Outcropping Obsession

Education is not the filling of a pail,

but the lighting of a fire.

~ Wiliam Butler Yeats

 

I have been playing with outcropping rocks again.

This property is sloped on all sides. We sit atop a hill on a corner lot so, all four sides of the house consist of sloped ground. Therefore, there are lots of opportunities to play around with differing ways to keep water accessible to the plants rather than simply flowing past.

Above is a picture of the back yard, taken by the seller’s realtor, so it was taken just weeks before we bought the house. To be proper, this photo credit belongs to NWMLS. Reader Kathy G asked for views that express the larger picture of the yard areas so as to get a better idea of the grounds overall, so I will endeavor to do that as I can. My camera phone is limited needless to say.

More posts on these terraces will come later but today’s post will only be about the lower terrace section next to the walkway, way in the far ground but not visible in the above photo. So (below)now we are from the other end, where this post is concerned.

As you can see, aside from 3 lovely deciduous trees, there was nothing back here but an overgrown laurel, weeds, grass and two vinca’s about to overtake the lower walkway.

 

Note the rocks lining the beds on both sides of the stairwell. I don’t really like rocks all lined up like this. I need to be able to step carefully into a bed this wide for weeding and this solid edge created a tripping hazard, both going up or down the stairs and stepping in for weeding. Also, the rocks caught the hose as I pulled it up or down.

Firstly, I sprayed the weeds and grass with an organic herbicide. After a few weeks, I turned over the decomposing remnants. Now I have a blank slate to work with.

(Note: in my experience, organic herbicides work best on shallow rooted, weak weeds and grasses. As you can see it killed the grass and Nigella weeds, some of the baby dandelions but not the established dandelion roots nor the vinca. Those I dug out. Organic sprays don’t really travel all the way to the root, in my experience but they do weaken the weed considerably so hand digging is easier when dealing with as thick a mass as I was faced with here.)

 

There is such a slope (left to right) to the soil here that water runoff would keep the plants from being watered. So I dug some of it out to level it. Mind you, I moved that soil to other parts of the garden that I needed soil, but since it was so full of weed seeds, understand you are moving those seeds too. Weeding will now be expanded to include where ever I moved that dirt. But alas, I needed to do it.

Working my way up, turning over soil. The now cleaned-up bed, with only the vinca to be dug out. Note again the rocks lining the bed against the stairs.

 Now comes the fun part. Since the slope is so steep, I needed to create pockets in which to plant that could slow down the progression of water run off so the soil around the plants could absorb water and hold for the roots to take it up. So, I took the rocks lining the stairs and created outcropping pockets. It was actually fun and creative in a way, placing them with different plants in mind. As I “planted” the rocks, I also started planting succulents and heat / dry loving plants since this on the south side of the property.

 I added a saucer of water for the birds. They love it!

This angle is shot from above, the top of the stairs. All the others were from the bottom of the stairs.

 

In this photo, on the left lower, you can actually still see the collapsed retaining wall that I spoke of in an earlier post titled “In The Hot Bed” that my better half rebuilt.

 

I love the out-cropped side (right) so much more than the lined up side (left). I will be removing the rocks from the left side and creating out cropping there as well someday. For sure the right side holds water far more effectively than the left side.

 

What do you think? Outcropped or lined up all in a row?

 

This is today as plants have filled in. Not bad considering it’s only been 6 months from the very first photo to this one.

 I have left the rocks lined up at the base of this bed as you can see, In this situation they keep the water and dirt from spilling out onto the walkway. But I did reposition them all.  I had to lift many that had been buried and shifted others. I think here lining them up works. I don’t trip over them and the hose doesn’t catch on them.

 I am much happier with this bed now, and it holds water longer so it can seep deeper. And once these plants get established, I won’t have to water much at all.

* Sorry for the haphazard placement of photos and differing fonts in this post. The blogger platform kept making changes and wouldn't let me correct them. I gave up. I am skilled at gardening, but not skilled at I.T. It is what it is.

In bloom in my garden today: Geum, salvia, fuchsia, rose, kniphofia, coreopsis, lavender, aster, hesperaloe, hardy geranium, lobelia, cuphea, asclepias, verbena, persicaria, eupatorium

First photo credit NWMLS

All other photos are author’s photos

 

 

The Rock Whisperer

 If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song.

~Carl Perkins

 

 

 I am told there is a rock whisperer here on the island. I believe it. I have seen examples of his work. His rock walls are a beautiful sight to behold, built to perfection, like they came out of a mold or something. Stunning.

 Well, I make no claims of being a rock whisperer, that’s for sure, but I do see beauty in rocks.  Rocks are unending in variation in color, shape, size, intricate patterns and composition. I am fascinated when I really take the time to quietly examine rocks.

 Some gardeners view rocks with rancor, as if the presence of rocks somehow spoils the garden. They toss them into an ever-growing heap somewhere out of sight, never to be seen again or enjoyed, never to be utilized.

 One or more previous keepers of this yard had such an opinion of rocks. Waaayyy back in the furthest, darkest corner of the property I found the gathering of the rocks.

  

 It was about 4 feet wide by 10 feet long until a massive maple trunk ended it. Then it grew taller, as more rocks had been tossed on top. And it went deeeep. A privacy screen of lilac and forsythia was there too. Trunks, weeds, dead branches, dried leaves and the rocks all snarled into a congested, unattractive muddle.

  

  I don’t know which came first the rocks or the shrubs but both were vying for space. Since it is the darkest corner of the yard, the forsythia and lilac didn’t bloom. They need sun, after all. So, picture a dark corner with overgrown yet leggy shrubbery and piles of rocks. Not a pretty sight. True enough, it is where I located my composting operations, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be gardenly.

 Where others saw a place for discarded rocks, I see a deeply shaded corner space that would grow 4 lovely Fatsia japonica for the privacy screen, anchored by a green skirt of billowy ferns and heleborus underneath. 

The variegated Fatsia “Camouflage” variety will be perfect here. Its light green variegation on the leaf will brighten the dark area. It is a shade plant that will grow  about 8 feet tall under the maple’s canopy and wide enough to provide the privacy between neighboring yards. The ferns too will love this shady space. It is fairly dry, being under a huge maple, so I will choose ferns that like their roots a little on the drier side. It would not make sense to plant fern species here that need constantly moist soil. Right plant, right place makes a gardener’s life easier.

 Rocks have their purpose and I like to find attractive ways to use them. Their uses depend on their size. So, I cleared out a lot of the rocks and sorted them somewhat by size. Afterall, I can think of lots of interesting things to do with rocks. I bet you can too.

 

  

 

 

   

 

This narrow row hugging the steps (above) stops water runoff from washing away a lot of soil on a steep slope.

  

 In bloom in my garden today: helianthus Lemon Queen, salvia, coreopsis, sedum, lobelia, rose, nepeta, kirengeshoma, penstemon, hesperaloe, asclepias, hardy geranium, fuchsia, aster, oregano, calendula, verbena bonariensis, thyme, hydrangea

 Authors photos

In the Hot Bed

 

Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration. 

~Lou Erickson

There is a set of stairs at the back of the house dividing the sloped south facing yard into two terraced levels. This is how the beds on both sides of the stairs looked in April when we moved in. The post today is only about the left side, which is up against the foundation of the house and south facing, so it is hot and dry.

 

My first thoughts were that lavender and sedums would be perfect plants for this area. Once established (after next year) they wouldn’t require a lot of watering as both thrive in hot dryish areas with all day sun, and they would provide food for bees, hummingbirds and other pollinators.

 

The only plants in that bed, aside from weeds, was a vinca tangled up with a Euonymus. The bed is just shy of 3 feet wide and 10 feet long.

Vinca is a vining, far reaching ground cover that is very ineffective at smothering out weeds and it will have to be constantly cut back if it isn’t to interfere with the walkway. It’s out.

The Euonymus is, to my taste, an uninteresting shrub that can reach out 4-6 feet wide and even taller. In this location it too would have to be pruned annually once it reached its mature size. And it would block the view of the garden I planned to create on the other side of the walk. Out it goes too.

The bed was bordered with rocks on the stair edge, presumably to stop the dirt from spilling out onto the stairs. As you can see over time the lower rocks became buried and weren’t doing the job. Lastly, there was a makeshift retaining wall made of mis-matched blocks at the bottom of the bed which had collapsed. Sorry, I didn't get a good photo of that.

 

All cleared away, now I have a blank slate to work with. First in goes 3 lavenders. “Goodwin Creek” to be specific. I have grown this one before and it is a favorite of mine. I love the indented leaf shape and it puts up long willowy wands of blooms which create lovely movement in the breeze. It also had a longer bloom time in my previous garden than other lavenders. It is a lovely variety. 

Along with the lavender, I added a broken portion of a Mexican pottery pot. I like using broken pots as a little interest, or whole pots turned on their side and angled just so. A little eye candy if you will.

 

After the lavenders are placed as the “bones” of the space, I filled in with sedums of many varieties from trailing types to hen’s and chicks types, all of which came with me from my previous garden. Sedums are incredibly easy to propagate. They will spread and fill in quickly.

As for the lost rocks edging the lowest steps, I pulled them up and re positioned them. I don’t really like rocks used that way but for now they will stay.

 

If all that isn’t exciting enough, now the icing on the cake happens! This is where my better half comes into his own. He is so creative and talented when it comes to hardscaping our garden spaces. He set about making a beautiful retaining wall to support the end of this bed. He used concrete blocks and capped them with flat stones. The blocks and stones had been left, stashed and buried in different places in this yard, by past owners.

 

First, he carved out the shape, and poured a footing in concrete.

 

Then cemented together blocks.

 

Then he ‘faced’ the blocks with a rough smear of mortar. 

He adds color powder to the mortar to give an aged look to his stucco finish. New concrete dries bright whitish and isn’t particularly lovely. The new brightness can be distracting in the garden, I think. Concrete does darken over time but it takes years. He ‘ages’ it by darkening it with coloring agents so the new wall looks like it’s been there for a long time and it blends better in the garden. I love the rough look of a stucco finish. It transports me to Tuscany or south of the border.

 

Then he capped it all off with some slate or what ever this stone is. There were several pieces of this stone laying around, apparently left-overs from the construction of the patio some years ago. I am so glad to have them as they are just perfect to finish this wall.

 

So… what do you think? Coming along nicely, I think. In a year or two you won’t see much, if any, soil after these plants fill in. Covered soil means less weeds. Win Win.

Cheers!

In Bloom in my Garden Today: Rose, Sedum, Agastache, Geum, Fuchsia, Salvia, Verbena, Gladiolus, Mullen, Thyme, Oregano, Calendula, Yarrow, Dianthus, Germander, Cuphea,

Author’s photos

The Front Walk Bed

 

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summer's best of weather
and autumn's best of cheer."
~unknown author

When we moved in, the garden beds along the walkway leading to the front door looked like this.

 

The walkway moves you alongside a long deck. Under the deck is storage and the deck skirting is inexpensive lattice, which many folks consider something to be covered up. So naturally a previous owner planted vines to do so. There are aggressive vines and there are well behaved vines. In this case they choose 2 very aggressive hydrangea vine varieties. Fast to grow and cover no doubt they were told but when you plant under a deck, the vine will eventually get up to the height of the deck and beyond, and into everything stored under the deck, so you now have an annual pruning and untangling chore to add to your yearly list of things to do. And bear in mind if you plant vines…vine trunks grow wide too and will break your lattice as it outgrows the space it intertwines with.

 

 There was also some sword Fern. I love ferns but there are other varieties I love more than our native Sword (Polystichum munitum). There was also a thick carpet of invasive violets covering every inch of dirt, making weeding a difficult and unpleasant activity. And seeding its way into the lawn and nearby beds so - out it goes.

Deck skirting can be beautiful but this lattice is ugly and at this point brittle and broken in some places so in the future my better half will replace it with something wonderful, because that’s what he does. He builds our beautiful hardscapes.

In the meantime, my job is to get rid of all the wrong plants and put in some better choices.

 

Months ago, I cut all the vines close to the soil to stop their progression and kill them. A couple months later I dig out the sword ferns and violas and clean up the whole area. Much to my dismay I also encountered yards of weed barrier cloth, 4-6 inches under the whole mess, so I had to get it out too. I hate the stuff but that’s another post coming. Needless to say, if I wanted my new plantings to grow into a healthy garden, I needed to get the weed barrier cloth out.

 

 Then I planted. Yay! The fun part. I chose Sarcoccoa ruscifolia for its eventual size and late winter fragrance to go by the front door and I underplanted it with Pachysandra.

  

For the narrow bed under the deck, I chose Ilex ‘Sky Pencil’ which should stay well within the height of under the deck (a tad over 5 feet) and if it should reach the top, it is much easier to control than a vine. Then I underplanted it with black Mondo grass and a lovely variety of heuchera for shade named Dolce Silver Gumdrop. I thought the silvery plum leaves with black veining would brighten the shady bed and look stunning intermingling with the black mondo grass.

 

 I am glad I spent time at my former garden taking cuttings and divisions. It has saved me a lot of money in new plants. Black Mondo grass is very costly, and all I have here, I have brought with me. And it will spread. Same with the pachysandra. Cuttings are easy to root in place if you keep it moist as it forms new roots. And the heuchera I bought on sale and in a few years’ time, I will be able to propagate more from these 3 and fill in this space.

Now all I have to do is keep it watered and wait till it all fills in. No worries…I have plenty of other areas needing work in this yard. Stay tuned!

In bloom in my garden today: fuschia, heuchera, sedum, germander, Agastache, calendula, dianthus, salvia, coryopsis, geum, rose, nepeta, cuphea, verbascum, asclepias, thyme 

Authors photos

 

 

Work with What You've Got

Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me. Who could ask for more?

~Bev Adams, Mountain Gardening

 

When editing a new-to-you garden, it’s good to take a step back and see what is there that you can use and what you absolutely don’t want.  In my case, a wisteria and a laurel had to go. Both didn’t have the room to grow to their mature size where they were planted and both would require a lot of pruning.

I have grown wisteria before. It is lovely. It requires a hard prune back to its main branching each year in late winter to keep it in check. Also, Wisterias often won’t bloom unless the new growth curling tendrils are cut off. Every 2 weeks. All summer long. The plant puts its energy into the new growing of leaf and vine. But you want flowers so you need to redirect that growth back into the older wood to produce blooming cells that will lie deep in the older woody stems until the following spring. The wisteria here was on an arbor, 8 feet high over a gate. The house was on one side and a neighbor’s fence on the other. It only had about 10 feet width of freedom to climb and reach. Not nearly enough for a wisteria. And I was not about to get out my ladder every two weeks to climb up to keep the tendrils cut off.

Then there is the Laurel. Laurels grow fast, flowers for a short period of time and sets seed with abandon. It was clear to me by its location that it was planted to provide a quick privacy screen. Laurel can quickly grow to heights over a 2 story house and easily as wide. The previous owners had kept cutting it down to a height of 6 feet in a weird flat shape about 8-10 feet wide. It also had old damage which could eventually allow in insect damage and rot.

 

 Its seed drop was in a radius of 10 feet so was sprouting seedlings far and wide, and clearly would do so every year. It created plants that were already 2-3 feet in diameter, growing under the nearby wood deck. Selecting a laurel for this application in this location meant sweeping seeds off the deck every spring and early summer as they drop, constant weeding of its seedlings, and removal of deck floor boards to get to the plants that will sprout and grow underneath.

 

 As one that has worked in the plant nursery industry, I can guarantee there are thousands of plants from which to choose. There are right plants and very definitely wrong plants for you. The phrase, “right plant, right place” means just that. An experienced nursery professional can steer you to the right plant for your location, skill in maintenance and time you want to dedicate to its care. The perfect choice is one that will not create a lot of work for you and eventually become such a monster that it overwhelms you and the spot it is planted in.

The title of this post could have been ‘right plant, right place” but, “Work with What You’ve Got” is the rest of the story about the Wisteria and the Laurel.

As for the wisteria, since its branching structure was entangled in and held up by the arbor above the gate, I cut it off at the base of the trunk to kill the branches. I did use a non-selective chemical herbicide to spray on the base of the trunk to kill the root. I don’t want it coming back and without spray it will sprout again. You can also kill a wisteria root by keeping the root area wet. Wisteria don’t like wet feet and will eventually succumb to root rot, but it will take more time and a lot of water.

 

Then I trimmed away all the leafy stems, leaving the nice branching framework overhead that to me is attractive.

 

I will plant a more demure flowering vine at the base and it will scramble up the old wisteria branches, so I don’t have to provide any twine or wire support to give it a leg up. Its already there.

I will choose a clematis from pruning group 3 that will grow fresh vines from the root each spring. Clematis from this group bloom in late summer and are the easiest to keep maintained and fresh looking. All the annual cleanup it will require is cutting it back to 12-20 inches (30-50 cm) or so from the ground each spring just as you see new growth beginning. The delicate vines will naturally die away in winter and will be easy to pull down and put in my compost pile. No weekly tendril cutting, no annual selective pruning, no ladders involved, and likely a longer bloom time than the wisteria.

There are hundreds of Clematis varieties to choose from. The important thing to remember is that they are divided into 3 groups, depending on best pruning methods for each. Their pruning group number will be 1,2 or 3. This number is also a good indicator of when it will bloom. A google search will give you links to a lot of great sites that will explain this further. I really like Lee Reich’s article in Fine Gardening Issue 90 “Pruning Clematis”. Just try to choose the plant from the pruning group that will make its upkeep easiest for you.

Now over to the Laurel. It is a self-supporting tree trunk, and I wanted to keep the branching structure to use as a trellis. After cutting off all the leaves and small branches I left only the largest branches in what I think is a nice looking structure.

  

 

Then I scored the trunk at the base, all the way around with a wood rasp to cut through the thin bark, thus cutting off the plant’s ability to transport nutrients and water up the tree’s vascular system. That will kill all of it above the cut, much like a deer will when he destroys the bark all the way around a tree trunk with his horns. This is a form of girdling the tree. Since it is a laurel, it will sprout from below the girdle, so I did also spray the stripped area with chemical concentrate herbicide. I don’t like using chemicals, but there are instances where it is the most effective way to achieve the result you want. The methods I choose are always to use the least amount of chemical possible. In this case, rather than spraying all the leafy growth and waiting for the whole thing to die, I only sprayed in its most critical areas, the fresh cuts, and let the trees vascular system take it down to the root.

 

I did all this 2 months ago and have seen no new sprouting, so I think it worked. This Laurel provided a small amount of privacy for us and the neighbors, so to get that back I have planted 2 Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides) at the now girdled base. The poison in the root of the Laurel will not travel through the soil and affect the Jasmine or any neighboring plants. The jasmine will scramble up the trunk and branching left behind to provide an evergreen screen that will waft wonderful jasmine fragrance from July to August for both us and our neighbors. I can’t wait to see it fill in and enjoy the aroma in the warm summer breezes.

So that’s the rest of the story. A damaged and way too big laurel has become my Jasmine trellis and a high maintenance wisteria has also become a trellis up which an easy to maintain clematis will grow. By doing selective cutting and removal, I kept the structure from old, overgrown plants that were very high on the time-consuming maintenance list, on which I can grow new selections that are better suited to the spaces in which they are planted. That is how “right plant right place” gives the gardener more time to sip iced tea in their garden, enjoying the fragrances and the flowers, rather than just a lot of annually repetitive hard work.

Cheers!

In Bloom in my Garden Today: Sedum, Dianthus, Lavender, Agastache Anise Hyssop, Rose, Hydrangea, Nepeta, Salvia, Lobelia, Daisy, Knifophia, Cuphea, Geum, Fuchsia, Hardy Geranium, Potentilla, Asclepias, Gladiolus ‘Boone’ (heirloom 1920’s), Lysimachia ephemerum (non invasive loosestrife), Oregano

Authors photos

Moving Rocks

What we learn with pleasure we never forget.

~Alfred Mercier

  

This triangular shaped bed contained an ornamental plum which was way too big of a tree choice to be planted in a space of this size. Before we moved in it had been pruned on two sides to keep it away from the house and gutters. That made it grow vertical sprouts over 2/3s of its canopy and normal outward branches on the side that didn’t get pruned. The unpruned side became heavy and was the leeward side so wind could potentially topple this tree. I decided early on it would have to come out.

The bed also contained Helleborus, Sedum, and Ajuga reptans. Being adjacent to a walkway the Ajuga had to be relocated. Anytime you plant near a sidewalk you will be happier if you don’t choose plants that have a far-reaching habit. Ajuga is great for carpeting large areas quickly but here it was in a pretty confined space. It spreads by reaching out in all directions with new stem growth that roots when it touches the soil. At a sidewalk it will quickly overrun it’s borders and you will have created more work for yourself because you will have to keep cutting it back.

As for the tree, I had a tree service come cut the tree down. It is fine to leave the stump in this case, as I can plant around it and it will rot in time. I am not a fan of chemical use but to leave a stump in place to rot over time, you may have to apply a chemical to the freshly cut stump to stop it from re-sprouting. It depends on what type of tree it is. Here I used a chemical herbicide on the cut end only. Minimal use.

  

Then I took out all the Helleborus and Ajuga in that bed. Being a shade loving plant, I relocated some of the Helleborus to a shadier spot, since the tree was providing shade in that bed. The majority of them I gave away to neighbors.

The bed was edged with large rocks on all three sides. It is a slightly raised bed toward the middle where the tree trunk was. The rock placement didn’t really do anything for the bed. I kept tripping on some because they lined the walkways on two sides and stepping on others near the water faucet, so I pulled them all out and set them aside in a pile. In so doing I was surprised to find they were lava rock and super lightweight.

As I was contemplating how to plant my now empty and raked bed with the stump in the middle, the word “outcropping” kept coming to mind.

So, that’s what I did.

I started by planting those lava rocks. Outcropping also creates little pockets that stabilize slopes and hold water better for your plants. Whenever you use rocks in the landscape, they should be buried up to 1/3 deep so they look natural. You “plant” your rocks, don’t just lay them on top.

Then I added in some plant divisions from my former garden, and a couple of new plants, one that I purchased and one that was a gift from our realtor and friend Gina . Best. Realtor. Ever!

Last but not least I topped it all off with a clay pot, which I balanced on top of the stump with soil and rocks. Can’t even see the stump now and it will rot over time.

What do you think? I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I need to go shopping for a vine maple which I will plant behind the pot for some vertical interest, fall color and will provide annual leaf mulch. Even at a mature size, a vine maple is a good choice for this space and it won’t require pruning to keep in confined.

And if you are lucky enough to find a fantastic tree guy as I did, he won’t roll his eyes when you ask if it would be too much to ask him to cut some of the trunk into stepping stone size thickness for your use in other parts of the garden. Well it never hurts to ask, right?

Thanks Rich at Signature Tree Service !   You made my day!

 In Bloom in My Garden Today: Cuphea Vermillionaire, Lobelia laxifolia, Gillenia, Yarrow, Potentilla, Sedum, Oregano, Daisy, Rose, Thyme, Dianthus, Nepeta

Authors photos