Foliage Follow-up - New Plants!

I recently posted photos of a dramatic change to the southwest corner of my garden resulting from a neighbor's removal of several large oleanders suffering from leaf scorch.  As plans were afoot this week to install replacement shrubs, I'd planned to provide photos of the newly installed Pittosporum hedge for this week's Foliage Follow-up, the feature hosted by Pam at Digging each month following Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  But, as the schedule for the planned installation stretched out, I began looking for a new topic.  I've been on a few fall planting sprees of late so I focused on some of my new foliage purchases.

On a trip to Seaside Gardens last weekend, I picked up 3 Cordyline 'Renegade', which I planted this week.  Their burgundy color nicely mirrors the color of Leucadendron 'Ebony' in the background (currently in danger of being swallowed up by Leucadendon salignum 'Chief').  The grasses in front of the Cordylines, Melinus nerviglumis, are also relatively new introductions.

I also picked up Leucadendron 'Little Bit' at Seaside, shown here planted in front of Echium candicans 'Star of Madeira'.  'Little Bit' should eventually grow to 3 feet tall and wide, relatively small for a Leucadendron but a nice accent to the larger Echium.

In last month's Foliage Follow-up, I focused on the Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' that threatened to encompass everything in its path.  Commentators were nearly universal in supporting removal of the succulents that stood in the path of these shrubs and I recently moved the succulents.  However, as I can't abide an expanse of bare soil (and didn't want to give the local raccoons an invitation to dig), I planted Lotus berthelotii, a low-growing ground cover, to bridge the gap between the Acacia and the creeping thyme.  The new plants are shown in the photo on the left.  The photo on the right shows an expanse of established Lotus on the other side of the path.  The Lotus (aka Parrot's Beak) develops red flowers but shouldn't fight with 'Cousin Itt' the way the taller succulents did.

The area in the foreground here was a sloppy mess of overgrown thyme and raggedy Carex testacea.  I moved a Stipa arundinacea 'Sirocco' that had been growing in the front garden (the orange grass shown above) and picked up 2 more of these plants to fill in the area in front of Leucospermum 'Goldie'.  The new plants should take on the same orange color as the transplant in time.

Near dusk yesterday afternoon, the neighbor's garden crew finally finished work on the installation of the new hedge of Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Sheen'.  The light wasn't great for photos but I'm going to include these anyway.

The first photo on the left shows the property line between us and our neighbor to the south before the mass of oleanders on the neighbor's side was removed.  The middle photo shows the area as it looked immediately after the oleanders were removed, exposing the neighbor's driveway to our view.  The third photo is a blurry shot of the new Pittosporum hedge just beyond our property line.

This is a closer view.  There are a total of 7 Pittosporum 'Silver Sheen' here.  The neighbor also laid new irrigation, jute to hold the slope as the plants become established, and plugs of ice plant to serve as a ground cover.  We're sharing in the cost of both the oleanders' removal and the new installation so I appreciate all the work that went into getting the new hedge off to a good start.

Our side of the property line is also a mess as work has finally begun on the lath (shade) house planned for the southwest corner.  While I've been slowly clearing out the pots and detritus that had accumulated in the area during the 7 years we've lived here, my husband has the hardest job: building the structure.  Thus far, only the footings are in place but that's progress!

The lath house will be a 5-sided structure.  The space between the 2 footings in the foreground on the left will hold a door.  The 2 walls on either side of the door will have windows (and window boxes).  All the walls and the roof with be constructed of lath to allow air and light into the structure.  I expect I'll fill in with plants around the structure but I probably won't figure that piece out until the structure is complete.  My husband tells me that the pitched lath roof is likely to be the trickiest part of the project. 

For more Foliage follow-up posts, visit Pam at Digging.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party