2013 Summer Landscape Projects - Laying the ground work for 2014 summer projects.

Last May we visited Heronswood and came home with tons of ideas for changing our back yard.  We had talked about changing the back border beforehand, but our garden visit inspired us and we drug out the garden hose and started making plans.


We had with a nice, but straight back border garden with a steady incline from one corner to the other.  It was something of a grassy ramp that we were used to, but really couldn't use without someone falling off their chair.




We decided to raise several beds and make them wider and maybe create a few level areas here and there.  As usual, we planned to do the work ourselves, but the project was so big that we decided to split the project into 6 phases that would span 2 years.






Phase 1 - Zen Frog Shade Garden

First we did the Zen Frog Shade Garden. This bed was part of the back border and really needed to be expanded so we could add some rare plants that needed deep shade and hide the utility area next to the shed at the same time. We put up a temporary retaining wall with cinder blocks, raised the top level of the new bed up by 3 feet and added 5 yards of soil.









This photo shows the space before the new expanded shade bed last summer.  The slope to the shed was pretty steep and made it hard to use the area the way we wanted to.  We really wanted a landing at the shed to store fire wood and our garden carts. 

The border bed angled downward steeply, was  only 2 feet wide and had compacted, horrible soil.





This photo shows the expanded shade bed with the temporary wall.  We raised the bed to the same level as the soil at the fence.  We hauled in 5 yards of soil by hand, reset the original plants and added several more I had collected along the way.

The plan was to switch to a permanent retaining wall once we decide exactly how we wanted this new area to look and flow.








The new bed creates a little screening between the new work landing by the shed and the yard, not that people hang out up there very much. 

The trees and ferns will grow in over time and screen out most of the shed in the summer time.






Phase 2 - Shrub Island

Shrub island is a collection of shrubby plants that we had collected and realized they were not getting enough sun.  There was a great sunny spot in the back yard, but it was also right in the middle of the hounds raceway.


So we assembled all the pots, grouped them into an oval and watched the hounds.  After a little shifting around, we found an arrangement that gave the plants the sun they needed and created a large island that the hounds could use as a high speed running lap.

After we were sure the hounds were happy with the placement and the plants were happy as well, we dug up the space and set the plants.



This island formed the anchor point for a tree archway that we are forming between the Island and the Peninsula bed.

Phase 3 - Level the yard dips

Along with the hill side we had some unfortunate dips in the yard that made things a little surprising for mowing or moving things around on a cart.



So we took the extra soil and filled in the dips.  Then we added grass seed, water and watched it grow in.








We immediately wondered why we didn't do this 10 years ago.  Such a small change and what a big difference.










Phase 4 - Peninsula bed

Have you ever had an area that was just find as it was but you wanted to do something a little different with the whole area?

Well this is one of those spots.  This bed looked great and we loved the colors, but we were developing an area that was kind of a little Grotto and it needed a wrap around bed to complete the feel.

So we started roughing out the new bed, added an obnoxious garden hose to outline the border and started moving in soil.  We built up the concept idea of the wrap around peninsula and moved in pots of plants to test drive plant layouts.  

It would take a full year for this concept to develop into the design we are finishing off in 2014. Nope, not all garden design ideas are completed on paper.  In our garden the design is rouged out on paper, but never really complete until we are well into the project.

Phase 5 - Tree Island

By now  you've probably realized that we are not very creative in naming our planting beds.  We found we needed to name them so we could talk about each area and not get confused, and this one got the name Tree Island because it had our beautiful Chinese Paperbark Maple.  It really deserved a special spot and we love where we put it.






This is one of those spots where we had so many conflicting ideas for the area that we finally just piled up dirt and set the tree and plants.


Surprisingly, this one time it worked out perfectly and we left it as it is.


















Phase 6 - The Grotto
This is the area that sits inside the Peninsula Bed and this is where we ran into trouble deciding exactly how we wanted this seating area to look.  We went back and forth on the seating area, levels and stone work. All the ideas sounded great and nothing really stood out as 'the right one', so we let the ideas sit for the winter and we decided to revisit this design in 2014.

The 2014 Northwest Flower and Garden Show

Yay! It's February and time for the annual NW Garden Show!  OK, so it's a little early for spring, but the show is the perfect 'fix' for those that are winter weary.  As for us, well, this year has been really light and not a bad winter at all.  We headed to Seattle this morning with a clear sunny sky and a great day in front of us.

There were about 25 demonstration gardens for us to look at. This year's theme was Art in the Garden (I think).


Glass Houses. . . 


I was fascinated with the glass sarracenia (pitcher plants) display garden. 


















This one really was our favorite - the glass looks like super-sized pitcher plants.

Sooooo many great ideas

Wouldn't this look great in a koi pond?  (especially my koi pond)



Asian Style Gates

This garden was a happy surprise.  We've been talking about adding this kind of gate to our garden entry, but hadn't found a good example in the scale similar to our yard.  This is exactly what we were looking for.




The back fence was also really beautiful and gave us some additional ideas.











And then there are the cool conifers.  I've started getting into conifers lately (not literally, because they are pokey), so I find myself fascinated by all the new colors and textures tht are available.  This display had a little bit of everything.

 

Another display had a red gate with a slightly different approach to the same gate style. 













Ever wonder what to do with that dead tree you have laying aound?  How about adding a splash of blue, white and purple paint? 

Who'd have thought you'd find that in a garden.  Can't say its a bad idea, just one I would not have thought of on my own.











Well this is a cool idea for plant markers. 

I have rocks all over the place and these labels are really easy to read - talk about creating an 'organic' look using an inorganic material (that would be a rock for those that don't remember science class)

 

Hmmmm, this was an interesting display - lots of stumps and rocks of assorted sizes.























We thought this one was alot of fun.  It was an interesting collection of glass, stone and metal. 


Though I'd love to have some of this artwork, the large metal sculpture is a little too big to fit in the yard - and I'm not going to fire up a torch and do this kind of project right now.

The glass plants were very cool.  They looked like Dr Seuss plants, which are always very appealing to us, especially the green horn shaped ones.

I also really like the way they did the glass bamboo.  I've looked at those for a couple years now and at some point I'll break down and start collecting them slowly.































We loved these (the artist is Kevin Russell) and I'd really like to have one or two.  Doesn't everyone need a few neon jellyfish??

The sky-bridge had some mini-gardens displayed.  I liked these glass vases.  I just saw some empty ones the other day and wasn't sure what one would do with them.  Thinking these may make really nice gifts in the future.  They look pretty easy to make.

This is the sort of thing I should not see at a garden show, but I immediately start searching the web for one.  If only I had a pile of spare 'copper downspout cash' floating around, because I would love to have one of these.  It really is way too cool.


I'm now kicking myself for taking a photo and not finding the card for the company that makes/sells these.  The copper wheel in the center spins with the water flow and this would look great on our deck above the rain barrel.

Shopping at the Show

You can't go to a national garden show without shopping, right?  Right!  There weren't as many plant vendors as there used to be, but we wonder if it is because this year's show was so early in February and everyone's plants are not ready to sell yet.  Not everyone is willing to keep their plants in a "cool, but not too cold" place while they wait for spring to show up.





Ozothamnus coralloides

Cool plant, huh??  It's a little green, a little white, a little slick and a little fuzzy.  It looks like a cactus, but it isn't.  It looks like a succulent, but I don't think it is.  This won't get too big, only about 15" tall and more shrubby looking over time.  I guess I better do more research before I turn this little guy loose in the yard.









Thujopsis dolabrata 'Aurea' (Aka Golden Elkhorn Cedar) 

My husband says I love this tree because it looks like a big fern.  Wish I could say he was wrong, but once again he hit the nail on the head. 

The Heaths and the Heathers

Our new little Golden Joy Heath.  The plant is about a foot tall right now, but it turns out that this is a 'tree heath'.  That means this quiet little plant is going to grow into a 6 foot tall monster in a few years. 

Apparently there is a difference between Heath and Heather.  We don't actually know the difference, other than one is a girls name and one is a boys name.  This one appears to be the boy.


Our other new one is Winter Fire Heather, so it must be a girl.  It has not flowered out yet, but that's ok.  The ones that were forced for the show were really beautiful, so we're excited to have these. 

It sounds like these will take off sometime next month and put on a show until May.

Arisaemas!! (Aka, Jack-in-the-Pulpits)

OK, so I already have griffithii, but mine was lonely, so I got him a friend to hang out with.  In truth, I'd like a little flock of them, so I'm going to expand to 2 and see if they feel more confident in the garden and spread out. 



We have tons of different strains, but this one is cool and I'd like to have more to look at.












This is our first tiny arisarum.  Its not going to look like the others and hopefully it won't get lost in the hugeness that is the rest of the garden plants.  Maybe I'll tuck it in near the tibetan poppies...hmmmm.



  

 Toad Lilies!!

Some of us are hard core 'Toad Lily' people.  I happen to have way too many of them in the garden, so of course I needed a few more. 

This year Edelweiss www.edelweissperennials.com had several interesting toads that I don't already have, so I put in a little extra time in their area. Last year I bought the prettiest Dodecatheons and look forward to seeing them again this year.

I've been looking for this big 'Tricyrtis Woodland' for a while now.  Because everyone needs a 4' tall Toad Lily dominating their yard.



The 'Tricyrtis maculata' looked nice.  I don't have alot of the really tall toads, and this one looks nice.  I'll start it this month so it has a jump on things this spring.

Yeah, this 'Tricyrtis formosa Blushing Toad' is a smaller one, but who can resist blue flowers liek this? I never get tired of looking at the structure of these flowers - there is so much going on in that tiny flower that it is just amazing. 








Veggies!!!

This year we're going to try out some different strains of onion, shallot, garlic and potatoes.

The white Ailsa Craig onions are supposed to get huge, so we'll see how that works out.

White Cipollini are sweet and about the size of a golf ball.  It sounds like they are great for roasting - yum!

Candy Apple Red onions should be sweeter than normal reds, but it sounds like they don't keep in the pantry as well.  Maybe these will get flash frozen this year.

We also picked up some Holland Red shallots and some Early Italian Purple garlic.



We're going to have a ton of potatoes this year - 5 different strains this time.  We got a blue, a red, a yellow, a white and a russet.  Some get big, some are late, some are early - so we'll do some potato experiments and see how things go.

Potatoes: Cherry Red, Russet Norkotah, All Blue, Kennebec and German Butterball.

Red Fuchsia Begonia 

Yes, this is an outside plant.  It's a Fuchsia Begonia.  It's not too tough, but worth the effort, if you get a chance to try one.  They can get 4' tall over the summer and are very cool looking.  We normally have one on the patio during the summer.


I was happy to get one again this year. Its an annual in our area but I'll bring this one indoors next winter and see if I can grow it huge.

Just the planter I was looking for. . .

What luck, I've been looking for pots just like this.  These are called Plantopia Hanging Baskets (http://www.plantopiaflowerpots.com/home2.html).  They were really reasonable for what they do - only $12 each at the show (you can get them on Amazon for $14). 

These are large planters with removable panels so you can insert plants and have them hang down.There is a reservoir at the bottom so the plants don't die of thirst in the sun. 

We're going to mount these onto our plant posts this spring.  I can't wait to give these a try.

Little Cement Koi

We stopped at our favorite statuary shop at the show.  We usually get something from them every year - this time it was half price koi.

They're pretty small, only about 7" long, but they are multi-colored and very cute.  They look drab because they are dry.  They turn bright colors when they get wet.





So Much for Spring

On the drive home we were surprised with snow.  Yep, it is early February and winter decided to come back and visit for a day or two.  Unlike the rest of the country, we really haven't had winter here, so snow in February came as a surprise.  This snow won't stay, it should be 44 degrees and rainy tomorrow, so this is just a quick blip on the radar.

In the mean time, I can do some research on what we bought today and figure out where to put this year's new plants.