are infested with couch grass and I'm tired of trying to pull it out only to have it come back. It took hours to pull apart those dense clumps and carefully tease out all the couch grass roots, but I'm pretty confident I got it all out. I was going to simply replant the clumps, but then thought better of it.
Instead, I lined out all the divisions into an empty bed in the veg and they can stay there til spring, when I'll replant. I figure this will give any remaining missed couch grass roots opportunity to sprout, both in the little divisions and in the empty spot where the four big clumps were removed. Then I'll get rid of any stray grass and hopefully that will be the end of this problem. I'll put some of the Siberian iris back in the original spot, add some further up the Front Border, nearer to the front porch. I'd also like to put some into the North Long Border, tucked in among the daylilies, which are mostly in the yellow/peach shades. I think the blue iris will look good there. I'd also like to put some around the Virtual Koi Pond, where they will mimic the look of water reeds/rushes. I had planted small Siberian Iris clumps around the VKP earlier in the summer, but I think they succumbed to the heat and dry spell. Not sure though; they may surprise me and come back in the spring.
***
Took down two of the three bean towers in the veg. I couldn't believe it: I still harvested some nice green beans and also collected quite a few dried pods to shell out. I'm taking down the third bean tower this afternoon.
I'd like to get back to work on the South Long Border; I've still got some Chinese Forget Me Nots to move. These sprouted between the bricks in the path so it's a tedious job to get them out.
There's so much to do and time is ticking away...I'm hoping that I still have time to move herbaceous perennials before the weather gets too cold. The big "move" this November is the Japanese Maple from the Below the Deck Garden to the South Border and replacing it with a triple-stemmed white Rose of Sharon. That won't happen until all concerned are completely leafless and fully dormant.
Well, I better get back out there. Those Chinese Forget me Nots won't lift themselves, missy.
Discussions:
| Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Koi by microb | Oct 22, 2023 5:15 PM | 3 |
| Siberian Iris by aspenhill | Oct 19, 2023 9:16 AM | 1 |
Post a new thread about this blog entry:
