In bloom this week: Apr. 24, 2016

Roses!

I skipped my in bloom post last week, I just didn't have the energy to put pictures together. It was very hot and bright for the first half of the week, reminded me unpleasantly of last summer. I've planted so many new plants this spring, had to do a lot of watering. Back to rain now, so I was dodging showers to take pictures.

Roses are about to leap into full bloom, about a quarter of our bushes have large buds or blooms already.

A few last spring bulbs: the allium are in full bloom, anemones and bluebells are fading. The bluebells went quickly, they weren't even fully in bloom two weeks ago.

Allium

Bluebell

Anemone

This is cheating because I just planted it, but I've always loved foxglove. I remember seeing these as a kid - and being warned not to touch them. Apparently it's not really a native plant, but is very common in more wild areas.

Foxglove

Borage in my vegetable garden, planted earlier this year because it's supposed to be a good companion plant. I didn't realize it would have such nice flowers.

Borage

I really hope my great camas will spread a lot, I don't know how it took me so long to discover this native plant.

Great camas

The kiwi blooms finally opened all the way, and now starting to fade. The grapes will be next, and then that's all of my fruit.

Hardy kiwi

All except the strawberries, which will bloom on and off all summer.

Strawberries

Next week: maybe an iris?

Iris, unknown variety

Progress on the hillside, part 2

Great camas

At this rate, I may end up with my whole backyard covered in cardboard. I finished covering the sunny half of the hillside and then just this week decided to cover the strip at the bottom too. The cardboard should mostly kill the grass in a couple of months and then I can dig out the old landscape fabric that's buried under here.

Feb. 21 and April 19

In my last update, I mentioned that I had planted aquilegia and transplanted wild strawberries next to where the raspberries would go. I've added a few more wild strawberries, dug up from other areas, and planted the raspberries. The bottom three are Autumn Britten and the top three are Caroline, both everbearing so I should have a few berries by late summer.

Raspberry

First aquilegia flower

I also put in four steps, they're dug into the hillside and stabilized with sand, but not as solid as a staircase would be. I think they'll be stable, but it's an experiment so I won't be upset if they need modification. I planted kinnikinnick between them, and will eventually add wild strawberries on that side - after the cardboard comes up.

Kinnikinnick, steps, raspberries, aquilegia and wild strawberries

Then I went to a plant sale and found native plants that I've been researching. The bottom of the hill is very soggy in the spring but dry and hot in the summer, so I want to try to grow a native meadow. This is blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium idahoensis), common camas (Camassia quamash, 'Blue Melody'), great camas (Camassia leichtlinii) and thrift (Armeria maritima). The thrift will be moved further up the hill later. If I can find golden eyed grass, shooting star, taper tip onion, and hairbell, I'll plant them too and probably some type of sedge. 

Meadow plants

The crocosmia are starting to come up in between the raspberries, but something has been eating them. I bought two plants too so I can see what to look for, I was worried that I would accidentally pull them up when I'm weeding out grass shoots. That's my excuse anyway!

Crocosmia

Out of the scope of this project, but I'll mention it anyway: on the shady side of this hill, I planted two bleeding hearts and two mountain huckleberries. These are the native blue huckleberries and native bleeding hearts that some people call invasive, but I hope they will spread a lot. Eventually I want to dig out the weeds that have grown on this half of the hillside and fill it with native shade groundcover plants - under the flowering currant, Oregon grape and hazelnuts. That may be a project for next year, but I couldn't resist a few plants now.

Mountain huckleberry on top, another on bottom and bleeding hearts in the back