Five Oaks

Over many years I have tried to get some rough and tough plants to take in the untended common area next to our driveway. A quarter pound of blanketflower seeds, not a single plant came up. Various specimen grasses, all gone. A couple Russian sages and Apache plumes are alive but no bigger than they were 8 years ago.  Tough shrubs like winterfat, gone. 

This wants to be a dry "meadow", unplanted

There were others I lost track of. I spread compost and wood chip mulch. I watered deeply as often as I could from the hose stretched out through the gate and across the driveway. I trimmed gawky white sweet clover and cut back Maximillian sunflowers in the years they came up.

Despite all my tending and planting, the field is what it wants to be with rangy odd grasses that survive and a chamisa that is growing. Messy. When it's dry it goes brown and dormant, almost flat dust out there.

Messy brown

This summer three of the five Gambel oaks I spent good money on and planted carefully and have tended and watered faithfully have given up. Two are still green but tiny. The nicest and tallest one is crisp and brown for the first time this summer. It had done better than the others but not now.

Five oaks: Two Gambel oak survivors - top row. Three gave up - bottom row

Of all the things I could have planted, these oaks were supposed to be tough, need little care after initial watering and would grow untended, loving the sun and little water.

I have no plans to do anything else out there. It will be a brown dry open patch. There is one other plant -- a tall New Mexico privet that was good sized when I planted it last year. It seems okay. It was gifted from the grounds committee when I resigned.

Four of the little oaks in fall, 2021

But other than that (so far) little else is to show after years of trying. There will be no Gambel oak grove. In good years the plot looks meadowy and unkempt but nice. In dry years it's ugly and brown.

It is what it wants to be. It is what it actually only can be.

Warm Dry July

I did not think when I first injured my foot that I would be planting things this season at all. In July no less. 

I still don't have annuals -- petunias or geraniums -- out front, or anything in containers in the back. But even though the front portal urn has nothing, it looks calm and settled with the happy, tidy dwarf goldenrod, now blooming.

That little goldenrod, here when we moved in, is out in the gravel by itself and it just looks nice. Nothing more is needed.

I planted the second container of Rocky Mountain penstemon next to the big golden yarrow in the driveway strip and it had enough to be separated into divisions. So I put one small split out in the front triangle where the marrubium never took.

It surprised me how fresh and clean the penstemon foliage is after the blooms are gone by.

The big lavender in that front triangle space, which was here when we moved in, has never looked better. It gets irrigation, but I think it really likes the hot dry spring and summer we're having.

The kitchen courtyard finally looks really good. Radio Red salvias are spectacular. I have three in the ground in this garden and two more in pots. 

The container salvias are even more flowery and vivid.

I took the coreopsis out of the terracotta bowl and put it in the bigger, less porous white bowl. I hope it will spread out more but meanwhile it looks bright and colorful. The thyme carpet under it is still patchy, but I dug and moved several chunks to fill in those empty spots.

I had planned to put two dichondra Silver Falls plants in the bowl too, to spill over the edges, but instead I planted them along the moss rock border, alternating with the Coral Reef sedum and creeping speedwells. The silver draping foliage might work.

They're annuals, so it's not permanent, just an experiment to see how it looks.

Overcast 4th

Fourth of July was overcast and a little cool, perfect for doing something with all the nursery plants I bought. I wore the boot and worked slowly, but overdid it.

First, though, I fertilized most of the garden plants. That's all I had intended to do when I went to Newman's -- just get fertilizer. 

It was convenient to have the little table by the hose for staging things and filling the watering can. I miss the rosemary that was there, but not its bulk. It is so much easier to navigate the walk and having the little table is visually more open, plus it's useful.

Instead of bloom booster fertilizer this time I got a balanced 20-20-20. My plants need growth. Neglect all spring and now super dry conditions have been a challenge.

Then I got out the kneeler and planted some (not all) of what I got. I put one of the Rocky Mountain penstemons in behind the ring of plants in the circle garden. 

I planted the three Angelonias together in the empty spot where I took out the buckwheat and dwarf agastache. They're annuals and are there to fill in until I get the Caradonna salvia and Engelmann's daisy I'm planning for there. The Angelonias have deep purple spikes that are eye catching. 

Once again, when I dig in the irrigated spaces where I've done hose watering as well I find the mulch is damp about two inches down, even mildewed. But the soil 3 inches and below is bone dry and hard packed. No wonder everything suffers. Even with irrigation and my frequent watering (which I try to do deeply with the hose on "full") I am maintaining a garden of wet mulch, that's all.

What did me in was fiddly up and down work of getting ground covers planted in the moss rocks. They don't look like much now but I hope they will. I haven't put the Angelina or blue spruce sedums in yet.

I did plant the Coral Reef sedums and the veronicas. Of course they are in tiny pockets of barely any soil.

I like the look already, even only partly done and still so tiny. 

(The veronicas are V. lewisii, not the true Turkish speedwell Veronica oltensis. Lewisii is not as much of a "crack and crevice" lover. It wants moisture, soil and cool roots. Oof. If they fail, I'll get the oltensis variety from High Country Gardens and try those.)

The sedums should be happy enough, although I failed getting Russian stonecrop to live in my garden in the first years and gave up on sedums.

In Connecticut I stuck a torn-off sprig of sedum into the stone wall I had made. No soil, nothing, just stuck the stem in there. It grew and spilled out in a lovely way. I have no idea what it was living on.

Can I get my little Coral Reef sedums and Angelina sedums to do the same here?

Will the veronicas tolerate the conditions and spill out too?

Will it start to look natural and easy? I don't want another cultivated "placed" plant among the rocks, I want it to look relaxed and integrated.

I Bought Plants

I went to Newman's to buy fertilizer today -- some plants are looking a little pale and needy. I can manage to fill the can and add the fertilizer and get it to the gardens if I work slowly and wear the boot. 

But look what I cam home with:

What was I thinking? Planting in July? All this? Can I even get these potted and planted?

Jim wanted to get out and drive around a bit so he took me to Newman's and then we actually went to Payne's and I got even more stuff.

I got annuals:

• 3 deep purple Angelonias for a pot -- annuals for some color
• 2 silver dichondras for the white bowl under the tickseed I just transplanted there.
• A white lobelia for the front portal urn.

I got two penstemons:

• 2 nice big quart Rocky Mountain penstemons. I'll put one behind the little Blue Profusion sage in the circle garden and one next to the yellow yarrow in the driveway strip.

I got ground covers: 

• 3 little Coral Reef ground cover sedums for the moss rock border.
• A couple good sized Blue Spruce creeping sedums for the moss rock border.
• Several large Angelina golden sedums, some for the ajuga patch, some for the moss rock border (big quart plants, will divide).
• I even got a very large Turkish speedwell* to divide and plant along the moss rock border.

 * mislabeled, it's actually Veronica lewisii, not

 oltensis, and isn't so happy in hot dry crevices

Whew. It just felt so normal to be walking in shoes plant shopping. I had written off the season except for weeding, trimming, moving a couple small things around and doing the watering.

But now . . . 

Random Rocks and Pebbles

When there are gaps I want to fill in my gardens, the answer is not more plants. Since none of my plants ever touch, if I fill a space with a new plant the other mature ones around it shrink so they won't mingle together or blend. 

The answer to filling spaces and tying forms together, instead, is rocks. 

When I moved the Leilani coneflowers from the dining room window garden where they were in too much shade, I filled the empty spot with some rocks flanking the peacock. I'd like it better if the stones weren't white but that's what I had.

When I took out the tiny struggling nepeta at the front of the kitchen courtyard, I put in a small curve of rocks. I added three in the gap in front of the little serviceberry twig. No plant in this garden will touch another beside it, even after years and maturity and all my care. They shrink to nothing if another thing grows too near. So rocks have to do the job.

In front of the fence, in the middle where the eye goes when sitting on the patio, I put a long flat stone, another hidden partly behind it and then arranged a rock and some pebbles under the birdbath. Placed "just so" my intent was a natural looking scattering. The randomness fills the empty foreground here and transitions to the flagstones in front.

The dwarf lavender (Vintro Forte Blue) in front of the rock arrangement is very tiny, but intense and I love looking at it.

The key to artful scattering of rocks is to vary the sizes and set them irregularly as if they were there naturally. I could do more with different sizes of pebbles and river rocks together in front of the alliums in this little vignette.

In my friend Andrea's garden she has random rocks all over, and because her garden is full and lush (her plants happily touch each other) they appear hidden, tucked in under foliage and peeking out around flowers, making a natural contrast of loose plants and structured forms.

I need to do more of that in my garden and use more varied shapes and sizes, placing them in gaps wherever. 

Here's an example of a design similar to my circle garden, but irregular flagstones, river rocks, small stones and pebbles are mixed in around the curve, tucked among plants in places. It adds definition without being too formally rigid.

Here's another example of randomly placed rocks filling gaps and defining edges. I like the way brown river stones are mixed with some white pebbles.

I don't want a classic rock garden and I don't want a stiff stone border. I just want random river rocks, pebbles, irregular stones and natural forms scattered around my plants to rest the eye, fill a gap and add some structure.

Orange Kudos

I don't know why this delicate agastache doesn't do well for me. It's been  in this garden for a few years and never looks like more than a couple thready stems that curve over.

I actually have three of them planted at the center of the curve in the circle garden, placed there as a highlight. I put in multiples to get the full look they are supposed to have. Mine are so puny looking.

Of course no plants in the garden ever look like the nursery catalog photos. But I planted one Orange Kudos agastache in Greg's garden several years ago and even in its first year it was full and lush and just like the photos. It was an upright tidy plant, small but impactful. Mine never were.

So I took them out, and replaced them with three transplanted soft yellow Leilani coneflowers, which do well for me.

Under Shady Aspens

I like how the back garden under the aspens has changed.

I took out a lot of flowering small stuff, and planted two redtwig dogwoods. They have grown beautifully in three years and now make a lovely woodland scene in dappled shade.

It's actually quite deeply shady until a shaft of sun hits the interior under the trees for short times during the day.

The three Green Tower boxwoods are a nice vertical background screening now. 

They have psyllid nymphs which make the leaves curl and turn pale, but it doesn't hurt the plant.

The Japanese forest grass and the fuzzy blue lambsears have some presence now too. This is turning out to be a restful, quiet space.

It's not seen from the sitting areas, you have to go around the deck to take it in. But given that I have a straight, narrow courtyard garden, it's nice to round a curve in the path and find a hidden surprise.

The only other plants in the deep shade under the trees besides the hakonechloa, lambsears and redtwig dogwoods are several repeating clumps of Biokovo geraniums. And they were really pretty this spring. 

There are a couple clumps that are out at the edge near the rocks and they get sun. They are nowhere near as dark green and full as the geraniums that are in shade.

I do have two Spanish Flare hellebores too, but they are not seen in summer. They make their appearance in late winter and spring.

The reason this shady garden is hidden now is largely because the viburnum has grown so tall. It's huge now. The aspens shade the viburnum, so the branching is getting a little open in the middle and in back, but it is still a dense screen that hides the garden under the aspens from the deck or the patio.

Of course the garden no one sees is the one I am liking right now. It has become a very nice spot and I make a point of rounding the gravel path to go by it. When I am able to get around on my injured foot better in late summer and next year, I will enjoy it even more as I pass by to the potting bench below.

Little Tasks

There are so many little tasks I want to get to. The June weather so far has been cool in the mornings and breezy, good for working. 

I spent the morning doing fiddly things, most of which won't be noticed, but I wanted to get them done. I am in the boot and using the kneeler bench and that makes it possible to do things I thought I couldn't handle, like moving, planting, digging a bit kneeling and using the claw. Small tasks. 

Look what I got done:

✓ Spread the 5 lbs of chicken grit I got around the newer Kannah Creek buckwheat. Pulled the mulch away and I'll stop watering so much. Let's see what these dry, grit-loving plants do.

 ✓ Did the same with the Electric Blue penstemon, which I left in the circle garden for now. But it is such a tiny plant (supposed to grow only a foot wide; it's about 9 inches now) that I might take it out and grow it in a tall pot on the table. 

✓ Dug up the older buckwheat and put it in a small bowl on the table to see what it becomes.. Dug up the tiny nepeta from the circle also, and put it in a bowl.

✓ Decided against the Radio Red salvias for the circle garden. They will go elsewhere or stay in pots to recreate my prairie pot garden.

✓ Took one of the Siskiyou Blue fescues out of its pot and put it where the nepeta had been. Instantly liked it there. It carries the intense blue of the lambs ears and the little Mojave sage through to the circle.

 

✓ Moved the Appar flax from in front of the brown urn to the fence behind the newly planted agastache and salvia. It's past flowering now but the seedheads and tall wispy form add height there.

✓ Transplanted the one stranded Turkish speedwell clump that was in the stones by the deck. (It didn't take. Gone.)

✓ Planted the dwarf goldenrod by the fence, just in front of the peony.

✓ Dug up the orange Kudos agastaches and put them in the taller vase. 

 

✓ Moved (and divided) clumps of Leilani coneflowers from the dining room window garden -- they were in too much shade there -- and put them where the orange agastaches were. 

 

Still to do on my list of little tasks:

🪏 Divide the blue sedum in the terra cotta container and plant divisions among the moss rock border.

🪏 Dig up the better surviving ajugas and put one or two under the bench in the circle garden.

 

🪏 Trim edges of the creeping thyme and replant in bare spots  

(Update 6/30 ✓ done)

🪏 Maybe transplant the white coneflowers from the potting bench curve (in shade) to the sunny front of the kitchen courtyard? 

🪏 Repot the tickseed in the white bowl (Update 6/30 ✓ done)

 

🪏 Move the little Blue Ice amsonia over to the moss rock border edge. It's sort of stranded in front of the pot there (Update 6/30 ✓ done)

There are longer term projects too:

Eventually I need to dig up all the struggling ajugas to get ready to plant Angelina sedums there. 

I need to get under the pine and remove the dead branches, then order and place a new low copper birdbath.

Maybe get to the nursery at some point this summer and see if they still have annuals I can put in containers.

And I have plant orders to research, place, receive, and put in the ground this fall. That's a lot. 

But I am getting little tasks done that I did not think I'd be doing this season during my recovery.