The year of (fill in the blank)

2018 was the year of the wood chip mulch, with a giant pile arriving in late February and an even larger pile in late September. The neighbors probably think we're nuts, especially since most of it disappeared to the back yard. The last pile was over 100 wheelbarrow loads.

2018 was the year of watering, with an unusually dry May and June leading into our typically dry July and August. It seemed like everything needed extra water: the native bushes and trees at the bottom of the yard, planted in 2016, bushes and trees all around the upper yard (woodland border, north fence and winter garden) planted in 2017, and the brand new plants on the front slope.

2018 was the year of structural changes, with the lower railroad tie retaining wall replaced by rock and the upper wall replaced by a new front slope. We had to haul in more dirt to go above the rock wall, and of course wood chip mulch in both areas. More than a few plants were added too.

New front slope, late January

What will 2019 be the year of?

Erratic weather is a good guess since we now have 4 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures well below normal, after all of January felt more like March.

Ceramic fish don't mind the snow

Less watering, I hope. I think the bushes and trees planted in 2016 are doing well enough that I can water them a lot less. The wood chip mulch helps too. But of course I'm already planning to plant more...

Better screening along the north fence line. This is where a lot of the last batch of wood chips went. I'm putting in Pacific wax myrtle (myrica californica), tall Oregon grape (mahonia aquifolium), smooth sumac (rhus glabra), garrya elliptica if I can find it, oak leaf hydrangea, and thinking about smaller plants to mix in. I have some of the plants already, sitting in half dug holes with the pots covered by mulch, just waiting until we're past this cold spell to finish planting.

Not my favorite view, yet

More solid pathways all around the yard. Some areas need some stepping stones to keep the grass from turning to mud, other areas may just need more defined paths through the mulch. And I definitely need to make more stained glass stepping stones. Playing with concrete and glass is fun.

This path to the woodland border is turning to mud

And of course the weeding, pruning, and pest control that's needed to keep everything growing the way I want it to. The wood chip mulch helps enormously with the weeding, but the slugs and small pests (rabbits or squirrels?) are out already. More yard work keeps coming, but of course you realize by now that it's never supposed to end, and it gets me out of the house every day!

Wintersweet, chimonanthus praecox

New retaining wall update

I haven't mentioned the new retaining wall since this post in May, so I have some catching up to do. The first batch of planting was done in May, which was the start of the dry months, but the area was watered by the sprinkler that I had set up to water the lawn above and below the wall. I think that helped over the dry summer, although almost everything I'm planting here is drought tolerant.

Some type of bees moved into the rocks on the south end early in the summer so then I couldn't do any weeding or planting on that side until they died in December. They were living in the rocks or ground between them, but I'm certain they were the same black and yellow striped bees that were all over my flowers. I can't find any info online about bees that are pollinators that live in the ground, so that's a mystery.

Looking north, March, April, May and December

Planted on top of the rock wall:

• Arctostaphylos x media 'Port Angeles'
• Hebe pimeleoides 'Quick Silver'
• Sedum divergens
• Sedum rupestre 'Angelina'
• Helianthemum 'Wisley Pink'
• Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow'
• Hebe odora 'Patty's Purple'

These will all stay short and spread, except the arctostaphylos could grow to 3 feet tall.

Looking south

There is a larger planting area on the south end, which I have filled with:

• Ceanothus thyrsifolia 'Victoria'
• Gladiolus purple bulbs
• Liatris spicata 'Floristan Violet' bulbs
• Achillea millefolium 'Desert Eve Red'
• Pinus contorta var. latifolia 'Chief Joseph'
• Hibiscus syriacus 'Helene'
• Artichoke, Purple of Romanga - grown from seed
• Lewisia - transplanted from below, may not survive

The liatris was lovely this summer, I don't know why I've never grown it before. And the Chief Joseph shore pine glows in the winter gloom. It remains to be seen if the Hibiscus will thrive, it may need more water than I'm willing to give it. 

Chief Joseph shore pine, artichokes, ceanothus and hebe

In between the walls, I wanted plants that will creep over the concrete wall but also some that will be visible from above. 

I planted rosemary in the early summer and then the rest late in the fall (after the bees died!):

• Prostrate rosemary
• Yarrow - a volunteer
• Linaria purpurea 'Purple Toadflax'
• Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly'
• Xerophyllum tenax, Bear Grass - grown from seed
• Crocosmia - various bulbs transplanted from below
• Helianthum 'Henfield Brilliant' and 'Wisley Primrose' - transplanted from below

The crocosmia and helianthum are on the north end, for a red/orange/yellow theme, and I'm looking at kniphofia and zauschneria to add in the spring. The south end is more purple/pink and I've been eyeing a pink blooming zauschneria and phlomis tuberosa or phlomis cashmeriana. Then perhaps some white blooming groundcover cistus in between the rosemary, if there is any room left. 

Looking north

Rosemary is creeping over the wall already

Looking south, March, April, May and December

Below the ramp on the north end:

• Ceanothus gloriosus 'Point Reyes' 
• Lewisia - transplanted from below, may not survive
• Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' 
• Lessingia filaginifolia 'Silver Carpet'
• Allium azureum bulbs
• Iris reticulata 'Pixie' bulbs
• Muscari neglectum bulbs
• Humilis 'Alba Coerulea Oculata' - tulip bulbs

The bulbs were just planted in October and I've already forgotten exactly where I put them. I think the irises are starting to come up now though. I have a cistus bush ready to plant above the rocks in the spring, and ordered some west coast native flower seeds (more California than Washington) to plant below the rocks.

North end, below the ramp

Looking south from above, March, April, May and December

The lawn on the top was seeded with PT 770 Water Less Eco-Lawn Mix from ProTime Lawn Seed in Portland. The yarrow was most abundant over the summer, now the clover and grasses are filling in more. I think it'll be a good mix, now have to do a little more overseeding on the ends where we didn't dig up all of the existing grass.

June 8

June 23

I've mentioned a few more plants for spring, but mostly I'll just be waiting for everything to grow in! I'll end with a couple more comparison shots, I really like how the back yard is so much more open now.

Looking east from the north end, March and December

A much different feel for the back yard!

New rock retaining wall

Back in April, we had contractors take out two rotting railroad tie walls, one in the front yard and the other across the back slope. In the front yard, we had them regrade the slope, and the shape of the new front hillside is so much nicer without a wall.

In the back, a retaining wall is necessary so we had the railroad ties replaced with a rock wall, leaving in place a lower concrete wall. Here's what we started with:

Looking north

Steps, looking south

Looking south from above

In less than a day (and pouring rain at the end), we had a new rock wall!

Looking north

Looking south, where the steps were

I really love the rock wall, but we had two problems to deal with. There used to be steps on the north side, and I wanted that replaced with a ramp, but I wasn't paying enough attention to where they placed the rocks (working from home and supervising contractors doesn't always mix well). The ramp ended up going down the slope, which is way too steep, instead of across.

We thought it would be pretty easy to move that middle rock. Well, it took pry bars and a car jack, but we did it with no serious injuries!

The rock in the middle needed to go

Finally got the rock moved from the middle to the left side

The second difficulty was that the rock wall is taller than the railroad ties so needed more material to fill in behind it. I had them scrape fill from the hillside above it, but that left too much of a drop off in the slope.

Drop off along the edge of the grass

We decided to dig up the remaining grass in the middle so there wouldn't be a difference on the slope, but did leave some grass on the sides. Then, we hauled in about 4 yards of topsoil to fill it all in evenly. The grass on the sides is mowed very short and covered with a thin layer of topsoil, we're basically overseeding it.
Now I'm ready to plant a mix of grass, clover and yarrow, just waiting for the weather to cool down!

Looking north

Looking south from above

The area below the retaining walls is also ready to re-seed, with an eco turf mix that also contains flowers. We didn't do as much prep work, just hauled in about a yard of topsoil to fill in the biggest ruts. This was heavily compacted by the excavator because all of the wall work was done from below. It may take some time to recover, but it's not a priority right now, we'll see how well re-seeding works. 

Looking south

You may notice the plants lined up along the top of the wall too, I'm planning a drought tolerant border there. More to follow once I actually plant!