Patch Planted

On Monday I visited Lloyd, a parishioner at Grace Episcopal Church, who has a farm south of Posen, about halfway between Presque Isle and Long Rapids.  He had kindly agreed to supply me with several buckets of that most precious of soil amendment: well rotted manure.  I came home with four buckets of Black Gold!  This is the effluvia of Lloyd's horse and cow barns, which has been mellowing in the pasture for several years.  Given the lean character of my soil — sand, rocks, with a little topsoil mixed in — this was a godsend.  It also gave Lloyd and me a chance to chat about the state of the parish.

On Tuesday I attacked the Daylily Patch near the back porch, first turning up the ground to remove any rocks I missed last fall.  I thought I'd gotten all the "grandfathers" out of that area, but found to my dismay (and my back's discomfort) that one had escaped detection.  Granddad was about the size of two bowling balls and several times as heavy.  I dragged, rolled, scooted, and wiggled it to the end of the rock garden, and there it may stay until Jesus returns.

The "grandfather" rock proved a real chore to remove.
I swear these rocks breed underground over the winter.

Then I worked in half a bale of peat, along with three of my four buckets of Black Gold.  I've saved the remaining bucket for the forsythia and lilac bushes I will plant this coming week.  As these mature, they will help screen the house from the road.

My supply of well rotted manure is a real treasure.

Finally, I planted the daylilies ordered several weeks ago from Solaris Farms in Wisconsin.  They had arrived via USPS a few days earlier.  I should have gotten them into the ground more quickly, but the scheduling simply didn't work.  The plants look a little bedraggled, but should do nicely once they start rooting.  Daylilies are tough customers!

The Daylily Patch is planted — 17 strong!

This will be a specimen garden.  Some folks like mass plantings — several plants of the same cultivar.  My goal, however, is to have one example of as many different cultivars as possible.  This week's labor gives me 17 plants.  I doubt they will produce blooms this year.  But after settling in for a full season, they should provide abundant bloom in 2013.  Three to five years hence, these can be divided (at least in half, and perhaps in quarters) to provide as many plants as I might want.

Now I have to start digging up the next segment of the garden, in preparation for next spring's planting!  More huge rocks are in my future! •••