> Cut back perennials
September 30
Twelve years ago (!), in 2011 I posted about moving some well entrenched Blue Ice low amsonias from my garden in CT. It was difficult. I dug and hacked and just chopped the things to get them out.
Amsonias have very tough roots as I remembered.
The very little ones under the birdbath never got going in the carpet of thyme. But even though small, they were hard to dig out and once again I found myself ripping them up.
I transplanted the hacked little things to the line of Blue Ice amsonias behind the outer circle.
I hope they take.
Fall is setting in -- the Virginia Creeper is turning, which only reddens on the side nearest the garage, and the Raydon's Favorite asters are starting to bloom.
The grasses under the kitchen window are full of motion now, and the little dwarf Russian sage has been blooming for a while. It's fading now, it was a brighter purple earlier.
And I like the way the brown urn fits in that bit of curve, anchoring the corner as you turn into the sitting alcove.
Everything is looking faded but nice now, and the weather is dry and cool, but with a strong sun still at mid day.
I miss the upright flowers around the birdbath, but they were looking ratty and hard to keep watered.
I do like how the outer ring looks, with the new amsonia patch curving behind the rocks and the plants filling in a bit.
September 29
Lovely end of September weather, sunny and dry. The new deck stain is so much better, and the Radio Red salvias are reblooming nicely now.
I made a decision to remove all the perennials from around the birdbath. They looked good at first before the thyme outcompeted all of them. The first year they were nice:
And early in the season this year they were okay, but then all summer I watered deeply every single day and it was hard to keep them going. When the thyme was in full pink bloom the perennials looked like nothing, but broke up the carpet effect, and when they finally grew tall enough to be seen in mid summer, it was brief. It all looked ragged together.
And as summer wore on it was hard to keep both elements -- the carpet of thyme and the upright flowers -- looking good.
I needed to go with one or the other. It looked so chopped up with the struggling salvias and agastaches and pathetic blackeyed Susans stuck in there. The obedient plants have nice pure white blooms, but when they go by their foliage is shabby.
I moved one blue Texas sage and both the orange agastaches to the outer circle. When all of the plants in that outer ring fill in I won't need the flowery bit under the birdbath.
I potted up the Crystal Peak obedient plants and put the two tiny orange geums in the turquoise pot with the bush clematis.
The second blue salvia went in a pot nestled with the others under the sundial. The Black Adder agastache in a pot there is nice; the seed heads remain although the deep purple is gone by. So the blue upright sage adds some deep color.
Here's the thyme surrounding the birdbath now. I added compost and will keep it watered and the bare holes will fill in.
When it blooms in early summer it will be fluffy and interesting, the rest of the year it will be just a neutral green blank area under the birdbath.
September 19
After the downpour things dried out enough for the painter to finish his work. I love the new fresh coats of stain on the deck -- a brighter, more solid color and so much more attractive. It really spiffs up the place.
It has to cure for another day, and then we can put the chairs and the peacock back on it.
September 18
We got ¾ of an inch of rain in back to back storms yesterday and last night. And of course the rain came just as our painter had finished sanding the deck to re-stain it.
And my order from Bluestone arrived -- new Biokovo geraniums for the potting bench curve and Blue Ice amsonias for behind the birdbath circle.
It would be ideal to plant them in the wet soil, and I'm running out of time in our short, abrupt fall season, but it will be difficult to maneuver around with the painter here.
He's also re-setting a large flagstone in the kitchen courtyard, so there's that disruption too.
After all the rain the place looks refreshed, as it always does.
The crabapple glows in the early morning sun. The new Persian Spire ironwood is hard to see -- its leaves are the same blue green as the vine behind it and it doesn't stand out. It will later, as it gains size and form.
September 13
I planted the new little 'Persian Spire' parrotia from Sooner Farms and took away the white gravel pebbles. It might do better with mulch around it.
It's fuller and leafier and a darker green than the 'Vanessa' spindly twig I got earlier this year from Forestfarm.
I also dug up the monardellas from under the pines and put them in a terracotta trough.
None of the monardellas I've tried in the ground (so many) did well. In pots they do better. In the empty spot under the pines I put a pot of hakonechloa that I edited out of the potting bench curve.
The single emitter there was stuffed up into the pot.
Bright and eye-catching. But I need a bigger container -- a wider shallow bowl to allow this pretty grass to spread out and drape and fill this spot..
September 12
I've begun editing down. I planted two of the potted Radio Red salvias in the kitchen courtyard, one in the birdbath garden where I took out the Windwalker Royal Red one, and then I started in on the potting bench curve.
When dug up, their root systems were puny. I kept them alive with lots of watering, and they flowered okay, but it was a lot of work for struggling plants.
All are gone now. None are replanted.
The left side of the potting bench curve, sunny and open, still looks surprisingly full. I moved the birdhouse and stump over a bit, that took some fiddling to level things.
The blue lambsears and other plants still fill the space, even without the half-assed stand of prairie coneflowers and daisy like blackeyed Susans.
I dug up a bit of lambsear from the edge and planted it next to the brown urn in front of the fence line.
It's a cleaner look now in this curve, more open yet still full enough.
The black and white metal pig fills the spot where I removed pots of hakonechloas.
I'll put those Japanese forest grasses elsewhere, and for now, while I wait for the nearby redtwig dogwood to bulk up, it's just open mulch with a pig in it.
The center hakonechloa under the boxwoods is a nice size now, and it is enough in this quiet space, without the two flanking pots of grasses.
I immediately liked the quieter look of the space under the aspens. It's a little bare, though.
From the sunnier side it looks lush. From the shady other side, under the trees, it looks bare.
But the remaining things, especially the redtwig dogwoods, will fill in and take up space.
September 10
It was 104 degrees every day I was in California, in the 80s at night. A wonderful trip, but too hot.
Back home now, and I am fired up to get things in the ground to establish before fall sets in for good.
- I planted out the leggy tender blanketflower seedlings. They probably won't make it -- the sun is still strong and afternoons are hot and they are wilted. Still too tiny but I couldn't figure out where I was going to winter them in pots and I can't wait more weeks to plant them as it will get cold quickly.
- Then I dug up the Windwalker Royal Red salvia, just as it was finally putting on an inch or so of growth. I put it in a pot. In its place I planted one of the Radio Red salvias -- which will be smaller and tidier. The Windwalker plant, hardy to zone 5 supposedly, would get to 3-4 feet around at maturity (although it appeared to be on the slow-to-mature track). Radio Red is hardy to zone 7, so we'll see if it comes back after winter.
Still more to move and plant, plus amsonias, begonias and a new ironwood tree are coming soon.
September 3
They were declining the past few years, and one was removed last summer, the other two are gone now. The sky is wide open now over our back fence.
That view is looking southwest from our patio and back windows, so it's full sun in the afternoons.
At least we'll get to see sunsets through the cut between the houses now.
The big clumps of three mature aspens were so shady and full, towering over our back yard. They were planted only feet from our back fence, so they felt as though they were in our yard, shading it and enclosing it, even with the fence below.
In fall they lit up the world in golden light. In mornings the trembling leaves were what I saw through my bedroom window transom when I woke. Dawn's light poured down from the tops of the trees, touching every leaf as the day brightened.
The trees were between the neighbor's garage and front door, and although they walked under them from garage to door and saw them tucked in between the structures as they came into their driveway, they never really had a long view of them.
But we did. From our patio, from our back yard, from inside the house, looking down the length of our yard, our view was dominated by those beautiful tall trees.
I watched them go. I had prime viewing.
Nos the view from our gate as you enter the yard looks like this.
From inside the living room the view now extends out beyond the fence to some greenery beyond, framed by the buildings. It's actually not a bad view, more open, drawing the eye out and away. Lots of sky is visible, and more sunsets will be too.
September 1
Another cool sunny morning and the garden looks fresh.
And the blanketflower seedlings have finally grown -- should I plant them out now in fall?
Perennial moves in mid September are a little late -- Santa Fe's autumn is sudden and very cold by the first of October, not the long slow gradual autumn weather of back east.
But that's the timeframe I have.
I already took out the declining tobacco pots and replaced them with the turquoise bowl of crocosmias, which are just starting to bloom, at least a few of them.
The round bowl fit right into the blue pot behind the deck. The corms are crowded in this small bowl, but it looks lush.
Crocosimais don't always bloom the first year, so we'll see how many more flower stalks come up. And I'll have to see if the pot will winter over in the garage.
I originally had the bowl sitting in the middle of the kitchen courtyard but the fronds burned badly. I moved it to a shady spot below the rr ties and it perked up.
I think in this half day shade - half day full sun location the foliage might be okay.
> 5 amsonia Blue Ice to go in back of the half circle of rocks under the Chinese privet
> 3 Biokovo geraniums to add under the aspens
> 1 little mat daisy called anacyclus, or Mount Atlas daisy. It's called Garden Gnome.
Mount Atlas daisy is similar to the chamomile that I dug up and put in a shallow pot under the sundial this year.
I'll experiment to see if it blooms longer or better than the chamomile, which had been so sweet and cute originally but then declined. Both are short lived.