Garden News- Utter Devastation

It may seem rather strange to do a post on gardening in the midst of winter. And you're right, it is, except that this month has been unseasonably warm. And you may remember all of my whining these the last two summers about how my garden is in the shambles. I said multiple times that the wisteria vines have completely eaten it, much like the alien vines in the book, War of the Worlds. I have been at my wits end, and with no way to physically remove the nuisance. It has led to a lot of sadness about my poor gardens. 

removing the purple wisteria vine

On a happy note, my son Seth and his wife are very close to finishing their house, which is just across the creek. It was time to put in a septic system and water lines, and a friend of my husband allowed him to use his backhoe. It just so happened that we were able to have it for a full week! Which means the backhoe came to my house, evil grin. And the ripping of the garden commenced. It was terrifying. It was liberating. It was sad. The giant purple wisteria vine beside the pergola came out, and most of the pergola came with it, as you can see in the very top photo. 

Above is a picture from springtime when the hubby first attempted extraction. He was using the farm tractor with the plow on for added weight. You can see the disbelief on the dog's face as the back wheels came off the ground. You can see my smoke tree's purple leaves to the right, and directly behind my husband is the pink wisteria tree. The little tractor is stout, but it couldn't match the vines tenacity. Thank heavens we got the loan of the backhoe!

 That smoke tree was one of the first things my parents gave me to plant in the yard. But the pink and purple wisteria had met in the middle and constricted the poor tree, so all of them had to come out.

Evil can be deceiving, here is the pink wisteria in years past. It looks so lovely and innocent, when in reality it was plotting dastardly plans to creep around and strangle everything in a 100 foot radius. Plants, you can't turn your back on them!

When all was said and done, and the dirt cleared, I lost two huge roses in the massive tangle. Two more I found mangled and managed to replant with hopes they will live. My beautiful silver lace vine that covered my pergola, and had taken 12 years to grow, was gone. Below is a picture from the other side of the fishpool, showing how the garden looked in the spring.

I can't even count how many plants, shrubs, and bulbs were uprooted in the mounds of earth and carted away. I even lost my 20 foot tall crepe myrtle. It was breathtaking this year.

But then I realized that the vines from the wisteria were completely intertwined in it's roots. Sniffle... below, out it comes.

So the effect is that of a bomb having gone off in our yard. I console myself with an English gardening magazine that states matter-of-factly that a garden needs to be completely torn out and redone every 20 years. Mine is 26. They recommend removing the shrubs, roses, everything, and starting from scratch. So I have decided to take this as a necessary refreshing and renewing. A semi-blank slate to begin again with. I am tentatively excited. No, honestly, I'm extremely excited. But also filled with horrific trepidation. I'm very worried that every single one of those tiny little vines and roots which I cannot dig out from the bowels of the earth are suddenly going to spring up when the weather warms, and I will have nothing but an entire vineyard of wisteria...

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Today is Christmas day. Devin and Savannah spent the night and woke up with us this morning. We had a wonderful breakfast here, with all of the kids and moma and pop.  We opened our presents around the tree. Later, we had lunch at their house. The kids were then gone to their separate in-laws. My husband went to camp to fish for the weekend. Normally I spend Christmas evening taking all the decorations down. Yes, even the tree! I like to get decorated for January before New Year's day. That was my plan for today, but the weather was almost to 70°! It was so blissful outside, that I decided I did not want to be in the house. I wanted to be in the dirt. I only came back in the house because it was getting dark.

And in that amount of time I dug through yards of dirt, hacked and pulled vines and roots, weeded, and replanted iris and bulbs that I found. In all that time I only finished from the archway to the middle of the fishpool. It doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you it was work! Tomorrow is supposed to be warm also, and I'll be back out there. I have been finding all sorts of poor, uprooted darlings in the mounds of dirt and clumps of roots. I found a fantastic nest of my Grandpa Bill's favorite lily bulbs. They're beautiful Oriental lilies- white with pinky throats and freckles. These have been in the ground for at least 10 years. Look at the size of these bulbs! 

The bulbs above are not lilies, but they look like them when they bloom. They're called Crinium, or swamp lilies, and are named Milk and Wine Lily. These flowers are very special and have been in my family for over 150 years. They were brought from Mississippi to Texas territory around the time of the civil war, by my great-great-great grandmother, Nancy Jane Jeffers Smith. She was amazing, and I'd love for you to read more about her here- APPLE GRANNY. Each subsequent generation lovingly brought them along on their journeys, until here they are, in my own garden.

 I also found piles of assorted daffodils, iris, and daylilies. Those are all things I can see and replant. The things I lost the most of are perennials. I can't differentiate what roots in the dirt piles are my beloved plants. So, I suppose spring will tell the toll. I am hoping very much that the larkspur that reseeds itself every year comes back after such a disruption to the surface. My Grandma Tommy gave me them to me, and you can never find larkspur plants...

But enough rambling! Tomorrow is supposed to be warm again and so I will be back at it!

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It's Thursday, and just as warm. I finished completely re-digging the bed behind the pool. I had to go over all of it so that I could find, and attempt to dig out, all the roots that still lay under the soil, waiting for a chance to regrow. It takes so long and is backbreaking, but I am determined!

I finished re-sculpting the bed to curl around the pool, and I even have the dirt packed back down. Now I have to wait for the hubby to come home so that we can use the tractor to haul off the piles of vines and broken lumber. Duane told me that he would rebuild my pergola, but I have decided against it. I am letting all that side of the yard go back to lawn, in hopes that mowing it will keep any stray vines from growing up. The post is still standing that has my glorious rose, Zephirine Drouhin, climbing up it. I am hoping to shore up the other post as well, and use the other timber at the top to make a simple archway for the rose. 

 When I finished behind the pond, I still had several hours of daylight left. So I turned my attention to the circle bed. I had a big pile of mixed daffodil bulbs and iris tubers from the area that was dug up. Instead of dotting clumps about my flowerbeds I decided it might be nice to concentrate them in one spot for more impact. So I dug out every single plant in the bed and turned the soil. Then I planted a ring of daffys around the pole, and a ring of iris around that. Then I separated the huge clumps of daylilies that were originally there and made another ring. Then I divided the lovely  bushes of blue Nepeta "Walker's Low" that spills over the sides  and planted them around the rim. I know that most of the bulbs I am planting will probably be too shocked to bloom this spring, but I will be excited to see the secession of blooms when the bed settles in. 

Tomorrow is our last nice day before cold weather returns. I think I will begin weeding in my regular beds. Saturday is supposed to be rainy all day, so I can take down the Christmas decor then...

 So the last month of the 2019 has been spend striving mightily towards a rewarding garden in the spring. That seems a nice way to end a year. And quite a lovely way to begin a year, and garden, all over again. Wish me luck, Dear Reader, I shall need it!