Midwest Gardening REDO: Departing Lilies

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Midwest Gardening Gardening REDO: Departing Lilies.

    This is definitely and Old,New,Green,REDO post.

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This was last weekend before my surgery. A dear friend gifted me a five gallon bucket of Iris corms/roots from their developments thinning project. I have been having a tough time this summer accomplishing anything while unable to withstand the high temperatures. The garden had to pretty much take care of itself. But I had to take advantage of this great gift.

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I love Iris and have many in the front yard, but none in the back, so I decided to use them in this Well plot.

Right now the center pot sitting on our well pump is bedraggled like everything else. I really needed to get something done, as I knew I wouldn't be doing anything after the surgery on the 15th.

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Last year I had thinned the Tiger Lilies(ditch lilies) in this plot. It's roughly 8x8. But it was overgrown again this year because of all the early rains we had. Our well pump is in the middle, a ramp next to it, a 30 year old Clematis in the lower left corner and trellis but was totally overrun with Tiger Lilies.

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I actually like the lilies in arrangements, but I must confess that they had taken over the entire bed that used to also have room to put annuals, pots and statuary. The roots were starting to go into the lawn and pop up between the wood slats on the porch and ramp. 

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This was one of the first projects we did when we moved in in 1984. I'm not sure when, but we bought a bunch of bushes, plants, and bulbs from Michigan Bulb. One of their crazy 'plant a yard' specials...and that was the extent of enhancing our yard for years. I thinks we started with 4 Lily plants in this 8x8 plot.

Apparently I haven't shared many photos of this area since I started blogging, as I had to go back a few years to even find this from 2021. One thing about lilies, if you want something easy to take care of, to fill space, to stabilize hillsides, or shorelines, these darn Ditch Lilies are the plant for you. 

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Anyway the plan was to pull everything out except a line across the back.  I dug with pitch fork and shovel, and dug, and dug, and pulled and yanked.

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One of the goals was to save this Clematis on the left side. I carefully pullled all the Lily roots from around there also.

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This is @ 12" across and 8" Thick...solid roots. I shook all the dirt off (we have been very dry here the last 8 weeks.) 

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Roots so thick---it was like chopping rocks.

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I managed to spear a clump and my pitchfork got stuck, I had to cut the roots into pieces to get the pitchfork out.

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You know how you pick up tools, when you don't even know what they are for. This Husky tool was on sale last year super cheap. I have other garden tools with  the Husky handles which are so great, so I bought it for a dollar something---little did I know the saw tooth edge on the right would go right through these thick roots like 'BUTTUH". LOL

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I have Lilies elsewhere so all the roots/plants were tossed into the recycle bin.

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It took two days of cutting, pulling, digging and shaking the dirt off, but I filled this huge garbage can with JUST ROOTS.

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I was surprised at how great the dirt was despite nothing being done to it for such a long time.  Nice and black and crumbly, not at all like the original clay crap soil we started with. We added the used potato bin soil to it (1/2 compost + 1/2 new garden  soil)  and let it sit a day or two. We had another family crisis last week and finally on Monday Hubby helped me plant all the Iris, Tulips and Daffodils

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The Iris we planted were White, Blue, and Yellow.

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I also planted a ring of variegated Tulips, yellow Tulips, some Daffodils sprinkled around the edges.

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I made a block path behind the pump which will be serviced in early November. The upside down pot got replaced and set on a base of blocks. Because we have had terrible problems with critters this year, we put heavy plastic mesh fencing (two thicknesses) over all the plantings. Hopefully, this will keep the squirrels, chippies, moles, voles, and whatever else from feasting on everything and from digging up all the bulbs. 

Over the years we have probably planted a thousand tulip bulbs, and we are actually  happy when a few actually show up and bloom.

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 I also planted Baby tears around all the edges of the bed from the stuff hanging in the center pot!  This plant is one that keeps giving. With our milder winters now it pretty much will live anywhere in the ground. My original $15.00 purchase has created ground covers in multiple areas and plantings in all my pots. This year it was especially happy.

We are crossing our fingers on this new planting bed. There should be plenty of room for a nice annual pot in front of the Clematis, and places for a few other flowers after the Tulips and Daffodils are done. We will put a wood barrier in across the back to contain the remaining Lily plants. But that's it for now!

This was a HUGE THRIFTY REDO for us old folks, crossing my fingers. We are looking forward to a colorful Spring.

Tools and Supplies We used:

Shovel

Pitchfork

Husky cutting/bulb tool on sale last year.

Sweat...lol

Garbage can to recycle yard waste $0

1 bag of variegated Tulips $11.97

Leftover yellow Tulip bulbs from a gifted pot $0

Daffodils ( reused from the patch itself) $0

Iris (gifted corms from a friend) $0

Baby Tears cuttings for edges $0

Reused Dirt from potato bin $0

Mesh Fencing ($6.99)

Odd bricks and blocks from the yard $0

Replacement pot for covering the well. (reused) $0

NEXT:  We still have Carrots and Beets  in the vegetable garden that have to come up with the garden clean up.

We've had a few light frosts, but have another week of warm weather forecasted. So there is still time.

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 Sandi Magle

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