Anyway-- so many areas to plan, and plant (and pay for.) Must take on one at a time. The areas in my 60X90 foot yard all suddenly have names-- Kit Island, Hemlock Hillock, the Rock Wall, and the Garage Bed which totally needs a better name. Let's focus today on Garage Bed, which is on the West side of the garage wall, currently about 8x20 although it is meant to get bigger, to pretty much fill the grassy area in the picture. There is presently a Dancing Peacocks Japanese Maple, a big fat peony, a Peach Drift Rose, a lone bearded iris that miraculously sustained itself in its original plastic pot for something like 3 years, four inches of topsoil over paper and a whole lot o' mulch. At the moment this is pretty much full sun. Brian's plan calls for a Dragonlady Holly which I will probably do, but not right now because the answer to "How much have you spent?" would be "Way too."
It looks like this:
Not too thrilling as is. I am thinking shrubby and beautiful because I have to watch how much work I make for myself with perennials, at least until some things get established. I need to sit with my books and my graph paper and Brian's plan and craft something. Ideas most welcome.
For fun, here's the rock wall which the guys finished last weekend. Isn't it dear? I planted Sedum Vera Jameson and Dragon's Blood along the top, along with some aurinia I got on sale at Lowe's ($1 each), some lantana, moss rose, and lamium. Is it lamium? Silver annual. Brain fart. Maybe I should throw in all those self-seeding thunbergia going wild on the AC trellis. In particular I need some fabulous specimen for the 3x3 spot where it ends on the left (not shown!) which is filled with expensive imported Garden Soil and ready for something totally awesome. Which I have not been able to figure out. Anybody?
I love that wall... in fact I absolutely need one just like it. Low, unobtrusive, but so structurally right!
ReplyDeleteIn the Garden Soil Spot of Excellence on the left (it looks like full sun) for very big and wide, I love a doublefile viburnum, spectacular in form, in flower and in fall color. And berries too. 3x3 might not be big enough tho -- can you extend it?
For a smaller shrubbier look, Ogon spirea, also great for form, brief flowering in earliest spring, and wonderful fall color that lasts into December. It has fine foliage that waves in the breeze.
For a dense elegant evergreen, fernspray (Hinoki) cypress, with beautiful foliage fans and you can get gold or green cultivars. The deer ate mine, so I don't have one.
A tree? A small tree to anchor the end and add a little shade to dapple the wall and offer some vertical oomph when seen with the garage wall as backdrop ? My favorites are sourwood / Oxydendrum (talk about spectacular flowers and fall color, and the delicate white flowers stay on thru fall making a great contrast with the fiery foliage). Or a fringe tree / Chinanthus virginicus or a dogwood or a parrotia.
I could go on . . . how exciting to have so much new space to plant. You will never regret the costs, even the ones you can't afford!