Ninebark and Lilacs: Eastside Terrace

 I got some shrubs planted along the lower part of the East-side terrace wall.

I hadn't planned on the ninebark, but those purple leaves just jumped in my cart.

I really like how they echo the purple leaves of the ornamental plum behind the house.

 

Overall plan: ninebark on each end, with lilacs in the middle.

 

Physocarpus opulifolius 'Lady in Red'

5-6 feet tall and wide

zones 3-7

Clusters of small bink blushed single flowers in early summer bloom atop bright red foliage.

 

 

Syringa vulgaris 'Ludwig Spaeth'

10' tall x 8' wide

 

It was the picture of the blooms that got me on this one.

Rather than pale lavender, like many lilacs, these are supposed to be a deep reddish-purple.

Should look good with the ninebark foliage.

 

 

I transplanted this lilac (front) from the slope, where after 4 years it had grown maybe 6 inches.

I guess the "well-drained soil" on that plant tag wasn't just a throw-away line.

Syringa vulgaris 'My Favorite'

Grows 6-12 feet wide and 8-15 feet tall.

 

The lilac in the background is a second Ludwig Spaeth.

 

So here's looking from our backyard out to the street.

I'm hoping these will grow to fill in this terrace and provide a sweet-smelling, lush corridor as you walk down that side of the house.

 

p.s. Can you believe how green that grass is? It is still struggling almost everywhere else, but on this side, just look at it go!

 

Now I have the far end of this terrace to make a final decision on and get planted.

I've talked about doing a billowing perennial garden of whites and pastels.

I have also thought about hot colors.

Or I may just make it my cutting garden.

What I'm Learning From BBC TV

When Erin over at The Impatient Gardener made a YouTube channel with all kinds of gardening shows linked, I decided to just take a look.

I'm addicted already and it's only been a week!

What I like most about it is the practical tips. Like most gardeners, I'm learning by trial and error as I go, and I've read all kinds of books. Sometimes, though, just having a person show me how to do a task while explaining why sinks in and makes so much more sense.

 

So without further ado, what I've learned so far from Monty Don and others on the Gardener's World 2014 series:

 

1. Pruning Roses

 

Winter pruning stimulates growth, therefore prune back the weakest shoots the hardest.  My 'Yellow Topaz' rose in back (pictured) is very vigorous, but an odd shape. I'm looking forward to March for a good pruning!

My 'Watercolors' rose and my burgundy iceberg rose will also get pruned based on this advice.

 

Summer pruning inhibits growth. 

 

2. Growing potatoes

 

potatoes planted last year with the square foot gardening method

 

I've been doing the square foot gardening method where you dig a hole, then fill it in as the plant grows up.  Also, I have cut up the seed potatoes and put 4 or 5 pieces in each hole.

I'm going to try Monty's method this year: chit the potatoes first (put it in a sunny place for the eyes to grow), then plant whole potatoes, small end down, 6 inches deep. One potato per hill. Done.

The closer together, the smaller the potatoes you'll get. I didn't know that.

So I'll plant them 12-18 inches apart.

It sound so much easier than the method I've been doing.

Also, harvest them with a fork rather than a shovel!

So many of them last year were sliced in half with the shovel inadvertently.

 

3. For fruit trees, strength and vigor of the tree make it want to grow upwards, but more fruit forms on the horizontal branches. It makes a lot of sense.  Apparently roses are this way as well.

So, for anything you want fruit/lots of blooms from, or that you're training to a trellis, fan the branches out horizontally or at a 45 degree angle for maximum fruit or flowers.

I just bought a climbing rose for the back flowerbed, so I will definitely keep that in mind.

 

Apple tree behind the shed, the first summer after planting.

It has not blossomed since and now doesn't even get that much sun with the completion of the shed.

 

4. This is more of just a mindset, but if it's not working, take it out or move it.

This is inspiring me to move my lilac bush off the slope. It has maybe grown 6 inches in the last 4 years. Obviously, it is not getting what it needs on the slope. It has never flowered, either.

If the roots look fine, I'll transplant it over to our East side terrace.

Also, the apple tree behind the shed needs to move.

Looking at it with what I know now, almost every branch is vertical, no doubt reaching for the light.

It just gets too much shade back there. No wonder it hasn't blossomed since the first year.

So that will be moved as well, probably to the East side terraces, although I'm toying with the idea of trying espalier on the west side of the house.

 

I would love to add a Japanese maple back there, if there is one that would cope with the clay soil.

 

 

Similarly, the blueberry bushes that have struggled for so long need to go. I either need to move the strawberries away from them, refresh the bed's soil and plant new ones, or just take out the acidic soil, replace it with regular stuff, and make it part of the garden.

 

5. With trees, don't add compost to the hole. Make it wide and fairly shallow. The tree's roots need to spread out into the surrounding soil as quickly as possible, so if it's a lot different than what you've put in the hole, the roots won't want to leave and the tree will be weaker. 

 

6. Repetition is what turns a random collection of plants into a garden.

I've been thinking about my front, top terrace.

 

The top terrace.

Daphne at the bottom front of the picture, with hardy hydrangea, boxwood, snowball bush, and elderberry as you move around towards the top.

 

The other 2 terraces have all kinds of lovely repetition going on.

That one I just plunked down 5 different shrubs and it has always bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Now I know. So I'm going to move the tiny little daphne on the end and plant another boxwood there, to add a little more repetition and continuity.

I'm debating moving the snowball bush as well, but haven't decided on that yet.

 

7. Plants I want to add after watching:

buddleia (butterfly bush): my front flowerbeds are supposed to attract bees/butterflies and I have quite a few plants that do that, but I need a buddleia. I don't have room for one unless something comes out, or I can put some in on the east side terraces.

 

ornamental grasses: I had this thought as I was watching last night--if weedy grass does really well on my back slope, there must be some ornamental grasses that would do well, right? I'm going to do a little research and see what I can find out.

Also, research "clay slope wildflower mix" and see what I can come up with.

The mix I tried a few years ago did absolutely nothing, but then, it had all that weedy grass to compete with.

 

dahlias: I've always avoided these, beautiful as they are, because I didn't want the bother of digging them up every fall, storing them, and replanting in the spring. So the brilliant (ha! see, the lingo is sinking in as well) thing to do is to plant them in pots. Then the whole pot can be put in, or at the very least, they will be easy to dig back up and take care of, as you will be emptying the pot in the fall anyway.

 

 

I was going to start taking notes then I thought--oh yeah, that's why I have a blog. Cracking!

This year I'll be filling in the rest of the east-side terrace, so I'm busy thinking about what I want over there. I also just bought some roses to plant down in front on the west side of the driveway, to begin changing that blank landscape into something worth looking at.

I'm excited to get started on some of these changes!

Only 2 more months to go!

 



Flowerbed Tour: Shade & slope

Shade Garden, May 5:

 

Overview: from the far end down

 

Brunnera leafing out, with a few mini daffodils.

Lady's mantle and heuchera slowly getting bigger.

 I finally ripped out that sickly fern.

This columbine was from a neighbor--they were going to rototill the spot where it was at and offered it to me. I knew columbines could live back here, so I gladly took it!

 

One of the heuchera's from VW Garden. 

 

Heuchera and columbine.

I love that electric pink color back here in the shade.

It lights up the whole bed!

 

Red-twig dogwood, also taking its time to leaf out.

  

Overview: this time from the yard end down.

 

May 23:

 

Overview: everything filling in, including slope grass encroaching!

 

Columbine in bloom.

The one the left must be a doubled form--it hardly looks like a columbine.

I love how the one on the right has 2 different colors of flowers on the same plant.

Pulmonaria ("lungwort") also a gift from the neighbor's.

It settled in very quickly and has already grown new leaves.

You can also see the hosta starting to leaf out.

Heuchera and violas.

Those little violas are from last year's plants.

Awesome!

The lilac bush.

Still no blooms, but it looks healthier this year than it has in the past. 

 

Slope: May 5

 

Tulips along the top of the garden wall.

 

Daffodils between the garden and the aspen.

 

and...May 23:

 

So cheerful. Glad they came back this year.

Flowerbeds and Slope Tour

Start with the slope:

Alliums

When I planted these alliums, I thought they would bloom at the same time as the lupines and provide a nice complement, but the lupines haven't bloomed yet. The lupines are close, though--should be within the next week or two. So I guess it depends on how long these last. They sure are pretty, though.

Incidentally, they are blooming at the same time as the irises, so maybe I need to move some irises up to the slope close by.

The pale purple is pretty, but I LOVE that deeper shade of purple.

Surprise, surprise!

Daffodils, Lupines, & Tulips

I rescued this stem from the patch of daffodils between the garden and the aspen.

They had broken off. Aren't they cute, though?

4 little blossoms on one stem; very fragrant, too.
I'm guessing dog damage, but can't say for sure.

Big bushy lupines

These tulips are providing a nice bit of eye-catching color on the slope.

The pink tulips are HUGE and practically luminescent.

I'm definitely wanting to add more this fall.

Blueberry Bushes

As far as I can tell, this one is dead. :(

No leaves to speak of yet.

These two look pretty good--at least they're putting out some new leaves.

I thought the red on top was new growth, but it is not growing any leaves, so maybe it is dead...?

I'm thinking I may need to get up there with a bleach solution for my shears and snip all those red tips off. Since that's pretty much all there is on the one bush (see above), if they are dead, then that whole bush has to go.

This blueberry is actually looking pretty good, compared with how it ended up the year.

Again, red tips with no leaves. Hmmm...

Behind the Shed

one more stray tulip

Lilac bush showing same leaf issues as the blueberries last year: brown crinkly margins around each leaf. I'm wondering now if it could be due to the clay soil somehow.

I'm also contemplating transplanting this lilac elsewhere.

Back Flowerbed

Finally got the raspberries staked.

Rather than tying individual canes to one post, I put the posts up roughly in 3 rows, with string between them to hold up the canes. I guess it remains to be seen if this helps production or picking. There are lots of blossoms coming, so it should be a decent crop this year.

This job would have been much easier before all the canes leafed out.

Of course, that was right when baby A. came along, so not possible this year, but note to self for next year: early spring is the time to stake--probably right after pruning, in fact.

Irises blooming.

They are super tall--I had forgotten how tall.

Between 3 and 4 feet including the blooms.

You can see them almost all blooming here behind Becca.

This picture was taken about a week later than the first two.

I am determined to get this flowerbed under control this year!

Violas and Lilac, Planted!

 I used almost the whole flat around the first tree.

They looked so lovely I just kept going and going.

 Jason helped me plant the lilac. I asked him to help get it out of the bucket and he noticed the hole I had dug was a bit on the shallow side. So he kindly made it much deeper and a bit wider.

Lilac: "My Favorite French Lilac", or Syringa vulgaris 'My Favorite'

Grows 6-12 feet wide and 8-15 feet tall.

Hardy to -40 F.

Slow growing, but should make a good wind break once it gains some size.

Lavender flowers.

 I ended up with 10 plants, in 3 clumps, around this back apple tree.

I still think they'll be pretty, and they may even last longer this summer as this side gets more shade than the other side.

Since I got them planted this week, we've had a hard frost, light snow, and another hailstorm.

So far they've held up beautifully under all of that.

Violas and Lilac, First Attempt

 Took a trip to a local nursery.

Loved it! I'll be going back...often.

They had a cat named Max that Becca loved.

Bought this whole flat of violas (Sorbet Mix), and a lilac bush (among other things).

Brought them home, did some pooper-scooping on the hill.

Then this came along.

 The third hailstorm of the day.

I decided to try again a different day.