El Big Valley:
Mon: Sunny
High: 77°Low: 46°
Native Columbones!
A visit to the local quarry.
That's enough!
The first path is in!
We widen the driveway by pulling out some more turf. We replace it with pavers and "stepable" wooly thyme. We lay in the wood retaining wall, which acts both as a step and wall for new gravel pathway.
Baby cold hardy bamboo from Bamboo Gardens in Portland.
The plants are growing about 2" a day.
Que built the planter with treated wood and then lined it with gravel and a very thick plastic sheet barrier. This will keep them contained.
Deep shade garden--rows of Coral bells. This particular cultivar has unusual black and white leaves and yes, red coral blooms.
Japanese maples do well here. They seem to the El Big liberal flag. We brought this one in from the big city.
This plant is not deer resistant, but somehow it's survived anyway. I put this in last year when I was pretty clueless about the severity of the deer grazing. Most of the plants in this garden were chosen not only for their cold hardiness and low water needs, but for their deer grazing resistance too.
Deep shade Scot moss and Daylilies from our neighbor Em.
Arts and crafts looking shade groundcover. I lost the tag, so don't remember what it's called. Anyone?
Sweet Woodruff groundcover. Thrives under pines in dry shade.
Sagebrush for the full sun xericape BERM. Once these xeric plants get established, they won't need any supplemental watering.
Wooly thyme! We've planted this inbetween the pavers.
Hens and chickens--cold hardy and drought tolerant succulents!
Lambs ears!
Thyme...One of three varieties in the garden.
Seafoam sagebrush for the front borders.
Salvia -- a drought tolerant ornamental sage planted in mass along the dwarf alpine garden on the parking strip
Que thinks this a Chia pet. He finally admitted that he likes it.
Unusual dry shade plant called Euphorbia. Brilliant chartreuse bloom really lights up the deep shade. Related to succulents.
Returning hostas in the shade garden.
"Thyyyyme is on my side. Yes it is. "
"Thyme after thyme..."
3 comments:
Wow, you've given me inspiration to actually research which types of plants might do best in certain areas of my yard. That's better than my "buy it and see if it dies or thrives" current plan of action. Unfortunately, due to my neighbors unpruned and towering trees, an area that was once mostly full sun is becoming 60% shaded. My honesuckle is no longer happy :-(
Hi ACat!
Do not be discouraged by the dry shade! I have tons of it and have that extra complication of clay soil and grazing deer. You can still plant a lot of stuff. The trick to dry clay shade is amending your soil with crushed lava rock sand or gypsum, and then mulching it to about 3-4"! You can then save lots of money by picking up the mulch in bulk at your local recylcing center. Another good tip I learned from my instructor--Group your plants by their watering needs. You can save lots of water this way.
Poor honeysuckle....It should be easy to move, though. They're pretty indestructable in CAli, as I recall!
Looks fabulous. I raised my eyebrow at the bamboo, until I saw that you had it contained. I like bamboo. Anyway, this is an amazing garden. What a great project.
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