North Bed

April 4, 2012

●●● Other
My mom took this picture of our live oak.  It is a truly beautiful tree, though it needs some serious trimming.  And I need to clear the area out below it.  A project for another day...

April 4, 2012

●●● North Bed

We have had such a mild winter that everything is coming up early this year!  Of course, last year's draught also means that a lot of what we planted last year didn't even make it to the winter.

I have only bought one new plant for this bed this year, since so much has grown up.  The Stella D'Oro daylilly under the frog is new.  I am also looking to put some native Damianita along the border between the ruellia and dwarf coreopsis.  But Natural Gardener was sold out... 

Everything else is a hold over from last year.  The flame saliva is in its fourth year, and doing wonderful!  And my roses are in their third year and blooming like crazy.  I shaped the Knock out rose a little differently this year, cutting the leaves around the bottom to make it more shrubbly shaped, and I like it.  My fall asters were originally three, but two fell to Dominos paws last year :o(  But the dwarf coreopsis from last year has made it to round two!  A first for me with coreopsis!  I'd really like to get into the ruellia and divide it up some, it has gotten so big!

Because of the mild winter, the dwarf pomegranate didn't freeze over, and so it is already bigger this year than it was last! 

I transplanted a bunch of stalks of Obedient Plant from my front bed to the back beds.  We'll see how they do. 

I put three of the stalks in the far left corner, near the Dwarf Pomegranate and the other five stalks in the middle of the south bed.  The book says they spread agressively, so I may rue this decision, but I thought I'd give it a try for some fall color...





●●● SouthBed

This bed is always a little bit later and smaller than the other bed - I think because it has more deciduous plants.  
So to try and combat that, I bought one new plant for this bed: St John's Wort (an evergreen) to put in the middle, hopefully that will grow up and fill out the middle with some foliage until the other plants come up.

Other than that and the transplanted Obedient Plant, I did not add anything else to the bed. 

As in the North bed, my Dwarf Coreopsis from last year came up again!  So did the Pride of Barbados that Dave grew from seed and we planted last year!

And mid summer, I purchased a potted fire bush for my front porch.  Last fall, I decided to plant it in the garden - and so far, it is coming up.  I'm excited to see what it will look like this year. 

Also, oddly enough, my Nierembergia Starry Eyes are still hanging on.  They spent all last year looking half dead, and they continue to look that way, so we'll see if they make it through another winter.  Funny enough, hidden deep in the pot of one of these flowers was some sort of fountain grass.  Well that has grown up and it really pretty.  It isn't a really good placement for it, but since it is intertwined with the Nierembergia, I am afraid to move it.  I'll just wait for the Starry Eyes to die, then put it somewhere else :o)  The only other holdover plant from last year was the Stell D'Oro daylilly. 

The Ruellia, Esperanza, Tropical Milkweed, Lantana, Salvias, Black Foot Daisies and Fall Asters are all now multi-year repeaters.  I still haven't remembered the name of the other shrub beside the Tropical Milkweed, but it is also in its third year and looking strong!