May 28
As May Winds Down
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| Blue Arrow juniper just planted |
1. I chopped an irrigation emitter line right in half as I tried to tidy up the edges of thyme around the birdbath. Arrrgh.
I got tiny 1/4 inch connecter pieces from Amazon (had to buy a bag of 150 just to get one but they are cheap). I fixed it myself, and fixed a line that had lost its cap and was spurting water all over the deck.
2. I planted the Blue Arrow juniper in front of the fence.
Will it get too big or stay nice and narrow?
It stays nice and upright, even on a windy day, despite being so tall and thin right now.
3. I planted out the replacement ironwood. A slender whippy thing, all crooked, no match at all for the beautifully formed tree that it replaced.
The leaves are bronze from being in a pot and from transplant. But it's in. It will fill out if it grows.
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| The tiny replacement is no match for the first one |
4. I got a Pawnee Buttes sand cherry to go in the spot where the desert willow had been at the corner of the garage. It's Prunus pumila var. besseyi.
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| Pawnee Buttes sand cherry |
I don't need anything tree-like in this spot, although the upright tree form desert willow would have been a nice accent.
I'm okay with just filling this open area with something eye-catching, while the oaks some day will provide some height and sense of a grove nearby. I actually like the view beyond the corner to the walking trail.
What I need, though is something really tough and hardy that can take poor soil, full hot sun, and needs little water.
I can get the hose to it pretty easily, but it's a harsh site, exposed in winter and hard to keep moist. We'll see how this does.
5. I also got three small Indian rice grass plants to put in the field, along with the three sand love grasses I just planted. Trying to fill things in a bit.
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| Panchito manzanita |
This one is Arctostaphylos uva-ursi coloradensis, native to our southern Rockies. It's 'Panchito', a dwarf manzanita.
It wants sun and quick draining sandy soil, but some afternoon shade. It will slowly spread to five feet or more. And it wants a rock to drape over and embrace, looking graceful.
I wanted one for the longest time and Plants of the Southwest had nice five gallon ones.
I ended up putting it next to the curved bridge, too close to the mock orange and the stand of columbines.
If I keep the mock orange's upright stems trimmed up as it gets to be a big shrub, Panchito manzanita can spread out below and into it a bit. There might be room even if it spreads to four or five feet. Just. It will be crowded.
May 24
Heucheras
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I potted up the red Splendens coralbells and they immediately did so much better than in the ground.
They are now in three small plastic pots next to the front porch bench, in mostly shade. They are blooming.
But the pots are too small and they are already root bound. I can't keep them watered, and the leaves wilt. The flowering is okay, but a little timid.
They need to be in bigger containers.
Or . . . I need to get rid of them. I have a love hate relationship with heucheras -- I find them fussy about conditions and most have not done well for very long, either here or in CT.
Maybe add one to the big turquoise pot under the bush clematis? I had a small red Texas betony there, but it was too shady for it and I took it out.
'Splendens' would provide that red pop with the bright purple clematis and it might tolerate the shade under the foliage of the clematis.
Then put the other two in bigger pots at the side of the bench and see if they stay wilt-free with more soil.
The foliage is nice enough if can keep them watered, but the flowering is sparse. I'm not crazy about them.
May 23
The Juniper is Gone
Jeronimo came today and pruned (chopped off) the dead branches of the cottonwood. It looks a little lopsided now. And the cut stump, high up on the trunk just above the disease scar, looks kind of ugly.
But it's better than dead branches.
He also took out the Parrotia that was so lovely but never made it back from winter. The replacement comes tomorrow.
And he took out the wildly misshapen Skyrocket juniper. I had wanted to have it transplanted to the side of the garage where the desert willow had been, but decided it was too oddly shaped to save.
It looked okay from the front, but had no branches at all on the fence side.
Now, without the big juniper there it looks so much cleaner and the lovely peony is visible.
But I still want something to look at from the bedroom slider, especially in winter when that vine covered fence is a brown wall. It needs to be vertical and structural.
I need to keep in mind how full it will get -- Greg's were solid columns before we took them out. I barely have the room for that.
This shows how close up against his fence the Blue Arrow junipers were, the tree's stems were just a foot away. And look how rangy and loose they were in the first years.
Now, what to plant at the corner of the garage where the desert willow was? Since I didn't transplant the juniper, should I consider finding another similar juniper?
Or a shrub like an Apache Plume? A New Mexico privet? Try another desert willow? Or put in a Russian sage or some grasses? I just need something to fill the corner, it doesn't have to be a tree or anything tall. There are choices at Plants of the Southwest.
May 22
Twenty Five Years
It's our 25th anniversary today. A sparkly, breezy day with sun and cool temperatures.
I'm happy with it. It is filling in finally, and becoming something. The birdbath garden circle is still very new and plants are tiny but I can see what it will be. The kitchen courtyard looks great with the tall orange geums blooming and the rose and the vine on the fence bulking up. The redtwig dogwood at the foot of the Kintzley's Ghost vine is a nice filler.
It's no longer the clumpy stiff little semicircle I struggled to design. The other gardens please me too, and the designs are coming together.
The failed parrotia on the lower level of the patio is a real disappointment, but I am replacing it with another. The clematis vines -- all three of them -- disappoint, but I'm trying to be patient. They are taking years to get going.
But in total, the whole place looks the way I like it. Each year l've learned to water more, and then water more than that, and fertilize. It helps.
Who knew 25 years ago that I would be living in Santa Fe, both of us still going strong and loving it here!
May 21
Nice Days
The nights are still cold, in the 40s, but things are starting to perk up.
The columbines have been spectacular. I watered and watered all April, and I fertilized.
It makes a difference. Even seen through the screen from inside the house they look great.
The white irises are spectacular too, the whole stand is blooming now behind the bench, and they draw the eye as we sit on the patio. So very pretty.
The Biokovo geraniums are flowering now, always a pretty sight at ground level below the aspens.
And the Japanese forest grasses are finally doing something.
The big one in the center has spread and the two that are semi-buried in pots look good (one was getting swamped with irrigation water from an emitter I propped up in it -- literally standing in 4 inches of water. I took the emitter out and will need to remember to hand water it.)
One big yellow peony bloom has opened. The plant looks great, but it doesn't flower much, or for very long.
The orange geums continue to be a bright, happy looking bunch of upright sunniness in the kitchen courtyard.
I want to get the new Blue Arrow juniper planted. I got it from Forestfarm, and it's big and tall -- and quite golden colored, not blue. It needs to come out of the pot.
Yesterday I planted two Gambel oaks I got from Plants of the Southwest to add to the two in the field. The little grouping of four looks great -- these latest two were one gallon plants, bigger than the quart plants I put in before.
But one had horribly contorted girdling roots -- so tightly coiled around the stem that I could't even get the pruners in to snip them. I may have actually severed the plant from any of its roots in the process. Ugh. I hope it survives. They were each $50.
Today I sowed 13 little pots of blankeflower aristata seeds and one pot of nasturtiums.
If I can grow on the blanketfowers until they are big enough to transplant, I'll get a big bunch near the bench after the irises have gone by. I do love them.
There are four little ones there that I rescued from around the birdbath, where they couldn't take the competition from the thyme (no plants can, I have to be diligent about pulling away the thyme in spots.)
May 19
Replacements
First: the Persian ironwood
How did my little parrotia 'Vanessa' get to be such a gloriously tall, elegant tree in just 7 years? I marvel at it every time I see it, which isn't often -- it's hidden away at the end of the unseen side alley.
First planted in the fall of 2017, it struggled in 2018, filled out a bit in 2019, struggled more, but got leafier in 2020, and suddenly now in 2024 it is beautiful and tall.
Tucked in next to the guest room window it isn't a focal point or even visible in my garden.
I planted another one in late summer 2023 which is a total focus from the patio and from inside the living room, and it was glorious. It was a 5 gallon beautifully formed tree and I loved how it looked.
It is dead after its first winter. No sign of life at all, although I thought the tiny tight leaf buds were viable and would be opening late. They are not.
I ordered a 1 gallon from Forestfarm to replace it.
Second: Blackfoot daisies
I found two nice sized ones at Plants of the Southwest today to replace the two I got from High Country Gardens that were tiny and did not survive. Those never even got planted. I just need a couple to extend the patch of them on one side.
May 18
Fleabane and Perky Sue
It's underneath the raggy hesperaloe fronds, so hard to see, just a little pop of yellow. It's nice with the orange globe mallow.
I thought about putting one under the birdbath.
I wasn't able to find any fleabane at High Country Gardens, but I was able to get two big Perky Sues at Plants of the Southwest. They are similar looking, with the same bright yellow tiny daisy-flowers in early spring.
However, I think the Perky Sues would be too clumpy, too much like the coreopsis I took out, and after flowering they aren't much. So one will in go the kitchen courtyard and one back under the Peggy Martin rose, where I took out the struggler.
May 16
Around the Birdbath
The area right under the birdbath needed neatening up, and I spent the day digging out thyme to even the circle a bit. It's still sparse on the left side, so I added a lot of compost where I want it to spread.
The right side needed chopping back quite a bit.
I found that the plants tucked in among the thyme struggle with the roots of the dense mat of thyme. They barely come up and never amount to much.
So I spent a long time on hands and knees, digging out around each little plant with my ungloved fingers. It's all delicate probing and scooping to get the tightly bound roots away from the delicate roots of emerging perennials.
Not sure this design idea is the best. It's going to take a lot of work each season I fear.
Nothing looks like anything yet, as the plants come up. I want narrow, elegant, upright forms and soft colors. I took out the bright coreopsis plants -- they were too clumpy and after blooming the re-blooming was raggy looking.
I transplanted one of the Perky Sue plants from under the Peggy Martin rose -- it wasn't seen there and was struggling. It is small with tiny yellow flowers -- and it blooms early.
I still need something to the left, and might cut a little more off the edge on the right.
Mostly I need the thyme to spread out where I want it and be tamed and controlled around the perennials where I don't want it.
I did not move any of the removed thyme to the small patch at the front portal corner. I put a struggling RosyJane gaura there instead.
May 15
So Many Red Flowered Plants
Yesterday I stopped at Newman's to get potting soil, and spotted a little 4 inch pot of cuphea -- but a different one than the hybrid 'David Verity' that I loved.
This is Mexican Heather, Cuphea hyssopifolia 'Cubano Cristo', and it is much smaller and has deep red tubular flowers rather than dark orange.
It is a small thing that I can tuck in anywhere . . . but where? I already have red flowered small plants everywhere:
There are pots of Radio Red sage around the sundial, and I just put in red Strawberry Fields gomphrena at the side of the bench (while waiting for Windwalker Red sage to grow there).
I have tiny scarlet monardella under the pine trees in front. And a red flowering coreopsis 'Hot Paprika' in the kitchen courtyard, just planted. And spring blooming red pineleaf penstemons in different locations.
Red flowered Texas betony is in the dining room window garden and at the foot of the vine covered fence in back. Tiny red 'Little Lanterns' columbines are blooming now. I even have a red flowered tiny Kudos agastache at the foot of the Kintzley's Ghost vine, but it's had to see.
Three pots of scarlet red 'Splendens' heucheras are by the bench on the front portal. And red geraniums, of course, at the side of the front door.
That's 11 different red flower varieties -- and I have multiples of many of them.
A twelfth small red flowered plant? In another pot? Planted in a garden? Where? It wants a sunny location but some afternoon shade here.
May 14
Finally, Relief
The wind stopped, the sun has been out and the temperatures today are into the 70s. Finally, a nice day. A really, really nice day.
One of the irises popped open. Can't wait for the whole stand to bloom.
I got all the little pots planted into their locations, either in the ground or in containers, including the four plugs of Turkish speedwell to add between the flagstones on the level below the patio.
The pictures show an impressive mound and I thought to put it in the urn by the front door, knowing it wouldn't get that large in the little pot inside the urn.
The pictures show white blooms with just a touch of a maroon throat, and I thought that would be good with the red geraniums and red pots nearby below it.
I just worried about the flowing habit and size of this -- would it get leggy and sparse in a too small pot? But the bigger issue is that the flowers are not white. Or silver.
← The couple blooms on the tiny sprig are a lavender purple pink.
A color I don't like and a color that won't go well in that spot.
They're eye catching and bright, and a pop of yellow to go with the reds and browns there.
The second yellow petunia (there are two in that trough) will go in another pot and I'll place it somewhere.
They do have to be moved from beside the glider -- the fragrance is quite strong at night and overpowering to sit next to. It's not a particularly pleasant or delicate smell so close up.
Now . . . where to put the lavender purple Tidal Wave petunia?
May 12
Still Cold
It hasn't warmed up, and the winds are still fierce. The ironwood stubbornly will not open its leaves.
But the geums are having a moment, and the Swallowtail columbines are too.
And for the first time, after several moves and much struggling, the Immortality irises promise to put on a show behind the bench. There are lots of buds.
Wish it would warm up.
May 10
Windy, Windy, Windy
It has been cold and windy for days.
Overcast a lot. Some sun, but the wind blows, gusty at times, roaring at other times, but relentless. Mornings are in the 30s and 40s, which is keeping many of my plants from filling out.
Columbines and orange geums are blooming, and all the trees except my new ironwood have leafed out, but everything struggles with cold nights and windy, windy days.
Jeronimo came today and turned on the irrigation system. He'll be back on the 20th to transplant the Skyrocket juniper to the spot by the garage where the desert willow was. I'll plant the new Blue Arrow juniper -- a tall, skinny specimen I got from Forestfarm.
He'll also trim out the dead branch on the cottonwood.
May 8
A Couple re-dos
> Since the rabbits ate the hollyhocks by the rainbarrel, I may eliminate them and let the Cascade rose scramble over the fence after all, rather than trying to get it to reach up and over to the door canopy.
> I finally did it and removed the desert willow by the garage. It just never grew, never bloomed, and when I took it out there wasn't much of it. The transplanted Skyrocket juniper will go there if I can get Jeronimo to move it when he comes this week to turn on the water.
May 1
Spanish Flare
It is Helleborus Spanish Flare. Pictures show a light yellow flower with a deep maroon throat on a tall clump of foliage.
I planted it at the foot of the small aronia at the back of the plotting bench curve, to hide the little shrub's bare stems.
I've never grown hellebores before, so we'll see how this fares.
I planted the rest of the Bluestone order today: Blue Profusion sage, the blue fescues in red pots, a red coreopsis in the kitchen courtyard and the Burgundy Bunny pennisetum in front of the redtwig dogwood there.
I potted up four Kent's Beauty oreganos in the gray troughs and set those by the garage door stoop.
And I put 32 George Davidson crocosmia corms in the turquoise container in the center of the kitchen courtyard. There may not be enough room in this shallow bowl for them.