I've been at it for years now, adjusting, redesigning, adding plants, moving border rocks. It disappoints.
Everything is skimpy and tiny, and while some things look nice (the Blonde Ambition grass, the Sweet Summer Love vine, the pineleaf penstemons) other things have failed and simply do not grow.
So there's little to see other than mulch and new things which are tiny, I keep trying to see if I can get anything to thrive. Every summer the garden appears undeveloped.
The thyme bed under the white bowl has stubbornly refused to fill in the gaps after a couple years now.
There's nothing to see. Just mulch. In June already.
In my mind I have visions like this -- it's A.I. and things are out of kilter, like the crabapple, which is too far from the rock border, but.
In this artificially matured garden picture I like the idea of getting rid of the circle -- I'd eliminate the bowl and apron of thyme under it. Eliminate the full mulch path all the way around, and just have an opening in the rocks leading down a short mulched path to the bench.
That's it. The rest is dense planting. The bench is the focal point and mini destination and a place to sit and observe all the plants in front of it.
But that's a whole redesign and I can't get what I have to grow as it is. Here's what, at a minimum, I need to do when my foot allows:
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| Could I get Engelmann's daisy to look like this? |
- Take out the dwarf Little Adder agastache and put it in the smaller of the vase containers on the table.
- Take out the thready Orange Kudos agastaches and put them in the bigger vase shaped pot on the table. The thin leaved hybrid agastaches wilt a lot in this climate.
- Take out the buckwheat, Electric Blue penstemon and failed nepeta. They all resent the wood mulch, garden soil, and nearby irrigation emitters.
Add bigger plants
- Where the Little Adder agastache was, move the iron fairy sculpture forward to break up the line of plants.
- Behind the Perfect Profusion bun add a bigger Black Adder agastache for depth and background presence
- Where the orange agastaches were, replace them with an Orange Glow knockout rose. Andrea's, tucked in with other plants, is not too big but tall enough and lovely.
- Where the buckwheat, penstemon and nepeta were, replace them with
- Engelmann's daisy
- one of the Radio Red salvias
- Caradonna salvia
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| Caradonna salvia, Orange Glow Knockout rose and Engenmann's daisy |
Add an upright focal point
In the white bowl in the center, unpot a blue fescue and put it there. The blue grasses in pots seem to do well in full sun if kept watered. Eventually plant some zinnias for color around the edge of the bowl under the grass.
Mingle things
Mingle Texas mealycup sages in and around and behind the other plants for a looser look. And aristata blanketflowers too -- will need to try those again from seed.
Plant the rock border
And I still want to soften the moss rock border with spreading groundcovers as I had planned last winter.
