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 a 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.