My Favorite Spot, May 19th
My favorite spot in the garden this week has hardly anything flowering in it at all, but the promise is there. The full-sun bed in front of our house was my first gardening attempt. Admittedly, it looked pretty ragged last May. One year later, I’m amazed at the difference.
I’ve added plants and removed plants (hello! sweet woodruff does not like full sun), but everything that remained has doubled, tripled, or quadrupled in size. I’m particularly impressed with the East Friesland sage. I’ve edged the bed by alternating the sage and lamb’s ear. I love the effect so much that I’ve duplicated it on the other side of the sidewalk, in the magnolia bed. The sage was floppy last year, but this season it is standing proud and tall. My burgundy gaillardia has also grown impressively. The dwarf weigela was a little disappointing this spring because it sustained quite a bit of winter kill and, because it blooms on old wood, there were few blossoms.
There are a few blank spots remaining. One particular patch in the bed seems to be deadly. So far, I’ve planted, and killed, delphinium, shasta daisies, butterfly weed (the one that bloomed!), and limerock ruby coreopsis in the L-shaped region of death. (I don’t think the coreopsis was my fault. I also tried it in twice in another bed and it died, twice. That particular variety seems to be sickly.) Two sedum, planted last fall, are struggling to hang on. This year, I’ve filled the blank spots with nasturtium and snapdragons. So far, the annuals seem to be doing okay.
As my oldest and most established bed, I have a feeling that it will be my favorite spot more than once this season. I couldn’t stop photographing the blooms last year!
I’ve added plants and removed plants (hello! sweet woodruff does not like full sun), but everything that remained has doubled, tripled, or quadrupled in size. I’m particularly impressed with the East Friesland sage. I’ve edged the bed by alternating the sage and lamb’s ear. I love the effect so much that I’ve duplicated it on the other side of the sidewalk, in the magnolia bed. The sage was floppy last year, but this season it is standing proud and tall. My burgundy gaillardia has also grown impressively. The dwarf weigela was a little disappointing this spring because it sustained quite a bit of winter kill and, because it blooms on old wood, there were few blossoms.
There are a few blank spots remaining. One particular patch in the bed seems to be deadly. So far, I’ve planted, and killed, delphinium, shasta daisies, butterfly weed (the one that bloomed!), and limerock ruby coreopsis in the L-shaped region of death. (I don’t think the coreopsis was my fault. I also tried it in twice in another bed and it died, twice. That particular variety seems to be sickly.) Two sedum, planted last fall, are struggling to hang on. This year, I’ve filled the blank spots with nasturtium and snapdragons. So far, the annuals seem to be doing okay.
As my oldest and most established bed, I have a feeling that it will be my favorite spot more than once this season. I couldn’t stop photographing the blooms last year!
posted by Kasmira at 19.5.06
4 Comments:
That has filled in beautifully. I like the silver along the edge. I thought it was lychnis coronaria at first. Can't wait to see it in bloom.
NIce. I think i still like that moss/rock combo th ebest though. It looks great in this picture
It's amazing how quickly things fill in, isn't it? I was just comparing photos of one of my beds. It's now fuller than it was last year at the end of July.
Limerock ruby is not a hardy plant. I was delighted they said it would go to zone five, but that was a lie. I wonder if it's even hardy in zone six.
Treat it as an annual!
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