🚜 Move gravel from areas where it is too deep to other spots.
🌹Tie Cascade rose canes to string attached to door canopy to get it to climb.
📍Get pink volcanic rocks to refresh gravel at tool closet strip. Lowe's? Home Depot?
💠 Add rocks behind iron Jackmanii trellis to weight it away from leaning on the fence.
💧Have Jeronimo lay drip lines in birdbath garden instead of spray.
August 28
Summer Closes
Such a terrible windy, dry spring, with all my plants suffering despite how much I watered. Then June was hot and dry.
By the time monsoons arrived at the very end of June, everything was stressed, some plants more than others. But a wet, wet season has revived things. Not to the size where they would have been with a nicer spring, but things did perk up a lot.
Even the Japanese maple that had looked so thready seems fuller now at the end of August.
We've had a lot of gloomy weather, a lot of rain and many days of overcast grim skies.
I love the way it all looks now and the way it feels. The crabapple shines in a slant of morning sun.
Becky comes for a week tomorrow and I am happy with the back courtyard, and looking forward to hosting out there.
I over-fertilized the containers, and now the plants are big. The black petunias fill the brown urn, and the yellow petunias by the gate look happy and sunny.
The grouping by the deck looks a little wild and I love it --- the "hot corner".
The Choca mocha cosmos in the white bowl has gone all weedy but has finally bloomed and the wild sprawl is actually kind of cool.
I can't fully capture how lovely it all feels to me. Pictures make it look a bit staged and fussy -- it really feels more relaxed than it looks, especially with cool morning air and a light, dry breeze, and sparkly sunshine. Whew.
There will be plenty more of this lovely weather on my nice patio in my beautifully developing back yard before cold sets in. But for now -- goodbye, August. Bye, summer.
August 23
Design Problem
All that doesn't matter any more, and the tree is in the wrong spot.
The other issue is that with water and with space now that the Spanish broom is gone, the Chinese privet has exploded. It's huge.
But the Sugar Tyme crabapple is one that grows in the very same shape and form -- big and low and round and spreading.
I knew that it isn't a tall crabapple, just to 10 or 12 feet tall. But I thought it would overtop the privet when the privet was a smaller plant, and I planned to limb up the tree so we could walk under it and so it would clear the privet.
And the privet can be pruned to a smaller shape but it will need to be repeated often to keep it smaller.
I fear that when the crabapple tree is mature I'll have two big spreading plants right next to each other, both with similar small leaves and rounded forms, cutting the length of the yard in two with their big forms.
I think the real issue is the size of the privet now, not the misplacement of the crabapple. But it's become a design dilemma.
August 22
2nd Aspen is Gone
The dying aspen by the dining room window is down now. Coates took about 15 minutes to take the whole thing down.
I ordered a single trunk Autumn Brilliance serviceberry from Sooner Plant Farm to go right behind the juniper next to the fence.
I cut back the gaura -- with all our recent rain it was floppy and the pretty flowers had turned to wet kleenex. It's really in too wet soil most of the time either from the rain barrel overflow or from emitters placed there. It wants drier soil and might not get so big and floppy.
With it chopped back, I dug it out and put it in front of the Virginia creeper fence line in back.
August 19
One Thing Leads to Another and Another.
I removed the patio table and chairs from the lower level and that change led to fussing about the umbrella on the upper level and moving pots and taking out plants .
We never sat at the table. It seemed too far from the house for having meals, so we never did. And too close to the fence and the neighbor's yard to feel comfortable.
Too open out in the sun and the umbrella did little.
And it was oddly positioned, down a level, right up against the neighbor's fence. While the patio and deck are well lit at night, this patch of yard was dark and I struggled to find solar lighting that lit it well enough to be out there after sunset.
So the table and chairs are gone, I moved the umbrella to the upper level and moved the turquoise pot to the lower level. That led to more moves.
I liked the openness once the table and chairs were gone -- it was cramped with the table there, you couldn't even walk around it at all. And with the complexity of the birdbath garden nearby it seemed like one too many designed areas.
What to do with this lower step-down level now?
I put the turquoise pot with the cuphea, the little desert willow and a small chair there in a grouping. But then I took the chair away, it looked too staged.
Then I took the firecracker cuphea out of the pot and put it in the garden where there was a bit of a gap by the neighbor's garage wall.
The cuphea just didn't look as good in the pot as last year. I put the new 'Hope' desert willow in the turquoise pot -- will it become enough of a nice tree in this too small container?
But the Maximillian sunflowers behind it were too similar and kind of weedy looking exposed, so I dug them all up and put them along our garage wall, where I had gotten them from originally!
But what to put where the sunflowers were?
There are irrigation emitters right there, so it's watered, but the vine is serious competition.
When I plant a tree to replace the aspen by the dining room window, I'll move the big white flowered gaura from the rain barrel site to here.
All these knock-on changes, and more to do, just because I took the table and chairs away.
The umbrella went to the upper patio where it can shade the sitting area there in the afternoons. I don't like how it stands in the middle of the stone area by itself.
But I have always wanted shade from the western sun on the patio chairs and glider, and the umbrella does that finally.
It doesn't obstruct the view down the yard too much. It does "complete" the patio sitting area, enclosing it visually. And the shade is nice.
When closed, which it is most of the time, it does just stand out there by itself which is odd.
But coming down the walk from the gate it isn't so bad when closed.
The umbrella is wobbly and doesn't sit securely in the stand. I have to fuss with it all the time (Should I get a new, more stable one?) Standing alone in the middle of the stone patio it's more obvious than it was tucked in by the table and chairs.
I like the shade and the enclosure. It works really well and we can sit on the patio at 4:30 now.
I'll wait a while before giving away the patio set. I want to see if I like it this way.
August 10
Thyme Leaf Speedwell
It had struggled at first to get going in the cement-like rocky sand between the stones and it looked pathetic. Last summer sections browned out (I may have been over watering?)
This year finally it is deep green and filling in extensively. It likes the hot, dry, rocky, poor dirt between the stones.
But I have never seen a hint of the deep blue tiny flowers that are supposed to cover it densely in June. Maybe in future years now that it has established?
August 1
Summer Assessment
The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone.~Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting, 1975
So. Much. Rain. And even when it's not actively raining the skies roil or it's just gray and damp. Everything looks fabulous -- with the exception of the Japanese maple, which looks healthy enough, but thin with thready leaves.
And the Venosa violacae clematis is barely, barely hanging on, while the two Jackman clematis vines look good (Maybe replace Venosa with a white Alba Luxurians?)
We're losing the second aspen by the dining room. And the hollyhocks did nothing this year, no blooms at all.
But the meadow by the garage wow. Green and grassy.
And everything around the birdbath looks great.
Even the buckwheat foliage is glossy and green. The dwarf Russian Sage on the other side of the walk is full and blooming finally.
The crabapple is putting on leafy size.
Gro-Low sumacs all look full and lush and beautifully green. Same for the redbud, Its leaves are glossy and dewy and green.
The Autumn Charm anemone is very big, with a real presence now, and with silvery buds forming. The gaura by the rain barrel is, as it always is, lovely against the juniper background.
The kitchen courtyard looks okay, getting fuller. Veronicas have gone by and the cute chamomile too, but the aster has taken over and the area looks fine. There's even a hint of crocosmia blooms starting.
All other things look good -- small from this year's dry spring, but refreshed and thriving in this monsoon rain.
The Choca Mocha cosmos in the white bowl is a bit of a disappointment -- lots of sprawly foliage, healthy and nice enough, but weedy looking. Few blooms.
July 26
Mornings are Beautiful
We got more rain, all looks so refreshed. Mornings are so gorgeous on the patio, cool, clear, lovely. The blanketflowers keep going and going and even look good as most of the orange flowers go by and turn into pom poms.
Afternoons get hot, in the high 80s, some 90s. We turn on the air and stay inside. But mornings always delight.
The Rose of Sharon has made an astounding recovery from the rejuvenation pruning I did. Nice shape, some flowers coming out now, and tons -- hundreds -- of tight buds have formed.
Will it look like this awesome Rose of Sharon at Newman's nursery, blooming now in late July, so full and flowery? Maybe.
The lighting of these photos I took is terrible, but boy is that a beautiful Rose of Sharon.
July 22
Serviceberry
We will have to take down the second dying aspen by the dining room window. When we do can I get another tall, narrow tree in that spot?
Another aspen? They grow fast and Plants of the Southwest has small ones. Could I get it wedged in to the side of where the removed aspen stump will be, by the juniper? Can I dig among the juniper roots at all?
 |
| Can I get a small tree in this spot? |
I'd keep it as a single trunk.
Plants of the Southwest also has amelanchier alnifolia -- western serviceberry. A small tree, but maybe too shrubby and multi-stemmed for the spot.
July 14
Mid Summer
The birdbath garden is spectacular. The thyme has been blooming forever (the new ones planted in front need to catch up and fill in). The white Crystal Peak obedient plants are so pretty (need more) and the blanketflowers are tall and showy and keep going and going.
Even the orange Kudos agastache keeps performing, a bright spot in the morning light.
That whole side, with the irises removed and after I gave up on evening primroses there and just filled in with rocks, is simple and coherent. And no fuss.
Weeds are everywhere in front, and the cottonwood continues to sprout in the front gravel. I pull what I can but will need to spray the low stuff.
The fall anemone in the dining room garden has completely filled in (I'm actually pulling runners now) and is a big leafy thing.
The Rose of Sharon leafed out after its drastic rejuvenation cut this winter and is a nice shape, very leafy. The white clematis re-appeared and although tiny, it grows.
The potting bench curve looks nice with white coneflowers everywhere.
The only disappointments:
- The rabbit ate the hollyhocks and although they live and continue to leaf out, I have no flowers.
- The Seiryu Japanese maple is healthy but open and thready looking, nowhere near as full as last year.
- Black Barlow columbines are dying off.
- We're losing the second aspen by the dining room window.
July 7
Everything Looks so Green
5 inches of rain since the early start of monsoon season his year. Just since the beginning of July we've had a quarter inch four days in a row.
The rain has refreshed everything and it all looks so good. The field is green.
I am loving the red Texas betony which has opened. The heucheras were complete no-shows this year -- a few green leaves but that was it, no flowers at all.
I want to replace them with a few more of this unusual shade loving red lambsear. It blooms a long time, it's a deep clear red, and the plant itself is fuller than the heucheras.
A little slow to get started, but these are real assets in the shady garden. I have one in the potting bench curve too, still small. Need more!
July 6
Moves and Potting
It's been ages since I got on hands and knees and did any gardening. Today I potted up some red salvias for the patio (the Roman Red salvias from Burpee are doing nothing, I got S. splendens bedding sage).
With all the recent rain (another 1/4 inch last night) the ground is soft and easy to dig. So I moved the largest pineleaf penstemon from the front triangle to the sunny edge of the potting bench curve (took out a failing coneflower Sombrero Granada Gold, cute and compact at the front, but troublesome to keep from wilting.)
I like the contrast of the frothy little pentstemon next to the furry blue lambs ears.
In place of the penstemon I moved a silver edged horehound to the front near the sidewalk. There are already two others (tiny yet) in this red rock spot, and this will make a third for repetition. They all should spread.
I want to edit down this triangle from a flowery mixed garden to something simpler, with repetition.
Just a little digging, moving things, and getting up and down, and . . . .
. . . . I got exhausted! And hot.
July 3
Side of the House
So much rain. We keep getting more and skies are cloudy. June was so windy and dry and agitating, now July is wet and gloomy and very still. Some sun, but then more clouds and rain.
With this rain, the side of the house, where I don't do a thing, looks wonderful. Hesperaloes this year are blooming more fully and upright, and the tall verbascums at the end of the rock swale are awesome.
June 30
Birdbath
Everything looks better with all our recent rain. The birdbath garden is especially nice, especially when the morning shaft of light through the gate lights it up beautifully.
Orange Kudos agastache that struggled so in the front triangle garden is full and lovely here with a lot of moisture and no pine tree roots or hesperaloe competition.
The blanketflowers are big and full - way more colorful than when they were single stem plants in shade in the potting bench curve.
Crystal Peak obedient plants that languished and did so poorly, are now loving this spot and the clear white is a nice contrast. I'll want more of these I think. They are small, low plants, not the tall, aggressive running obedient plants I had in CT.
And the creeping thyme is in flower, so nice. I lost the ones in the front of the birdbath and had to get more -- they will fill in and then the circle under the birdbath, punctuated with the taller plants, will be impressive.
I added red and white vincas for the troughs on the plant stands in the front portal -- the strawberries are gone. They look a little wilted right now, hope they perk up.
June 26
It Rained While We Were Gone
On Saturday we got another 1 inch of steady rain. I turned off the irrigation. Overnight Sunday another 3/4 inch of rain, and then drizzle and rain all day Sunday added another 1/2 inch.
Wow. Monsoons have arrived!
June 15
Going Away
We leave tomorrow for 9 days away in CA.
- Took out white geraniums - when I get back I'll replant with red, don't like the white ones.
- Tookout strawberries, not doing well.
- Re-potted Kent's Beauty to terracotta trough, it did better on patio table last year.
- Moved Vermillionaire to the brown urn, better in full sun. Replace it with some white petunias in front when I get back.
- Filled plant nannies for blueberry, redtwig dogwood, cuphea (and in-ground plants) Add one to the Choca Mocha bowl.
- Pots inside: Vermillionaire cuphea, Diamond frost euphorbia, Blonde Ambition grass, tobacco, black violas and black petunia, red salvias, purple lavender.
June 13
Love these cool, quiet June mornings
June 12
Added Irrigation Needed
Right now the system runs 3 days on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. It skips 4 days: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - Saturday. I hand water on most of those days to make sure things the emitters barely reach are covered, and because additional deep, deep soaking is needed all the time on these June days.
The system basically keeps stuff alive but doesn't really do much more than that. The very next day after watering I can see smaller perennials drooping, and then the second non-watered day after Friday they are simply prostrate.
So while we are away I need to add Saturday watering. I got the instructions online and will do that for all programs.
There is also an option to increase run times up to 200% of the original schedule. It does it by splitting the new longer schedule in two and running half the new time in succession for each zone and then re-running it again (to limit runoff).
You can program that just for the month of June, and not the other months when it is less needed. Not sure I'll add that complexity, though.
But I do want to add Saturday. So the schedule while we are gone will be 4 days on: Saturday / Sunday, then Tuesday and Thursday.
June 10
The Front Needs Help
Strawberries - ugh. Not thriving, setting fruits but they are tiny, they dry up and the birds are pecking some. Netting the troughs seems like overkill for two strawberries at a time. The small berries are very tart. Will get rid of them. This experiment was not successful.
Cuphea Vermillionaire - not happy. The plant is tiny, leaves are yellow, it's not doing well. Replace with a petunia.
 |
| Gangly, in too small a pot. Leaves are yellowing. |
White geraniums - they're okay, but I like the bright red ones better. They are more impactful.
The Diamond Frost euphorbia in a big pot is doing nothing. Pffft.
 |
| Not doing a thing. Not growing. |
I've decided to move the tidy little pineleaf penstemons to the back gardens, they don't look great with the pink-red of the hesperaloes. I'll use marrubium silver foliage groundcover plants here instead.
And the yellow Honeycomb butterfly bush is frustrating me. It's no more than 8 inches tall in its 4th year. Bleaah.
 |
| Will this ever grow into anything? |
But there are some nice things out front: the hesperaloes look better than ever with lots of tall flower spikes -- because they are being irrigated for the first time?
The melampodium blackfoot daisies look good, and the fernbush is growing. The ajugas are starting to come back and fill their spot -- they had been no-show goners for a while.
Dark Towers penstemons look really good in flower now.
 |
| Nice. |
June 8
Quiet Mornings in Back, Clashing Reds in Front
I am loving the still, sunny mornings in back on my patio. It gets breezy in the afternoons, June is dry and things look stressed, but I do love my coffee in my back courtyard.
It's quiet and nice.
The black violas in the terracotta trough on the table are simple and gorgeous.
The fragrant tobacco is tall and skinny this year, with several big blooms at the very top of a gangly stalk.
Not like last year, which had a tough start with hail and destruction, but rebounded. This year the nicotiana is almost orchid-like, way tall and elegant and leaning.
I'm happy with the back. But out front . . .
The *$# rabbit has returned and ate my October Daphne sedum to the ground, and a little orange globemallow in the front triangle too. That's distressing. Both were coming in so nicely.
I've sprayed, and I set the trap.
The dining room garden is starting to be self editing -- the red heucheras are simply not thriving. Only a few green leaves have appeared on each plant and we're into June now. They're well watered, but no idea if they will grow or flower. They might have to go.
The Raven geraniums were also a bust, not blooming. I planted more, but the idea of the purple blooming delicate flowers with the yellow columbines isn't working. This whole garden may be edited down to eliminate some of the flowers.
Also not happy with all the reds in the front. The Texas red yuccas are blooming at the same time as the cute little pineleaf penstemons below.
The yuccas are way more upright than last year (because it's so dry? But they are being watered this year from the irrigation system.)
But they are pink-red and the penstemons are orange red, and the reds are not compatible.
Add to that the orange-red Vermillionaire cuphea in the pot in front. Also not compatible.
And I put a monardella under the pines, also blooming red, but scarlet and bright.
I think I should move the penstemons to the potting bench curve and edit this triangle down to just the existing yuccas and lavender.
I'm not sure I want to "garden" out here by the sidewalk any more in the red rock mulch and I definitely don't need all the competing reds blooming in June.
So, edit the front as follows:
> Eliminate the red heucheras, geraniums> Move the pineleaf penstemons> Ditch the strawberries
And trap the damn rabbit.
June 6
June is Here
We're well into June. Still no rain since a bit of snow March 23. None in the forecast for the rest of the month. Zero for all of April, all of May, and forecast for all of June. And it continues to be windy every afternoon. Dry and windy.
Some things look good with constant hand watering and 3x week irrigation.
Some things look so skimpy -- the Oklahoma redbud and the Seiryu Japanese maple both look green and healthy but small and open and nowhere near as full as in past years. The crabapple looks pretty full, though.
Clematis vines are taking forever. Jackmaii is still thin and delicate with just a few flowers at the top and this is year 5. I think I saw a leaf coming up where the white flowered clematis was. Could it have survived after all?
June 2
Verbascums (and a Peony)
The wild seeded mulleins that just showed up at the top of the rock swale on the side of the house are. . . . huge! Wow. And they look so artfully placed there.
I just wish the flower stalks were prettier -- they bloomed last year and were tall and structural but the yellow flowers quickly turned muddy brown. These big plants do frame the pyracantha in the distance against the fence corner.
The pyracantha did not bloom very well this year, a few white flowers on one side. But the growth is phenomenal -- and I've pruned it a bit over the years.
It doesn't do much, but fills the corner on this neglected, wild-grown side alley.
And . . . speaking of not blooming well, I only had one solitary yellow peony on the Bartzella plant. I had several last year. This one was pretty enough, right in the center.
But it only flowers briefly and it had shattered by June 1st.
May 30
Biokovos Behind the Aspen
I took out the Owls Claws. Too bad, they were in full bloom, but I don't miss them. I transplanted the tiniest of the Biokova geraniums in the spot, next to an emitter. It will repeat the sweep of geraniums near the front of this curved border.
They become small mat forming mounds and spread. It repeats the Biokovos along the front curve of this garden.
After flowering and before fall color the mid green foliage mat will contrast with the blue lambsear and golden Japanese forest grass nearby. This part of the garden will be quiet, mostly foliage, but existing powwow white coneflowers that surround the area will give some height and summer blooms.
I also transplanted the tiny Black eyed Susan left from my original planting -- it had been in between a lambsear and the pallida irises but not growing at all. Tucked in with the geranium and nearby white coneflowers now it will add a little yellow color at this end of the garden behind the aspen.
If it grows. Here's the spot behind the aspen where I took out the Owls Claws and will put the geranium and Black-eyed Susan. Everything in this garden is still so small.
May 28
Moves and Some Tweaks
The foliage had looked great in early May, but now is flopping over.
I think root competition with the Virginia Creeper is the issue.
These irises want consistent moisture, and the vine takes what is watered. They are not old and overcrowded, they are not in wet soil over winter, they might be in too much shade, they just have never bloomed.
And the swords droop over after springtime, so perhaps it is a watering problem.
IF they live they'll make a bold structural backdrop for the pots and do a little more concealing.
IF they bloom, the gorgeous white blooms will rise above the grasses in the pots. Should be nice.
They'll get water from the pop up sprayers by the garage in this spot.
Plus the grouping of grasses in pots and irises fills out that end of this new garden, completing more of a circle path around the birdbath.
Other moves and tweaks:
- Moved the last remaining Blue Ice amsonia (which was next to the irises, not doing well due to root competition) away from the fence line and planted it under the birdbath. Took out the teeny tiny Jones amsonia.
- Planted an agastache -- Mandarin orange Kudos once again, which will stay small -- around the birdbath. I had transplanted a couple of the Mandarin orange last fall but don't see them.
- Moved a recently unpotted coreopsis over to accommodate the Blue Ice.
May 28
Blue Fescues
These need to come out of the dining room window garden. The ones in the red pots can stay.
In the dining rom window garden they have become stiff browned mounds, with some thin blue fronds rising, but overall the look is not graceful. In the pots they are fuller and looser and bluer.
I'll take them out, but will miss the contrast of forms and shapes in this garden. Maybe just leave the spots open, let the Japanese maple take center stage, allow more of the plumbagos to spread under it, making a bigger patch.
This just is not a good look:
May 26
Owls Claws
I'm going to take the orange prairie plant Owls Claws out of the potting bench curve.
This shady curved garden, with its boxwoods, peony, clematis and pretty geraniums (and eventually fountainy forest grasses) wants to be more refined.
I'm dithering on what to put there instead (see Plans & Ideas).
I loved this yellow / red / purple combination last year at the foot of the sundial and want to do it again.
I have red salvias already in pots, the yellow flowered hairy goldenaster will bloom on its own, just needed the deep purple of an angelonia plant. Not to be found.
I ended up with a dark purple lavender from Lowe's (I know, I just got rid of one).
I'll treat it as an annual, it's way too big for the terracotta vase I want to use.
Hope the purple flower spikes last all summer as the red salvias and yellow hairy goldenasters come into bloom
May 25
Back Home
Everything came through ok while we were gone for 6 days. The irrigation worked fine except for three new coneflowers in the potting bench curve that the emitters didn't quite reach. They were parched and limp. Some water perked them up, but they look bad.
Containers in the area of the pop up sprayers got watered, the big turquoise pots were still damp (I put plastic containers with tiny holes in the bottom in the pots to drip slowly).
My system of bringing in smaller pots from larger containers worked well. The tobacco put on some growth!
It was windy while we were gone -- the rocking chair was upturned and there were tumbleweeds caught below the pines.
Also, it's sprout season for the cottonwood, and a forest of 4 and 5 inch sprouts had sprung up. Always a pain -- I just pull few leaves off now rather than trying to uproot each sprout. By June they'll stop.
May 18
Getting Ready to Go
I'm always stressed about leaving for a week in summer. We are off to Death Valley for 6 days for our anniversary and I am worried, as always, about keeping new plantings alive and watered.
The irrigation system will be off on Friday and Saturday, but runs every other day on Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday (we get back late on Tuesday).
- I'll water plants in the field the night before we go, they'll have to go a week and it's going to be very windy and dry and sunny.
- I brought the small pots inside in the bathtub and on the bathroom shelf -- my new system of setting small, removable plastic containers inside bigger pots is a help this year. Plus, the afternoon before leaving, 7 plants from Burpee's arrived -- just in time to unpack and sit in the bathroom while we're gone!
- I moved the few larger containers to where the pop up sprayers spew water all over -- the blueberry in the cement pot and the geraniums in the green trough. And the two strawberry troughs.
- The two large turquoise pots are not moveable -- I'll water those well on Thursday morning before we leave, set a plastic food tub with a tiny drip hole in it in the pot and then they'll have to go until Tuesday night.
God knows we have enough wine bottles in the recycle bin.
I tried them in CT but not effectively, none are left. I'll order some for our June trip for the big turquoise pots -- and also avoid having to schlep the bigger pots to the sprinkler area.
It didn't take that long to move pots, just a lot of toting things to other spots or indoors. I ditched the potted pansies.
I really want to make it not such a big deal to go away. I want my gardens to be serene and nice to be in, but able to be left for a week at a time with few worries and little work.
Why have I created such a complex planting design?
So many plants spread in so many locations needing so much water to get started or to sustain. All I need is some shade, a spot to sit in, and a few bits of color or bloom to look at. But I have so many things in so many places now. I do love it, but it's a lot.
Now that things are more in place and the irrigation is in, I seriously need to edit things down. A lot.
May 15
Start of Summer Assessment -
I'm done with the moving and fixing and digging and hard work. After the irrigation disruptions from last year and adjustments this year, I had repairs to do, but all is now "in place". The design is what I want.
I think. For now anyway.
Looking good:
Tulips survived and sumacs by the garage wall are leafy.
The viburnum this year was flowery, fragrant and full.
Major Wheeler honeysuckle has been having a moment and the sumac below it.
Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle looks good, tied it up against the fence.
Totally Tangerine geums are cute, love the orange flowers opening now. They look good with Jupiter's beard next to the iron tower.
Blackfoot daisies and the little fernbush in front are doing well.
Gaura by the rain barrel is great, comes back full and big.
Fall anemones are spreading and bulking up.
Rosemary bloomed beautifully this year, nice shape.
Columbines are not as full as last year, but still nice, and blooming in different spots.
Lambsears look great, full and blue and fluffy. The two divisions I took from the main plants and put on the right side under the aspens are doing really well.
Oddities:
The crabapple did not bloom at all - an off year?
The transplanted Iroquois Beauty aronia did not bloom but seems good in its new spot.
The three boxwoods are all different - one in the corner not growing? But green.
Disappointments:
Mrs. George Jackman white clematis did not come back.All of the Shimmer evening primroses are gone, which is okay.Ajugas looked awful, barely bloomed.
Worries:
The remaining aspen by the dining room window looks sketchy. The Seiryu Japanese maple is good, but nowhere near as full and fluffy in May as last year.
Hopes for the season:
Crocosmias are coming up -- will they bloom this year?
Blue fescue grasses are alive but look dumb, too brown, little blue foliage (both in the dining room window garden and in red pots). Will they fill out?
Birdbath garden plantings, will they amount to anything??
I feel like I am going into summer with things the way they should be. I just want everything to mature, grow together, bulk up. I don't feel like areas are still unresolved. Irrigation is on. Plants are planted. Containers are manageable. I have no plans for new things.
And it's only mid May.
May 14
Mulch
I put it down all over the garden under the aspens, but didn't want the bright, too big pieces spread over the birdbath garden where it is more open.
I only wanted to refresh a few spots, not re-cover a whole area, so the difference between the big splinters and the old mulch on the ground is very visible.
I ended up scooping up the old mulch at the potting bench -- nicely brown and aged and matching what was already laid down in the whole open area by the birdbath -- and toting that to the birdbath garden to cover spots.
Over two days I scooped up six full trugs and refreshed spots in the birdbath garden where the irrigation installers had disturbed areas.
And the seventh trugful was spread in the dining room window garden. Fortunately a trug of old decayed mulch is lightweight to schlep around.
I then replaced what I took away from the potting bench area by spreading 3 bags of the new mulch.
The new stuff, as big and chunky as it is, will eventually brown and shrink. It won't decay or crumble, but the big pieces won't be as noticeable.
Right now it looks like kindling. At the foot of the potting bench the new choppy mulch won't be seen.
May 13
Irrigation is On: Sunday / Tuesday / Thursday
Jeronimo came with his crew today to turn on the irrigation system and to add feeder lines. Mostly around the birdbath in the new garden where the Spanish broom came out, but also a few spots that emitters didn't reach in other gardens.
All I have to do now is bury and pin down some feeder lines and spread mulch!
Now summer can begin. Everything is done. The house is painted, the leaking stucco repaired, inside upgrades are long finished, no new plans are in the works. The house is the way I want it and looks good. The gardens do too.
I really don't want to do any more design changes in the garden. It's all as it should be and just needs to grow now. I'll make edits, maybe move a plant or two, and I'll replace what doesn't do well, but no more digging anything out or adding anything big.
When the crew left I just reveled in the calm, still air (the winds died down today), the cool dry sunshine, and the look and feel of being in a garden that is the way I want it now.
Very, very pleasant.
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| What a mature one looks like |
However, I had transplanted the tiny Jones amsonia that has been moved a couple times, in sick bay potted up a few times, and has never had more than a few leaves on two itty bitty stems.
I put it under the birdbath and during the crew's work today, it got stepped on and the tiny thing got split in two. It's now half size, and barely hanging on.
Amsonias are very, very slow to get going, but this Jones bluestar has never grown in three years.
If it ever grows it should remain small -- only a foot high -- and vase shaped, perfect for the ring of plants around the birdbath.
But now, stomped and split, it's set back another few years I fear. Give up and take it out? I should.
May 11
This is a Weed
This is shepherd's purse, a weed.
I thought it was one of the blanketflowers I had transplanted there, but it's not.
How it got here, placed just so at the foot of the birdbath among the other things I spaced out in a circle, I don't know.
But there it is.
Actually, it's gone now. I took it out.
May 9
Plant Orders
Fires still rage over the mountains and the wind is still fierce and agitated. But no smoke here today.
Plants are huge! All are multiple add-ons of existing things: Powwow White coneflowers, more orange geums, more Raven geraniums, some delphiniums, nothing new except one Sombrero Granada Gold coneflower.
Unbelievably big plants.
The only order still outstanding now is Burpee's -- some red annual salvias to go under the sundial and Choca Mocha cosmos for the white bowl.
I called and they tell me the order will arrive in about two weeks. Yikes.
But they immediately crisped and struggled despite a lot of water. They cannot take full sun at all. I put them in the potting bench curve, in shade, with the other new ones from Bluestone.
I unpotted the three un-named coreopsis plants from last year that were in a terracotta container, and put those around the birdbath.
They are going to look like the blanketflowers in bloom. I do have white flowered veronicas (and white obedient plants I think) around the birdbath as well to mix things up. I need something else, though . . .
May 8
Some Tweaks
Smoke is not bad today, although the fires continue to burn. But the cottonwood fluff is swirling like a snowstorm.
The middle one is finally (in its 5th year) starting to fill out, the one on the left is still tiny, not doing much, and the one on the right is in-between, spreading a bit.
Eventually I want to edit this garden down and have just the 3 fountainy grasses, the blue lambsear in front, and the tall dark green boxwoods for background, all in partial shade under the aspens. Maybe some columbines.
I'm going for a serene, simple, shady foliage look. But the grasses have to get much bigger.
The one in the middle is sending out runners now, and I dug and separated a few to re-plant.
I put the little runners, with a few fine roots attached, around the smallest of the plants on the left side, near the metal pig. I don't know why that one is so much smaller -- aspen roots right there that outcompete it? Too much sun?
It's healthy enough but small and not spreading at all. Maybe the middle plant's runners are coming from a naturally more robust parent plant?
I've done that before in CT and it works.
This little tree had a nice center leader but it got winter kill and died back last year. Now, to encourage the center to regrow, the side branches have to be subordinated.
It's going to be a round-headed tree when mature not a tall upright one, but without the leader I fear it would have spread too much to the side. Or become saddle shaped, dipped in the center.
It will grow better if the leader is re-established.
May 6
Wind and Smoke
The wind has been constant, and while there are some times when the smoke from fires is not bad, other days it's awful and I'm confined inside. The wind just won't stop, and more to come.
Raven geraniums that bloomed with the yellow columbines are just barely bits of foliage at soil level, no blooms in sight.
The columbines are skimpy looking, but flowering some. Orange geums have opened, a bit early, but small and insignificant looking.
Red heucheras are barely two or three leaves curling up from the soil, nothing to even see of the plants themselves.
I water and water. We've had absolutely no rain since March and so many days of drying winds. Even after soaking the soil day after day, when I go out the next day water just pours straight down through the ground. The big trees take everything I put down, and the smaller emerging plants get little.
But other things do look good, bigger than last year.
The redtwig dogwood is big and leafy, and the kitchen courtyard plants are filling out nicely, including the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle which is bushy and leafy.
In the dining room window garden I have full looking foliage of fall anemones, and suckers too -- some of which I have to pull.
Red trumpet honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler' bloomed poorly last year, but is very nice in early May this year.
But I barely want to go out and enjoy seeing what looks good -- the smoke smell is unpleasant and the wind is agitating.
May 4
Some Promise
The Immortality irises look stiffly upright, way better than in prior years. Will there be flowers this year? They got manhandled and moved and disturbed last summer but appear to be healthy this spring.
For the first time since planting in 2020, the orange flowered Owl's Claws appear big and strappy and seem to be setting blooms.
My rejuvenation pruning of the Rose of Sharon did not kill it. Leaf buds are setting. Let's hope it regrows upright and nicely shaped.
Swallowtail columbines are blooming, but not as profusely as last year at this same time. The foliage is way skimpier and the companion purple mourning widow geraniums have not come out at all. They bloomed together in early May last spring.
It's been a dry spring, although I water and water.
May 3
Little Trees
My little trees are doing well -- even though the crabapple never flowered this year. The redbud did flower beautifully.
The real success this year is the Vanessa parrotia - wow, a lot of full growth. A spring wind took off all the persistent dry leaves and suddenly new green ones appeared all over.
It fills the guest room window with bright greenery. And it is starting to get a nice vase shaped form since I pruned lower branches last summer.
Leaves have scorched in prior summers -- I keep it well watered now, but will need to watch for that.
Even the Skyrocket juniper finally looks like it's put on some growth. I have been watering it more than I did in the very beginning, and it is growing.
It takes forever, but I'm seeing progress in all my little trees!
May 2
Things look so good coming in this year. For the first time there is fullness to the garden.
I don't need the prayer flags for a focus any more -- at first they were something to look at in the distance, but now the gardens are fuller and the fence not so barren.
And they kept getting caught against the rough fence. The wind constantly twisted them and in breezy times I have to go out every day and unfurl them.
Their silk material really wasn't for outside and sun -- they deteriorated pretty quickly.
So I took them down.
They are not missed.
May 1
Seed Sowing *update: they sprouted and then one day while still tiny, all just disappeared. Gone.
I sowed blanketflower seeds and then put the containers in the trug basket to hold them.
They are Gaillardia aristata, and I like their soft peachy color and quiet looks. They seem more delicate than the big bold blanketflowers in hot colors. I want several to plant around the birdbath.
I got a giant bag of the tiny seeds from High Country Gardens last year, not realizing I ordered a wildflower meadow mix. I only want a few and ended up with a 1/4 pound of these tiny fluffy seeds.
I don't even know if they are still viable a year later. We'll see.
Of those I got going from seed in 2021, three or four were transplanted around the birdbath and are coming up.