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| 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:
