Garden: What I've Been Up To...

I don't know if you remember my last garden-related post? (It was a while ago.)  I was whining about the front garden--specifically the big "Autumn Joy" Sedums.  I wrote that I wanted to replace them with something "visually lighter and tonally darker".  And, after careful consideration, I did make some changes that I hoped would do the job.  But I remained unsatisfied with the result of those edits and I've gone and dug it all up and now it looks really awful.  Again.

This time around, I removed the three big "Autumn Joy" sedums which survived the Spring remodel and I replaced them with three new, baby sedum "Thunderhead".  "Thunderhead" has darker foliage and dark, rosy-pink bloom.  It is supposed to stay a bit more compact than "Autumn joy".  I winged it with this choice and have my fingers crossed for good garden performance.  Dark-leaved sedums haven't done very well in my garden--they tend to grow half-heartedly, are weak and floppy, and are chewed to death by snails (and that's weird because I never see snail damage on the "Autumn Joy"--maybe it is proof that pests tend to target the weakest or struggling plants).  

I also removed a couple of plants (a dwarf purple-leaved barberry and a couple of Sanguisorba "tanna") with the goal of streamlining the planting.   

And I moved one of the Calamagrostis brachytricha a bit more to the front to get it out from under the marauding hardy geranium.  

Here's the result:

Carnage of the day. The entire right-hand looks kind moth-eaten due to loss of the big sedums and general thinning-out of the rest of the plants.

Too early in the game to comment, really, but I think the flow and rhythm of the planting is improved.  The old arrangement had become noticeably static to my eye.

Another view--picture taken from the front walkway.  You can appreciate what the darker flowers of the Sedum "Thunderhead" add to the composition--flower heads of "Autumn Joy" would have been frosty green to palest pink. There are a lot of pale, nondescript colors in the garden at this time of year including the green/buff/rosy hydrangea blooms, the parchment color of the spent allium flowers, and the gray/mauve of the Calamagrostis.  I have high hopes for the bolder contrast provided by the new sedums' floral display.

Remodeled front bed as seen from the entry path.

And from the street:

Front garden as seen from the street.

As part of this remodel, I doubled-down on some of the successful combinations from the Spring revamp.  I like the combination of Geranium "Samobor" mingling with grass Melica uniflora and with dark leaved Ajuga and Salvia lyrata "Purple Volcano" so I moved and redistributed more Melica across the front of the planting bed.  Two garden spots remain and I'll fill them with either seedlings of Geranium "Samobor" or creeping seasonal annuals.

Geranium "Samobor" with melica and salvia lyrata "Purple Volcano".

Small plants mixing it up along the front of the border.

I'll leave you with one last garden picture, this time from the other side of the driveway--Guara backed by Calamagrostis  "Karl Foerster".  From these photos, you may be able to see that the seasons are changing around here!  It's a full month early, but rains and cool, overcast days have returned to Seattle and it definitely feels like Fall.