I have been pestering Al lately to dig some horsetails from a ditch a road over. I would have done it myself but I feared there may be scary creatures in that swampy ditch. I was finally able to pin him down yesterday. Here he is digging away while I’m standing safely in the road. A truck approached during this operation and when I saw it slowing down I feared it would be some cranky old farmer wondering what we were up to. But we ended up meeting a friendly neighbor who couldn’t believe we wanted horsetails.

I potted them up and stuck them in the pond as soon as we got home. I knew they would look simply dashing in there (bamboo-like plant with rings in foreground). You may be wondering why there is a grill (actually a piece of steel cattle panel) on top of the tub. I like to think it discourages deer from eating the water plants. Last year deer gobbled up my beautiful floating water lettuce and hyacinths just days after I put them in. At $3 a pop I’m not taking any chances.

Another stand of Lauren’s Grape poppies that planted themselves. I think our rustic hog shed makes a nice backdrop. I just wish it were more useful. I’ve been avoiding it ever since Al said it smells like snakes.

Volunteer annual poppies adorn the pergola. The seeds were planted in ’08.

Volunteer Lauren’s Grape poppies and sunflowers (not yet blooming) in the garlic bed along with California poppies which were simply sprinkled into the snow last winter. The poppies clearly prefer this raised bed to my compacted clay flower beds!

I took this photo of golden, coral bark and green curly willow branches in early spring while they were still dormant and at their best colorwise. The green and coral bark were harvested from my trees, and the golden had just arrived in the mail. Golden is a new variety for me and I look forward to seeing it against a backdrop of snow. But don’t misread me. As hot and humid as it is I’m not suggesting that winter should arrive early.

I’m also growing scarlet curly willow for the first time. This curly willow’s +1 year growth is purple, and the new growth is scarlet- both great colors which makes it my favorite, for the moment anyway. I believe it has great promise and I’m enjoying watching it grow.

After witnessing firsthand the growth rate and multi-season interest of my green curly willow, I am now growing several different colored varieties whose bark color becomes more accentuated after a frost.

A one year old yellow curly willow grown from a rooted cutting the same size as the green one in my last post. Our cat, Peaches, somehow made it into this photo. No winter photo yet.

A coral bark curly willow purchased last summer in Oregon. Yep, I had to buy a suitcase at Goodwill to get it and other plants back to Iowa. Everywhere I go I seem to come home with plants. It’s a good thing our dog, Jake, didn’t go to Milwaukee with us last weekend since his spot in the back seat of our car got filled up with plants.

Coral bark curly willow a few months later after leaf drop and frost. Now you can see why they call it coral bark. Next post will be on scarlet and golden curly willow, which I’ve just started growing this year.

In 2008 I planted a rooted green curly willow cutting from my mom’s tree into a crack in our “concrete pad” garden.

Look how much it grew in a year!

And after a heavy shearing last month.

This is my nostalgic garden in the works. I grew up in a small town in Western Iowa, in a hundred-year-old house in a neighborhood with alleys, and plenty of old lilac and bridal wreath hedges, peonies and irises. These are the scents of my youth. One whiff of any of these conjures up a slew of memories. I feel so sorry for kids that grew up in the suburbs.

Purple Sensation Allium adds order to the chaos. Why does our ugly pickup or orange 5 gallon bucket always show up in my photos?

Reliable old species irises that were here before us, luscious Siberian irises that I have woven throughout the perennial beds, and good old wild perennial Lupine.

Siberian iris blooms are so fleeting but I wouldn’t be without them. The foliage, my alternative to ornamental grasses, looks great year-round.

Bought a truck load of terracotta drain tile from an ad on Craigslist. I thought it would look great in the garden grouped in clusters, planted with hens and chicks and succulents. I’m sure the guy who sold them to me thought I was crazy. Got most of them unloaded and returned to find the obstacle pictured above. They wouldn’t budge. Lucky for me I had a couple of tennis balls stashed for just such an occasion.

A treasured iris I bought a couple years ago at Green Scenes annual plant Sale in Waterloo, IA. Since it came in a dollar grab bag I had no idea I would be getting anything this beautiful, which makes it all the more special. I highly recommend this plant sale if you want big mature clumps of irises and day lilies.

Oriental Poppy planted from seed in 2008. I had tried purchasing plants but never with any success, and on that same note, I also tried growing the salmon colored variety from seed and they ultimately croaked.

Wild perennial lupine also grown from seed in ’08 and still going strong! I had tried nursery grown hybrids in the past but they weren’t tough enough for the high concentration of clay I garden in. Out of 3 or 4 hybrid plants purchased I think one actually bloomed and the others never made it through the winter. Then we purchased a tough native strain from Pinetree Garden Seeds (I highly recommend this supplier) and apparently it doesn’t mind the clay as it has sown itself all over the place.

And on the topic of plants that sow themselves all over the place,  Johnny here has been going strong since I planted him in ’07. This year he started blooming in February and will probably be the last plant to bloom come fall.