Garden with flowers

So far I have been (mostly) following the design by landscaper Carol Wildman that (mostly) included only foundation plants. Yes, there were three species of native Aquilegia in the back (photo left) and four species of flowering plants in the front (Yarrow and Penstemon pinifolius, below, left). These have been blooming (or are about to bloom) nicely, but I don’t really see them from the back patio. But most of my ‘garden’ looks like a field, except that, in lieu of the grass that I associate with the term ‘field’ I have wood chips. The landscaper had specified gravel as the ground cover, but I find gravel to be too hard. In addition, once you have covered your soil with gravel, it is very hard to remove. Whereas wood chips, if left for a few years, decompose into organic soil, and this soil is river silt, in great need of organic matter.

The straw that I used over a year ago to mulch my grass seed, even though about an inch thick, has almost entirely rotted away. Even the jute netting that held the straw down and prevented erosion, has somewhat rotted away, even though my grass seed germinated only in spots (see right). (But the seed is supposed to be viable for years, so I’m still hoping to see more grass.) A garden club presentation last month inspired me to plant flowers that would attract butterflies and birds, and I stopped by the hardware store with my list to see what they had. I brought home eight pots of Penstemon strictus, Galliardia ‘Goblin', and Phlox subulata, then spent two hours digging up the soil (and removing rocks) for them. I also bought some Penstemon neumanniana at the Santa Fe Botanical garden, but the latter is a dry-land species so is separate from the others.

But where to put these? I want to see them when I sit on the south patio, but they need sun, which limited where I might put them. I did not want to scatter them about, choosing instead to use the recommended spacing. I’m not at all sure that a landscape designer would approve, but they are in the ground and on the drip irrigation.

While gazing over my south ‘garden’ I realized that I can still thin more of the Siberian Elms. This will let in more sunlight, but not too much, as some of the elms are still redundant. They are ‘dirty’ trees, with the lower twigs dying when they become shaded and dropping off frequently. So each year I climb up on a ladder and knock down the dead branches that I can reach. At least I can pick up most of the dead twigs in a single operation.

This Autumn or later in the Summer, when the daffodils and iris that are crowded around our Common House are fading, I will divide those and take some of the bulbs to brighten my garden. The narcissus (daffodils) I will probably plant at the base of the north berm, right along the roadside, where they will brighten my ‘curb appeal’. I won’t be able to see them from the house or even the front porch, but when they are blooming it is too cold to sit on the north porch anyway!

I already have small native Iris planted along the drainage channel from my roof. These are doing well, even though only one plant had a blossom this year.