Garden happenings

So much catching up to do. So little time.

Remember this?

Now it looks like this! Still love brachyscome. One of them failed on the other side of the steps, but they've had a lot of dryness to overcome.

And remember the lantana?

Again, another winner. I wonder if I could grow both of those from seed?

Cutting back the lavender (and wormwood) in the spring was brilliant. Might be even better if I did it in fall.

And then we have our back plot, back in May:

And today:

I did eventually put in threadleaf coreopsis (Moonbeam) but it just didn't make it. It's okay, because I found it more straggly than I would have liked anyway. Next year, I need something else to fill those spots. Check out the wormwood, spilling over! The ageratum did better here than in the front, but still not great. I am not sure what's going on with the asters - they already did a very, very few blooms earlier this summer, and now?? They look healthy enough, but don't look on the verge of blooming - I can't remember when they were supposed to bloom. Something has been eating holes in the lungwort since Day 1 but they seem to be thriving anyway.

Today I cut the forsythia behind the back yard's middle tree back to almost nothing, since the darned thing barely bloomed this year or last. Life's too short for forsythia that doesn't bloom.

A couple weeks ago I donned a paper suit (genius, really) and rubber gloves and cleared the property of poison ivy. There was quite a bit.

The mosquitoes are bad this year, despite the overall dryness. I suspect the neighbors' oft-still fountain as a main source. How does one break it to one's neighbors that their fountain is so vexing?

Emma and I went today to Durand-Hedden garden, which is VERY small but cute. I loved this arbor with gourds dangling from it.

And maybe I need to plant this plant:

What else...I eventually put four poppies from seed into the front, and only one of them has made it - perhaps too dry, perhaps soil too poor. The basil I grew this year had leaves too small. The thyme has been very robust.

I think the front yard could stand to get more herbs as annuals. Both practical and pretty, not to mention deer-proof.

We hired Mackinson Turf Mgmnt to deal with crazy clover and other weeds. They have sprayed once so far. Clover died right away. Everything else, not so much.

The laurels in front of the house that I cut back in early summer are, as hoped, growing leaves from their bases.

We have finally settled on a plan with Birch Hill Landscaping to redo the front, where the trees came out. Just waiting for them to get started. Absurdly expensive. Don't like to think about it.

Remember my lavender seeds, in the fridge in April or thereabouts? Still in the fridge. Whoops.

The portulaca I planted in May (from seedlings) in front did great, and even my late-sown portulaca seeds came up energetically. Definitely a winner; I want more in the front next year.

Plants in the back plot at last!

I finally made the time to get plants (from Williams Nursery in Westfield, where Linda Williams very kindly picked out specimens for me before I arrived) and put them in the back plot per my design! The biggest hitch was that while my design had called for nine lungwort plants, they were a shocking $20 each (quite large, and messy-looking), so I cut back to three and put in some perennial forget-me-nots and dead nettles instead.

Note that the plan above is from the opposite perspective of the photo below - picture sitting on the chairs in the photo, and sketching the plan. So, for example, lungwort is on the right in the plan, but the left in the photo.

Light-colored plant in foreground is wormwood. Small plants are ageratum. 2 plants with pink flowers in foreground is forget-me-not. Large green-leafed plants at back of plot are asters. You can't really see the dead nettles or lungwort behind the topiary.

Also, Williams did not have moonbeam threadleaf coreopsis in stock, so there are a few gaps yet to be filled. And, as anticipated, I'll need to wait till fall to add the ornamental onion, because those are bulbs.

On right, lungwort. Dead nettles visible between the asters.

I also got some brachscome (it did so well last year), portulaca, and lantana to fill in some gaps in the front, and some ageratum left over from the back plot went there too.

Ageratum, Spanish bluebells (from planting last fall), and brachyscome.

Brachyscome, next to what's left of the daffodil leaves.

Portulaca (between last year's wormwood and daffodil leaves)

Lantana, nestled below the peonies along with lavender.

Finally, digging in the front, I turned up this guy:

Friends enlightened me that Catholics may bury St. Joseph (upside down, facing the house) in front of their home to speed its sale! Who knows how long he was buried, since we believe neither of the last two sets of owners were Catholics.

Designing a plot

If I may toot my own horn here, I was the star pupil in my garden design class today. My work was used as an example for the class. My design was for this bed:

And here's what I hope it will look like:

This is the plan:

I will need the following: 3 wood's pink asters, 3 thread leaf coreopsis moonbeam, 1 silver mound artemisia, 6 ornamental onion globe master (allium), 9 lungwort (blue with the spotted leaves), and at least 13 ageratum.

All these plants are more or less deer-resistant and partial-shade-tolerant, and something should be blooming from late April through September. 

Meanwhile, here's what's currently happening with the bulbs and the magnolia, which despite the frost is in full glory: