Saying Goodbye to the Tulips, Preparing for Supertunias

Hello friends and welcome to Garnet Creekside. Today we are going to be prepping the patio for our first supertunias in the landscape for 2025. I am so excited. It's a little bit of a bittersweet moment here because we are saying goodbye to the tulips. They're done. They're alive. We had a glorious spring. Check you out. Thanks so much. So we're going to take out the tulips. We are going to prune the sprinter boxwoods. We are going to kind of reconfigure the irrigation setup just a little bit. I'm going to bring Jerry over here to help me with that and then get the beds completely prepped so that way tomorrow we can go ahead and plant those first supertunias of the season. Yes, I am going to do supertunia mini vista white back here on the patio yet again. I just love those plants back here. We did them two years ago and they were phenomenal. We are going to repeat that. Keep it simple, sweetie. It is going to be a lovely, beautiful summer. Let me show you what we're going to do and let me show you all of my supplies that I have gathered. Of course, back here in the backyard, we did all of the tulips were the shots and struts blend from Colorblends. Yeah, they're done. They are gone. It's been a very windy spring here for us and so yesterday with the wind in the afternoon, it just basically took away all those petals. I'm not going to tackle the deck boxes today. I'm simply going to stay very focused and I'm going to be working in the beds. We're going to work in here and then all the way around. Now, these guys up here, they are done. However, as we pan around, first of all, Forest Pansy Redbud. Hello, gorgeous. Isn't she spectacular? Oh, beautiful. I need to get Jerry to get the drone up and do a little shot of that. Maybe we can do that at the end of the video today or we can do it when we get the supertingens in. We will do those, but the tulips in the back, they are still going glorious. The reason that we have such a difference in the blooms as far as the timing here, they are the exact same blend, but as I have told you many times before, this back patio is probably the hottest spot, one of the hottest spots in mind on the entire property. One is because the sun just beats down here basically from sun up to sun down and then two, of course, it is the patio between the stones of the patio and then the brick foundation. It is just really, really warm and so the tulips here were the very first ones to bloom on the property which was great because now we have this staggered display of flowers. So the ones in the landscape, they are staying. I am not going to touch those today. We are only going to work back here. I am trying to learn how to be a better planter in my brain because my brain always tells me, oh my gosh, you can get all this stuff done and I don't and then I feel kind of frustrated and disappointed at the end of the day. So we are going to pace ourselves today. So the tulips are coming out. I know for some of you that really bothers you. Tulips for us in North Carolina, a zone A, these tulips, they are an annual. They are not going to come back and if they do, let me show you a prime example right here. So last year, these guys right here, these were the tulips from last year. I didn't get all the bulbs out when I was pulling them out and look, we only have the strappy foliage, not one single flower. So when I tell you that the tulips are going to be annuals, I am not being wasteful. I am not lying. I am not trying to pull something over on you. They truly are annuals. We are okay with that. Colorblends talks about it, that that is what it is. It is what it is, my friends. Just like I don't try to save supertunias or salvia over from the year, they are just annuals. So they are coming out. We are going to take those out and then I cannot wait to do this. We are going to go ahead and prune our Sprinter boxwoods. We do them once a year. That is all it takes. Sprinter kind of gets its name because it is a fast grower and y'all, this is the time of year where they start to look woolly because they are so top heady. They desperately need to be pruned. You can see they have all this beautiful new foliage on them. So we are going to come in here and shape them up. If you don't prune the boxwoods, then they could easily kind of split open. So you can see, we are going to take a good bit of this off. Again, I prune them once a year. Once for me is enough. They have really put on this massive growth in the last couple of weeks or months. I would say probably about the last two months. So we are going to shape those up. I have already pruned back my camellias. This is the October Magic White Shishi and all I did was simply shape it. So you can see she has a nice rounded habit to it. You would not have even known that I pruned it if I did not tell you. So just a nice shape on that. This is a great time to go ahead and prune your camellias. So if you have Sasanquas, they bloom in the fall. Great time to do it. And your japonicas, my japonicas are still blooming. So once they finish blooming, if you need to, you don't have to, but if you need to shape them up, that would be a great time to do it is after they flower. Don't touch them. Don't touch them. I would say past end of May because you need that plenty of time for them to put on their new buds for next year. So what we are going to do first is get the tulips out. So I have my Hori Hori with me and then I have my little tub right here. Johnny is back there. John Deere. We call him Johnny. So I will dump all of that debris in there. And then I have got my case trimmers. These are electric case trimmers. Jerry got them for me a couple of years ago. Love it because I don't have to worry about cranking it. It's battery operated. Does exactly what I need to do here around the gardens. And so we're going to do that. Shape them up. I have my little hand rake. This is going to come in quite handy when it is time to get all the debris up from the boxwoods. So I've got that. I've got my cushy kneeling pad to keep the knees safe here on the patio. And yeah, and then of course I've got my furry friend. She is hanging out underneath Johnny. If you can see that she's already finding the shade with her stick. So all the tulips are going to come out and then we are going to trim up the cleaned up. The hard part of today is done. Got the tulips out. They were pretty easy to go ahead and pull out. I do like to use my Hori Hori so that way I can get all of the bulb out as we don't have any little sprouts coming back next year. And then of course getting those boxwoods pruned. Yes they're nice little meatballs right now. Are they absolutely perfect? No they are not. Perfection is only found in the dictionary. But man do they look a million times better. Yes, yes they do. So nice and tight. Got everything cleaned up. You'll see there's still some little remnants of the boxwoods in the flower beds. That's no big deal because we're going to come back through and top dress all of this when we're done. And so that'll just go back into the earth and it will be just fine. We will get everything cleaned up and nice and neat and tidy. My alarm is going off. So we don't have to worry about that. Now sweet thing is going to be joining me here in just a second because we're going to be revamping the irrigation a little bit. So there he is. So what we're going to do is because when we put these beds in, we installed irrigation. And what you looking for honey? The fittings? No? I never saw them. Okay. So there is black tubing. This is solid tube in there. And so that's what has always been in here. And then we just put emitters on the shrub. What Jerry's doing is putting back together. Watch the rose. She'll get you. Last year I had come in and added a little micro tubing because I have got clematis back there. Let's see if the camera will show you. The brown tubing that's sticking up, that's the little micro tubing. So it's wrapped around the clematis. And then I felt like I needed a little extra more around the roses. So then it came back around the roses. So that's what's in here. That black solid pipe is through here. And like I said, the emitters are on the shrub. That is for the same for both of the flower beds. So what we're going to do today is because we know we plant the annuals down the front and I have to hand water those because there's no irrigation on that. So we're going to install the drip tubing that is right here. This is that brown drip tubing that we use in basically all of our our landscapes. And you can see that it has the emitters already in here. This one looks like it's maybe about every 18 inches. It's by Rain Bird. You can get them at different intervals, the 12 inches, 18 inches. 18 will be fine. I might prefer a 12, but 18, it'll work. It'll be just fine. So what we're going to do is connect into that solid pipe. And you can really see it down here where I had transplanted Elizabeth, which she's doing good. Look at her, all flushed out. So what we'll do is just connect in to this pipe and then run that brown tubing down all the way in the front and then probably tie back in to have a closed system down there by the gardenia. So we'll do that on this side and then we'll kind of come over here and we found the tubing behind the gardenia. You can see that down there. So it's down there. So we'll tie into that and then run it down the length right here in front of the boxwoods and the camellias. Then what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and curl it around this boxwood because in this bed, I have got two David Alston's and the Blue Chiffon Rose of Sharon. Now, if you're followers of us, you're like, Jenny, what in the world happened? So I did have Emily Bronte right here and Emily Bronte is a gorgeous rose, but she was a big girl. So yesterday, I dug her up and I put her in the backyard bed and then when I bought my David Alston's, I added another Desdemona. So baby Desdemona has a lot of catching up to do with big sister Desdemona, but she'll get there. It'll be fine. But this bed has never been on irrigation. I've got the pipe in it. We've never connected it as you can see right here. So what we're going to do, what Jerry's going to do for me is we're going to bring that tubing, come down here, curl it around, cut, make some elbows and just have it hug right up against the wall and the patio and then come down and then that'll all be in one system. So that's a lot of irrigation to be doing right now, but one, it's not going to be hard because the bones are in. So it'll be super easy to do. Two, now is the perfect time to do it because we've already, quote, you know, deconstructed the bed and then when we put these annuals in and everything else back in, then we can cover it all back up and you'll never even know that anything was there. So Jerry's working on this right now. So let me show you. So what he has done is cut it, use the Felco's, cut that black tubing and he's putting in a teak. So you reconnect it and then all we have to do is simply come in and then put the brown tubing right where his thumb is right there and then run it. Easy peasy as that. Right, hon? Uh-huh, he says. All right, so we're just complete. The patio prep for the first Supertunias of 2025 is complete and oh my goodness, already she looks amazing and we don't even have any flowers in it yet. So Jerry, of course, came and helped me. We got that irrigation put down and let me just walk you through what we did, right? So what we did, bless you, the pollen is absolutely horrible. We went ahead and did the black gold. This is the Ultra Outdoor Planting Mix. This is what I used to put the chicken coop in the fall for my animals and y'all, they are still rocking. So this is a great way to amend your soil. You can, of course, plant directly in it. It is OMRI listed certified, so that means it is a certified organic. So you can put your vegetables in it, you can put your herbs, it is lovely. Of course, you can put your flowers in it too, but it is a great blend of compost and that pine bark. So you can see you've got the aged pine bark in there and then, of course, that beautiful compost. These plants are going to absolutely love it. Remember, your soil is like your best friend in the garden. It is your number one helper. If you have really healthy, happy soil, you're going to have really happy, healthy plants and gorgeous flowers. So especially if you have clay soil like I do, we can't preach it enough. Amend, amend, amend, amend. Especially if you have an area where you're doing your annuals over and over again. Basically, we switch out our annual plantings really like twice a year. And so those plants are very heavy feeders. And then, of course, we get tons of rain here in North Carolina. So maybe not so much right here in the patio, but out in the landscape, all that great top soil, that rich compost, it washes over time. And so you've got to bring it back and amend it so that your plants can grow really strong and happy and healthy. If you do it, especially in your annual areas, you are going to notice a massive difference and you're not going to be out there watering as much and you're not going to be out there fertilizing as much. And in the long run, that is a huge time saver and that is a big deal for me. So what we went ahead and did is because tomorrow when we come back and put the super tuning and mini distal whites in here, of course, they're just going to go up here in the front. But when we're done, I'm going to top dress the whole bed with the daddy Pete that age pine bark fine. So in order so we didn't have to be once the petunias are planted, I didn't want to have to be traipsing back and forth over them. I might accidentally step on them. So we went ahead and put the daddy Pete basically from, I don't know what, halfway where the shrubs are to the back. So this is what it's going to look like when it's all done and you have the petunias in there. It's a little thing to make it just a little bit easier. I'm trying to work a little smarter and not harder next tomorrow when I have the petunias in there. And so this will be that nice daddy Pete. You can see it's in here. So all of that is good to go. When I plant my mini vistas, I will come in here because I like to know where my irrigation line is. So I'll just come in here and just lift it up just a little bit so that I can see it. And I know that I'm not trying to plant a plant directly on top of it. So I'll slightly lift it up, but we'll go over that tomorrow. Another place that we're going to put the mini vista whites are underneath the lanterns. So this bed right here will be nothing but the mini vista whites. Didn't do anything of that today. We'll just wait till tomorrow and we can do that tomorrow. But yeah, let me give you a quick little a little look-see here because I want you to see this forest pansy. This is a redbud, a forest pansy redbud. So redbuds are native to the southeast. You can be driving down the road and see them. This particular cultivar is a forest pansy and we have had it for over 15 years. I remember I was pregnant with Jackson when we bought it as a 15 gallon and you can see she takes up basically the entire flower bed right here. Absolutely love it. It is also so fun because the redbuds, if you can see, I'm trying to get to it without stepping on my plants. Excuse me for one second. Can you see how the flowers are coming directly out of the bark? Isn't that cool? I mean just absolutely covered in those sweet little flowers. Pretty soon the floor here of the garden is going to be absolutely covered in pink. Those little tiny pink petals. So again, I'm tiptoeing out of the garden. So I just wanted to show you that because she is looking quite spectacular for sure. Now just to give you a little sneak peek of what we're going to do as far as annuals go back here in the back. I've got my jonquils are blooming and man they smell so good. So we've talked about this before. I have got three summerific lilac crush hibiscus right here and they love this spot but they love it way too much and they're hindering my nine bark growing and then this gardenia. I should not have put three here. They just are very happy, very vigorous. So what we're going to do is once the daffodils are finished blooming, I'm going to have Jackson come back in with the excavator and we're going to lift these three lilac crushes out of the ground. I'm going to probably dig up, it'll dig up my daffodils. So that's okay. So that's why I'm going to wait till they're done and then we'll replant them. I'll probably go ahead and divide them and add them in some other areas but we're going to dig up the lilac crush and then we're going to move them back here to this backyard bed that we have not redesigned yet. So because we love the lilac crush, it is a gorgeous color. So basically what we're going to do is we're going to have one kind of behind the birdhouse where that was the valentine's crush. We got rid of that one. So we're going to have a lilac crush one and then kind of behind the forsythia two and then three. Now you may say, why are you gonna put it right behind the forsythia? Well, one, the forsythia is blooming right now, right? She's beautiful but you saw what the lilac crush looked like. They're still dormant. They haven't even sprouted yet. So when the forsythia is big and beautiful, you won't see the hibiscus and then vice versa because as soon as the forsythia gets done blooming then I really trim it because it's such a vigorous grower. I really trim it and then it's just a pretty green and then you'll have that lilac crush that's a very upright grower behind it. So it'll all work together. So that is the plan on that. Let me show you Emily Bronte. Remember I told you that I moved her out of the patio garden yesterday and brought her down here. I am very pleased with her because she is not even wilting at all and it has been quite warm yesterday and today. I really amended the soil with compost. I poured a five gallon bucket of water on her and so she's doing great. I did prune her quite severely before I moved her. She was probably like up to here. I mean she was really tall. Tons of foliage on it. So I cut it back so that way she doesn't have as much to sustain during this transition. She absolutely will still bloom but that's just a little key tip. Look at that. She's so happy. I just see a little bit of curl on that one leaf. Happened yesterday but everybody else is nice and perky. So very good. I will just watch the water on her for that. But yes there you go my friends. So tomorrow yes we will do the mini distal whites and then before I know it the tulips in the landscape will be done. I suspect probably about this time next week they will be done. So then we will come and take those out. We are going to do mini distal whites here. Last year we did snow drift. This year we're going to do mini distal white. So basically everything up on the patio is going to be mini distal white and then here in the backyard in the three corners here we're going to do supertunia mini distal plum vein. That is the new one this year with the new unplugged white salvia. So that's going to happen in those main three areas. I have always done it also in this last corner underneath the maple tree but I've noticed especially last year I just didn't get very much sun once the maple tree leafs out. So what we're going to do is we're going to plant hydrangeas right there. So I have got three gorgeous let's dance sky view hydrangeas. They're hanging out the chicken coop. They're the holding zone and so we are going to plant them there. Reblooming macrophylla hydrangea cannot wait. So it's been a great day here in the garden but we are done and so we will see y'all tomorrow. If you have found this fun, informative, and inspirational we would love it if you would like this video and subscribe to Drone and Freak Side. That way you don't miss those five videos we produce every week. Y'all have an amazing day. We'll see in the next video. Bye friends.