Meet the Boomerang

I realized this morning that I have talked several times about the boomerang, but have not really shown it to you. So today's the day.

First the history. When we bought the house nine years ago we made an agreement with the builder that he would put in grass seed (as required by law) but no landscaping at all. We wanted to do it ourselves. The front yard is fairly flat with a gentle slope toward the street that ends in a utility ditch at the edge of the street. There were two established trees - a silver maple on the right [as viewed from the street] and an oak on the left next to the driveway. Each was set in about 1/4 of the width of the lot, leaving about 50% open in the middle of the yard. They provided a good bit of shade all day for the house, but left the front of the property quite sunny. There is shade there only in the morning from the trees next door. [There is also a utility easement that requires that all trees be cut to 25 feet tall, or "side-walled" to keep them out of the electrical lines that parallel the street.]

One of the first things that we planted was a weeping cherry at the front right corner. We chose it because it would not exceed 25 feet tall and we thought it would be lovely. Mitchell watered it carefully every week and it died. When we pulled it up in the fall, we found that the heavy clay of our land had basically formed a clay pot around the roots and had filled with water - effectively drowning the tree. We knew we had a problem. Wanting to landscape the front of our yard tho, we bought a load of topsoil and laid out a bed that would mark the corner of the yard, while leaving room between the bed and the lot line to drive the pickup truck to the back. Essentially, we made a raised bed, but without any sides to hold it up. We tilled the existing soil and mixed the better soil into it and formed a bed - which ended up looking like a boomerang!

Instead of another tree, we picked shrubs and perennials that love the sun: plumbago, garden phlox, clematis, sedum, and weigelia 'Wine and Roses'. Initially there was also a beauty berry that was gorgeous, but which quickly got entirely too large, so we removed it about five years ago. The plumbago came from Garland's garden, and the other plants from Big Blue.

The photo above is the view from the house side. From left to right are sedum 'Madrona', a dogwood, garden phlox, cone flower, and the weigelia. The weigelia has grown well, altho you can see how very one-sided it is. We put a clump of sea oats behind it when they both were small. The sea oats became a bully, so I dug it up last fall and found that the weigelia had grown all of it's branches to the front to get out of the way of the sea oats. I did a fairly severe pruning this spring and am now seeing new branches coming on the house side of the plant. In a few years, it should round out for us. It is gorgeous in the early spring, tho, when it is covered with bright pink flowers. Out of the photo on the left end is the plumbago and on the right end more plumbago and some new phlox I planted this spring.

The photo on the right was taken from the street, so you cannot see all of the bed, but this is what passersby see. That huge clump of phlox started as three plants - dark and light pink. I have divided the clumps over the years and they have grown taller and stronger. There is a small clump of monk's hood hidden in the middle that blooms dark purple in the center of all that pink. I have finally learned to cut more phlox to get additional bloom later into the summer. It's so pretty tho, that I do hate to cut it.

There is a dogwood in this planting now. It started life as a volunteer that sprouted right next to the house. Last fall we decided that it could not possible stay where it was and the only chance of saving it was to move it. There was a gap where the beauty berry came out, so we planted it there. Dogwoods can be iffy. Their taproot does not go straight down, so you cannot be sure that you have dug up enough of it, but it appears that we were lucky with this one. It is now nearly five feet tall. You can see it in the both the photos. I think it will be two or three years before it blooms, but it will be lovely. I have been spraying it weekly for powdery mildew, which can be bad for young trees.

You may also have noticed that we have a "garden feature" in this bed. Just left of the phlox (see top photo and look right of the phlox) is a wrought iron support for a clematis that is long gone - needed more water. It is a pyramid with a pretty filial on top. We decided to leave it when the clematis died, because it looks great peaking out above the rest of the flowers.

The Project - Up Close and Personal

Last week I gave you an update on the xeri-garden, but in retrospect the photo did not do it justice. While I wanted you to see the whole thing, it was too small to see the real detail of what's growing. So we're back to take a closer look.

This is the left end of the bed. Before we look at the plants, take a quick look at the far left corner of the box. When I filled it originally, the dirt was up to the bottom of the top rail. In six weeks it has settled a bit more than two inches completely uncovering the second rail. One thing that I will have to do this fall and perhaps again next spring is to top dress the entire bed with more dirt. I will have to do it carefully to not smother the plants, but if I add it slowly I will be able to build up the level of the dirt as the plants grow taller crowns and keep themselves up and out of the dirt.

Now to the plants. You can easily see the salvia 'Snowhill' that dominates this end of the bed. It has grown and bloomed steadily since the second week after planting. There are only two plants here, but they have already reached 75% of their full grown size, and the butterflies love them. The thyme is just starting to bloom and the two remaining plants are spreading nicely, as are the two remaining evening primroses 'Shimmer' that are the gray-green foliage in the front of this photo.

The most interesting thing, tho, is the penstemon 'Elfin Pink' which is also blooming. Look closely at the right side of this grouping and you can find a tall, slender plant with coral pink flowers. It has bloomed for several weeks and altho it is small, seems well established. I have high hopes for next year. At the far right rear you can see the agastache 'Ava'. It is growing well and has some tall spikes of dark pink flowers that you just can see against the fence. It should at least double in size in a year or two.

In the right hand photo you can see the other half of the xeri-garden and some of the annual flowers that I added for color. At the extreme left is the 'Ava' mentioned above and just past the empty space is the second one. If you look carefully you can see some flowers on that one, too. The big open space is there because I wanted to leave plenty of room for them to grow. Eventually they should fill that space and have hundreds of flower spikes. The big surprise is the cat mint - it has gone wild! See all those pale lavendar fluffy-looking blooms behind and mixed into the petunias? That's cat mint. It smells wonderful (same family as "cat nip") and the butterflies spend whole days in it. You cannot see them, but there are also two penstemon "Violet Dusk' blooming in all that cat mint. They are a bit shorter than the 'Elfin Pink' in the first photo, but eventually I hope they will tower over the cat mint. They are lavendar, but otherwise look just like the 'Elfin Pink'.

When I planted all the petunias, I really was just trying to provide a pop of color to keep this new bed from looking too bad this first year. Well, they love it there and have spread like Topsy! I mixed the purple and pink just for fun, but ended up with a great view as you pull into the driveway - an unintended surprise! My long term plan is to use the far end of that bed as a cutting garden. I have already planted hollyhocks for next year, but will add zennias, stock and other annuals that are good for cutting.

Since it is a bed made entirely from composted dirt, I have had to struggle with weeding - not the usual garden weeds, but odd things from the compost like tomatoes! I have probably pulled 50 tomato plants so far, as well as hundreds of little Queen Anne's Lace plants, and the prize this week goes to a cucumber that is growing just behind the right-most 'Ada'. These all came from seeds of plants that were thrown in the compost heap. Unfortunately the heat in the deteriorating compost was not high enough to kill all the seeds. It makes for an interesting bed!

So, that's a better look at the xeri-garden six weeks later. I should note that I only watered the xeri-part for two weeks after first planting and have relied on nature ever since. [I have watered the petunia-filled end, where the plants are not intended to be water-wise, at least weekly depending on the amount of rain.] So far, they are doing fine and the drainage seems to be working as I planned. Altho I have lost two plants, that's not bad for a new bed and I lost things that are easily replaced. So far, so good.....

Update on the Garden

There are two projects that have been growing along quietly with no fanfare, so it's time to let you see what's happened recently.

Mitchell's vegetable garden:

We have been picking lettuce for several weeks now and it is great. It was supposed to "head up" but did not seem to have the genetic message. We did get one nice head, but the rest of it came out as leaf lettuce - albeit curling leaves. It is delicious, tho, and we may well plant it again next year. It's like a cross between green leaf lettuce and Romaine. It's more crisp than green leaf, but more curly than Romaine. But, like all good things, it's time to come to an end. The lettuce is starting to bolt, so I will cut it all tomorrow.

We have had a decent growth of cilantro, but it as already gone to seed. I would leave it, but Mitchell doesn't want the new cilantro growing everywhere in the bed, so I will pull it tomorrow, too.

He has planted a variety of peppers - bell and hot of various types - but they are struggling. I think they were planted late, but may not like the humus soil in the boxes. We have a few small peppers on the bells, and one very nice hot pepper - New Mexico # something - but not really much to show for six weeks of growth. The cabbage are another matter tho. They are huge and have finally started growing heads. They are really pretty, but we will be happy in another couple of months when they are edible.

The tomatoes are a success story. He planted two cherry tomatoes and two Better Boy (or maybe Girl). We have been picking cherries for a couple of weeks and two "big" tomatoes are ripening on the window sill right now. There are many, many coming so we should have tomatoes for the next month or so. You can see them growing UP the netting at the back of the box on the left. All in all, I think this is a successful garden this year.

The Project

It's been just over a month since I "finished" the xeri-garden. [We all understand that "finished" and "garden" do not exist in the world as we know it.] You got your last look on May 25th, so here's what it looks like today.

I've lost two plants already - one of the thymes and one of the evening primroses. Everything else is doing very well. The salvia 'Snow Hill' has bloomed almost constantly since the garden was planted and the evening primrose 'Shimmer' has come and gone. One of the agastache "Ava" is in bloom now, as well as one of the penstemon 'Elfin Pink'. The four clumps of sedum "Autumn Joy" have recovered and are growing altho none is standing upright - that will come next year. But all in all, it's in good shape. The exubertant color you see at the right end of the box is a mass of petunias that I planted for fast color. They have bloomed constantly and look great. I think that in the spring I will plant cutting flowers there for the house next summer.

The native honeysuckle seems to be ok. I disturbed its roots pretty much in digging the box, but then put a good heavy covering of mulch over them and watered well, so they seem to have survived all right.

So, I am pleased. In mid-April next year when I see what's come back and where I have holes, I'll look at some other salvias or perhaps a penstemon - if I can find one locally - to fill in. I think it's a success overall.

There is one major mistake - rookie mistake - that I made. The bed is too wide to work easily. I made it 16 feet by 4 feet, which is a lovely proportion and looks really nice, but I cannot reach over four feet. I should have made it only three feet deep. I never really thought about it when I was planning. It just seemed like the right thing to do - to cut the landscaping timbers in half. So learn from my mistake. Remember that weeding is a major activity and you need to be able to reach across the bed to do it.

A Stately Lady

Four or five weeks ago the garden was like an exuberant teenager - bursting with color and new flowers in bloom nearly every day, going every which way, growing lush and never the same from day to day or hour to hour. Today it's a much more sedate lady - content to settle into a mid-summer routine, still elegant and colorful, but resting. In her own way she is just as lovely - perhaps more so - but more calm and comfortable. We've gone from Bridgit Bardot to Catherine Deneuve, so come look.

The first rush of daylilies is nearly over. The minis - 'Happy Returns' - are done for now. I deadheaded them this morning so that they will set new blooms and continue to bloom for the rest of the summer - just smaller blooms and fewer of them. The big daylilies are also slowing down. There are some gorgeous tall yellows still coming on. The 'Richmond Spiders' will be done by the end of next week, but they have been just gorgeous. [I will need to divide them this fall - if you are within a reasonable distance and want some, just ask.] The deep purple ones from Andre Viette is still blooming - and actually I did not expect this many blooms the first year - but on its last buds, too. So there will be fewer lilies soon, but still plenty of color to attract the butterflies and hummers.

The monarda is full and lush and the shasta daisies 'Becky' came into bloom this week. They are your run-of-the-mill white shastas, but my granddad always said you need a few white flowers to set off the color of the others.... and he was right. They are mixed in with the monarda, so it looks great together. There are gladiolas sprinkled throughout the bed adding accent color here and there, too, along with the yarrow.

The hibiscus 'Lord Baltimore' and 'Texas Husky Honey' both started blooming this week, along with two shorter [un-named] varieties - one white and one purple. And there is one pink hollyhock that came up near the 'Harry Lauter'. It appeared suddenly thru the branches looking like a pink bloom on the shrub. It's actually very pretty. All of that is in the major garden out back. Actually, that's what I think of as "the garden". The rest are just "planting areas" even if they are sometimes lovely, too.

Out front in the boomerang the garden phlox started blooming this week, along with the plumbago. The phlox is two shades of lavendar - one dark and one light. I'm sure they have names, but don't recall what they are. The plumbago came from Garland's garden several years ago - maybe nine! It has struggled and struggled, and suddenly this year it's gone wild. It doubled in size and has bloomed merrily. I want to treat it nicely and hope for more spread for next year.

Guest Garden

You may remember that in May I brought you pictures of Garland's garden in Brevard, North Carolina. I did not know it then, but her's was the first "guest garden" I featured. Today I visited another - very different - garden. I hope to get back with a camera next week and share that with you soon.