New front hillside update

Echinacea, pennisetum and volunteer fireweed

Remember my new front hillside, created by removing a railroad tie retaining wall? I've been spending a lot of time here, planting, watering, weeding and thinking.

This is the view from the bottom, comparison from early March to late August:

A lot of the plants visible in the newest photo are rescued from before the excavation and probably temporary, but they're good at filling in space for now:

• Geranium, probably Rozanne - a bunch of small pieces are multiplying quickly
• English daisy - I thought only one piece survived but now there are two and they will spread fast too
• Hollyhocks - planted from seed last year, some were just below the excavation and I transplanted some along the wall
• Fireweed - a lovely native volunteer
• Gladiolus - I planted a bag of bulbs along the wall

Looking back from the house, here's a clearer view of this sunny section along the neighbor's wall:




I have added a lot of sun loving perennials, many bought on super sale from the big box hardware stores:

• Echinacea purpurea 'PowWow White'
• Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'
• Acaena inermis 'Purpurea' - a lovely purple groundcover
• Coreposis 'Mercury Rising' - rescued from the big box dead plant section
• Amsonia hubrichtii - same
• Spiraea, have to look up which one, maybe 'Goldflame' - same
• Hemerocalis 'Pink Flirt' - same
• Hemerocalis 'Wine Delight' - same
• Ajuga reptans 'Burgendy Glow' - a less aggressive bugleweed
• Fuchsia 'Delta's Sara' - as close to a blue fuchsia as I can find, crossing my fingers that it can handle this much afternoon sun
• Asters - a few small varieties that I seem to have lost the tags for are planted in front

There is a definite purple and gold theme to the perennials, and also to the larger bushes that I've planted in the back:

• Smoke bush, cotinus 'Grace'
• Variegated red twig dogwood, I think it is cornus alba 'Gouschaltii'
• Ninebark, physocarpus 'Morning Star'
• Native flowering currant, grown from a cutting

The bushes will eventually shade out some of the perennials, but this area has a lot of room for both - and this is only the bottom section of the new front slope! The rest will have to wait for part 2 of this post.

Here's a couple more views of this section, I like how it merges into my north shade border down the hill:

Meadow and Sunny Hillside Update

Fall color on the hillside

It's been just over a year since I planted a meadow with native seed mix and native plants around the edges. I also spent a lot of time last year on the sunny hillside just above the meadow. I'm now thinking of this whole area as my mostly native border (plus berries and spring bulbs). It's a big area, probably about a quarter of the whole yard, and furthest from the house and water outlet, so hardest to maintain.

Sunny hillside from the bottom

I did very little on the sunny hillside this year, just let everything grow. No water except the drip line on the blueberries and raspberries. I ended up moving some of the lewisia and probably will move the rest, they get buried under other plants. Now that the raspberries are really growing, the lupine are too big, I can't get up the steps between them. I dug out one of the lupine and will need to take out the other two or keep them well trimmed back.

Now that the ground is starting to soften up, I planted these on the lower part of the hillside:

• Roemer's fescue - a bunch more, grown from seed
• Xerophylum tenas, beargrass - 2 grown from seed
• 3 Erigeron karvinskianus, labelled as Oregon fleabane but now I see that's erroneous
• Echinacea p. 'Pow Wow Wild Berry'
• Echinacea hybrida 'Cheyenne Spirit'

Meadow, looking south

Meadow, looking north

The meadow has more surviving lawn grass than I had hoped, plus some other obvious weeds, so I've done a little weeding a few times. I can see more of the native perennials growing in though so I'm hoping they will take off next year. I've also continued to dig out false bamboo from the back corner, it is close to gone. Plus a lot of watering over the summer, apparently I picked a bad year to plant so many bushes and trees! But I've continued to plant a few more native perennials in and around the meadow:

• 2 allium cernuum, nodding onion
• 1 solidago rugosa 'Fireworks', goldenrod
• Asclepias speciosa, milkweed - a bunch grown from seed
• Chamaenerion angustifolium, fireweed - a small clump transplanted from elsewhere in the yard

Goldenrod

Milkweed seedling

Also planted in the the shade under the bottom edge of the flowering currant:

• Tellimia grandiflora, fringecup
• Trillium ovatum
• Oxalis oregana
• Asarum caudatum, wild ginger
• Decentra formosa, bleeding heart

Bleeding heart and wild ginger

Oxalis and bleeding heart

Whew, the plants add up to a lot more than I thought and I suspect I'm missing some too.

Next year, I need to tackle the other side of the hillside, get the Oregon grape and flowering currant under control and plant groundcover under them to keep out the grass and weeds.

In bloom this week: September 6, 2017

This is the story of the last month: hot, hot, hot, smokey, a tiny drizzle of rain, warm, warm, hot, hot, smokey. Those may be slightly out of order but that's the basic pieces. All I want for September is a good soaking rain! In the meantime, I've been watering a lot - so many new plants in the yard! - and enjoying the flowers.

New glass art and asters

Patio flower garden and last year's glass art piece

Mums

Dahlias

Cosmos

Fuschsia basket

Hollyhocks, first year

Hollyhocks

Hollyhocks

My favorite color of rose

Zinnas and pot marigolds

In the native meadow - although I don't think echinacea are quite native here

Goldenrod

Sunflowers had to be propped up, they're over 15 feet tall

In bloom this week: July 23, 2017

Clematis

The curse of July is that the constant sunshine makes taking pictures difficult. And occasionally it's a little too hot for me, but really we've had amazing weather this month. 

In the rose garden, many of the roses are taking a break between blooms, but still a lot in bloom:

Aquilegia reblooming

Gladiolus

Anise hyssop, with catmint in the background

Aquilegia reblooming

Phlox

Lavender and mint

North side of the house, I need to plant more but this will be my late summer/fall garden:

Fuchsia 'genii'

Hydrangea 'pinky winky'

Hydrangea,star gazer (too lazy to look up the full name)

On and around the patio:

Dahlia

First cosmos bloom

Poppy leaning against a sunflower

Balloonflower

Nigella aka love in a mist

Two types of monarda and salvia

Fuchsias and other annuals

Clematis

Climbing rose, not climbing yet

Strawberries reblooming

Nasturtiums

At the bottom of the yard:

Echinacea

Clarkia, not sure which one

Coreopsis, tickseed

Gaillardia

Crocosmia, so bright it's hard to get a good picture