Crocosmia

New Front Page Pic

New opening picture is from this past summer....July 2009.  It is taken from west side looking east down brick path.  Garden was at its peak and looked quite splendid.  Just above is one of my favorites....climbing hydrangea on the northeast corner of the garden workshop.  It bloomed like this for weeks.

Nov 24, 2009

Way overdue for an update. It was a great gardening summer. Created a new garden all the way across the back of the house and deck. Added some great woody's.....Prague, Siebold and Juddi Viburnum, European Variegated Dogwood, Caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue', a nice Oakleaf Hydrangea, Crepe Myrtle, Cut-Leaf and Decumbent Spirea, Pink Double Knockout Rose, Weeping Larch, Contorted Filbert and a Fine Line Buckthorn. Adding some height is a very slender Dawyck Purple Beech.....deep dark color. Also have a nice Scizophragma 'Moonlight' started on the north side of the Lattice Screen off the deck....Sagae and Montana Aureomarginata Hostas tucked in the shady corner. Some of the Leila 'Stella's' that we dug up at the entrance this past spring are against the brick of the house (west exposure). Mixed in some other nice perennials.....Salvia Argentia is quite interesting. Some boulders for hardscape interest with Black Mondo grass and Blue Fescue.

Have a new Hosta garden east of the pavilion. Seemed to be running out of places to plant hostas elsewhere ! Love the effect of the grouping here. Includes 'Abiqa Drinking Gourd, Parhelion, Ice Age Trail, Korean Frost, Pandora's Box, Alligator Shoes and many more.

Also finished the brick walk to the rear door of the workshop and planted the empty palette behind the workshop.  Many new perennials and woody's. 

Publish Post

Meanwhile, in the Woodland Garden, we now have a bog garden, with many thanks to my son David. (As pictures indicate, lots of hard work to dig bog, line, install plumbing, and re-fill with a mixture of the removed sandy soil, compost and sphagnum peat).  Features Umbrella Plant (thanks to Ted K...Janet D and the LAS Plant Sale); Louisiana Iris and Japanese Iris (Ensata), Chelone, Primula Candelabra, Meadowsweet, Spiderwort and more. Also, did major clearing of scrub and added large boulders throughout to outline paths. Added dozens of great woody ornamentals, hostas, and four nice Red Buds. Many rhododendrons, amalanchiers, chokeberry and chokecherry, dogwood and an olympic fire mountain laurel. Also several different spirea varieties, ninebark, potentilla, viburnum (including Mohican, Juddi, and Onondaga), Euonymus Carnosus, Flowering Quince (Red and Toyo Nishiki pink), Sweetspire. Many other plantings as well. Given quantities, I've clearly developed a knack for finding sales and clearances !

The main entrance to the woodland garden now features an arbor I built from 'rebar' and it has about five grape vines grabbing hold on each side and making their way up. By next summer, the vines should meet in the middle across the top and begin to form a tunnel of vines.

Those are the highlights from a very busy summer in the soil. Only have a few pics of the new work and adding a few other photos from the yard.

My initial entry photo was taken the third week of July 2008. These pics were taken some 7 weeks earlier, on the 28th of May and shortly after the brick walkway was completed and many of the plants were in place. Of course I have purchased more than a few new plants since then. These views also show the raised bed I built against the workshop, using interlocking blocks. It runs the entire width of the building, arching out from each end to about 12 feet across for most of the span. A number of the perennials you see I have had for many years....and they've been successfully moved several times. The Ligularia 'Desdemona' (just below and right of the Oak in the bottom photo ) is as best I can remember, some 20 years old....one of my favorites. It really stands out in the photo on my first posting. More to come. Rick

A great gardening summer....

My 'premiere' photo and entry celebrates the completion (well, gardens are never really complete, are they ?) of a project that began in the fall of 2007, and led to a complete redo of our perennial beds. It began with the removal of a very large patch of English Ivy that had invaded and surrounded, over the course of many years, the large oak you see in the photo. Mixed in with the ivy were some old daylilies, two varieties of ferns, and an old, leggy azalea. Everything was dug up and moved to other parts of our 7.5 acres, though I saved very little of the ivy. With the very able assistance of my son, David, we installed sprinkler system pipes, dug the pond you see and moved in the large rocks. I also brought in many loads of compost and garden soil which I used to improve the sandy soil as I replanted. And I built the raised bed against the workshop (not visible in this photo). I began the brick walkway but had much left to do when winter interrupted. Work resumed in early spring 2008 and continued throughout the growing season around the workshop. But we were very pleased with the results you see here. The garden walkway has become obligatory for our early evening strolls and the concrete seat by the pond our favorite spot to sip a beer after feeding the fantail goldfish. More about our garden redesign in coming posts..... Rick