When things come together just right

By mid-summer, most gardeners I know - at least those who garden in hot, dry climates like mine - become discouraged.  I'm no exception.  Most of my grass is dead.  Numerous plants have dropped dead, some seemingly overnight.  An army of disgusting worms attacked my Bush Lupine and ate half the plant before I sent them packing.  The raccoons returned and, in addition to stealing the filter out of our fountain and running off with it, they declared an end to our detente and tore apart the beds in the side yard looking for grubs.  And it's still too warm to begin fall planting - even if that didn't prevent me from indulging in the purchase of a dozen Rudbeckia last week - so I have itchy fingers

I deal with the situation by putting on blinders to avoid seeing the garden as a whole, while focusing on practical problems: modifications to the irrigation system, mulching, hand-watering, pruning, and researching drought-tolerant plants and new ways to thwart raccoons.  However, while planting 3 of the Rudbeckia I couldn't stop myself from buying, I realized just how good at least one of my beds looks right now.

Wide view of the bed

Side view of the same space

This bed seldom shows up in my photos.   On the southwest side of the house, it's partially hidden behind our Magnolia tree.  I've added and subtracted plants from this bed at intervals in the 3 years I've tended this garden.  While some of these are still immature, the bed nonetheless finally feels as though it's coming together.  I love the mix of mid-tone and chartreuse greens, accented by yellow, orange and red touches.  The yellow color is provided by Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' and Coprosma 'Evening Glow' as well as the flowers of Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' and Gaillardia 'Mesa Peach.'  Orange and red tones are provided at various times of the year by the berries on the Nandina, 2 varieties of Hemerocallis, and Gaillardia 'Goblin,' which self-seeds freely.

The Calliandra, Coleonema, Nandina and Agapanthus in the background came with the house but I've added most of the rest of the plants.

The Grevillea 'Superb' planted last November is developing lots of new buds

Gaillardia 'Goblin' is flowering less profusely than last year but still provides a lot of color

The new Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' mixes well with Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' and Coprosma 'Evening Glow'

Coprosma 'Evening Glow' is a relatively slow grower

One of 5 Lomandra longifolia 'Breeze' in this bed, this plant adds an airy quality

Duranta erecta 'Gold Mound' if the label that came with it can be believed

Salvia 'Mesa Azure'

And a closer look at the Rudbeckia that pulled everything together

Now, my only wish is that the lawn surrounding the bed wasn't so hideous.  I think the answer is to pull the front lawn out.  Plans are underway...


All material © 2012-2014 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Fuzzy Flowers

Since Leonotis leoanurus is currently making a splash in my backyard border, I thought I'd try using a little of it in my bouquet for "In a Vase on Monday," a weekly meme sponsored by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.  What I learned is that too many fuzzy flowers create a fuzzy arrangement that looks out of focus in photographs.  (Try to say that 3 times fast.)  My initial effort included both the flowers of the Leonotis, which look a little like orange tarantulas, and some equally fuzzy Ageratum houstonianum.  It was a bit much.

First attempt with Leontis and Ageratum in the vase

I pulled the Ageratum and was left with what I think is a somewhat more refined composition, although not one of my favorites.  Perhaps I should have removed the Agapanthus too and stuck with hot colors?

Second version, sans Ageratum

In addition to 2 stems of Leonotis leonurus, I used:

3 stems of Agapanthus (no ID)
3 stems of Bulbine frutescens 'Hallmark'
4 stems of Coprosma 'Evening Glow'
2 stems of an unidentified Hemerocallis (possibly 'Sammy Russell')
2 stems of Sollya heterophylla

Close-up of 2-decker flowers of Leonotis Leonurus

Close-up of Agapanthus, which are slowly beginning to wane in my garden

Close-up of Coprosma 'Evening Glow' and Bulbine 'Hallmark'

Close-up of the unidentified Hemerocallis

Close-up of the delicate blooms of Sollya heterophylla

I know the daylily won't last but there are several other buds on the stems and my hope is that they'll open at intervals over the course of the next several days.  I'd been wanting to try daylilies in a vase for some time and, seeing them featured in vase in a recent blog post by Loree of danger garden, encouraged me to take advantage of the current overabundance of red-orange daylilies in my garden.

Bouquet on the dining room table, where its colors complement a nearby picture on the wall

Please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she's cooked up this week and to find links to other gardeners' contributions.

Foliage Follow-up: November 2013

I've added quite a few foliage plants to my garden this year (and the gardening year's not over for us yet in southern California).  One of my most recent acquisitions is Dampiera trigona 'Purple Wire.'  It blooms, as you may be able to detect from the picture below, but the foliage is what landed it in my cart during a recent nursery trip to Carpinteria.  It's a relatively low-growing, clumping plant suited to a rock garden environment so my hope it that it'll find the soil of this former rock quarry hospitable.

It's hard to get a good picture of this Dampiera.  The foliage really is wiry.

Another recent acquisition is a diminutive Phormium, 'Tiny Tiger,' which I picked up on the same nursery trip up north last week.  It gets just one foot high and one foot wide so it should do fine in its location along the pathway of my dry garden.

I've also added a mass planting of Alternanthera tenella 'Crinkle Red' along the pathway in my renovated side garden.

10 Alternanthera tenella 'Crinkle Red' line the pathway

Close-up of Alternanthera

As of last week, no fewer than 3 Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' have taken root in my garden.

This Prostanthera ovalifolia, placed in the side yard in late September, is getting by on morning sun only so far

My newest Prostanthera ovalifolia, purchased for a bargain price of $8.99 last weekend, is seated in front of a Ceanothus hedge in the back garden

I've posted about my use of Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' in the garden many times (most recently here) but I've also added the smaller-leafed Coprosma 'Evening Glow' to my collection

One of 3 Coprosma 'Evening Glow,' all still relatively small

But the foliage plants making the biggest impact in the garden right now are still the 2 Persimmon trees we inherited with the house (previously featured here), which are in their full fall splendor.

Persimmon 'Hachiya' in the dry garden

Persimmon 'Fuyu' in the vegetable garden

What foliage is lighting up your garden at the moment?  To see other foliage picks, please visit Pam, the host of the monthly Foliage Follow-up at Digging.

What do you do when you're overwhelmed by your garden?

By mid-summer my garden looks as though it needs a face-lift.  I've cut back the spring and early summer bloomers.  There are holes in spots where plants have unexpectedly dropped dead.  The grass is dry and turning brown.  The mimosa tree continues to drop its dying blooms.  I'm continuously deadheading.

I meter out water to keep my landscape plants going, ever mindful of the impact to our water bill.  I make plans for plant moves I want to make in the fall when conditions are more hospitable for transplants.  Abetted by cooler than normal temperatures, we've begun ripping out another section of lawn to expand my planting area but the soil needs serious work to prepare it for fall planting.  

Despite all the constructive planning and preparations, I'm frustrated.  I need some immediate gratification.  What do I do?  I plant up some pots.  Pots provide opportunities to create small, manageable gardens.  I can experiment with new plants and different plant combinations.  I can keep my miniature gardens watered without borrowing from savings to pay the water bill.  It's relatively quick and easy to tidy up my pots and, if a plant dies or fails to deliver on its promise, I can yank it out and replace it without disrupting a large planting scheme.

The vast majority of my pots contain succulents, which winter over outside here with little problem due to our mild winter temperatures.  (My potted succulents were featured in a January post, which you can view here.)  However, in the last couple of weeks I've planted some pots with herbaceous materials.  

Here's the first of my summertime creations:

 

This 12 inch tall, 18 inch diameter pot on the back patio is crammed with plants.  I don't usually crowd plants this much, even in decorative pots, but, figuring that I'll transplant some of these elsewhere in the garden when they die back, I went for broke.  This is what I included:

• Coprosma hybrid 'Evening Glow' (1)
• Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit' (2)
• Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' (1)
• Lantana 'Little Lucky Peach Glow' (2)
• Russelia equisetiformis 'Yellow' (1)
• Zinnia 'Profusion Mix' (3 plugs)

All these plants like the sun.  They're also drought tolerant once established so they'll work well if they end up in a garden bed later this year.

Yesterday, I planted another pot on the small side patio, which gets only morning sun.

This pot is 13 inches in diameter and 12 inches tall.  It contains the following plants:

• Agave 'Blue Glow' (1)
• Carex testacea aka orange sedge (1)
• Nematanthus aka goldfish plant (2)
• Rhipsalis salicornioides aka Dancing Bones Cactus (3 divisions from larger plant)

I'm hoping that the grass will get enough sun to preserve its orange coloration and that it won't outgrow the pot too quickly.  This agave does well in a pot and tolerates some shade.  The goldfish plant was a sentimental selection - I remember tending one as a houseplant when I was a teenager.

So, there it is, my temporary bandage for my angst over the current state of my landscape.  What do you do when your garden "to do" list leaves you feeling overwhelmed?