The summer of my discontent...

Summer is not my season. Let me just get that out in the open right now. My eyes don't like the harsh summer sun. The brown, sear grass and other crispy plants depress me. Heat waves usually throw me into a panic as I rush to water all the new plants, areas where the Douglas firs suck up every last drop of water, and anything the moles have undermined in their digging. My allergies often leave me in a fog. I dream of the day when all the trees I've planted cast shade over most of the garden. 

Summer and winter are the seasons where I spend much time evaluating and planning changes to the garden. This summer, I've become completely fed up with the "temporary filler" plants I used in parts of the garden to take up space and supposedly suppress weeds while the trees, shrubs, and other more permanent plants grew. Unfortunately, some of those fillers have really taken over, particularly the yarrow and Collomia grandiflora. While beautiful at their peak, the Collomia begins to turn into a mass of brown by the end of June, having prevented summer-blooming annuals from germinating and taking over after the Collomia fades, and the yarrow grows over 4 feet tall, flopping out into paths and suffocating those young plants that will eventually take over from the temporary fillers, making them thin and scraggly. The fillers seem to hide almost as many weeds as they prevent, and make it difficult to weed. The garden became a frightful weedy mess that my father and I have been attempting to get under control this summer. That particular experiment of mine didn't work out so well, and I'm attempting to clean up after it now. I've been busy combing through plant descriptions, and I now have extensive lists of plants, largely low shrubs and evergreen perennials, to make over those problem areas.

I'll cover those areas more in the next post. I had so much to show that I had to split it in two. This post will largely cover the more mesic areas of the garden. For the most part, these areas are looking much better, not having those temporary fillers that have become such a problem elsewhere. There are holes here and there, but mostly things just need to continue filling in. 

The driveway island is looking very good, being one of the most mature parts of the garden. I've watered this bed a couple times this summer. It's not especially thirsty. It needs a little work here and there. The lime thyme needs cutting back, as it runs rough-shod over less-vigorous plants. The Blackbird euphorbias aren't doing as well this year. I may have just timed cutting them back wrong this year and they're sulking because of that, but they also have terrible root bases which I didn't really notice until several flopped over this winter. No doubt that tangled, congested root base is causing problems. I don't know if I'll replace them with the same, or try yet again to find an evergreen with burgundy foliage to echo the maple in the center. I think I want to find a dark burgundy Sempervivum to fill in a few holes around the edge (obviously not on the side photographed below, which has no holes).

The bed along the front of the house is still a work in progress. The shrubs I planted last year have yet to fill in, and I removed several sedges and other plants which were growing too lushly and died out a lot during the winter, leaving big holes.

Some of that space has been filled with zinnias I'm growing for my brother's wedding. Fingers crossed this heat brings on lots of blooms in two weeks... I think I might need more than crossed fingers.

An unexpected combination. I planted one of the abelias next to a Bertram Anderson sedum and the sedum grew up through the abelia. I like it, and the abelia covers the hole left in winter by the deciduous sedum. I doubt it will continue to work as the abelia grows taller.

On the other side of the steps, the much more xeric planting is looking good. I'm actually quite happy with this bed now. It just has a few holes to fill in, particularly along the edge. I'm not sure what I'm going to use there. The Alyssum spinosum and Origanum dictamnus along the edge proved touchy, with only a few surviving the combination of winter wet and scorching summer heat. This bed is very difficult to water, sloped as it is. Sempervivums shrivel and look awful in summer, so those won't work as edging here. A patch of lime thyme at the far end is actually well-behaved, unlike the unstoppable waves of it that grow in the driveway island, so I may be planting more of that along the edge.

The largest open area along the ramp. This will mostly fill in as the abelia and hesperaloes grow, but I plan to fill in with more Euphorbia rigida in the meantime.

Across the driveway, the Hakonechloa bed is looking pretty good, although closer inspection does reveal a lot of weeds.

I'm pretty happy with the way this bed is shaping up.

The hakonechloa is a bit scorched from too much sun, but it looks much better than last year. I expect it to continue improving as it gets more established and the Japanese maple and other large shrubs/small trees grow to provide more shade in this bed.

One end of this area is still looking pretty rough, though. This side is drier and I had more trouble figuring out what to do. This spring, I added several Mahonia nervosa and a few other plants that I think will do well here, but they will take time to fill in.

I had a windfall a couple months ago in the form of a free bamboo which turned out to be Chusquea gigantea. I had been told the Phyllostachys viridis 'Robert Young' I had planted behind the area shown above would likely never make an effective screen in this climate, and I decided I wanted to give it a bit more sun anyway, so I moved the Phyllostachys and put the Chusquea in its place, divided into two pieces.

The Chusquea is starting out much, much smaller than the Phyllostachys was, but it's a very vigorous, fast clumping bamboo, forming more of a grove than a clump. I have shade cloth over it for this first summer because they don't like to be divided, and the shade cloth will reduce stress on this cool-loving bamboo while it gets established. The Chusquea should create a much more effective screen and fill the space relatively quickly once it gets established, though at a measured pace rather than in leaps and bounds as a running bamboo would. Sorry for the blurry photo. Evidently I forgot to switch back to automatic focus.

The Phyllostachys was relocated to this bed next to the driveway, which gets a bit more sun than its former location and might benefit from the heat from the driveway, though it's on the far side of the bed from the driveway, where it won't get flooded in winter. I was a little surprised when I dug it up that it had sent out rhizomes about two feet from the original clump I was given in the first year. That isn't much for a Phyllostachys, but it was more than I was expecting in the first year from what is supposedly a glacially slow bamboo in the PNW. It had me wondering if I could have left it where it was; that it might have provided the desired screen after all. Too late now! (Well, not really. Things can always be moved again.) In regards to this bed, it's sort of in limbo. I don't really plan on doing anything with it, but I'm also not happy with it as it is. What I would like best is to dig the whole thing out, extending it to the two beds nearby, and turn it into a rain garden to capture some of the massive amounts of water that run across the driveway in winter. But I'm not taking on a project that big unless the powers that be decide they want it. And if that happens, I'll have to figure out another home for the bamboo.

More bamboo additions in the form of a Sasa veitchii I hacked into pieces to plant around the Magnolia stellata. The hope is that it will fill in this whole circle, being a simple, green, weed-blocking cover in summer and providing winter interest with the bleaches leaf edges it develops in that season. As one of the shadiest spots in the garden, the potted Lapageria rosea is also spending summer under the magnolia, though it will have to move when I plant a Clematis cirrhosa 'Lansdowne Gem' there to provide more winter interest. Hopefully the bamboo and clematis don't require too much water once established, as the magnolia needed no summer irrigation and I don't want to add to the burden of watering.

In another bed, the Sasa hayatae is finally growing really thick and lush after several years of picking up steam. It's also starting to spread in earnest now.

It will make a nice weed-suppressing cover under the Fargesia nitida I moved to this bed last year, with bleached leaf edges like the larger Sasa vietchii. Problems may arise when it spreads to where the Adiantum venustum and Primula veris are, but that's some years off yet. As you can see, this bed has been freshly weeded and needs some mulch.

Bizarrely, I added hostas to the garden this year. I had resisted adding more than my couple of varieties for so long, but I had been weakening for some time to the allure of those thick, blue leaves in summer and a trip to Sebright earlier this summer found me selecting a couple new additions. Below is 'Mystic Star'.

And 'Touch of Class'.

I have two Clethra barbinervis. The one I purchased at Windcliff blooms a week or so earlier than the one I got from a friend.

It's covered in fragrant blooms and bees.

The Fargesia sp. Scabrida I got in trade as a small division last summer has been sending up a few small shoots. Now it has three that are at least as big as the largest culms in the original division, if not slightly bigger. So excited! I am very happy with all my bamboos.

Freshly weeded, the new palm bed is looking good for being newly planted this spring.

A preview of one of the vignettes I hope for as this bed matures: Stachyurus salicifolius backed by a Trachycarpus fortunei 'Wagnerianus', with Disanthus cercidifolius 'Eno Nishiki' just visible in the background.

This patch of Blechnum penna-marina was almost completely obscured by rampant wild strawberries and a bit of clover that would have been even worse if I hadn't gotten fed up with the strawberries and decided to reclaim the Blechnum. Now the fern can fill in and become a wonderful textural carpet.

I have a lot of plants that are under observation, to see how they will perform. One I've been pleased with so far is Veronica 'Christy'. The three patches are still small, having been planted last summer and crisping up a bit afterwards, but they've been spreading steadily this spring and summer, into attractive, dense, somewhat ferny mats. Thick and dense enough to suppress weeds, nothing loose or lanky about them.

They're also reblooming lightly after a heavier bloom in spring. Supposedly, this sporadic rebloom will continue into fall.

I love the texture of the foliage. Descriptions vary on whether this plant is evergreen, semi-evergreen, or deciduous. In my garden this past winter, it was mostly deciduous. I'm hoping that was because it was young and stressed going into winter. We'll see how it performs this winter now that it's established.

Lots of things are working well in the Acer griseum bed and the areas surrounding it, though there's much that needs work, as well. One of my favorite combinations is still the variegated foliage of Golden Shadows pagoda dogwood with this silver Pulmonaria. The Alchemilla alpina in front adds a bit of restful, simple green with just the barest echo of the silver Pulmonaria along the edge of each leaf. It's a pity this combination is largely deciduous, with the lungwort being the closest to evergreen among them. I had particularly hoped the Alchemilla was evergreen, as some references describe it. Why do so many descriptions fail to mention if perennials are evergreen or deciduous? They frequently simply say "herbaceous," but herbaceous simply means non-woody. They can still be evergreen or deciduous. It's like writers don't think that little detail is important.

As you can see, I ended up with an extensive ground cover of deciduous Alchemilla alpina. I'm working on adding evergreen plants to this area.

The Acer griseum bed has been a source of much enjoyment for me, this year. There's just so much I'm happy with right now, even if it is riddled with weeds.

Corylus 'Red Dragon' hasn't been all that red this summer, except for the new growth. That may be due to it still getting established in the loose soil of this bed, and thus being just a bit stressed in this summer heat. Red pigments often break down in heat. The contorted growth of course is still wonderful, and the new growth adds touches of color that match the flowers of Calceolaria arachnoidea, both contrasting with the bright needles of Juniperus conferta 'All Gold'. I like the mellower color and looser form this ground-covering juniper has in more shaded, rich conditions, as is the case here. Hopefully the conditions don't prove too rich and it grows too rank and vigorous.

The Azorella trifurcata (I think that's the current accepted name, but this one is a bit of a taxonomic mess) is spreading out over the rocks and looking amazing with the Rhododendron impeditum and Calceolaria arachnoidea. I am in love with this funny little ground cover from Chile with leaves that feel like plastic. It's proven quite easy to take chunks off and plant them elsewhere, too, during the rainy season.

 More Azorella and a bit of foolhardiness on my part, planting my Fascicularia in the ground. We'll see if I'm brave enough to leave it there this winter, or if I dig it up and shove it back into a pot in the greenhouse.

Acer griseum, playing center stage in this bed, peeling beautifully.

On the sunnier side of the Acer griseum bed, things are a bit messy. I've been gradually removing the Erythranthe (Mimulus) cardinallis as the more tidy hebes and perennials fill in. There's still some left to take out. I still need something evergreen to cover the soil in this area and prevent more seeds germinating, as there is an extensive seed bank in this soil, both of the monkey flower and other, less attractive weeds. I've been considering taking chunks of either Acaena inermis 'Purpurea' or Acaena 'Blue Haze' and planting them here for that purpose, though I worry a bit that, while fairly well-behaved thus far in other areas, they might be too rampant in this raised bed of very loose soil, mostly sand and compost. I might need something less vigorous, but still evergreen.

Something that won't swamp the perennials, like this Agapanthus, which is probably open as I write this on Sunday afternoon, having taken the photo that morning.

Veronica ochracea 'James Stirling' with Veronica pimeleoides 'Quicksilver' and Calceolaria 'Kentish Hero'. I must remember to take cuttings of that Calceolaria this fall in case of a cold winter. It's borderline in zone 8b, and I'm 8a. This plant did survive last winter, with a low of 18F. No guarantees of such a mild winter this year.

In the big leaf valley, next to the Acer griseum bed, the Stewartia pseudocamellia (Koreana Group) I planted in spring is a bit toasty after the last heat wave. I am watering it heavily, but it really would prefer a more humid atmosphere. It will handle the heat better as it gets established.

Blechnum chilense is really taking off this summer. This is the smaller of two clumps in this bed. Both are starting to run, with new leaves coming up almost a foot from the original clumps. They are loving the water I've poured on this bed this year.

So far, I haven't shown anything really bad, just areas that need a little tweaking. I always have trouble deciding what to show in this enormous garden. In the next post, I'll cover those areas that need more serious intervention. The area below, which is next to the Acer griseum bed, where it transitions into the summer dry area, shows some of what I'm talking about. A mess of yarrow fills most of the area under and around the Heptacodium miconioides. I've started to dig it out and plant low evergreen shrubs and other plants in its place.