Last Sunday I decided I had to get more plants in the ground - it was the middle of August and winter is approaching fast. To the right of the front door stairs, I have been keeping several roses and other perennials that I potted up until I was ready to plant them. Made for pretty flowers by the steps, and kept them all together to make for easy watering.
Unfortunately I didn't take a before picture, but it wasn't pretty with a bunch of pots, one planted hosta, and a bunch of tall grass and weeds in between. I moved all the plants to under a tree and removed all the sod from the area, then planted, placed landscape timbers and landscape fabric, then hauled pea gravel. Pretty funny that I had to haul the gravel since it was only about 15 feet away, but I certainly wasn't slinging it at the plants.
Obviously that picture was before I moved gravel. Don't know why I don't have a picture with the gravel from this angle. Anyway, in the front (L-R) creeping phlox (2 different batches), hosta (planted when I did the planting by the lilies in front), Coneflower.
Behind (L-R) Easter Basket Rose, Gertrude Jekyll rose. Way back right (you'll see in next picture) is Gay Feather (aka Blazing Star - a native plant) that a former neighbor gave to me.
Once I was done, I still had lots of plants left - roses, Rudbekia, holly and a couple of male winterberries. And, that doesn't count what I still have in the raised bed I have been using as a holding garden (female winterberries, named day lilies, redbuds etc.).
The 2 yards of pea gravel was too big a pile to be covered completely by the 25' tarp (top and bottom), and I had to use another piece of plastic on the downhill side to keep it dry. I certainly don't have that problem now!
The hosta/Rudbekia combination is dynamite! Lovely work, as always, Sweetheart. Now you get to figure out what to do with your leftovers - not a bad problem to have.
I'm very happy that I got the new bushes into the ground as early in the season as I did. There are a lot more plants that I would like to have transplanted; but, we are 8-10 inches ahead for the year, in rain. Our clay doesn't dig too well when it is wet. It is either too wet or too hot (or I am too lazy!)
Posted by: Cop Car | August 24, 2015 at 09:44 AM
Wet clay is horrible to dig in - that is what I had at the other house (the clay part, sometimes wet, sometimes not). I am fortunate that I don't have much clay, although a lot of the areas are wet much of the time.
We are way behind on rain. I have had to water most of the new plants 4-5 times a week. I've even had to water the no-mow zone a couple of times. In the last 3 weeks, I have gotten rain once - for about 1-1/2 hours.
Posted by: bogie | September 06, 2015 at 09:13 PM
Good grief! I didn't realize how behind you are on rain. All of that watering gets old fast!
Posted by: Cop Car | September 06, 2015 at 09:27 PM