Tasks
⛏ Take out the tiny remaining Weihenstephaner sedums. They don't thrive.
🚜 Move gravel from areas where it is too deep to other spots.
December 29
Blogging
I got the pencil icon editing tool back!
The fix: in Safari, under Preferences, I went to Privacy and unchecked "prevent cross site tracking". Somehow that fixed it.
The in-post editing has been missing for a year or so and updating plant profiles has been such a chore.
The edit tool returned on my outfit style blog too, which I don't need as I rarely go back to old posts for updating anything. It did not appear on my Enchanted blog, I think because it is a different template perhaps.
December 25
Christmas Rain
Cold, damp, soft rain all day. Gloomy outside but festive indoors. A half inch of rain in the gauge.
Merry Christmas!
December 24
A Revamp
I'm having trouble keeping the plant profiles on the site updated. I have hundreds of photos to go through (good activity for these cold dark days at the beginning of winter) but then I have to update each plant's info and it gets unwieldy.
I don't actually go back and read the long history of each plant, the format is awkward. Multiple year updates with many photos make it hard to follow. Too lengthy, too many photos, and I never settled on describing things in reverse order (newest year first) or in linear format from first year scrolling all the way down to the most recent year. It was all confusing and hard to update.
I just want to document:
1. what specific cultivar it is . . . .2. when did I plant it . . . .3. where did I get it from.
A few notes on what I expected and what the history was. That's all. Not the long photo-intensive write ups and history updated each year that are so hard to do, especially after already key-wording them on iPhotos, then writing about them in my journals, and even sometimes doing an occasional post on my main blog.
So, I am taking all the photos off each individual plant post. I'll keep a record of plant name, date bought and some notes, but then just a link to google photos for an array of all the photos of that plant.
It's simple and easy, even updating the google photos from my camera and iPhoto each time I add a picture is quick.
December 15
Mighty Wind
Mostly the squall delivered high wind, and the birdhouse that I had hung on the fence came crashing down, along with the brace that I had hung it from.
The brace was wobbly and old, it was loosely attached to the fence behind the Spanish broom and I could finally see it when the broom was removed this fall.
It was the perfect spot to put the birdhouse and I loved looking out the kitchen window to see it. A focal point.
Now it's on the ground, set on the rocks by the fence.
December 13
Watered Today
We have had no moisture at all since October 1. That's 10 weeks now without any rain or snow. Even plants that like dry conditions and good winter drainage can't go without any water at all.
It got up to 51 degrees this afternoon so I got the hoses out and hooked them up and hand watered most everything (but not the big established trees and shrubs). It's different watering in winter -- the ground, thawed out now but frozen at night, doesn't drain as well, and there's little evaporation. So it's hard to know how much to soak things.
I didn't want to overwater and leave things sitting in cold and frozen sogginess. But I was afraid I was just wetting the new mulch and not getting anything down into the soil. I'm not sure what I accomplished.
It took a little over an hour.
I had to unhook everything and bring it all back into the garage when done. This is a tough season for watering.
December 1
Decorated for Christmas
This new one is much easier to assemble, but not as nice or full or evenly branched or evenly lit. But with more open space, the ornaments hang better.
I did a tree + polar bear thing on the mantel. It needs something, not sure what. It's nice, but arranged kind of stiffly, strung out along the beam. Must fix.
The tree has a remote to light it up with all white, all blue and green colored, and then mixed. It's awfully bright, not as subtle as the other one.
I'm not really into the season and found it a bit of chore to get the tree up and decorate.
I'm waiting for the season's festiveness to hit me, but it's not there yet.
November 27
Moved rocks
Well below freezing overnight and in the mornings, but the afternoon today was sunny, still, and in the 50s. I cut back perennials, and moved the two mossy rocks near the crabapple that were bothering me.
The strip of chunky rocks is, by design, uneven and jagged, for a natural look. But there were some rocks right at the curve by the crabapple that stuck up too much, were too uneven and just bothered me. So I dug them out, set them a little lower and switched places with two and it's better. Hands and knees work, moving gravel -- I do so little so slowly now and don't get much accomplished. But this got done okay.
I have raccoons. They dug big holes in the potting bench curve, leaving mounds of dirt as they searched for insects in the fresh moist mulch. They left a huge (huge) pile of scat. They didn't eat any plants, but disrupted roots and probably the new irrigation emitters too.
I sprayed the area with rabbit repellant -- hope it's smelly enough to deter them. My largest Havahart trap isn't big enough for these big raccoons.
November 22
Dry fall
No rain since October 1 and, while everything is going dormant and we're having freezing nights now, the soil is bone dry and everything needs a good soaking on warm days. The ground is not yet frozen.
November 20
Clean Up and Mulch
🍂 Jeronimo's crew raked and blew all the leaves and it looks so much better now. I can see all the plants and know where to cut back, etc. I had to clean out what was behind the potting bench and a few other spots but they generally did a great job.
I spread 9 of the 10 bags of small bark mulch. It didn't look like 10 bags would cover everything laid bare by the leaf blowers, so I was spreading thinly to make it last. I can use the last bag in odd spots or to cover containers.🍂
November 18
First Freeze
It's been a lovely fall, but last night was a real freeze, finally. Mid twenties when I got up. I brought the hoses in last night.
The viburnum is having its day at last, with mixed jewel tones.
November 12
Leaves Are Smothering
I got 10 bags of the small bark mulch from Newmans -- it's finally back in stock. I have bare spots that the skimpy original amount didn't really cover, and I need to put more down at the potting bench. And still hopefully have some bags left over on reserve.
But the leaves are down and smothering everything and I need to wait for Jeronimo from Green Garden Landscaping to come. His crew will be here Friday the 19th to vacuum up all the leaves, Jim finally isn't doing it this year thank goodness. It's hard on his back and we wind up with bags and bags of leaves to dispose of (cottonwood and aspen don't break down into mulch very well.)
I brought the white prayer flag string in for winter. And put the birdbath in the garage. Still need to bring in all the hoses -- it hasn't been below freezing yet other than a brief bit at night sometimes.
November 7
Back Home
We are back after 10 days in California seeing Pam, and then with Tom and Z and the cutest granddaughter ever. After we left, Greg arrived at Tom's for a visit too. Here are my boys . . . and my girl . . .
When we got back almost all the leaves were down from the cottonwood, although some still persist. The cottonwood on the hill beyond us hasn't lost any leaves yet and is a glittery golden yellow over the garage roofline. Our tree is stressed I think.
The amsonias at the guest room window corner have finally turned a nice yellow.
The aspen leaves are almost completely down now. Nordstrum's are totally gone and only a few on our side hang on.
The real sight upon returning was the Japanese maple, still red and still fully clothed. It looks great.
When will it begin to lose leaves . . . or will they hang on all winter? We have had a couple nights below 32, but nothing to fry the leaves yet.
It was warm and dry for the 10 days we were gone and nothing got watered, but all looked good for the end of the year. A freeze is coming later next week.
October 26
Even Redder
No, really. . .
There has been no hard freeze and none forecast for the next 10 days, so the leaves have had a chance for the first time to show their color.
But a storm with wind and a little bit of rain came through today and knocked off a lot of the aspen and cottonwood leaves. Leaves on the ground are now smothering what is left of my fall gardens.
We leave for California in two days and by the time we are back on November 7 there will be no leaves left I'm sure.
But I wonder if this Japanese maple will still have them? The wind didn't seem to affect it at all today.
When we get back we have to get the leaves up and I have to cut back perennials!
October 23
The Last Little Oak
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| The 4 oaks -- the newest little green transplant is lower right |
It re-grew more leaves in the pot, but did not put on any size.
I wanted to plant it, but where?
Today I finally put it out in the field, now making a staggered line of four small Gambel oaks. I did not dig much of a hole, certainly not the deep holes I had created previously. But I loosened some sand and caliche, added compost, watered, and called it ok. I spread lots of mulch around.
The other three are doing well, and even coloring for fall. Let's see how this one does.
October 22
Some reds
The Japanese maple, seen from inside the window is really nice now.
And the Bartzella peony has great fall color.
And the redtwig dogwood has deep red color. It's still in the turquoise pot, but now behind the deck instead of featured out on the open corner.
October 20
Aspens Turn Color
Just this week the aspens have turned gloriously yellow.
I keep trying to capture the red of the Seiryu Japanese maple, but the camera never quite gets it. It is not bright red, but it is definitely a deep red color this fall for the first time.
A couple days ago I added compost and Yum Yum mix to the Apache plumes and the Russian sages in the field and then added mulch around them. They've been out there for a couple years now, and they live but haven't done much. I need them to start to bulk up.
The Gambel oaks, just planted this year, are still tiny but are now getting a bit of fall color on their handful of tiny leaves.
Another shot of yellow aspens in the back . . .
And for the first time the Russian stonecrop under the one in front has turned lovely shades of apricot and gold. The two in the dining room window garden got trampled and are suffering bit -- they have no color.
This was a little unexpected.
October 17
Nice Weather Returns
The cold and gloom and gray and wind have passed and nice sunny weather is back. Mornings are cold and the heat is on, but midday is warm and lovely. Temps are no longer dipping below freezing at night, but the Virginia creeper vine is already kaput and the David Verity cuphea is gone.
The Japanese maple is getting redder and redder! Not bright, but nicer red than any year previous. And the plumbagos below it are scarlet red -- need more of those!
October 14
Two nights flirted just below freezing, and Jeronimo came yesterday and blew out the new irrigation system for the winter season. I still have hoses hooked up, it is not forecast for freezing again any time soon. But fall is definitely getting colder.
The dark blue 'First Choice' caryopteris, still small but getting some size, has been blooming nonstop for a long time and still going strong. The flowers are an intense blue.
I've lost a couple of the 'Shimmer' evening primroses I just planted along the side fence and will need to replace them in spring.
Can it really be? I'm seeing tints of real red -- not scarlet, but a wine tinge -- on the Japanese maple. Not the browned out leaves of prior seasons, a real coloring on healthy leaves so far.
I continue to be really pleased with the new garden where the Spanish broom was taken out. The trees have to get some size to shade and enclose, but I really like the composition!
October 10
Fall
The weather has been mostly overcast and gloomy, but this is the first year the Virginia creeper has turned red! It's quite colorful, more coppery when the sun comes out, but red on a cloudy or hazy day.
I've never seen it color up like this, usually a hard frost in late September or early October turns it brown.
And the plumbagos in the dining room window garden are bright red, smothered by fallen cottonwood leaves.
I want to get more Ceratostigma pumbagoides to make the strip of them extend on the other side of the rock swale, running by the portal.
And do I even see a bit of color in the 'Seiryu' Japanese maple?
Like the Virginia creeper, this tree usually goes brown after a hard frost in late September or early October, and never colors up. This year I see a bit!
October 5
10 Bags of mulch
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| Despite my complaints, it looks fantastic! |
I wanted more volume in this new garden, and had spread 10 bags of compost already, which doesn't go far.
I spread the 10 bags of wood chip mulch and needed to go back for at least 5 more -- plus I have to mulch the potting bench curve and put some out in the field for more coverage too.
They were out. No more expected.
I can get another kind from another nursery. But it will be a different color and texture. So I went home and raked up what I had spread in fluffy mounds to move it out over the bare areas. The mulch layer now is thin everywhere.
This is what I wanted to avoid by having a professional landscaper come in -- I didn't want to be doing my usual amateur hands and knees job of too little, too sparse, too puny. I didn't want to be compensating for what my garden lacks and fiddling with halfway fixing things.
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| Really, why am I complaining? The thin spread layer of mulch looks fine. |
I wanted a new garden installed --- gravel and landscape fabric removed, nice fresh soil, volume and contour, a designed space and a created garden. Really Jeronimo just did the irrigation installation, laid rock borders where I showed him, and called it done. Didn't even remove the irises, I had to do that. Didn't add any soil volume or contour the area.
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| Before and after! |
It's fine, really. Better than fine, I love it.
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| More before and after |
October 3
More Stuff Undone
I asked to have the garden under the aspens expanded, and specifically to have the gravel removed, and new soil put down. 
They did rake away some gravel, simply moving it out to the path between deck and garden, raising that area up. They did not dig out or actually remove any gravel, and left the landscape fabric under it.
They put new soil on top of the gravel, so now to get it away from the aspen trunks, I had to dig out deep wells.
To plant things in the new expanded area I had to chip out gravel with the Cobrahead, tear up what I could reach of bits of landscape fabric and of course none of that got done well.
But I moved and re-planted what I could. Mostly to get the coneflowers and Biokovo geraniums and black-eyed Susans away from the growing (slowly) Japanese forest grasses. The grasses need more room and I had planted too closely.
So I moved a lot. The area is now edited down and much more open with more blank space. I had originally tried to fill it with color and tightly planted things, but it looks much better more open and "woodsy", with fewer different plants.
I wait and wait for those grasses to bulk up and spill.
I took out irises and blanketflowers and put the struggling aronia at the back of the garden along the rr ties.
I did add one more Texas betony lambsear next to the existing one -- the original one doesn't look like much (open, a little yellow and scraggly) while the one in the dining room window garden is full and blooms forever. Need to work on this.
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| Does it look better to have the aspens inside the garden? The edging is too close, and that looks odd, but there was not much room to come out any further away from the trunks. |
The soil in the potting bench curve is not dry -- it is getting watered -- but when I dug up plants to move them, the soil was hard and clumpy. Not moist, really, and not soft or friable, just crumbly and hard.
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| I thought I would like the expanded space with the trees inside a nice border better. It's okay but an odd shape. |
I am wanting to get down on hands and knees and move the rocks in the border to re-shape it. Make it wider near the tree trunks and a softer curve. A lot of work for another day . . .
Meanwhile I am loving the new birdbath garden where the Spanish broom was. Kind of structured and formal but really pleasing.
I took the Sweet Summer Love clematis out of its pot and put it among the rocks under the shepherd's crook and hung a slinky from the pole for the vine to climb (note: the slinky had already deteriorated and rusted out in the soil of the pot in places. Hmm.)
Still to do:
MulchMove gravel
Replace the overturned broken strawberry pot and the cairn by the garage door
October 2
Work Undone
I asked to have the irises removed from the strip along the side fence, and Jeronimo had his men do that.
But . . all they did was cut the iris foliage down. I could have done that myself with scissors. They did not dig up a single iris. Aaarghh.
So today, on hands and knees, using my Cobrahead digger, I took them out. It took all morning and filled 3 trugs with all the debris that I now have to get rid of. But it turned out they did dig up easily enough after our recent rain.
I was annoyed, though. When done, I planted 8 Shimmer evening primroses to spread out and fill the area. They will take very poor rocky soil and little water.
(He did run lines out there, and put emitters inside the hesperaloes -- let's see what they do with water! But there are no emitters where the evening primroses are. That can be done next spring.)
The grassy foliage of the Shimmer evening primroses is silvery blue and mirrors the foliage of the three hesperaloe clumps.
The evening primroses will spread out over the rocks. I wonder if I'll get flowers as prolific as the pictures show?
After that project I dug up the struggling Siskiyou Blue fescue from the dining room window garden, and potted it in the third shiny red container.
As I suspected, it struggled because of a large cottonwood root right under it and a nest of finer cottonwood roots all around it. The roots were very dry. The three in a line hide the irrigation pipe and box cover nicely.
Then I moved the Owls Claw plant from the dining room window garden to the potting bench curve to join the others. No flowers after two years. . . nothing at all yet.
I moved the struggling blue-leaved lambsear forward toward the front of the garden under the aspen. More moves to come as I create more space around the three Japanese forest grasses. Some day they will be big and fountainy! I really need to edit down this garden under the aspens . . . .
The poor aspens are buried 10 inches deep now, with dirt and old gravel and new soil mounded up against their trunks. . . I tried to dig out holes for them.
In other news, the plumbagos are a brilliant red -- smothered a bit in cottonwood leaves, but still nice.
I really want to create a larger stand of these by planting more across the rock swale. A project for next spring.
October 1
Like the Old Days
It rained a half inch overnight.
Yesterday felt like 10 years ago when I would prune and move rocks and dig holes all day, coming in for lunch then going back out. At the end of a day of hauling and toting and getting dirty, I'd come in tired but rewarded. Except now I am more tired, more achy.
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| In progress: I like the stone border but need to fill in around it more, make it stick up less like a wall. |
I trimmed the privet, dug out the excess dirt they piled on it (I did ask them to move some out and they did, but not enough.) I raked dirt and filled the hole they left next to the control box.
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| In progress: The crabapple and redbud are still so little, but will eventually provide some height and shade and a frame to view the birdbath. |
Boy I hate the "soil" they put in, it's just sand and annoying white perlite. The sand blew off and it's all perlite now (they did put down some gorgeous fluffy soil under the aspens, though. Why not in the new garden space?)
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| In progress: Why sand + perlite? Ugh, hate this. It will be covered by mulch. |
I find myself laboriously adding volume and covering the perlite with bagged compost. But when I go to plant it's just sand under the birdbath and around the moss rocks in back. Pure sand with some compost on top now. Well, the drainage is good.
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| In progress: The birdbath and plantings look stranded now, but will be nice when the mulch is down and it's all finished off. That damn perlite annoys. |
I planted the creeping thyme I saved, the blanketflower and the orange agastaches around the birdbath. I put the three kinnikinniks I saved in front of the moss rocks I moved to the back.
I had moved some of the moss rocks to make openings in what was really a little wall they built. I used the extra rocks in an informal curve along the fence line and like it a lot. I put the smallest of the rusting plant stands by the rocks to use as a bench. I like it.
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| In progress: The rocks at the back actually draw the eye and finish the area off. |
I put three red pots in front of the pipe and control box. They hide them well. It's so much better to have the red volcanic rocks gone, and this corner now a part of the whole yard.
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| In progress: need to pot up the 3rd red pot with another blue grama grass. How nice to actually see the redbud now, featured. |
Is this too kitschy? Too cute? The birdhouse that I have had for years, hanging on the fence (there was a wooden brace there behind the Spanish broom), hanging over the birdbath . . . too much?
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| In progress: birdhouse on the fence -- too cute? |
I like it, though.
September 30
I'm Feeling 72
I am feeling every bit of 72 now as I work to even out what Green Garden left for soil levels in the new garden, as I move gravel to fill spots they left uncovered, and as I spread 10 bags of compost for planting (need 10 more).
I planted the globemallow and mock orange (not enough soil for the mock orange, and it will likely languish as the aronia did. In fact, it's now planted square on top of two large irrigation pipes, next to the old aspen stump and in very little good dirt.)
I hurt. Not a good, tired hurt, but a barely-able-to-move hurt. I'm 72. There is a lot more to do.
The system ran for the first time today. Seems to be working okay. A couple hours after it ran, it started to rain lightly. Rain is forecast today, tonight and tomorrow. Of course.
But the rain made me come in and rest even though there are more bags of compost to spread, plants to move and to get in the ground, gravel to spread . . . . I'm wiped out.
September 29
Finished
We have irrigation. The whole new area where the broom was taken out has piping but no heads installed -- that will wait until I figure out where plants will go. He'll come back in spring and add heads where needed.
Jeronimo said the program was M W F, but it's hard to tell on the dial -- the day setting arrow points exactly midway between the day labels. So it could be Sun. Tues. Thurs. It's actually a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday schedule.
Three zones are for trees & shrubs and run for an hour each, in order starting at 5 a.m., then 6 a.m., then 7 a.m. An hour every other day seems excessive for mature trees and shrubs. Is it?
After that, starting at 8 a.m. three more zones run consecutively for perennials, one for 20 minutes, one for 45 minutes and the last one for 45 minutes. So they also get every other day watering, but for a little less time. That seems more appropriate.
I'm concerned about the trees and shrubs getting too much, though, and will need to see if I can tinker with the control box to get the first three zones to go on once a week maybe? I have the manual and instructions and the controls allow for multiple schedules.
September 27
We Will Have to Hide Things
They didn't show up until after lunch -- no call or update, just didn't appear Monday morning after the weekend. But in the afternoon work continued as they installed the control box and the hookup to the faucet.
We're going to have to hide some stuff.
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| The area near the lid of the green box will be filled in a bit more, but we'll have to put something in front of the silver pipes to hide them. |
The connection to the faucet is a silver tube that snakes out and under the rosemary - not at all hidden or subtle, right at the kitchen door.
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| Not great. I can disguise it a bit more and we'll take the tags off, but ugh. |
Piled up dirt needs to be pulled away from the trunks of the little redbud and crabapple -- they are choking in dirt. And the soil needs to be pulled away from the privet too. Work to be done after they leave.
September 24
Day Five - Garden re-do
I'm going to have to re-do and replant things in spring.
A lot of my plants are wilted and some are dug up (tulips, some plumbagos, some monardellas, lost some orange geums . . .) from all the tromping about in this dry week, but that's to be expected and I will need to replant some things in spring.
I need to have them run an emitter to the empty spot where the aronia was taken out -- I'm putting in a mock orange there.
They put emitters out to the corner where the blackfoot daisies are, and those don't want regular irrigation. Can I shut off those emitter caps? Or should I move the blackfoot dishes out to the field and put something else (a nice gaura maybe) in at the corner?
September 22
Day Three - Garden re-do
I don't want to look. This is the disruptive part: trenches dug, gravel pulled away, plants dug around and kneeled on and trampled. Ack.
They are being careful and working neatly, but there is no getting around the mess of all this. The dirt has to be removed, tubing laid, all kinds of mess and all the plants are in the way. There is a crew of men in the yard and all around us all day.
I don't want to look!
September 20
Day One - Garden re-do
Green Garden Landscaping came today and took out the Spanish broom. They removed the red volcanic rocks and dug out the gray pea gravel.
Already I like the openness, even with the raw dirt and landscape fabric yet to be removed. From the kitchen window there is someplace for the eye to go -- not far, but so much better than seeing nothing but that bulky shrub.
This was long overdue. Now, what to plant or what to put in this new space that preserves the openness but brings the eye somewhere? I can't wait to see it finished off, with new soil and mulch and moss rocks bordering it . . .
September 18
Shrubblers are gone
Jeronimo at Green Garden said his crew would take it up and dispose of it, but on the east side I had laid a convoluted pattern of tubes and elbows snaked under rocks and plants, and I knew where everything wandered to -- so I wanted to get at it to take it out. It turned out to be easy enough to remove.
On the west side the pattern was more straightforward. I disconnected the timers but will leave the lines for the crew to dismantle.
Boy did I hate to rip out everything I had put in. But the Shrubblers just aren't designed for what I wanted. They did make me realize the value of a full irrigation system after dithering for four years about it.
September 16
Getting ready
Green Garden Landscaping comes on Monday, just three more days. I'm getting ready for them, just as my current irrigation solutions are suddenly failing. Both of the Y splitters at the faucets broke at the fitting within days of each other. I took both off, and put replacements on. Then the timer on the east side inexplicably malfunctioned today, flashing 5:52 and not doing anything.
Green Garden will take out the edging, remove all the red volcanic rock, and make this whole area part of the larger new bed replacing much of the gray pea gravel.
It will be one big bed, cohesive and tied together. I need to figure out what to plant and what I want to do with the whole space.
I did save four big clumps of thyme, and I may plant those somewhere once all the work is completed. They are easy enough to get -- Pink Chintz is always in stock at nurseries -- so I can always buy more, but it's great to have some large, spreading plugs already. Not sure what I'll do with them.
It catches evening light. The small medium green leaves and tiny orange firecracker flowers look delicate and elegant.
The plant is not very full this year -- not sure why, but it's sparse. Still lovely, and even prettier in this more open, graceful way.
September 14
Designing a new space
I'm fretting endlessly about what to do with the open space once the Spanish broom comes out. It's so big and dark and bulky that I can't visualize what it will look like without it.
When they come next week, they will not only take out the big shrub, but also the metal edging where the thyme is. We added so much gravel in an attempt to bring the flat yard area up to the cover the edging -- then I added thyme to drape over it. You can see how that edging looked originally:
Yikes. And look how small the Chinese privet by the (unpainted) garage door was.
I think I'll dig up and pot as much of the thyme as I can so they can take out the edging and rocks. Then this space will be one large mulched area and I can start from scratch without dividing the areas with the curved line of thyme.
I know the feel I want, but I'm not sure how to achieve it.
I want the gracefulness of Joan's garden that leads your eye. A small space, but with flow. She has shade, though, that I won't have until the crabapple and redbud get some size. By extending the area from the patio table to the garage wall, without the break of the edging and volcanic rocks, will I get more "flow"?
I want the wandering paths and hilled gardens of Andrea's space that takes you places. She has a square plot, not the narrow strip I have, though. Will I have room for paths, the birdbath surrounded by plants to walk around, something for background on the fence line?
September 12
Rock Piles
I'm getting ready for Green Garden Landscaping to come in a week and take out the Spanish broom, remove the gravel and add some soil. I thought I would remove the circle of rocks around the broom and the privet to make it clear where I wanted the soil added.
The several inches of gravel we added in 2017 when we first moved in ended up almost burying much of the original rock circle, which was good visually, but it was much too deep. However, even before adding gravel, you could not see the rock circle under the privet, it was hidden by low branches.
I started to remove the rocks under the privet first, and I was surprised at how deep they went. I kept digging out more and more, layers upon layers of potato and melon sized white rocks. Unbelievably, the rocks went down a foot and a half. Very little soil, just a well of rocks sitting tight up against the privet's roots and around it, with some soil holding them together, but very, very little.
How did the privet ever grow? Here's what I took out.
Some of the rocks at the bottom came from the two aspen trees in back. I removed the circles of rocks from them last fall, but they were not deeply installed, and were easy to pick up and move. Here's the pile that resulted from removing the circles under the aspens.
The rest of this pile is what the Chinese privet shrub, just narrow stems and not very big at the trunk, was sitting in all these years. Yikes. This took me three days and some Advil to move.
The privet is now sitting in an 18 inch deep open well. How will the landscaping guys figure out how to add soil and level things off? I'll let them remove what's around the Spanish broom, hopefully there's not such a ton of rocks so deeply planted there?
September 11
Very hot
Mornings are chilly and quite nice, but the days have been sunny and very hot, in the high 80s and 90s for several days and more to come. Nothing gets accomplished in the hot afternoons, we just turn on the air conditioning and stay inside. The end of summer plants are wilting a bit. Monsoon season seems to have halted.
I'm not sure about this table -- Jim painted it with the paint we used on the garage side door -- which I love. But on the table, with the turquoise cushions and now the big turquoise pot near it? Oof.
It's bright and kind of cute looking -- "folk style" painted furniture, but not what I'm going for here.
We can't keep wood furniture on this sun baked patio, it dries out and deteriorates in a season. The teak chairs and the glider are okay for now, but the wood is shrinking and drying out. The table top was much worse. So painting it was the option.
Or . . get something else? This Wayfair faux stone top on a steel base might work. It's 3 feet long by 20 inches wide, so smaller than the 4 foot by 2 foot table there now.
But I don't want plants and stuff on the table -- or bright colors. Just a neutral, simple piece to put drinks on but left open otherwise.
I dunno, is this better -- more intentional? Kind of matchy - matchy, but it ties together the blue table with the other patio items. Or does it just look funny?
I can't decide. It's cheerful, I guess.
I like the soft neutrals of wood and stone and white cushions with just a pop of turquoise on the bench glider. I don't like so much bright turquoise on every surface all matching.
September 10
A simple move
A simple move, but what a difference. Now, with the structure of the dark pot, elevated off the ground, and with the background of the vine, it can be seen in all different lights.
I did not want to put it in the ground, very little thrives in competition with the Virginia creeper roots there, and this grass wasn't doing much anyway. I like the way the pot completes this strip and provides some visual interest.
When I dug it up it came apart in four chunks, but I put all in the pot together.
By removing it from the grouping of cholla / fernbush / butterfly bush, the space in front looks better. The grass was too insubstantial there and just looked like a weed collecting masses of dry cottonwood leaves.
Just three plants in an arc remain (and have to grow). It looks neater.
September 9
Irrigation and Garden Expansion
Green Garden Landscaping starts on September 20. Jeronimo came by yesterday to finalize plans and to get the deposit check. We are really going to do this.
Take out Spanish broom
Rejuvenate Rose of Sharon.
Remove gravel, install soil & mulch for expanded garden.Moss rock wall edging under aspens, expand curve.Remove irises at fence in side yard.
And . . .
Install a 6 station irrigation system: 1 for for trees & shrubs, 5 for all perennial beds. Lines to run under the patio and the sidewalk. Controller box in the garage. Valve box at the fence under the Rose of Sharon (I may need to figure out how to screen it? Depends on how visible or how much of an eyesore it is.)
Just before Jeronimo came, I had moved the small edging stones out into the gravel to show where I want the garden under the birches expanded and a moss rock stone edge installed. The trees will be inside the planted garden, and only a narrow walk of gravel will wind between the garden and the deck. It still seems a little "off" -- too snaky and I have to fiddle with it a bit more. But this is the idea.
Getting the curve shallow enough is the key, especially when using the bigger rocks to edge.
September 8
Summer Success
It's not opening any new flowers, and some have gone by, but most just persist --- clean looking, fresh, and fragrant.
I will definitely be planting more of these next year. the woodland tobacco, Nicotiana sylvestris was a dramatic plant this summer, but had a very short bloom period, and once the starburst flowers went by the plant did not look so great.
I won't do woodland tobacco again next year, but was glad I experimented with it this year.
All the other annuals and tropicals did not do well. My seed starts are still tiny at season's end. The agapanthus never took off. Like black eyed Susan vine, these warm-weather plants just don't like our cold nights in the mountain west.
And baby seed started plants don't have enough warmth to get going either. Our summer days can be really hot and uncomfortable briefly in the afternoons, but most of the time we are too high, too cold at night, and of course too dry for little plants or tropical plants to do much.
Labor Day Weekend
Ordered HCG plants for fall
The irises are pretty enough but their dark purple color doesn't show up against the fence, and they are sparse now, needing dividing. After flowering the foliage is brown, it's hard to keep this strip looking nice. Shimmer oenothera has cool lush looking foliage that stays interesting and needs little water.
Also ordered a Cheyenne mock orange to replace the aronia I took out. And I ordered a Munro orange globe mallow to replace the wispy orange agastaches I removed.
And finally, I ordered another red flowered lambsear - Texas betony. I had wanted two in the potting bench curve and lost one.
Will ship 9/13 - 9/17.
$143 total.
The kitchen door canopy is finished and, while it is not really pueblo architecture, it's rustic enough that it fits the style okay.
It's good, but the stucco repair and painting isn't great and may need to be fixed . . .
What a difference it makes to have the second skinny aspen taken down. It really opened up the area in front of the windows, featuring them and giving the little Japanese maple room to grow.
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| ⌃ Left: Before the tree was removed - - - and after, on the right ⌃ |
I'll miss the extra shade that tree provided, even though it was skinny and thin, but I do like the more open look.
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| Before it came down. It didn't add much, but seemed crowded. |
I just hope the Japanese maple doesn't have too much sun on it now. It was doing so beautifully in almost total shade.
September 3
Digging up, potting and pruning
- Dug up and potted the wispy Iriquois Beauty aronia. I'll put a Cheyenne mock orange in there instead.
- Dug up and potted the 4 Orange Kudos agastaches. So tiny, not thriving. I'll replace them with another Munro orange globe mallow.
- Dug up and moved the more sprawly Compacta pineleaf penstemon that was under the red yucca. I put it in the more open empty spot at the edge of the triangle garden so the two pineleaf penstemons now flank this space. (When I dug it up, there were actually two small plants -- it had sent out a runner.)
- Pruned the big gawky Texas red yucca flower stalks.
- Pruned the pyracantha to remove a giant stem growing upright well over the fence.
I'll find another home for the things I potted up. So far I have these plants in holding pots for new homes somewhere:
Orange agastachesAroniaJones amsonia, so tiny, not growingAster Purple DomeGambel oak - tiny, tinyBuckwheat Kannah Creek, still struggling, not growing at allSome of the Bowles Black violas
September Begins
September starts with rain
I don't miss the aspen tree outside the dining room window at all. It was taken down at the end of August and the space now leaves room for the Japanese maple to spread out under the cottonwood.
The second aspen remains, so there is still something tall and somewhat leafy to the right of the maple, seen from inside the window.
I signed the proposal for Green Garden Landscaping to come take out the Spanish broom, create a garden and do some stonework edging around an expanded garden under the aspens.
But the biggest part of the contract is a full installation of underground drip irrigation.
$15,000 total. Yip.