Showing posts with label lorapetalum purple pixie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lorapetalum purple pixie. Show all posts

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Hope Springs Infernal



After last summer, I really thought I'd never garden or post on this blog again. A story in the Statesman real estate section mentioned a woman who was selling her house to move to North Carolina, because she wanted to be able to garden. I hear you, lady.


But let's face it, gardening is an addiction. Five inches of rain and a flush of rosebuds, and I've got that monkey on my back all over again. Pouring hundreds of dollars into antique roses, lambskin pruning gloves, and whatever newfangled soaker hose they've got to sell me.
My yard in Brentwood did not even get a mild freeze; so in combination with the rain, things are looking lush. I have petunias that actually wintered over. It has been interesting to see how my newly-installed backyard garden survived the summer. The clear winners were silver germander, lorapetalum and yellow columbine. The losers were spireas—which all died early in the summer— and the berkeley sedge. It's not dead, but I kind of wish it were.







And on the south fence, all the salvias, plumbago and turk's cap are happily thriving.
In the kidney-bean-shaped bed in the way back, I've put in more germanders since they seem so happy in the shady soil situation back there.
Converting the backyard to gravel is working out well. Zeke has stayed to his paths. I haven't had to water or mow. After the twice-a-year liveoak leaf-drop I have to blow the gravel. I know people hate leafblowers but they are the most practical tool in cleaning up gravel.











Meanwhile in the front yard, the big excitment is the bloom spike on one of the softleaf yuccas. I've had this plant for 10 years now, moving its pups from Rollingwood to my new house. Never has it EVER bloomed.


My neighbor cleared out some of his overgrowth resulting in a new patch of sun on my side yard into which I've introduced a little-leaf cordia. I saw this plant blooming in the middle of last summer's nonstop 100 degree days. It's a kind of scrawny thing with a demented growth habit—all sharp angles and jutting stems—but it has stunning snow white flowers. It has blue-gray foliage and looks alot like its Texas olive cousin.





Blooming now: columbine, roses reve d'or, iceberg, yellow, red, and rainbow knockout, salvia.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Doggone Garden

When Zeke came to live with me in January 2010, I can't say the backyard was in great shape. I had kind of let it go au naturel. Except for a Knockout Red and a mutabilis rose, I've really never done much back there, preferring to focus my attention on the immediate area surrounding my deck where I spend most of my waking hours.
Zeke and the drought wreaked such havoc on the lawn that it had become a barren waste that had moved into eyesore zone. I've never had a dog that made any impact on my garden, let alone trampled paths like Zeke has. But I'm smitten with him, so I tolerate his habits. Here's backyard in February.




I decided to make a major overhaul and used every penny of my tax return. I interviewed several landscape designers and had 3 people give me bids. In the end, I employed a father and son I found on Craigslist who I liked because they were muy amable and came with good references as to their hard work. I designed the plan myself, after much study of online gardens and ideas. I knew I wanted to get rid of all grass. I currently have no lawnmower as my front yard is so small I can weedwhack it. I already have pea gravel in my side yard and driveway and was happy with its look and practicality. I used Zeke's existing paths as my guide and using garden hoses laid out three beds. Sprayed painted their outlines on the ground. Then la familia Avila came with their team and began work.





I specked the plants and the Avilas bought them wholesale somewhere. The north bed which is mostly shady is a plan of silver germander, lorapetalum Purple Pixie, columbine, turk's cap and shrimp plant—all plants that I currently have growing elsewhere successfully in my yard's clay-clogged soil. When the plants arrived they looked incredibly healthy. But a surprise was that the shrimp plants were already in full bloom and a sulphur yellow color I had never seen before. But since they are really quite pretty and look great with the purple lorapetalums, I decided to embrace this serendipity.






I also had the pavers around the deck removed, for two reasons. They were ugly and uneven and I was concerned about tripping over them as I head into my twilight years. The other reason is I thought it would look better to have one continuous material rather than two things going on, pea gravel and pavers. I had the workers set cut limestone pavers in the pea gravel surrounding the deck. This looks good and I'm pleased with the result but it has a downside: Zeke throws up gravel on the pavers in his running and so there is not "perfection" in the Zen garden sense at all times. Buddha tells me to get over it.



The south bed, which is sunnier, is a mix of reliable color: esperanza, blue plumbago, red sage, and turk's cap. It backs up to the fence with Port St. John's creeper. The kidney-bean-shaped bed around the birdbath has spirea, berkeley sedge and the Knockout rose. One unexpected bonus of the new plan is that it showcases the Knockout Rose and mutabilis; before they were back in the boondocks. Now they can be seen better against the pea gravel. A week after I installed the pea gravel, I had the first round of the dreaded liveoak crap; a snowfall of those caterpillar thingies. I kept planning to leafblow it, but never got around to it and it kind of biodegraded into oblivion.

I'm enjoying watching the plants settle in and mulling over possible evergreen additions to the color bed. Zeke seems to like the new layout too.