September
2023
in the garden
A Surprise Observation
Sitting on the new garden bench looking back at the patio, for the first time I am seeing the stacked stone wall that forms the raised flagstone patio. I hadn't observed this before since I was never far enough away and never looking back at the house.
It's a surprise how nice it looks. It gives depth (literally) and interest to what looks like a flat expanse of flagstones when looking out from the house.
September 28
I'm Pleased
We're having delightful, dry, still, cool weather. Things look better now and as I walk around the yard I am pleased, everything seems to finally be coming together. Plants around the birdbath are still tiny and the back yard trees are small, but for the first time it's cohesive.
The ironwood in front of the fence feels inspired. It draws the birdbath garden down toward the patio, it brings the patio seating area together with the lower level and it finally does something to soften the wall of green on the fence.
It bothered me that I had such distinct and separate areas -- the deck was visually separate from the lower level seating area, the patio was enclosed off by itself and the new birdbath garden was a whole other section. Now, for the first time, I feel like I have some flow with the trees tying things together in a staggered line as you view the long narrow back yard.
A wide shot of the three trees -- redbud in the far distance by the garage, the crabapple and the ironwood:
The big round privet dominates the view now, but eventually the crabapple and ironwood will be taller than the privet and offer more contrast of forms. I like the three trees, they function now as a casual line tying it all together!
September 27
What a Difference
The first parrotia tree I got in 2017 was so much smaller than the newest one I just planted. Here are both the week after they were each planted:
And six years after planting, the original little one is such a lovely tree:
I have big hopes for the new parrotia. It is so much bigger to start with, and looks like a real tree from the start!
September 26
Refreshed
With cool weather and my constant daily watering plus irrigation, things look so much more refreshed than they did all summer long. Summer was too hot (90s, which is unusual here), too long (it was day after day, unrelenting high temps) and too dry (absolutely no rain, no monsoon.)
But now the coreopsis and Texas mealycup sages are re-bloming around the birdbath, and the orange agastache is going strong. The potted Radio Red salvias are re-bloming.
Even the foliage of the geums looks fresh now, and the Rose of Sharon is finally putting out some decent flowers after struggling.
The fall anemone in the dining room window garden looks ragged, though. It's blooming, but sparsely and the foliage is scorched and open looking.
Surprisingly, the Japanese maple in that garden looks nice and pretty full. It's just starting to turn color now.
September 23
Love the New Bench
It's the perfect soft blue to go with the little rain chain pot. It dresses up the front -- more formal and less rustic than the bentwood rocker.
It's easier now to walk in front of the bench than it was to scoot around the rocker angled out at the corner. The bench is actually comfortable to sit on. Sturdy and substantial ($179).
The rustic stump table looked distracting next to the bench, so I removed it and put three pots -- the red pot with blue fescue and the two Splendens heucheras -- on the other side. That's better.
I didn't want pots to water and tend on the front porch, since I'm rarely out there, but this works. I moved the big brown pot at the corner, leaving the area more open. Without the big brown pot, the rain chain and blue vase are more noticeable.
The brown pot was heavy and the dolly wouldn't move it across gravel, so I "walked" and rolled it over to the cottonwood and left in there tucked into the juniper.
I really like the new bench.
September 22
Ten Days Away
No sooner did I get all the new plants in the ground than we made plans to go away for 10 days to go to California in early October. I am eager to meet the new baby and I promised Pam we'd visit, so ten days, just as new plants need water to get started.
It's still growing season, although the cold nights and cooler days are much kinder to everything than the hot day after day 90s temps and no rain we had all summer.
I want to relax about my garden. I hate obsessing over what to do with it when we are gone.
I don't want to plan trips around when I need to be home to water. But I do. I get anxious about it.
I've created a busy, complicated set of garden spaces and I wish I hadn't. Yet I am beginning to love the look.
Well, I'll cope. I'll put pots in the birdbath garden and set the sprinkler system again -- it looked great when we got back home in August. It was set to water for almost an hour every day and things never looked better. I won't need every day this time, although yesterday I dug and moved several things around a bit and put in the new salvia and blackeyed Susans and they all need daily water . . .
I'll also add a sprinkler on the lower patio for the new tree, the lambsears and the Blonde Ambition grass I moved, and the new Veronica oltensis tiny plugs.
I can make this work.
September 21
Blackeyed Susans and Engelmann's Daisy
But I want something yellow and sunny at the base of the birdbath. So I'll experiment and see if I can get any to come up and flower. I know I won't get the big bushy clumps of blackeyed Susans I've had before and that online pictures show.
But maybe a few delicate stalks will make it.
These are Rudbeckia fulgida var. fulgida, and I have a few of the same in the potting bench curve that have survived (barely) over the years. They are tiny, short and have only a flower or two.
I added the other 3 new ones from Bluestone to the existing few in the potting bench curve. Can I ever get them to grow? What little bit there is looks nice in late summer.
In the pot it was starting to make a comeback but I got rid of it.
It's sort of an open, sprawly looking prairie plant, not really the tidy form I want here.
And the flowers and leaves curl on a hot day, like nicotiana, then open again at night.
For a yellow rayed flower, I like the rudbeckia better.
September 20
New Grandchild
He was just ready to come out and couldn't wait. All are healthy and he's pre-term, but not premature.
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Today I got odds and ends done -- took out the Leilani coneflowers and an Icicle Veronica from the front of the dining room window garden and the few dark purple geraniums that weren't doing anything.
I left one stand of coneflowers next to the fall anemone for some height and to fill the back a little, but the front looks better and less cluttered. I do need more plumbagos there.
September 19
The Hard Job is Done
I tackled the big job that was pending: planting the new Vanessa parrotia and re-desgning the strip under the fence.
The strip behind it has had so many iterations, so many failures. This time I want form and neutral tones, rather than a colorful flower border.
What I did:
- Took out all the hollyhocks -- not great front and center, they belong in back of other things. Too flowery in bloom and unkempt looking when they go by. This strip needs some formality.
- Planted the October Daphne sedum between the brown urn and juniper -- kind of a negative open space now, with interest only at ground level.
- Moved the Blonde Ambition grass behind to the fence line, but still in view from the living room. Its tallish seedheads light up against the vine.
- Moved the iron rocks and fairy statue over, fussed to get it looking natural enough. Again, a negative open space with ground level interest.
- Dug up some of the blue leaved lambsear and put it in the open spot where the rocks and fairy had been. I want to do another clump to the left, coming around the curve of the flagstones, to give a sense of enclosure around the tree.
I like the more structured look now, without the messy hollyhocks.
Still to do:
> Transplant one of the Kent's Beauty oreganos to a pot inside the brown urn. Too much sun there?
> Dig up another lambsear to plant at the corner.
> Add the new Veronica oltensis plugs I just got around the flagstones.
There won't be much to look at in spring -- just the delicate purple nepeta, a gap where the grass is, then the rocks and fairy statue, another gap where the onions are, then the brown urn. But the structure of the tree, big and upright, helps.
I feel like the structure and plantings now bring this lower level flagstone area forward, making it a part of the patio, not a completely separate area.
September 18
Blanketflowers
I decided to replant them behind the stone bench.
There's just room enough after I moved the recently planted additional irises to the side of the existing stand.
The sunny blanketflowers will rise above the bench and be seen from a distance. And they will hide the iris foliage after they go by.
Let's see if these supposedly easy, no-care blanketflowers do better here than planted in the thyme.
September 15
Overnight Rain
💧Three quarters of an inch of steady rain overnight on September 12 and then another quarter inch last night. Monsoon season has arrived, but very late, and only an inch and a half all summer since July 1st.
Of course the rain arrived just as our painter Santiago came to sand and stain the patio vigas.
The new Vanessa parrotia arrived from Sooner Farm and it is quite big. Soil is damp now, but I can't get to planting til next week.
September 11
Fence Line Edits
Seen from inside the living room in spring it looks so forbidding, just a solid green wall of vine covered fence. But when the new ironwood tree is in front of it, the eye will be drawn forward a bit.
Leave a space around the juniper, use the brown urn as the final anchor on that strip. Let the peacock draw the eye to the front, and leave some negative space around the juniper as it gets larger.
The hollyhocks were showy enough, but brief and the gone-by foliage looked bad later.
Can I try the spilling Kent's Beauty there again -- I have several to transplant from the plastic troughs on the plant stand in front.
I tried it before and liked it but it was tucked under the big Spanish broom and kind of faded in the shade.
Will it do okay in sun out in this strip against the fence?
Will this work?
September 10
New Bench
It's installed and I like it. Very heavy, and quite the effort to get the freestanding legs set solidly and level. The top slab was incredibly heavy, but I got it lifted and placed.
Now I'm waiting for the two sages -- the little blue one and the scarlet taller one -- to place to the side of the bench. I left a little buckwheat and a pineleaf penstemon right at the base of each leg.
Ugh, no for the hollyhocks along the fence. They weren't much in bloom, looking ragged and the colors were pale. (The grass in the brown urn got too big, I need something else in there.)
After the hollyhocks went by they left ragged clumps of foliage that yellows. They don't do anything along the fence line, and should be stuck behind things to show off the tall flowers, not the foliage. Or planted at some distance along a fence, not where they're seen so close up.
I think I should take them out. Then what to put along this fence that gives some height but lasts?
September 7
Seen Through Different Eyes
I get so focused on the elements of my garden, what works, what doesn't what needs to be moved, etc. that it's a surprise when people visit and see it so differently. Becky and her friend Mary Fern were here for a few days.
Mostly we sat on the patio talking and the garden was simply around us, not the focus. Our talk and socializing was the center of attention, not each plant and shrub and tree. When they did look out at it they saw the whole, not each plant.
That's how I have to learn to see it.
It's hard, though. The whole picture is still made up of a lot of small and skimpy things, it's the end of a dry summer and the days were hot. The gone-by hollyhocks are sparse and droopy.
So many things have yet to grow in and form any presence and other things are tired and leggy. So the overall look is one of small busy things, too crowded, nothing full and lush.
I mentioned I do want to edit things out under the aspens and by the dining room windows, and they heartily agreed. It's all too random.
My intent was for both those gardens to have mixed plants growing together, but what I have are too many small plants and not a coherent whole.
Under the dining room windows, I'd like just a spreading patch of plumbagos -- they're blooming now and look good. I'll take out the coneflowers, the remaining veronicas and the dark purple geraniums, which do nothing and go by and flop.
I'll leave some larkspurs, and the patch of yellow columbines, which, along with the fall anemone are open, sparse foliage this year, they are not looking good in the heat and dry at all, but they live.
The anemone should be in flower now, but it isn't.
In the potting bench curve I'll take out most of the white coneflowers and the pallida irises -- they do nothing. I'm not sure what to do about the hollyhocks at the fence . . .
And the birdbath garden needs a re-work. I have to keep looking at all of the spaces I have with different eyes. How does it all fit together? How can I simplify things?
September 4
Where to Put the Bench
I'm way overthinking this, but once the heavy bench is in place, it won't be moved.
I want the bench tucked in behind the birdbath, facing, sort of, the house. That's what gives me the best views when sitting on it, both of the kitchen courtyard straight on, and the grasses and rosemary under the kitchen window. There's a peek into the recess of the patio alcove from this angle.
But that spot is exactly where I wanted to plant the Windwalker red salvia -- a big bushy plant that would rise above the birdbath and make a bright composition of red and turquoise seen from the patio.
And that spot is where the emitter is that the salvia needs. The emitter would be under the bench in this arrangement.
But if I move the bench over to the side so the red salvia can back the birdbath, the bench feels odd. It's positioned to look down the yard, not at the house, and away from the kitchen courtyard. It emphasizes the long vertical layout of the whole back yard.
I need to experiment, but the thing is so heavy to move!
September 3
Around the Sundial
If I move the bush clematis, I still need something deep colored to sit in a pot under the sundial.
I want a purple plant that flowers when the yellow hairy goldenaster blooms come out in mid to late summer.
At Newman's I got an agastache Black Adder that has big spikes in a darker purple.
Dramatic enough to show up in the mix of meadowy plants in this small corner. But . . . it's a big plant and will need a big pot. I still have to be able to move it to a watering spot when we go away, so I'll have to figure this out.
For now, I left it in the small nursery pot and put it under the sundial in that. Like Newman's other plants, this had gotten leggy and lanky. It's going to want to be 3 feet tall and wide. Will it do okay in a pot that I can lift?
The purple spikes in late summer were just what I was looking for. It's a short lived plant, though. Only lasts a few summers.
September 2
Changes
High Country Gardens notified me that the flat of nasella grasses isn't available, and that's okay. I changed my mind after ordering. It's too much to try to keep those going out in the field.
I want to make changes in the birdbath garden. The outer ring is still so unresolved, as plants are still little and not showing up. But the left side is particularly sparse and unfinished looking. I want to put a bench in front of the irises, and I got one at Newman's today.
Concrete, backless, in a rusty brown like the pot nearby. Very subtle, and only for short sits to admire things, not to sit back and relax. Just for my occasional resting spot.
It's incredibly heavy -- the top alone is 80 pounds, and I can barely move it. The short legs are heavy too, but I'll manage. It was expensive at $283, not the cheap aluminum metal benches I was considering. An investment and a permanent installation.
It won't go in until I get the plants moved.
I will take out the gaura -- a very pretty plant and it is doing well, but it's too open and wispy by itself here. I'll remove it and put the new Windwalker Red salvia -- a big bushier plant -- in that spot or nearby.
Of all things, Newman's today had lots of Windwalker Red salvias, exactly what I just ordered from Bluestone. But they were way overgrown and very leggy.
I'll put the new blue Perfect Profusion salvia at the end next to the rocks.
 |
| Not growing, should be red in fall |
Although gaura doesn't transplant well -- but it's still a new and small plant. I'd put it where the Burgundy Bunny pennisetum is. That little dwarf grass has done nothing at all for three years.
It was planted in spring 2021. It's still tiny, no growth at all, no fall color, which is supposed to be bright red and bronze, with fluffy seedheads.
I'll pot it up and see what it does in rehab.
Will the gaura be too big there in the center of the kitchen courtyard? Maybe. The bigger and taller white one I transplanted a couple times now has not done much in the kitchen courtyard.
It should rise up above the other things. It is recommended to plant it tucked in with other plants for support.
September 1
A Bench in the Birdbath Garden
I am obsessed with setting a small, low bench in the outer curve of the birdbath garden, where the red gomphrena is now, and where I had planned to put a large red meadow sage (on order).
I'd have to move some other things around a bit. I'd want the bench tucked in among some plants with height, and backing the Immortality irises. The brown pot would stay to the side.
I put the low metal slat table there, but I'm using that on the patio and I want something more substantial and comfortable. And curved.
I like the way a bench adds some structure, but I really like that it gives me a place to sit and see the garden from a whole different angle. I love looking back into the recess of the patio, and seeing the grasses and rosemary head-on instead of along a vertical angle from the deck. Or just passing by them as I go to and fro along the walkway.
And the same thing happens with the kitchen courtyard garden. Seen from where the bench would be, I get the full view, not just the sight from the side passing by it from gate to door.
But I have concerns:
2. Would I even sit there? By myself? I'd enjoy coffee in the mornings while it's still in shade, but would I really go out there and sit?
3. Where to find what I want? It has to be metal or cement, wood won't last in the sun. And no cushions. Not a park bench size, but not a chair either, and a back would be nice for comfort.
And not a bright color, I want it to recede visually behind the turquoise birdbath.
And I had a lightweight gray metal bench with an open scrolled back that was tucked into the greenery on the pine berm.
I sat there to have a nice view up the yard. I always liked the look of it tucked into the low plants.
But I had much bigger scale in that yard -- a big lushly planted berm, tall trees behind it, lots of shade and plant interest, and a long view out into grassy turf lawn.
Here a bench would sit in a tiny space, almost right up against the birdbath, although there's a little bit of walking space between it and where the bench would be.
It would hide the irises, not a bad thing. They don't bloom much yet and the foliage burns in summer.
But really, the question is whether it's too much -- too many chairs and seats in a tiny yard. I don't want to overdo things.
I dunno.
But I do want to sit out at that spot in the morning shade and get the different views of my gardens.