Fall glory

The colors have been wonderful this fall, seems like the views have gotten better every day, but now we've had some wind and more is coming. Here's a few pictures before the leaves all blow away.

Acer rubrum 'Franksred' 

This is the second fall for my Acer rubrum 'Franksred'

Epimedium

Nasturtiums are still blooming

Penstemon in the flower garden

A second batch of cosmos came up from seed on their own

My favorite fuchsias are reblooming again

More fuchsias

Grape leaves are mostly blown away now

Same with the blueberries

Yarrow all around the yard

Daisies and variegated red twig dogwood

Baby smoke bush, cotinus 'Grace'

Enkianthus

Astrantia reblooming

The red corner: maple, heucheras, dwarf plumbago and azalea

Witch hazel, hamamelis 'Diane'

Peonies

Lilacs from the front porch

Greeting visitors on the front porch

New front hillside update, part 2

I only managed to cover the bottom edge of the new front slope in part 1. Then I got busy adding plants to the rest of the area - so I need to post this quickly before I add more!

Continuing uphill is the main slope, here's the view up toward the front lawn:

In the middle of the slope, I planted a dogwood that will eventually be the centerpoint of the slope:

• Dogwood, cornus 'Venus'
• Kalmia 'Minuet'
• Enkianthus campanulatus 'Red Bells'
• Lonicera crassifolia, groundcover honeysuckle
• Alchemilla mollis

Above the dogwood where there is hot afternoon sun, more drought tolerant plants:

• Weigela florida 'Morcolzam'
• Pennisetum 'Karley Rose'
• Agastache 'Blue Boa' and one 'Black Adder transplanted from the rose garden where it was buried by catmint
• Marrubium supinum, aka horehound - I've never seen this grown here, but was tempted by a plant catalog, it should be drought tolerant
• Geranium harveyi
• Ceanothus 'Diamond Heights' - a low groundcover variety
• Phlox 'Spring Purple'

The dogwood will eventually provide shade but the uphill side will be full sun for a long time.

Continuing up the slope to the edge of the front lawn, this area is full sun most of the day. I'm thinking of it as an extension of the rose garden, a semi-circle around the front lawn:

• Cornus baileyi, red twig dogwood
• Hamamelis x 'Birgit'
• Hacquetia epipactis, early spring blooms under the hamamelis
• Daylillies, hemorocallis "Evil Gnome Murphy' and Watership Down'
• Gladiolus, remainder of the bag of bulbs
• Bearded irises, moved from other locations around the yard
• Peony 'Red Grace'
• Crocus Sativus, fall blooming saffron crocus - haven't come up yet so may not survive

I have plans to plant two more peonies here, and one or two roses moved from the slope along the fence. The red twig dogwoods may need to move, they were the first plants I put in here and my vision is already shifting - but I know where I can move them to. 

This is the view looking down down the slope from the front lawn:

The other side of the path (the right side in the pictures above) is shadier, it's partly under the lilacs and maple tree, and the sun is blocked by the house in the morning. Down at the bottom under the lilacs has the most shade, which I hope is enough for these plants to thrive:

• Hosta 'Golden Tiara'
• Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue'
• Podophylum pleianthum
• Lysmachia congestifolium 'Persian Chocolate' - experimental groundcover
• Dicentra formosa, bleeding heart
• Adiantum pedatum, native maidenhair fern - transplanted from my woodland border which had too much sun still
• Blue 'Belarina' primroses
• Brunnera macrophylla
• Primula 'Tortoise Shell'
• Heuchera 'Lime Marmalade'
• Sword ferns - these are large ferns that my brother rescued from an excavation he was working on, I planted them right under the lilacs and have some new growth
• Hakonechloa macra 'Aureloa' - mixed in with the sword ferns

I added a bench here so I can enjoy the view up the slope. We get some nice sunset views here too, which I never really noticed because I didn't like to look at the railroad ties.

Around the existing maple tree are plants that I hope can handle a little more sun. It seems like under a maple tree should be full shade, and it is in the morning but then afternoon sun comes right down the slope. I planted the azalea at the top of the slope, which will eventually add more shade in the summer.

• Astrantia major 'Star of Beauty' (purple) and 'Star of Royals' (pink)
• Athyrium 'Ghost'
• Fatsia japonica 'Spider Web'
• Podophylum pleianthum
• Oxals oregana, the evergreen version
• Cyclamen coum, transplanted from below the old retaining wall
• Cyclamen hederifolium
• Maianthemum dilatatum, false lily of the valley
• Maianthemum stellatum, star flowered false solomon's seal
• Carex oshimensis 'Evergold' - along the side path
• Impatiens omeiana - hardy impatiens, hopefully will not take over too much
• Foxglove, digitalis purpurea 'Foxy' - along the main path
• Hellebore 'Cinnamon Snow'
• Ceratostigma plumbaginoides - dwarf plumbago
• Heucherella 'Buttered Rum'
• Heuchera 'Fire Alarm'
• Heuchera 'Carnival Watermelon'
• Colchicum 'Giant'
• Rhododendron 'Mandarin Lights' - an early blooming azalea

The bright colored heucheras are really catching my eye this fall, hopefully they will look good through most of the year.

That's all for now, but you may have spotted a few more plants sitting on the bench! There are a lot of good fall plant if you're not worried about what the plants look like going into winter - they'll grow good roots and thrive in the spring.

Planting a meadow and native bushes

Snow! - in early December

This is a catch up post, one last update from the year. Remember my solarization project? I'm not sure we had the best summer for it this year, 2015 would have been better as it was much hotter. Nonetheless, I proceeded with removing the plastic in mid-September then waited a few weeks to see what would grow, and used very selective application of Roundup on a few weeds that tried to grow. There weren't very many weeds, more in the back corner than the front section, but there was some grass trying to grow which is concerning.

At the end of September, I spread a very thin layer of mulch and planted a mix of native wildflowers and grasses in the front section. Carefully, so as to not disturb the soil underneath and stir up seeds that may not have been killed by solarization. I did the same in the back corner in early October, after I planted the shore pines (more about that below). Both areas had seeds sprouting almost immediately, which may be good or may be bad if they don't survive the winter.

Front section, after planting

Along the edges of the front section, I planted a few native bulbs:

• brodiaea coronaria
• camassia leichtlinii
• camassia quamash

I also planted a wildflower only seed mix in a small section of the middle, over the non-native bulbs that are already there. This area didn't have plastic on it this summer, but it had cardboard for a couple of months. I suspect that won't be enough to kill the grass and weeds, but I didn't want to do anything more that might kill the bulbs.

Then I went native plant shopping in early October and picked up a bunch of plants. I planted native bushes around the bottom edge of the front meadow and across the middle. I'm trying to soften the green wall of arborvitae, and connect with the flowering currant on the south end of the hillside.

• 2 vaccinium ovatum, evergreen huckleberry
• 2 oemleria cerasiformis, Indian plum or osoberry
• 1 holodiscus discolor, oceanspray
• 3 spiraea densiflora, subalpine spirea
• 3 symphoricarpos albus, snowberry
• 2 vaccinum parvifolium, red huckleberry
• 1 rhododendron occidentale, western azalea

Native bushes, early October

More native bushes, early October

Looking north from the middle, early October

In the back corner, I planted two pinus contora (shore pine). They are too close to some of the hazelnuts, but I'll move those once I figure out where I want them.

After planting the shore pines

And, on the bottom edge of the sunny hillside, where they will blend into the meadow:

• 3 festeca roemeri, Roemer's fescue
• 3 viola adunca, early-blue violet

I already had a few camassia and blue eyed grass at the bottom of the hillside too. I need more plants there, but that'll wait until spring.

Now the waiting game! I'm definitely worried about how many weeds will be in the meadow, since I can see shotweed growing now plus California poppies spread from the hillside above, but need to wait and see what happens in the spring. The only chore still to do in the winter is haul more mulch to put around the bushes. But the area has certainly changed a lot since last spring!

May 26 vs. December 30

Back corner, today

Looking north from the back corner, today