In my last post I documented the savage return of winter in mid-April to my little house on the prairie. This week summer decided to make an early entrance, with thunderstorms and temperatures in the high 80’s on the menu! I’m start to feel a little like the poor shepherd in the changing seasons sketch from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”:
I finished putting down goodness (compost) in all of the borders. Now I need to pick up some more mulch to help “freshen up” said garden borders.
In the meantime, I’ve decided to experiment a bit this year. I’m going to sow some annuals in and around the perennials to help fill in some empty spots. I’ve never been a fan of annuals in the garden, mostly because it seems to me to be an extravagant expense to put plants in the borders that will only hang around for one year. But a packet of seeds only costs a buck or two, as opposed to 3 or 4 dollars for a flat of a few annuals. True, not all of the seeds will germinate whereas a flat guarantees that the plant is already in full growth, but should the experiment fail it’s not a huge loss. Should it succeed then I will have dozens of plants for pennies on the dollar.
Whilst I wait for my mail order plants to arrive for the bird-bath garden renovation, I decided to tackle an area that has given me fits ever since we moved to the house. I’m talking about the section that lies next to the front of the house. This area is an inhospitable no-plants land, where very little likes to grow. The house faces west by northwest so it gets very hot on summer afternoons. In addition, this area is tucked under the overhang of the upper story of the house, this section is in shade all the until about 3:00 at which point it gets blasted by the full fury of the summer sun.
The only constant has been a variegated Bishops Weed that was already here when we moved in, and even it has completely failed to colonize the area even though it is considered mildly invasive. Everything else I’ve tried has withered away.
I downloaded onto my e-reader the latest edition of Fine Gardening magazine. In this issue was an article about planting for dry shade, which I guess kind of describes my problem area. However, the article in question was written about dry shade in the Pacific Northwest, which as you can imagine is a helluva lot different than dry shade in Colorado. But I did some research and I’ve come up with a plan.
Below is the section in question.
I decided that this area was the perfect spot for the Brunnera that I took out of the birdbath garden, so I put five of them in here. I also picked up three other plants from a local nursery. Two Heucheras and one perennial Geranium. All of these plants are supposed to do well in Colorado dry shade.
Behold, the newly planted part sun/part shade garden!
Just around the corner is a hot, dry southern exposure next to the house. I talked about renovating this section last year, but never did get around to it. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with it. MrsVintage and I have come up with a plan, and will slowly but steadily work on it over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here be some yellow tulips in bloom.
Elsewhere in the garden, I have undertaken a reclamation project. Years ago I planted a Hosta next to the deck (I no longer remember the name of the variety). It has never fared well, but it dutifully returns each year to continue its annual struggle. I decided to take pity on it this year and planted it in one of the whiskey barrels, where I can nurse it back to health over the next couple years before finding a new home for it somewhere more hospitable in the garden.
When I dug it out I discovered why it has struggled so mightily. The soil it called home was clay so heavy it was practically Play-Doh.
My last post didn’t have an pictures of blooming plants because the bitter cold blasted all the flowers. Since then things have rebounded, so here are a few pictures of things that have been blooming this past week or so.
At long last, the leaves on the large trees and shrubs are starting to leaf out. With the temps already soaring into summertime levels, the shade from the trees will be most appreciated.
Of course, me being a glass-is-half-empty kinda guy, I am now a little worried that a late spring snowstorm is going to hit in late May and damage or destroy my trees and shrubs. Ah well, such is the perils of gardening.
