Garden: Spring 2019 Update

Hey, hi!   I haven't been out in the garden much at all this year (as my blogging track record will confirm) but I thought I'd post a quick update on the front garden.   I redesigned and replanted most of this garden during the past two years, so this will be the second spring in the ground for many of the plants.  There is still a lot of growing/filling-in yet to come, but I think things are progressing well.  (Next year is the year I should expect to see them "leap," right?  Sleep...creep...leap.)   Once grown-in, the general framework will be a swathe of Hakonechloa interspersed with western sword ferns.  Flowering shrubs, perennials, and a few bulbs are dotted around within this framework.

The first photo is an overview of the front garden taken from the vantage point of the sidewalk at the Southeast corner of the property.  In addition to Hakonechloa and sword ferns, I've planted some Allium "All Summer Beauty" and campanulas in the front rockery. (There are also some self-planted lady ferns, and I elected to let them stay in this new iteration of the garden.)

Garden overview

I always wanted for the front walkway to give the effect of actually walking in/through the garden and I'm pretty happy with the way that effect has been achieved. The Salvia lyrata is a really tough plant and is establishing itself between the pavers.  I like the way its burgundy foliage connects from left to right of the entry path.  The salvia keeps trying to send up flower spikes and can look a little raggedy or informal,  but it is easy to choose to leave some or to trim them all short--actually, (and despite the fact that this photo shows the plants freshly and uniformly trimmed down), I like to leave the ones at the sides a little bit longer and trim only the center ones.

Salvia lyrata between the pavers

 This is the small garden bed to the right of the entry path. The Ajuga genevensis has gone over a bit, but it is pretty and welcome in the spring.  I'll have to get out there and trim down the spent blooms--it's a bit time consuming and much more nit-picky work than I like, but it is worth it.

"Carport Bed" to the right of the entry path

Back on the left-hand side of the entry path, the pale yellow itoh peony "Yumi" is about ready to bloom.  This is its first spring in the garden and I was impressed by how well it settled-in.  But I am worried that it will try to flower just as we get hit with a streak of rainy days. The big, single flowers will be no match for a load of rain.  

Itoh peony "Yumi"and alliums

Itoh peony "Yumi"

Volunteer violas--I don''t know where they came from.  I'm kinda charmed by them, but I hope I don't regret letting them get a foothold in the garden.

Volunteer violas

Garden: Gettin' the Photos Outa the Camera

Well, I haven't been spending a lot of time in the garden recently.  Thank goodness it pretty much takes care of itself!  I don't have much patience for diva plants, even in the best of times. And this year has been far from the "best of times"!  Spring was one of the coldest and wettest on record and it's only been in the last few weeks that greenery and floral abundance have taken hold.  The photos in this post represent a dump of everything that was on my camera.  Some of the photos were taken about a month ago and I took the remainder yesterday.  I've organized the photos by location, though, so you'll probably get a little mental whiplash from the switch back and forth between early Spring and present. 

Back in May--Geum and Salvia lyrata near the entry path.

Entry path at present.  The geums have passed, but the Geranium "Rozanne" is just coming on.

Across the path (last month) with Allium and Geranium phaeum "Samobor".
Well, maybe "Samobor".

I have an issue with my geraniums.  There are five new plants--sold as "Samobor"-- adjacent to the entry path.  They are big, tall, and rangy--at least hip height on me, or even waist-height in bloom.  Across the garden are four or five geraniums, also purported to be "Samobor" that I planted a couple of years ago.  These plants are small and compact--only about knee height in bloom.  The flowers are paler--more of a rosy violet.  And, the leaves are smaller and more rounded.  Which are the real "Samobor"?  Ideally, I want all the plants to match and to resemble the ones I first planted.  I've already cut down the plants near the entry path--they got waaaay too tall and rangy for my liking--in hope that they will respond with a flush of new foliage.  I've been trekking around to local nurseries with samples of both leaves to compare with any new "Samobor" plants that I might buy as replacements--but I think that, maybe, leaf propagating or dividing the plants that I want to duplicate will be the surest strategy to cultivating a uniform grouping of plants.

Digitalis parviflora with Allium seeded and Clematis.  I love the mix of floral shapes.

Allium, Melica, and Clematis.

Digitalis parviflora (present).

The southwest corner of this garden bed.

Earlier in spring. I think this area will become better over time as the purple-leaved Actaea grows up and fills in. These are the compact and tidy Geranium "Samobor".

Reverse angle--standing outside the fence at the southwest corner.

Standing on the sidewalk (a month ago, and before I cleaned-up the Pennisetum).

Reverse angle of the same.  The geraniums have gone over, but the Astrantia are blooming strongly, now. ( current photo).

Nodding bud on the Allium "Summer Beauty" with Calamintha and Geranium "Brookside".

Geranium "Brookside" in the sidewalk rockery.

Sidewalk rockery at present with Geranium "Brookside", Pennisetum "Little Bunny", Melica uniflora, Nepeta "Junior Walker", Calamintha, and self-seeded lady ferns.

Garden: Holes in the Border

Last time I wrote, I was pondering a mini-remodel of the front garden.  I'd decided to swap out some grasses and replace the orange-ish geums with another color.  It took a while to marshall my forces, but I've done it.  Where craft is concerned, I make no idle threats--if I see something that doesn't work or doesn't fulfill my vision, I ruminate on it (in a frantic, obsessive, not altogether pleasant fashion) until I find a solution and then I get it done.  

So, I decided to swap out the three Pennisetum "Hameln" for Melica uniflora f. albida.  Far Reaches Farm sells Melica, but their website showed "Out of Stock."  No problem!  I sent an email asking if they had any plants that would soon be ready to ship and they rounded up enough plants to fill my entire order.  I really like ordering from Far Reaches Farm! The people are always nice, the plants are always healthy, and the packaging is amazing.  See for yourself:

Big box of plants arrives via overnight.

Each individual plant is lovingly wrapped.

Plant Number One

Soon, there were twelve happy plants (and a GIANT pile of recyclable packaging materials).

This is what the front garden looked like before I dug into it:

Front garden (photo taken a couple of weeks ago).

And here (below) is the "After".  I've removed one of the big sedums and three Pennisetum and replanted with the baby Melica.  I also cut back the spent geraniums with the hope that they'd send up a fresh flush of leaves.  It looks a little choppy now, but I think the change will prove to have been a good one.  I love the airy spangles of the Melica seed heads and I think the Melica will make a nice continuity between the two Calamagrostis brachytricha that also share the space.

Garden after removing the Pennisetum and one Sedum "Autumn Joy" and replanting with Melica.

On the other side of the entry path, I swapped out the Geum "Flames of Passion" for "Banana Daiquiri". "Flames of Passion" was a nice plant--eager and trouble-free-- but it wasn't quite the color that I'd wanted.  I replaced it with "Banana Daiquiri".  (I'd been looking for Gimlet, another yellow Geum in the "Cocktail series", but Gimlet is unavailable locally and I decided to compromise for the locally available plant.)  "Banana Daiquiri" opens to a more sulphery yellow than I like, but it ages to a pleasant margarine yellow.  The yellow is picked up in the back of the planting bed by a Kirengeshoma koreana which will bloom with bell-shaped yellow flowers.  And the yellow is echoed across the path in the flowers of the Clematis chiisanensis "Lemon Bells".  I also prefer the way in which the yellow Geum flowers interact with the spring-green and coral new growth of the Vine Maples planted adjacent.

Geum "Banana Daiquiri"

Well, that's all I've got at the present.  We are enjoying warm, dry weather, so I'm spending a lot of time hand watering the new transplants and water-thirsty specimens throughout the garden.  I'm also working on a totally different, non-gardening project,  Maybe (fingers crossed) I can share soon a finished product post on that project.  :-)  On to those tasks!

Garden: New Pictures and New Plans

A few weeks ago, I had a little freakout on Facebook.  I was thinking about removing and replacing the sedums in the front garden and decided to ask the hive-mind for approval and planting suggestions.  

I've two problems with the sedums.  First, they are very dense--artifacts of a previous planting scheme--and I now prefer a wispier garden style.  Second, they are a very pale and minty green for most of the year and do not support the duskier color scheme I've been trying to create.  My initial idea was to remove the sedums and to replace them with something texturally lighter and tonally darker.   But, after thinking about it for awhile and ruminating on the answers I gleaned as a result of the freak-out, I decided to solve the problem in a different way.  I've decided to keep the sedums (at least three of the four) and to switch-out other plants instead.  

First to go were some lovely Amsonia tabernaemontana "Blue Ice" (which I really did like a lot), and also some Geranium macrorrhizum (which I really didn't like so much).  I replaced them with the hardy geranium "Samobor" that I'd already used on the other side of the garden.  (Thanks, Alison, for the suggestion!)  I hope that the dark splotch on each leaf will convey the darker, dusky theme that I'm trying to develop, and I'm happy to reduce the number of species in the garden by two--a small victory in the war against bittiness. 

The usual view.  

At the moment, I also enjoy the color echo between the geraniums and the just-opening alliums.

Geranium phaeum "Samobor"

I was still plotting against the sedums, however, until a post by Scott, who blogs at Rhone Street Gardens, led me to a different solution.  I've decided to switch-out some of the grasses instead of the sedums.  The grasses in this area are mostly Pennisetum "Hameln" which is a densely mounding grass.  I'm planning to replace them with Melica uniflora f. albida.  

Melica uniflora via Wikimedia Commons

Last year, I added some Melica to the rockery area and I've been pleased with it.  It does seem to seed around, but it also stayed green well into the fall, emerged early this spring, and has a much more loosely clumping form--all positives in my book.  I hope that the looser forms of the Geranium and the Melica will impart enough lightness to the planting.  And probably, I should also consider dividing the sedums--I haven't done that for a while and each clump is bigger than a bushel basket.

Here's the same planting area photographed from the opposite side:

Front garden with Geranium "Samobor" and lots of Sweet Woodruff.

And a couple of close-ups of various plant combinations:

Geranium "Samobor", Myrrhis odorata (Sweet Cicely), a branch of Hydrangea "Bombshell",
and Allium "Purple Sensation".  I hate that the Allium leaf tips are already browning--this is why,
for years, I avoided panting alliums.

Myrrhis odorata, Geranium "Samobor", and Sweet Woodruff, with Hakonechloa macra in the foreground.

Allium "Purple Sensation"

Here (below) is how the whole thing looks when viewed from the sidewalk.  One thing that I'd like to change about this view is the clump of coral-colored gems to the right of the walkway.  I've been planning to swap them out for years, but I haven't found the ideal substitute.  I want to replace them with another Geum, probably something from the new Cocktail series.  I really like "Gimlet" (a pale butter yellow),  but I haven't found it available locally.  Plenty of "Mai Tai", yes, but no "Gimlet".  I'm issuing an APB for "Gimlet"--please report all sightings promptly!  Or maybe I'd be better off by placing an-online order.  Gotta make up my mind and act fast while there is still stock available.

View from the street.

Bonus picture of the strip of ground to the north of the driveway.  I removed all the Nassella tenuissima (which never looked very good despite my constant efforts) and replaced it with Sesleria autumnalis.  This is also the new home of the displaced Geranium macrorrhizum.

Grasses, alliums, leucanthemum, and Geranium macrorrhizum on the north side of the driveway.

And that's all I've got at the moment.  Bye for now--if I keep editing, I'll miss the rest of Spring!  

Garden: Epilobium angustifolium album--Am I Gonna be Sorry?

Remember last Spring when I grew some Epilobium (now Chamerion) angustifolium album from seed?  The seeds were soooo tiny!

Epilobium angustifolium album seeds--each is so tiny that it would barely
 fill the counter in the "8" in the date on the penny.

I grew two batches, one in grow pellets and one in a milk carton greenhouse.  

Epilobium seedlings growing in the milk carton greenhouse.

I got 5 seedlings from each batch, but only the ones grown in the milk carton thrived and grew strong.  It was fortunate that they did as I had hoped to end up with EXACTLY five plants.

Epilobium seedlings potted on.

I lost one of the adolescent plants due to a botched transplant attempt, but four plants lived and each went on to produce a single, wispy stalk topped with a single bloom.

Epilobium angustifolium album glamor shot.

A couple of weeks ago, I took advantage of a sun break to wander around the garden admiring fresh Spring growth.  What are these seedlings?, I wondered.  At first, I thought they might be either lilies or alliums--neither plant has ever self-seeded in my garden, so I have no idea what the seedlings look like.  But, a bit of internet sleuthing dispelled these thoughts.  Then, I realized that they MUST be the Epilobium babies!  Last year's scrawny single-stemmed plants have produced about 10 robust stems apiece.  

"Mystery seedlings" on March 13, 2016, growing among alliums.

Here they are, today, growing strongly.  Am I gonna wish that I hadn't planted them?

A sunny, cell phone picture shows robust growth.

I think I'll be OK for the moment, at least.  I planted the Epilobium with the hope that they would mingle with the out-of-control hardy Geranium "Jolly Bee".  And the runners are supposed to be easy enough to pull out if they encroach on the more delicate garden plantings.  Still...I worry about plants that reproduce by a factor of 10.

Garden: Pre-Spring, 2016

On February 19th, this became the wettest Winter on record for the Seattle area and we still have another week or so to go before the recording period closes.  Not particularly surprising, as this Winter seemed to be even wetter and drearier than usual.  I've been pretty satisfied, this year, with my garden design decision to forgo "Winter interest".   Nope.  I'm not going to traipse around the garden--with rain dripping off my nose or down my neck, compacting already sodden soil--to inspect early bloomers and colored sticks.  I built my garden to use while the weather is nice and I can enjoy gardening activities.  Duh!  

I'm satisfied to ignore the garden completely for three or four months until Spring Fever starts bubbling.  I'm not yet feeling it, but I guess that the garden IS.  So today I had to get out there and spend a few hours cleaning up and cutting back. My efforts came a bit too late for some of the plants.  Among the grasses, Calamagrostis brachytricha and Melica uniflora were already well-sprouted and I was unable to trim out all of the spent foliage.  Well, I guess I could have if I were patient enough, but I am not.  And the (many) Anemones were already producing new growth, making it a little more tedious to selectively prune out the old stems.  I pruned down a large Nandina, so we'll see how that re-sprouts.  And I pruned the hardy fuchsias and the grapes.  I've got more to do, but the yard waste bin is full, plus one more large bag, and it started to rain so I called it quits.  

Here are some photos from the day...

Pre-Spring view of the front garden.  I tidied-up and sprinkled on some new compost/mulch.

The sweet and diminutive Melica may be trying for world domination, I don't know...

These must be Allium nigrum?  I've never before had alliums come back strongly or multiply like this.

Around back, I think this planting combo has performed well--tricyrtis, western sword ferns, and alpine strawberries.  The grassy plant is Carex tumulicola.

On the opposite side of our back door, we have Nandina, Triceyrtis, a yellow Hellebore, and Saxifraga primuloides.

Eeewwww.  The back yard still needs to be tidied.  Isn't that nasty?  The Brunnera have recently put out some new growth--I'll have to be careful when I am tidying around them.  Next year, I think I'll tidy in Fall.  I've been trying to garden "more naturally", but this is just gross and unnecessary.

Something pretty (or at least interesting) to purge the last picture from our minds--these are lichen (Cladonia) fruiting bodies.