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.

Goodbye, dead trees

SavATree removed chopped down three dead or dying trees last weekend, including the three-trunked monster (and its sidekick, the scraggly pine) in front. I now need to decide whether I can stomach putting another, albeit smaller, tree there when Birch Hill Landscaping re-does that spot.

We left a stump in back so Emma can play on it. As you can see from the chainsaw wound, they nearly cut the whole thing down, but Pat flagged it in time.

And the third tree was on the side of our house - we left most of the trunk as a draw for wildlife and because we like seeing the trunk out our windows.

And here is what the flowers look like in front these days. They really need some serious company. It has been raining a ton here and I have been working quite a bit, so I haven't found the time.

Wormwood in foreground; lavender behind it. I cut both back to nothing in early spring.

Phlox

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:

Garden happenings

The wormwood has spread out nicely, although it's got some yellow parts underneath. Hmmm. The thing next to it with purple flowers, brachyscome, is also doing great. Two winners.

Most of the flowers did not spread out as much as I'd hoped, so the lesson is to plant more of them, spaced closer together, next year. Still, the begonias are doing great, and the geraniums are doing well. The stock has petered out. I'm not sure whether it was being eaten, or it just didn't thrive. I'll avoid that next year.

In the back, I think these were going to be purple coneflowers - four of them. I think it is deer that have basically kept them munched low to the ground, and then I spotted this beetle on them too.

This bud was cruelly chewed off the very night after I took this picture. It was literally nipped in the bud.

The hydrangea is a little anemic, but still it's nice to see some blooms. I panicked a little when the bleeding heart turned yellow but then read that that's normal and you just cut it down.

This is the front where all the ground cover was pulled out. If I ever get my act together, it's going to be a rock garden. I plan to put the rocks and soil down this year and wait to plant until next year. Meanwhile I'm waiting for Frank's Tree Service to pull down the dead tree.

The view up the walk:

The lantana has done very nicely. Must get more for next year. The lavender bloomed and now the blooms just look dead. I thought they would keep blooming? I am not pleased.

The moss roses/portulaca have been a great success and I just wish I had more.

Not pictured, some bug has completely razed the mint that was growing wildly in a pot. My basil also came under attack (from a caterpillar, I believe) but is now looking reasonably good again - I think the caterpillar became moths or butterflies or something.

Last note: I have decided I don't like the gazanias, though they are doing well. Too spiky and garish colors.

Spring Planting - Front Yard

Bought flowers today at Metropolitan Plant and Flower Exchange, in West Orange, close by. The staff was very friendly, and the place has a decent - though not huge - selection.

Our tulips remain alive and kicking in the back. Bottom left is phlox, then the vertical row to the right of it is stock, and next row is begonia, then a pink geranium.

Phlox (one of my two perennial selections)

Stock ("midget mix" - there are pink and white in addition to purple

Snapdragon, but alas! They don't appear to snap. Has that quality been bred out of all of them?

Begonia

Gazania. I'm not sure yet whether I like this plant.

Lantana

Wormwood, my second of two perennials. I was attracted by its smell. The varietal is called "Powis Castle," a place we loved in Wales.

Brachyscome. I don't know anything about it, but it is pretty.

This is one of the plants that was already there, but I noticed a tag on it - now we know what it is!

Note the azalea starting to bloom in the foreground, and in the background - white lilacs! Two of them! Already there, not new. UPDATE: they are not lilacs; they are some variety of viburnum.

Gazania and portulaca next to our spontaneous primrose.