Fall Vase with Peony Seed Pods, Roses, Hydrangea and Clematis Puffs

This year I resisted the urge to deadhead my 'Coral Supreme' peonies and was rewarded with these fuzzy, interesting seed pods to use in fall arrangements.

I also left the seed pods on my 'Duchess of Edinburgh' clematis and they grew into these large, twirly spheres.

It's so much fun to mix classic flowers with unusual garden materials to make arrangements that merit a second look.

'Crocus Rose' English roses are included, as this shrub keeps sending out more flowers that last well in a vase.  It's growing in an unobtrusive spot, so I don't mind cutting off all its blooms on a regular basis.

I added tiny white 'Francine Austin' roses and 'Autumn Bride' heuchera buds for a dainty touch.

Small sprays from my 'Limelight' hydrangea and sprigs of variegated pineapple mint (Mentha suaveolens 'Variegata') round out the arrangement.

Front Yard Spring 2013: Tulips, Phlox and Lots of Green

I finally made it out to the front yard to take some spring photos while the last of the tulips were blooming.  A couple of weeks earlier we had drifts of  'Jap Groot' (soft yellow) and 'Salmon Impression' (soft pink) tulips in bloom, and it looked perky and cheerful.  It has been fun to change to a cool color scheme with late-blooming white 'Maureen' tulips, lavender phlox and lots of spring green.



Here is a shot of the east side of the front.  I'll be happy to get the stakes off the two 'Heartthrob' Korean dogwoods that we planted a year ago, but we've had other trees start to lean so I'm leaving them on a while longer.  I splurged on these large trees and am very happy to see them leafing out nicely this spring.



Here is the little dogwood that was dug up for a couple of weeks along with the fence so the landscapers could access the backyard.  It's doing OK right now, so I've just got to keep its roots moist this summer and I think it'll survive.



This 'Walker's Low' catmint (Nepeta) at the corner of the driveway is always the first one to bloom.  The heat bouncing off the garage wall and the concrete drive speed it up.  The bumblebees love it.



The clumps of 'Emerald Blue' creeping phlox are blooming all around the front.  I'm not sure if I like the blob look, but I'm not sure how else to arrange them.  The 'Eglantyne' english rose on the right of the photo is very lush after getting half a bag of mushroom compost dumped around it a month or two ago.



I planted little clusters of these dwarf blue iris around the yard.  They're cute when you notice them but they don't have a big impact overall.



Here is another view of the west side of the driveway.  Some things are filling in nicely, which helps me be patient with the plants that are still small, which includes every plant in the backyard.




The 'Maureen' tulips are tall and ethereal and lovely.  At first I thought I had planted some double peach 'Menton Exotic' tulips and was disappointed with the white.  Then a few days later I decided it was the better choice.  This shot also shows my 'Abraham Darby' english rose, which should eventually grow to five feet tall.  I'm looking forward to sitting at my computer in the front room and looking out the window to see this big rosebush instead of the street.  It's just got a few more feet to go. 



These photos are actually a week old and the last of the tulips blew apart yesterday.  Too bad, but these ones are supposed to perennialize reasonably well so they should bloom again next spring.




And here is a final view showing the west garden.  The little purple spots are 'Accent Blue' rock cress (Aubrieta), which bloom for a long time each spring.  The 'Kwanzan' cherry tree near the top of the photo got frosted last month and didn't produce any flowers this year.  But it looks otherwise healthy so I won't complain too much.  All in all it's a lovely spring around here.

Wide Views of the Front Garden

The challenge with front gardens is that they're on display before they're finished. Two years after our front yard renovation, the garden is looking much better but is still a work in progress. Really, I tell people, it's going to look Much Better when the trees and shrubs fill in.



The two 'Kwanzan' flowering cherry trees were both dying (grrr) and were replaced this month with two 'Heartthrob' Korean dogwood trees. You can see the one on the east of the driveway in the photo above. You can also see the ugly utility boxes, unfortunately. Hopefully the dogwoods will be able to handle the late spring and early fall frosts that we get here at the bottom of the valley. Speaking of which, it frosted last week (mid-May!) and turned my 'Miss Feya' lilies to brown mush. But that's another story.



After a few years of watching and tweaking, this year that there have been at least a couple of things blooming together in a continual stream of coordinated color ever since the first crocuses flowered in late February. The hyacinths and tulips shown above are done flowering now, but the 'Emerald Cushion Blue' creeping phlox and sky blue dwarf irises are blooming together this week.



There is still a lot of creeping phlox in the front yard, even after sharing big clumps with several friends (in total, 10 friends came to get plant divisions this spring at my invitation). On the left of the photo above, you can see the lone surviving 'Kwanzan' cherry. I'm not sure if this one has survived because it isn't grafted or because it's in a more protected spot.



'Tete a Tete' mini daffodils were the darling of the spring garden this year. Softer yellow 'Jaap Groot' tulips are growing in the background. Both of these bulbs are good perennializers, so hopefully they'll be back for many springs to come.



At this time of year there is still a lot of bare ground showing. It would look better if we'd already spread more bark, but that hasn't happened yet this spring. Soon the daylilies and catmint will spread their leaves wide enough to fill in this view.



If only the 'Blue Star' junipers (one shown above) and 'Otto Luyken' laurels would mature as quickly. It will take a few more years for that. The 'Green Tower' boxwood in the picture above has shed its wan winter coloring and is looking vibrant green again.



One of the things I love about the new dogwoods is the way this one hides the bank of mailboxes when I look out the front window. Since dogwoods grow slowly around here, I splurged to get large trees. Now I'm a bit nervous about keeping them healthy and happy while they establish new roots. Wish me luck.



In this shot you can see the reddish leaves of three 'Eglantyne' roses that were planted close together. They're supposed to make one large bush. I also planted three 'Abraham Darby' roses to grow together in the bed closer to the porch.



Here is a shot of the cherry tree on the southwest corner of the house. The 'Coral Supreme' peony in front of the tree has several large buds for the first time, can't wait to see those blooms. You can see a bit of golden yellow basket of gold and orange tulips peeking through from the west flagstone path bed.



I'll finish with a view of the west bed, which has a bolder color scheme than the front yard. Only some of the tulips came back from last year, but the purple aubrieta and basket of gold keep getting bigger and better each year. You can see that the 'Teasing Georgia' rose on the trellis is actually climbing, finally, hooray.
Even though my eyes constantly pick out the parts of the front that need tweaking or more time to mature, it's fun to see the ways that this landscape has grown over the past two years. And it's nice to be able to share the garden with the neighborhood despite my urge to apologize for its faults. But really, it's just going to be so great in a few more years . . .

Makeover: Cramped Porch to Welcoming Wide Steps

We are about 90% finished with the renovations to the front of our home and landscape, so I'm going ahead and posting some photos. The problem is, the 'before' photo (above) was taken when the plants were pretty and green, while the 'after' photos (below) still show winter landscape. I think you're supposed to do it the other way around, to emphasize how much better the changes look. But I tried to even things out by applying some photoshop trickery to make the 'after' photos look vintage and glowing . . . what do you think?



Here are the steps that Susan Morrison, the landscape designer behind Blue Planet Gardening, kindly suggested for our porch. You can see from the top picture that our small porch used to feel very cramped and dark, but the steps and stone column open it up and better balance the Giant Garage on the other side of our house. You might notice that the pink dogwood tree is no longer on the southwest corner of the porch - after watching it fry for 3 summers, hubby moved it to the east side of the house. I'm crossing my fingers that it survives. We're replacing it with a 'Kwanzan' cherry tree to match the other two trees in the front yard.



So has anyone else found that renovation projects never go quite as planned? It seemed like there was a little problem or two with each part of the project. The new concrete pad isn't quite level (should have asked for references). So the steps couldn't be quite level. The old composite decking was really faded, so the new planks don't match. Don't even get me started on the strange gutter setup - that's going to get changed eventually. We saved siding from the sides of the house when the masons added stone facing there and used it to replace the gingerbread accent siding above the garage. It doesn't quite match, as you can see, but new siding would have been even worse since it wouldn't have been faded at all. Hopefully the summer sun on our southern exposure will even things up over time. Fade, baby, fade!



The photo above nearly screams for plants to cover the bare dirt. Getting the rest of the plants in place will really make things look better. We have new lights and shutters sitting in our garage, but hubby has been too busy with other projects to put them up yet. Lately health problems have been slowing me down in the garden and on the computer (my posts might be sporadic for a while here). So all projects are moving along at a snail's pace.



This last shot shows the west garden with its new flagstone path and stone column. When we moved in, that west side was just a spot for the leftover plants that I didn't want in the front. But right now it's the garden that I'm most excited about, especially since our kitchen window looks out that way. I can't wait to enjoy looking at vividly colored blooms on either side of the flagstone while doing piles of not-so-enjoyable dishes.
Thanks again to Susan for the great steps idea. I hope to post pictures of the 100% finished project eventually . . .

Do Projects Give You Panic Attacks?

You know that stage in a big project when you've torn everything apart and nothing is coming together yet? Do you ever get a sick feeling, deep in the pit of your stomach, thinking that maybe it never will come together? I've felt that occasionally in the past month as we've been working on our front yard. Here's a picture of what it looked like last weekend. We've got the sod out of the new and repositioned beds, so we're ready to have the concrete pad poured for the enlarged steps.



In addition to sod removal, last weekend my husband agreed to haul six cubic yards of premium garden soil that was dumped into our driveway. I took this picture after he was about halfway done with wheel-barrowing (I think I just made that verb up) the soil into beds around our yard.



Here you can see what remains of the lawn. The curves didn't come out exactly as I had imagined them, but the shapes remind me of a bend in a river. I like our little river of lawn. It occurs to me that lawn is rather unattractive during the six months that it's dormant each year in Spokane. That's yet another reason to have less of it, I guess.



Now I still have a long list of projects to coordinate before we're done, including:
removing the old concrete and pouring the enlarged concrete pad,
building the steps,
finishing the top part of the stone column,
removing the cream gingerbread siding and replacing it with siding to match the rest of the house,
getting the sprinklers adjusted to fit the new bed shapes,
having the boulders brought in and positioned,
making flagstone paths across the new beds/on the west side of the house/to the faucet/to the garbage can,
getting the rest of the old curbing out and the new curbing poured,
selecting and hanging shutters,
selecting and installing different exterior sconces,
possibly selecting and installing headers above the windows and garage,
selecting and installing a new front door,
transplanting a few trees,
buying and planting new shrubs, perennials and one new tree.

You see why I'm having little panic attacks? Hopefully we'll be mostly finished by the time the iris start blooming.



And by the time the roses bloom, things should look really nice. Either that or it will be a Big Mess Forever, but I'm trying not to think like that. Deep breaths. I'm completely sure I can do this . . . well, at least mostly sure.

GGW Design Workshop: VW's Front Yard

Last week I wandered over to Gardening Gone Wild’s website and noticed their design workshop for June was on front yards. I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time pondering over design solutions for my own moderately small front yard, some of which have been shared in a previous post. But I decided to revisit these ideas to participate in the GGW workshop. Here are some of my design constraints and current ideas on how to deal with them.


1. My garage is giant and dwarfs the non-garage side of the house. Almost everyone approaches our house from the garage side, which makes it even more obtrusive. Thankfully, blogger and designer Susan suggested a great plan: remove the railings from our cramped front porch and stretch the steps across the entire front of the porch. I also plan to widen the steps and pour a 3’ wide concrete path/strip along the front/bottom of the steps. This will pull the non-garage side forward to better balance the house. The photo below shows the porch as it was when we moved in. By now almost all the original plants have been transplanted or thrown out.


2. Blogger and designer Billy suggested adding a path from sidewalk to porch to honor guests instead of having them walk up the driveway. Although I love the idea, I’m deciding against it because: 1) we have a massive driveway already and I want more plants instead of more hardscaping, 2) we park in the garage, so guests almost always just park in the driveway, 3) I want what remains of the lawn to flow smoothly across the front. So I’ll add stepping stones through the flower beds instead.


3. Speaking of the beds – I’m expanding them all. I’ll have two beds stretched across the front – one along the porch, and another along the sidewalk. The porch bed, slightly bermed and filled with shrubs and perennials, will add a sense of enclosure to the porch area. The sidewalk bed, anchored by a new flowering cherry tree at the west end, will camouflage the neighborhood mailboxes. Someday neighbors will collect their mail under the shade of a lovely tree, surrounded by roses and other blooms, and I won’t notice the mailbox backsides as much from my front window (see above picture). As mentioned before, the lawn between the beds will flow across the front as a pathway to the side and backyard.


4. RE the lawn – I’ve read plenty of anti-lawn rants, and I would be less likely to keep my lawn if I lived in thirsty California or the Southwest. But we have enough water around here to irrigate, thanks to our dreadfully long and snowy winters. My house is part of a neighborhood. Landscape designers often ignore the rest of the neighborhood when designing a front yard, but unity IS a design principle. Having a bit of lawn helps my yard fit into the neighborhood, and I think my river of lawn will be pretty.


5. Invasive aspen trees on the east of our driveway were already sending up babies all around. They were removed this spring and a well-behaved flowering cherry tree planted instead, which balances the matching tree on the other end of the front yard. There isn’t much I can do about the utility boxes and poles clustered there, but plantings around them will help reduce their visual impact.


6. Also on the east side of the house, I plan to remove the rest of the grass, create a stone path for access to the utility meters, and plant the remaining area with shrubs and perennials that echo the rest of the front yard plantings. The 'Blue Angel' hosta above will be part of the design.


7. Nearly every house in our neighborhood has curbing around their beds. It’s less attractive than other edging, but it does make a clean line around the beds and slows the grass down. So I’ll probably have more curbing poured around the enlarged beds. It will match all the concrete in my driveway, LOL. In our harsh winter climate, affordable and durable hardscaping options are limited. Hopefully plain concrete in our driveway and in front of the porch will be OK as long as the plantings surrounding it are beautiful. Will you really notice the curbing much when you're busy looking at gorgeous plants like my 'Walker's Low' nepeta in the above picture?


8. Color is IMPORTANT to me. My design seems to be revolving around my beloved pink English roses (Eglantyne - see above photo), which are really hard to match and which change color from warmer to cooler pink throughout the season. I also decided that I don’t want drifts of white in my yard during the summer. Six months of winter snow are enough, thank you very much (bye-bye candytuft, hello creeping phlox). I’m currently thinking of a light pink-warm peach-cool lavender scheme. Think pink roses and ‘Visions Light Pink’ geranium, plus ‘Apricot Sparkles’ daylilies and peach ‘Scion’ dwarf iris, plus ‘Walker’s Low’ nepeta and ‘Just Because’ Siberian iris (among other plants). I also decided to add some steely-blue foliage in the form of ‘Blue Star’ juniper and blue hostas.


9. Evergreens are essential for the aforementioned six months of winter. I will keep the ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels for their dark glossy leaves (pictured above), though I decided that their flowers are ugly. I’ll also keep ‘Emerald Gaeity’ euonymus around. Though it looks tattered in winter - what doesn't around here? - it's really beautiful right now (see picture below). And I’m excited to add several steely-blue ‘Blue Star’ junipers for more winter interest. I've always loved that shrub and am glad to find a place for it in my design.


10. Outdoor lighting is another project for down the road. Maybe we’ll uplight the trees, or go the easy route with solar-powered lights artfully placed around the beds. We also have plenty of ideas on how to beautify the exterior of the home itself (shutters, paint, etc), but I won’t detail those here.

I’d better stop this long post now. You can see that I’ve been greatly helped by other garden bloggers - thanks everyone! As I mentioned in my other front yard post, it will take many years and quite a budget to carry this all out. But I’m perfectly agreeable to the extended timeline, as it gives me time to continue to evaluate my plans and incorporate new ideas. Take joy in the journey, right?

Added May 28, 2014 - We landscaped the front yard in 2010 and by now it is starting to fill in well.  Below are some photos from today showing the progress.

The catmints are blooming profusely while most everything else is still green.  The rosebushes have buds ready to open soon.  Daylilies will provide color in midsummer after I cut the catmint back, and then in fall the catmint and roses will bloom again along with plenty of autumn crocus and colchicum.

 

This shot is the view looking northwest.  Unfortunately the homes in my neighborhood are very close together, and that is my neighbor's window.  As the trees mature I hope our homes will feel more separated.  The two 'Kwanzan' cherry trees we planted by the street died, though the one by the house (which wasn't grafted, unlike the dead ones) has survived.  It hasn't bloomed much though as our bottom-of-the-valley frosts zap the buds each spring.  I replaced the dead trees with 'Hearththrob' Korean dogwoods.  You can see one on the left.

This is the southeast corner of the garage, where a 'Green Tower' boxwood and a clematis on a trellis block the view of our garbage cans.  I had hoped by now to have a wisteria trained up this corner and growing over the garage, but I killed the 'Blue Moon' wisteria planted here.  I have now adjusted the sprinklers to make sure it gets plenty of water and need to buy another one.

Finally, this is the west side of the front yard.  It is my favorite part of the garden right now, as it has filled in very well and has a cheerful color scheme.  Now we're just waiting for the backyard, which was landscaped last year, to mature a bit more.