Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day For May 2008 - A Little Late!

It's been a busy time here at Our Little Acre, both in the garden, with my running, and of course, the wedding of our younger daughter, Jenna. (I promise to post pictures of the wedding soon!)

The garden just seemed to explode as May came on the scene. It was as if it experienced a month's worth of growth overnight. Perhaps my memory of past springs is fuzzy, but this one has been one of the best I can remember. Things look so good!

Just look what's blooming!

I love Lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon), and added a couple more to the one
I already had in my garden. These are 'Sunset Strain'.


'Rainbow Mix'
They grow well in the rock garden on the west side of our house. My Lewisia probably don't count for actually blooming at this time of year, since they're new. The one I already had isn't even close. But they were so pretty, I wanted to show them off!


I also have many sedums in this same rock garden and they also
do very well. I'm not certain which one this is.

The pink Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis 'Rosea') is blooming right along with the white version, which is much more vigorous. It's amazing how the underground runners can wiggle their way under, around, and through things like brick patios. I'd never be without it, though. The scent is amazing.

I've got two pink Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) plants and I'm always charmed by their puffy hearts strung all in a row.


Mom gave me a start of these Buttercups (Ranunculus acris 'Flore Pleno') several years ago. I have to keep an eye on them because they can be invasive, but they're not too difficult to remove, as they spread by above-ground runners.


The perennial Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) is lush and strikingly white, especially at dusk.


The citronella-scented geranium (Pelargonium citrosum) that I bought at the Lilac Festival continues to bloom. We repotted it and it's absolutely HUGE!


Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris 'Clementine Salmon Rose')


English Daisy (Bellis perennis) I've got this red-tipped one, as well as a white one and a pink-tipped one, and the blooms are huge, as far as English daisies go. The ones I grew from seed last year, that were blooming in January, are also blooming now, with much tinier red blooms. In the end, only three of those plants survived the winter.


The Fern-leaf Peony (Paeonia tenuifolia 'Rubra Flora Plena') is opening. I posted a picture of the 'Sahohime' tree peony earlier, but with its 23 blooms nearly all open now, I'll post a photo of it in a future post. It's an amazing sight!

The Manchurian Violet (Viola mandshurica 'Fuji Dawn') surprised me by surviving the winter in its open wet location quite well, even though Bluestone Perennials lists it as only hardy to Zone 6. In fact, it was putting out blooms before I saw much foliage. It's looking better and better each day and I noticed new little sprouts all around it from last year's seeds that dropped.

11-23-07

Triumph Tulip 'Leen van der Mark' is one of the later tulips in our gardens. 'Elegant Lady' was a later one also, and in its first year here, I was disappointed in the paleness of its color. Just above a creamy yellow white with very subtle and sparse pink shading.


This unknown cultivar pink fringed tulip hangs heavy with rain.
It's one of my very favorites.


Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum 'Apricot Delight') has been a blooming machine, with its buds that appear in apricot hues, progressing to lavender as it opens.


I love the uniqueness of Primula vialli 'Miracle'.


Columbine (Aquilegia) has been growing here at Our Little Acre for as long as I can remember. This purple one is one of the originals. There's a white one, amauve one, and a pink one that have been here for a very long time, too.


Pulmonaria 'Trevi Fountain' got a little bit of a slow start due to the kitties using that flower bed as a litter box. (It kept getting buried.) But it's off and running now, and as soon as everything in that bed is large enough to fill the area with foliage, the kitties will stay out and I can remove the cloches, upside-down flower pots, stakes, rocks, etc. that I've got in there to keep them out.


Geum coccineum 'Cooky' is an early bloomer and has always performed well for me. It's one of the first things I planted in Max's Garden two years ago. It will bloom all summer long.


The Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) has grown to be quite large and I might have to do some moving of it or other things. It looks rather out of place where it is. I suspect it may be the larger variety (P. biflorum var. commutatum)


Heuchera sanguinea 'Firefly' is one of many cultivars here in the gardens, but is always the first one to bloom.


The Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea 'Cardinal') is wearing its green twigs for summer, but will return to the brilliant red when fall's cooler temperatures are here. Now it's blooming big heads of white.


Others in bloom are:

• Alpine Rock Cress (Arabis alpina subsp. caucasica 'Snow Cap')
  
• Daffodils of various sorts (future post)
• Lilacs (future post)
• Epimedium
• Primula vulgaris
  
• White daisies (Don't ask me which ones, but they bloom early and they're small)
  
• Tall Bearded Iris 'Immortality' (a rebloomer)
• Tradescantia x andersoniana 'Sweet Kate'
• Anemone multifida
• Summer Snowflake (Leucojum aestivum)
• Ornithogalum nutans
• Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'
• Brunnera macrophylla (green)
• Vinca minor
• Coreopsis auriculata 'Nana'
  
• Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris 'Rubra')
• Ajuga reptans (not sure of the cultivar - maybe 'Bronze Beauty')
• Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa 'Honeoye')
• Ornamental Strawberry (Fragaria 'Lipstick')
• Spirea (Spiraea x vanhouttei)
• Doublefile Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum)

I'm sure I've forgotten a couple, and I didn't include the annuals blooming, but that's a subject for another post. But it's obvious that the gardening season in well upon us! (See me smiling?)

More Important Things Than the Garden and Blogging

Really? What could be more important than doing two of the things that I love most? I am obsessed with gardening and I love to write. I'm already late for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for May, and my version of it is just going to have to wait a few days longer. Because, you see, tomorrow our baby girl is getting married. Our kids have always been more important than anything else in the world to us.

I'll return soon, with flowers in bloom and pictures of the new bride and groom, but until then, here's just one of what's in bloom at Our Little Acre:

Tree Peony
(Paeonia suffruticosa 'Sahohime')

Troy-Bilt Pro-Line FRT Garden Tiller - A Review

When Troy-Bilt contacted me about the possibility of testing one of their products, it couldn't have come at a better time. We'd literally run our old tiller into the ground. Just getting it to start wore Romie out and it had been repaired countless times. But it had served us well over the thirty years we'd had it.

We chose a mid-size tiller that had enough oomph to work its way through our horrendous clay. The one we'd chosen was out of stock, so Troy-Bilt suggested another model, the Pro-Line FRT. This is a real workhorse of a tiller, and we had some work for it to do.

In the last couple of years, we'd run out of garden space to plant all the vegetables we'd wanted to plant. Two years ago, we even 'borrowed' our neighbor's garden plot that he wasn't using, except for a couple of tomato plants. So this year, we decided to enlarge our own. Would the Pro-Line be up for it?

We weren't able to get started quite as soon as we'd liked, because when the tiller arrived, it had somehow been damaged in transit and was leaking oil. There were also a couple of parts missing - a lever knob and a keyed washer. It was several weeks before we finally were able to get the oil seal replaced and the missing parts we needed, but Heritage Farm Equipment came to our house, picked the tiller up, and delivered it back to us - repaired - the very next morning. Kudos to Heritage for such quick service! Troy-Bilt was also quite concerned about getting it taken care of, and because we'd had so much rain this spring, we weren't quite ready for the tiller anyway when it first got here.

Once we were able to use it for its intended purpose, we gave it a workout. Romie worked up the garden so we could get it planted and wow - the Pro-Line made quick work of it. A swipe across the garden just two times and the soil was wonderfully workable. With the old tiller, it would have taken more than a couple times across the garden, been harder to control, and taken much more time.

The Pro-Line, with its forward-rotating tines, can be guided with just one hand. While Romie is the one that does the tilling around here, I just had to try it to see if it really was as easy to guide as it looked. It was.

But how, I wondered, would it do when it came time to break new ground? Ideally, it would have been nice to have all the sod removed before trying to work up the ground, but this is a heavy-duty tiller and we felt that it should be able to dig right in and work up the ground anyway. So Romie moved on from the previously tilled garden to the edges, where we were enlarging.

It's a good thing I wasn't standing in the way of the tiller. As soon as the tines hit the sod, it was like the tiller had a mind of its own and it was getting the heck out of Dodge. It presented a pretty comical picture to see Romie trying to hang on and get it stopped before it reached the new flowering crab tree we'd just planted and tore it to smithereens.

He got it stopped and we looked at each other and started laughing. Okay, there must be a better way. After a discussion with my dad, we tried again, this time slowing the speed down as slow as it would go. There, that was better. It tore up the ground this time, although it didn't move with nearly the ease it had in the garden, of course. Our turf back there is pretty dense and is growing in clay, so that was some heavy duty groundbreaking it was being asked to do. Once we figured out better how to do it, the tiller rewarded us with new ground for gardening.

This is one powerful tiller. If you need to tear up new ground, this will do it. As far as the cultivating and tilling of a present garden, it handles that with no problems at all - and quickly.
It's got a power reverse feature, which makes it easier to handle when backing up. And surprisingly, this tiller is much quieter than our old one, which was a bit smaller. I thought it would be louder.

Romie was especially thrilled with how easily it started. When we were looking at the various tillers, we discussed getting one with an electric start, but we felt that it isn't worth the extra expense on the those models where it's available. One pull on this one and it started right up, every single time.

Troy-Bilt Pro-Line FRT Garden Tiller

Starting System	Recoil start
Transmission	Cast-iron transmission with bronze gear drive
Tine Direction	Forward-rotating
Frame Size	Medium frame - Accepts a variety of attachments
Speeds	1 forward with power reverse
Tilling Width	16"
Tines	12" diameter Bolo
Tilling Depth	Adjustable up to 8"
Attachments	Factory-installed protective front bumper included
PTO	N/A
Wheels	13" Ag
Side Shields	N/A
Warranty	Limited lifetime
Engine	160cc Honda OHV GX

Does it have any cons? For us, somewhat. At this point, we don't foresee tearing up any more new ground in the near or distant future. This tiller's strong point is the fact that it can do that if you need it to. But for working up present gardens, it's a bit of overkill and the size makes it a bit awkward to maneuver in non-standard shaped gardens with curvy edges or narrow spaces. It's doable, but a smaller tiller or cultivator would be better for us in this respect. Having both would be just the ticket.

Our overall experience with the Troy-Bilt company and this product wasn't perfect, but we felt that they were indeed concerned with making it the best possible and we were pleased to have the opportunity to test their product. They encouraged us to be absolutely forthcoming with all impressions, both good and bad, in an effort to help them make improvements, if necessary. The quality of the product can't be disputed and we wouldn't hesitate to consider Troy-Bilt in the future for any product the company makes.



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The product or merchandise being reviewed in this blog post was the sole compensation for testing and reviewing the product. All opinions expressed here are mine, with no suggestions whatsoever by the manufacturer or distributor. If I like it, I'll say so. If I don't, I'll say that, too.