May In Review

Wow, it seems like May flew by. I'm trying to journal what works and what doesn't in my garden. There are two great memes that echo this theme. I'm going to join Bumble Lush on the Best and Worst of the Garden and Plant Postings on Lessons Learned.

The Worst

Unfortunately, it looks like one of my aspen trees is diseased with Cytospora canker. It has an oozing a rust colored sap-like substance or might have poplar borers. One of my neighbors has a beautiful dry riverbed that is buttressed by aspens and his look terrible. At least only one of my plants didn't survive the spring. They had started to leaf out and then we had another freeze. I'm not sure if the weather had any bearing on my aspen's poor health, but it seemed to precipitate its decline. Alas. 

Aspens that didn't leaf out

Lesson Learned 
If you decide to plant fussy trees be ready for the consequences. I'm going to try pruning the oozing area and continue watering and hope for the best. Unfortunately, I might need to cut the aspen down. 

The Best

Like many other gardeners, the strange weather this year has caused many of the flowers to bloom one or two weeks sooner. Usually, nothing blooms when the Oriental poppies are blooming. However the strange weather makes it look like I have a planned planting when the norm is that the poppies bloom; there is a lull and the rest of the flowers wake up from their annual hibernation.

Back perennial bed (Oriental poppies and yarrow)

Rocky mountain penstemon, Jupiter's beard, penstemon eatonii or bridges?, penstemon plameri

Lesson Learned
Be grateful for weather anomalies; they make me seem to be a more accomplished gardener than I actually am.

I went to buy a lightweight row cover for my square foot garden at Agua Fria Nursery and the owner talked me out of it. As an alternative to the row cover, I picked up some golden beets, romaine lettuce, shallots, red onions, and nasturtiums. I have read online and on seed packets that nasturtiums and morning glories don't transplant well. The morning glories that I started from seed and planted in the garden seem to be doing fine as are the nasturtiums from the nursery. 

Nasturtium seedlings

Lesson Learned

Don't believe everything you read. (I might eat these words next month!)

I also finished planting my square foot garden except for a lone green chile plant from a coworker that I'm hardening off and put drip irrigation in the square foot garden. I tend to lose more plants by not ensuring that they're watered after planting.

Square foot garden

Lesson Learned
I'm not sure if there is a lesson learned, but I'm hoping that I don't lose plants from forgetfulness to water. Woohoo, the the veggie bed is planted.

Last year, the drought was so pervasive that few of my perennials bloomed and I didn't have much better luck with my annuals or biennials. However, this year the bloom season has already made up for the dearth of flowers last summer.

Snapdragons planted last year

Lesson Learned
What a difference a year makes!