Gardens Home & Garden

Rather than continue on the weather thread, I figured I'd start one for gardens here.

This is the diagram of my desired front garden:


As mentioned, these are the various plants:
Little John Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis 'Little John') the 3 red round plants
Coral Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) the 2 large coral sunbursts
California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum) - the calistoga, carman's gray and marin pink varieties the sunbursts along the right
Catmint (Nepeta × faassenii) - Whispurr Pink, Whispurr Blue, Kitten Around, Picture Purrfect, Purrsian Blue varieties the blue octagons
Lion's Tail (Leonotis leonurus) the orangy octagons
Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea) the purple sunbursts
Poker Plant (Kniphofia) - Christmas Cheer,
Backdraft, Hot & Cold (I forgot that variety earlier) and Poco Orange varieties the star (Christmas Cheer variety), cloud (Poco Orange) and brown sunburst (Hot & Cold)

The blue plant in the center of the bottom is an existing plant that has survived my neglect for years. I figure it deserves to stay. It is similar to the poker plants in that it has a bushy base with stalks that stick out above with the blooms - I've never looked up what it is.

I might be able to add some hen and chicks in and around once these are established. My aunt has them and will happily send some home with me.

The long narrow brown was going to be a bench, but I got a cute set of metal chairs and table free, so will use them instead. I have one birdbath and plan on getting a second one at some point (the small taupe octagons).

@CaroleC your comment about the razor like leaves of the yucca is why I have those along the sidewalk - I figure they will deter folks from walking through them into my yard. The bottlebrush is thick enough to help deter folks also.

I skipped using other plants due to sharp foliage. I want to be able to walk around the pavers without bleeding.

My Dad had a Rosemary bush - he'd loved going out the kitchen door and picking a sprig to add to the turkey on the holidays. I thought about adding one, but they get big. So I went with the catmint for the aroma while maintaining a smaller plant.

I like sweet peas a lot, but they need more care than I can promise.

Your plan is a lot more ambitious than mine!
I had a Rosemary at our previous house and it grew too big and woody. I have picked one that is umbrella shaped in the hope that it is going to spill out of the pot and cover some of the slate rather than make an upright bush. I think being small specimens, and in pots, will check the growth too. I wanted a Rosemary for Remembrance - not just for Charles but for the two Lurchers and two Beagles that we lost whilst living in this house. I have some concrete dog models to represent the dogs - one of which came from the home of my friend who took her own life. It isn't a memorial garden but it is beginning to sound like one.
I will have to wait another month for the heathers coming in. People keep telling me that they have had no luck with heathers but the one that the gardener dug out was huge - unfortunately he said it was too large to transplant. He did save two of the Dwarf Azelias, ( but not the white one that I asked him to save). I transplanted one in a space at the back, but the other sat in a sack for weeks before I gave it a really drastic trim and stuck it in a plastic pot. You would never guess which one has survived!

Some plants are just ornery!

Your garden sounds nice. It's not a memorial garden but it's a place where you can sit and remember friends and family as you enjoy the sights and smells.

We started digging up the front "lawn" today. It's more weeds than lawn at this point. But the soil underneath is good quality - no clay, etc.

My hummingbird came over and was hovering about 6 inches off the ground looking in through my front security door at the dogs. I think she was listening to our plans for her garden. It will be interesting if she lets other hummers visit - so far she's chased them all off, but she just has the two feeders. Once she has 43 plants to choose from, she may relax a bit.

I figured out what my existing plant is: Acanthus mollis or Bear's Breech. Apparently it can be invasive as it grows new plants off the roots. Mine has been well behaved.

I would love to grow some planta genista in honor of my Plantagenet ancestors, but it is considered an invasive species here. There might be a lesson in there...

Meanwhile Tornado-dog is tired after supervising the work today from the doorway.

I will have to look those plants up. I never realised that Plantagenet had a horticultural origin.
Ah Broom! Yes I like broom - especially the rusty red variety. I had one at the last house - healthy but very slow growing.
I like the shape of the Acanthus but see that the BBC Gardeners World call it, 'the dreaded Acanthus'.
What colour is your hummingbird? Has she raised any chicks? Do they make a mud nest?

Yeah, Geoffrey of Anjou, Henry II's father started the common broom connection.

My acanthus has been here for over 24 years. We counted out between four and five "individual" plants, but they are all within the same 5ft section of the flower bed. I would suspect in a container, they'd be fine since they spread via the roots and not seeds.

My hummingbird is an Anna's hummingbird, so she's green with a pale beige chest. I haven't seen any males. She hasn't had any chicks that I know of, but she has a pretty big range so she may nest elsewhere.

I had to look it up. They make their nests out of plant fibers, feathers and animal hair and hold it together with spider silk.

Here she is taking a bath. It's not the best photo as I took it with the phone.

Lovely!

So yesterday, "my guys" (my yard guy and his helper) came over and finished removing the top soil and rototilled.

Tornado-dog went out to help for a while. He did very good staying in the yard for the most part. When he did start to wander a bit, he went back inside with Cat-dog (she's more trustworthy in general, but if a dog came by she'd freak).

We discovered that the tree in the corner has roots going everywhere and they sprout new trees. Looked it up and it is a broad leaf privet. Going to call the utilities tomorrow and see if they will cut the top section (the power lines run through the tree) and then we will cut down the rest and kill the roots over the next year. Then, I'll plant a new tree there. Hopefully, they will cut it and this week before I start planting. My roof is being replaced next Monday, so I'm starting the planting on the outer edges and will work my way towards the house - that will give them room to work.

The tree is almost cut down. The guys have one top branch left to cut and then the main trunk. Utilities wouldn't help.

Picking up 50 plants tomorrow morning. Sale opens at 9 am. Thought, I could manage getting up at 8 am one morning...

Emailed to ask if they have carts available. Yep, but they get grabbed quick "so get there early". I replied I'd be there at opening. " Oh no. People start lining up between 7 and 7:30 am."

Darn gardening people and their early risings!!

Just lately I have had several delivery slots timed as from 7 am. When my new fire was delivered they phoned me at 6.45 to let me know that they were in the area! (To make sure that I was up!). The reduced time that you spend in hospital these days usually means a 7.30am admission time - you are expected to shower at home and may be booked at a hospital 30-40 miles away.
I really should be used to early starts, when I was showing we often set off at 3am to get an easy run on the M'way - can always stop for breakfast if you are there too early - but I wasn't eighty then. Nowadays I like to get up about 8.30 - 9am, but Tally would sleep till 10 if I let her! This dog who needed a 5am pee alarm for the first six months after she came here, now often doesn't need to do one until we are half way to lunchtime. I definitely agree with you, everything starts far too early these days.

Even to get a doctor's appointment you have to 'phone at 8 am on the dot and then are often over 20 in the queue.

When I retired, I adopted my grandmother's rule:
No appointments before noon.

Decades ago, I worked retail. The manager scheduled an all staff meeting for 6 am. I told him I don't do 6 am meetings. He told me to be there or else. I showed up in sweats, my slippers, and with a blanket.

He always schedule two meetings after that - one at 6 am for the morning crew and one at 1 pm for right before the late shifts started.

I don't mind early phone calls, I can go back to sleep easily. But don't make me get dressed and leave the house before noon.

You must have been a valued employee.
I used to stand in for a friend who ran a retail pet supplies business. I must admit that the shop was often late opening on those days.
Timekeeping has always been a problem, ever since my schooldays.

He liked me. I was a good worker, let him know what was going on (supervisors messing with employees, etc), and I wasn't a whiner (unless you made me get up early).

I had other bosses who weren't as nice. But because I was a good worker, they pretty much always came round to my wishes.

Sure, sometimes I had to make copies of lawsuits and lay them around the breakroom to point out that making us suddenly wear uniforms and pay for them ourselves was illegal, or maybe the Jury Commissioner called to tell them that expecting me to have jury duty all day for two weeks and still expected to work a full shift every night or not get paid (when the company gave paid jury duty leave with no exception for shift hours) was just mean and they were not impressed - if the manager thought it was the actual Judge who called, who am I to disagree).

And maybe after submitting my tentative college schedule to the management and they agreed to provide me with a minimum number of hours weekly based on that schedule, but once classes started cut me a full day of work and told me to drop a class or lose hours. Well, maybe I went to class that night and came back the next day to explain to management that my professor, who just happened to be a civil procedure attorney said they needed to re-instate my full hours or there would be a lawsuit. Well, can I be blamed for taking paralegal courses.

And maybe when the asst manager wrote employees up for not showing their employee discount card at the register but expected us to ring her out without her card, well yeah, I MIGHT have told security and gotten her called out in front of the manager.

And possibly when one of the district executives tried to use her discount at our store instead of her selected store (you could only use your discount at one store - either the one you worked at or the one closest to home), well I might have told her that as an executive she should know the policy and I would not ring her up on her discount. And when she told me she knew the policy because she wrote it and I was wrong and tried to threaten me to ring her up... Well, I may have told security on her too. And maybe one of the main office execs flew in to investigate her. And maybe that exec was the woman who had originally hired me and it's quite possible she remembered me positively and took my side over the crazy district exec. Who by the way did NOT write the policy and was fired for her disregard of the policy and her unprofessional treatment towards me.

That manager didn't like me much, but he respected me and knew I had a strong work ethic. I just didn't accept any less than legal shenanigans. Within a week of my leaving, he changed the dress code into a uniform (not supplied by the company) - and not one employee said a word about it being illegal as I had pointed out years before.

Well, I made it to the plant sale. Crazy!!!

I got there at 7:15 am. I was the third person in line. The couple first in line drove a good 2 hours to get there.

We waited in line until 9 am when they let us in. I made a comment that I was going to need 2 carts for all my plants and luckily a volunteer overheard and mentioned there were some 2-tiered carts at the back. So I went as quick as possible at opening and snagged one! There was no way I could have dragged two carts around.

It was very very crowded. The aisles were filled with people and carts. The plants were going quickly.

Those of us who prepared, came armed with a list of plants we wanted and the aisle they were located on. There were about 18 aisles across and three lengths back.

I started with my most desireable plant: the Christmas Cheer Poker Plant. Got them, got the other poker plants, and then started moving outwards for the rest.

At 9:44 am, my cart looked like this:


And the sale looked like this:


When I got to the cashier, I realized I forgot my Little John Bottlebrush, so I ran back to grab them - fortunately there were still some left.

I got everything on my list except the 6 hummingbird sage and the 2 kiiten around catmints. Somehow I got 2 extra butterfly bushes.

I was home by 10:15 am. I started setting out the plants around the yard. My yard guys came and dug my holes for me and helped with planting. Then they built the new fence section by the tree while I continued planting. Got 21 plants planted. The guys went to get me a new faucet for outside and some potting soil and 5 hummingbird sage (realized I couldn't fit that second on in the flower bed) and have lunch on me.

Badger's Aunt C came over and help me move about 40+ pavers to the backyard, then dug me holes for my butterfly bushes. Then we raised the level of the side gate so it would clear the new pavers.

Then we planted three of the sage and finished filling in around plants with the potting soil. The guys went to work on my faucet. I hadn't used it in years. In several spots the pipes were corroded. So it took a while to get the water flowing. But they did and the new hose was attached.


I haven't planted anything left of center so the roofers have room to work as well as the tree people when they come to cut down that horrid tree.

After all that, Aunt C and I went inside and Tornado-dog hugged and hugged and kissed Aunt C. He played "try to get my ball from me" with her and then he put on his "drive thru charm" to convince her to give him french fries.

By 7:15, everyone had gone and Tornado-dog and I crashed on the couch with Cat-dog sleeping in the hall. We were all worn out. I did get up at 9 pm to feed the dogs and give the plants a quick watering.

We'll wait to lay bark until the plants settle in a bit and the catmint hopefully grow up some.

Love the style of your house, Toed. Very unusual.

I'm sure the plants will set it off wonderfully

Thank you! It's actually a somewhat common style here. Sort of a Tudor cottage with ski slope roof.

The plants appear to be happy so far. They are all perky.

I'll give them a good watering tonight - last night was just a light one.

Gosh! You don't mess about do you? That looks the neatest and best organised plant sale that I've ever seen. The ones I have been to are in cattle markets - grab what you can muster and no trolley provided. You really must post updates as they grow. I also like the style of your house, it should look great when the plants are established. I hope the garden doesn't take any foot or wheel traffic in the meantime. I'm thinking sniffing dogs and careless parking.