Views of the Spring Garden

Last year I was a bit flattered when Susan Harris of Sustainable Gardening and Garden Rant (my favorite ranter, btw) emailed me for before and after shots of my lawn removal projects for a piece she was doing about the same. I was pretty horrified when I couldn't find anything to send her. I had never actually taken any before pictures of my yard before I started to tear it up. I think when I started I really had no plans, so the idea of documenting what I was doing never occurred to me. Now it's something I regret, and in general, both my husband and I have started taking more pictures of work we do on various projects around the house.

In the same thinking, I thought I would also try to be better about taking pictures of my garden each season, so that I could watch the progression of color and shapes. I'll try to take pictures from similar angles and locations for comparison. So here goes:

Views from the front left and right --


New this year is the Yarrow (Achillea 'Coronation Gold') and the yellow rose 'Sun Flare.' I really like the Yarrow. It has this hazy quality which allows other plants to peek through, and supposedly butterflys love it.



Things are definitely a bit scraggly, but the Dianthus (the pink stuff) and the Nepeta (purply stuff) are in full bloom. I absolutely love the Nepeta (Walker's Low). It blooms like crazy and has lovely grayish/silver foliage. It's really a great plant. Because it's part of the mint family, I think it can spread, but I've never found any suckers away from the mother plant, so maybe it's not a problem with this variety. Sorry about the digression.

View into the side garden from the front --


There's a lot going on in here, but its going to take a few years until I really appreciate this part of the house. I've planted a lot of Miscanthus and a few Arborvitae. I'm trying to create a screen for the seating area, but this part of the yard takes a lot of punishment. It gets full sun all day, and its like a wind tunnel, so I've struggled to find plants that will work. I've pretty much decided to focus on the ornamental grasses and roses, so it will take a while for everything to get big enough to make an impact.

Views along the fence --


I've planted daylilies and salvia. I'm still a bit undecided about this. I think I need something that blooms earlier than either, but also has to be indestructible because of the full sun, and proximity the street.



This little grouping is one of my favorites. It's another Nepeta (Six Hills Giant), Blue Grass (Festuca 'Elijah's Blue'), and Lamb's Ear (Staychis maybe 'Helen VonStein'). This little area takes a beating, has horrid, gloopy clay soil, and is in full sun, but the plants seem to love it.

That's it for the tour. I do need to include some pictures of the back, but I think it will be in a separate posting because there's a lot going on back there right now.

In parting, I will leave you with a few pictures of my Siberian Iris and Bearded Iris in bloom. My sister gave me both, and tried to adhere to my purple/pink/white color scheme when dividing them, but the crazy yellow/maroon Bearded Iris snuck in anyway. It totally doesn't go in my blue/purple Spring garden, but I love it anyway.




-Steph

p.s. The little blonde elf is my son, who graciously allowed me to photograph the yard while he played on his old scooter.

Powdery Mildew - Aack!

Despite all the glowing reviews I find about Echinacea, they too can suffer from a multitude of diseases. My sis asked me to research why her glamorous orangey/red Echinacea had black leaves and some powdery gunk on the leaves. My peony is also suffering from a similiar malady.

So after a bit of research, I found out that the recent weather is the perfect condition for mildew. How can that be? You might ask...it hasn't rained in at least two weeks. It has been sunny and gorgeous. Ah, hah! There you have it! These are actually the perfect conditions. Powdery mildew likes hot and humid conditions, with little rain. Rain or wind would blow it off. Apparently the only cure is to dunk the plants in fungicides or just cut the whole plant down to the ground (be sure to dispose of the infected stems/leaves and wash off your cutters).

I opted to cut away the peony stalks. They won't bloom anyway and I hope will make it back next year. At least this is happening at the end of summer, rather than at the beginning!

-SG

Photo courtesy of University of Illinois Extension

Work, work, work

Here's an "after" shot of the yard with the Landscaper mostly done. I think he promised to come back and put in some grass seed, but I'm kinda holding my breath. Joe (DiPietro) did manage to find me some more rocks and created a new flower bed where the Yew once was. I'm totally psyched with how everything has turned out...

I added another page to my website, a "To Do List," page. I can't say this was an original idea. Another garden blogger (I can't remember which one, my bad) suggested gardeners keep such a list to keep track of projects that need to get done. Brilliant idea, because it helps me prioritize, which my ADHD brain really needs help doing.

Today, I did a bit of work in the backyard. I'm having some trouble eradicating this Japanese Knotweed stuff. It's so invasive that people actually eat it as a means of controlling its growth. I pulled out a few new shoots (a daily chore of mine), and cursed the gardener that introduced this stuff to North America.

I also moved a bunch of stuff around, including the Variegated Hydrangea in the picture above, and potted up some Hosta for my sister's hillside anti-erosion project. My Hosta's look terrible. I think the slugs are happy.

-SG

Bringing in the Big Guns!

Woo hoo! The image above is actually an improvment! What you are looking at is the former site of my Yew Stump and Dead Lilac Stump/Mound/Jungle. I called in the pros (Joseph DiPietro of Swampscott MA) and for a fee I got hime to remove the dreaded stumps. I am now a proponent of hiring professionals. It took them about an hour to do what would of taken my husband and I days and possibly the health of our marriage.

Now I just have to figure out what to put in the stumps' place!

-SG