Documenting the Progress in my Garden Planting -- Part II

More tedious words and pictures showing what's growing where.

This is the front of the triangular bed that ended the previous post.

This area at the front gets more sun, and has less drainage. There's a stone-filled drainage (hmm...can't really call it a ditch) area there on the left, where all the run-off in the grass and the beds goes. So, on the left near it I have plants that like being wet, like Lobelia cardinalis and ornamental rhubarb. Some new plants here this year are variegated shield fern, Ligularia tussilaginea aureomaculata (that's a mouthful), and Podophyllum. They are growing with Dicentra 'Gold Heart', heucheras and columbines, native ginger, and one(!) blue Meconopsis poppy. I planted three blue poppies last summer, but only one has returned this Spring. In the center of the bed in that big bare spot is a serviceberry shrub (Amelanchier alnifolia).

This next area is to the left of that, on the other side of the drainage area thingy.

There are three Alaska cedars here, still only about 8 feet tall. They should get much taller, and will eventually fill in the bare area between them. It's hard to resist the urge to fill in that space between them with another shrub or with perennials. There are native Pacific Coast irises in front and to the left of them, and under the cloches are seeds and seedlings for Echinacea, Liatris, Lupine, Prairie Smoke, Helenium and Fleabane.

Newly planted along the fence are native orange honeysuckle, a native Delphinium, and some foxgloves. Because of all the ginormous Douglas firs, nowhere in my back garden gets what is technically full sun (6 hours or more of direct sun). But I'm hoping this area will get enough for these to cope. Usually by summer the sun is high enough overhead that the trees don't block it for quite as long.

I also plan to sow seeds of various California wildflowers here in the hopes that they will establish a self-seeding colony.  I just hope it's not too late for that, I feel like I'm running out of time, but it's hard to get it done with it being so cold and wet out there. I want to plant California poppy, Tidy Tips, Nemophila (both Baby Blue Eyes and Penny Blacks), Bird's eyes, Farewell-to-spring, Poached Egg Plant, Phacelia and Chinese houses.

The next area to the left is the area I call the mostly native bed. It's a mostly shady, woodland type area, that gets a little late afternoon sun. It's the Northeast corner of the property.

There are no new plants at the front, but it looks like all the native bulbs and plants that I put in last Fall have come up. What's in here? Camassia, Calochortus (Mariposa lily), lady ferns, scarlet monkey flower, native ginger, nodding onion, Brodiaea and Dichelostemma, Tellima, inside-out flower, Sitka burnet, Sedum spathulifolium (Cape Blanco), a handful of Fritillaria meleagris (not native) and summer-blooming heather (also not native). I know there's more but I can't remember them all.

I'm in the process of putting a walkway in here, I dig up rocks every time I plant something, so I plan to use the larger rocks to line this walk like cobbles. The edges aren't complete yet, they don't line up at the back.

Further up the walk. This is where all the Trilliums and Erythronium are. Also sword ferns, native bleeding hearts, native columbine, goatsbeard,  and more native ginger. Oh, and a couple of evergreen huckleberries.

 

On this side of the walk that circles the tree are shooting stars and Claytonia sibirica. At this point we are directly behind the waterfall that is the start of the stream.

Here's the area on the other side of the waterfall, that I posted pictures of in my Fertilizer Friday post.

Most of these are new. Purple Euphorbia, primroses, peachy Heucheras, a reddish grass, and one Monkey flower with soft apricot flowers (at least that's what Annie's Annuals says). There are some ornamental grasses planted last year in here as well, but they haven't shown much growth yet. Pennisetum 'Karley Rose', Northern sea oats, and a reddish Panicum. My plan for this year is to also weave a row of pink Muhly grass behind them.

There are also two new shrubs/small trees here -- a Leycesteria and a witch hazel with red flowers called Fire......something.

When I bought the witch hazel, its flowers were already past, so I didn't get to see it in full flower. It's just starting to leaf out, so I'm hoping next Spring/late Winter it will be fantastic. (Oh, see the pile of stones behind it? That's what I dig up every time I plant something.) This is also the area where I moved my Camellia Yuletide to. It seems to be doing OK.

Well, that's about it. I skipped a couple of areas -- the raised beds where I grow veggies, and another bed where I didn't plant anything new, except for some cloches with poppies growing under them.

I have so much bare space. Sometimes I feel like I will never fill it up, and I like really full cottagey beds. My garden is like that huge salad you buy where the plate seems to never empty no matter how long you eat. Have you ever ordered something like that at a restaurant?

Good thing I have seedlings coming along in my mini-greenhouses.

Fertilizer Friday -- Hepatica, Anemone and Others

It's Friday again already! Time to flaunt my flowers for Fertilizer Friday, a blogging meme hosted by Tootsie at Tootsie Time.

It's mostly still spring ephemerals. Although there are a few new plants, recently bought, that are flowering.

Hepatica nobilis

Anemone nemorosa

Trillium ovatum

Claytonia sibirica

Corydalis flexuosa 'Purple leaf'

Erythronium tuolumnense 'Pagoda'

Erythronium oregonum

Double Hellebore

My little patch of Siberian Squill

Cycalmen coum (this has been blooming since I bought it at the NWFGS)

Mukdenia rossii 'Crimson Fans'

There was a time not that long ago, when I said I didn't like Euphorbias. Well, I like this one, and bought a few to plant beside the stream. The flowers are kinda skunky-smelling when you get close, but they're on the far side of the stream, so I don't have to smell them.

In fact, I bought a few, and I've planted them with a bunch of peach-colored Heucheras and primroses, and ornamental grasses.

 

I used to say I didn't like peach, salmon pink or orange in the garden too.

Even old ladies can change their minds.

Go to Tootsie Time to see all the other garden bloggers who are flaunting their flowers today.

Documenting the Progress on My Planting -- Part I

I'm almost caught up on my planting, finally! I've been to several plant sales this Spring (more are coming up), and bought lots of new plants, but was having trouble getting them planted because of our cold, rainy weather. I don't mind gardening in the rain, as long as it isn't torrential rain. Most of the time our Spring rain is a misty rain, although we have had some real crazy rain in the past few weeks.  Rain, hail, snow, fog (I heard there was thunder and lightning in Seattle) -- all in the span of 24 hours. The temp gets down just below freezing nearly every night, and there is frost on the grass almost every morning.

Finally last weekend the sun came out, and the temps finally rose above 50. I had three days of playing in the dirt.

Except for two blueberry bushes, this is all that's left waiting to be either planted or potted up.

 

A daylily, a pot of spearmint (that's staying in its pot), three Anemones, a Clematis (Rosemoor), some blue oat grass, and a handful of stuff started from seed last year, that made it through the winter (now sprouting again and in need of potting up)

So I thought I would document my beds at this stage, for my records.

The front foundation bed:

This is the bed that has the now severely pruned Escallonia in it. I'm still trying to decide whether to keep it. If I remove it, that bed will no longer have any of the shrubs that were in it when we moved here a year and a half ago. I posted last year about pulling an overgrown sun rose out of this bed. It left a lot of space, which I filled with a variety of things. A Magic Carpet Spirea, a couple of summer-blooming heathers, some Ballerina Geraniums, a couple of Peach Flambe Heucheras, and a Clematis tubulosa. And a handful of bulbs. I guess my solution was to throw everything at it to see what would stick.

Here's a picture of it when we first moved in.

Around the corner from that:

A Wine and Roses Weigela and some Red Hunter Tulips. I haven't given much thought to what else I want to put here. But I surely will, I can't leave all that open soil unplanted.

To the right of that bed is another bed that I don't think I've shown before. When we first moved in, it looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

 

The large, mostly brown shrub on the far right is a mostly dead Viburnum tinus. As soon as the weather warms up again and I get my bypass pruners out, it's going the same way as the Escallonia. Although I think even if I find signs of life, it is coming all the way out, no reprieve.

In this bed are also planted a purple smoke tree, a Physocarpus 'Diablo', Heucheras, daylilies, hardy Geraniums, some shasta daisies, some Salvia 'East Friesland', a Phlox 'StarFire', and some lily bulbs bought at the NWFGS. They are just starting to poke their heads out.

 

Connected to that bed is a long bed running the length of the front yard, to the right of the house.

 

I'd like to get rid of almost all the shrubs growing here at some point. Besides the mostly dead Viburnum tinus, there is a Vitex, a rose of sharon, a stinky boxwood, a privet, and a sour cherry that grew from the roots of a grafted sweet cherry (the previous owners left it because it worked as a cross-pollinator).  I'm thinking I might remove the sweet cherry tree, it's in a pretty crappy state. Last year all the fruit and leaves had fallen off by about August (a consequence of our wet, cold Spring, I think), and it has been topped and is absolutely hemorrhaging sap.

Well, onward to the back garden.

Most of my order from Annie's Annuals went here. There's a Verbascum 'Southern Charm', Collinsia, Clarkia concinna 'Pink Ribbons', Phacelia viscida, Cerinthe retorta, and two Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' (from Santa Rosa gardens).

This little bed is in the shade from our porch on the northeast corner of the house.

It used to have a Camella Yuletide in it. But it didn't flower this year, so I thought maybe it wasn't getting enough sun. I moved it out and put a Mahonia X meadia 'Charity' in its place. The Mahonia was planted in too much sun, and dropped a lot of its leaves after I planted it last year. It is basically a dry shade bed, since I often forgot to water it last year. Now it has Cyclamen coum, Cyclamen hederifolium, Arum italicum 'Jack Sprat', Cryptotaenia japonica atropurpurea, and Epimedium 'Pink Elf'. It also has an oakleaf Hydrangea, Hellebores, Primroses, black mondo grass, Brunnera 'Jack Frost', sword ferns, a yellow Epimedium, some Heucheras, lady's mantle, a Geranium 'Rozanne', a toad lily, and an Ajuga 'Black Scallop.'

Here it is from another angle.

When we first moved in here, there was no garden bed here. 

Just this, now gone after being posted and snapped up on craigslist.

This little triangular bed is at the back, near the fence, under some Douglas firs. Another mostly shade bed, although it does get some late afternoon sun -- when the sun is out, that is.

 

It's another bed with a wide variety planted in it. Some new plants here include soft shield fern, variegated shield fern, Primula elatior and Primula moupiensis, Anemone nemorosa, Hepatica nobilis, Corydalis flexuosa 'Purple Leaf', and Corydalis 'Berry Exciting'.

Here is that same bed from another angle.

Here there are also Dicentra formosa, Tolmiea menziesii, Tiarellas, Pulmonaria, lots of different columbines from seed, autumn fern, some Heucheras (I plant them everywhere, don't I?), Jack-in-the-pulpit and hosta.

When we first moved in there was a bed here, but the only thing growing in it was a Portuguese laurel.

I was planning to continue, but I think I'll stop. Part II will cover the mostly native bed in a separate post.

Pruning Escallonia, Seed Potatoes -- And A New Plant!

My pink Escallonia did not like the unexpected snow and extended period of freezing temps we got last November, just before Thanksgiving.

It's been looking very sad and brown ever since. I've read that Escallonia is marginally hardy here. I didn't think it was still alive. You can see a few green leaves in this pic (taken in March), but they have been dropping steadily all Spring.

I attacked it today with bypass pruners.

I know -- Holy moly! Right?

My plan originally was to remove it completely. But when I got down to the very bottom branches, I found tiny little green shoots coming from some of the pieces that I had removed already. Whoops! It may not be dead.

I like this shrub. It has pretty pink tube-like flowers that the hummingbirds love too.

 

So now I'm of two minds. 

Do I keep it and see what happens? It's probably going to continue to be this ugly for a while. But I'm pretty sure it will bounce back from this severe pruning. Some shrubs actually like being pruned to the ground, some just tolerate it if you do it every year, and some will eventually weaken and die if you keep doing it. If I keep it, will it even flower this year? If we have another severe winter (for the PNW), will any new growth it puts out after this just die back too?

If I pull it out, I can put in one of the many other shrubs I am dying to buy. (WooHoo! Hello, Daphne...)

Got an opinion? Wonder what I'll do.

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I got my order for seed potatoes today from Territorial Seed.

 

I really need to get them into the kitchen window so they can start sprouting. But that means removing the seedlings that are sitting there. 

Where do they go?

 

I'm going to a plant swap this weekend in Olympia. Those plants are outside in the propagator. I'll move these out there after the swap, so I can start the potatoes.

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I went to Top Food today for some groceries, and couldn't resist checking out their little nursery area.

I found a climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala petiolaris) for only $9.99. It looks nice and healthy. I've been wanting one for this spot.

 

See that gap at the bottom of the fence, where they had to cut around the Douglas fir? I'm hoping the climbing hydrangea will plug that spot and climb the fir tree (and look spectacular doing it).

I love finding plants at the grocery store. I can hide the cost in the cost of getting supper, and no one is the wiser. (Oh wait, my husband reads my blog....oops)

Of course, I am almost caught up on my planting. I think......I am just incapable of remaining in that state for longer than a few days.