Hidden Garden Redo

After spending more than a week studying which areas were sunny, and which were shady behind the garage, Sharon realized she had originally made a number of wrong assumptions and there is actually more sun back there than she expected. So, that called for a major rearranging of the plants.

Plus, after spending more hours sifting through locally available plants, Sharon was able to weed out plants that either needed too much sun or too much water. Now, virtually all these plants will tolerate drought as we do not love routine hand-watering. We'd like to water no more than once a week, once they're established.

This is the rough arrangement as of now.  Obviously, not all these plants will be in flower at once.

This obsessive detail is mostly for ourselves because until this year we'd plant an area and then a few months later, we couldn't remember what we planted. The blog has proven to be a pretty good way to archive information like this. Working from the top left:

• Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro' (Daylily Stella d'Oro): These want full sun to part shade. These bloom in early-mid season. This was a really inexpensive clearance item from Santa Rose Gardens.
• Aquilegia oxysepala (Oriental Columbine): These want sun to partial shade and will presumably flower in spring, like our other columbines. Sharon is actually going to try and start this plant from seeds as none of our local nurseries carry them (that we've found).
• Heuchera ‘Cajun Fire’: These will tolerate everything from full sun to full shade. They also change colors from red in spring to burgundy in summer. It has insignificant white flowers in late spring. Sharon already bought these on clearance from Santa Rosa Gardens.
• Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern): The lady fern is such a pretty plant. They like partial shade to full shade. We'll probably relocate most of them from one of our many rain gardens.
• Helleborus x hybridus 'Apricot Blush' (Apricot Blush Lenton Rose): This plant wants partial to full shade and it will bloom in early spring. It's being placed in the shadiest spot behind the garage which only gets maybe an hour or two of sun a day. Sharon is hoping to pick up this plant from Petal Heads in West Linn once they have both plants we want back in stock.
• Polystichum munitum (Western Swordfern): These are evergreen and prefer shade. We'll probably move most of these from our over-crowded rain garden by the house. 
• Helleborus 'Red Sapphire' (Red Sapphire Lenton Rose): This plant wants partial to full shade and it will bloom in early spring.

From the bottom left:

• Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' (Tickseed Coreopsis Jethro Tull): Most websites say this wants full sun, but Santa Rosa Gardens said it would tolerate some shade so Sharon decided to try it. This is the sunniest spot, so it will hopefully be fine. It flowers from late spring to late summer.
• Hemerocallis 'Burnin' Down the House' (Burnin' Down the House Daylily): This was the most expensive daylily Sharon ordered, but she couldn't resist the colors. It also starts blooming in early-mid season (June?). She already ordered this from Shreiner's Iris Gardens in Salem, Oregon and expects delivery sometime this fall.
• Heuchera villosa 'Caramel' (Caramel Coral Bells): This tolerates full sun to partial shade. This was another selection Sharon was able to purchase on clearance $2.99! We've already received them and they've been repotted into gallon pots, awaiting planting in a couple of months.
• Heuchera 'Cajun Fire': We ordered 7 of these, so there will be quite a few interspersed through the area.
• Adiantum x tracyi (Tracy's Maidenhair Fern): We planted some of these in the front yard and have really liked them. They claim to be evergreen. They prefer shade. 

There will be bulbs interspersed throughout the sunny areas.

• Crocus x Luteus 'Mammoth Yellow': It's wonderful when crocuses come up in late-winter as they provide the first glimpse of spring. These bulbs want full sun to part shade. Sharon ordered 10 of these bulbs from the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon. 
• Hyacinth 'Gipsy Queen': These were also ordered from the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm.
• Tulip 'Apricot Foxx': These want full sun to part shade and bloom in early spring. Also ordered from Wood Shoe Tulip Farm.
• Tulip 'Blushing Apeldoorn': These want full sun to part shade and bloom in early spring. Also ordered from Wood Shoe Tulip Farm.

The fence view is very busy. Most of the plants are repeats, but there a few new ones. The two shrubs against the fence are 

• Ribes odoratum ‘Crandall’ (Clove Currant): Full sun to part shade. It blooms yellow flowers in March/April. The flowers are followed by large black, sweet edible fruit in summer which probably the birds will mostly get.
• Berberis x lologensis ‘Apricot Queen’ (Barberry): Full to partial shade. It blooms in May to June followed by some sort of fruit in July-August. Sharon is still not 100% committed to this shrub because it has thorns. Pruning a pokey plant is never fun.

The four flowers in front of them (from left to right) are

• Iris 'Red Velvet Elvis': This was actually a speculative purchase from the bargain bench from Santa Rosa Gardens. I don't know if it will survive our conditions. It wants full sun to part shade, but since it's a Louisiana iris, it may need more water than we'll be willing to give it long-term.
• Iris x pacifica ‘Tawny Meadow’: This is a cross of two native irises. It wants full sun to part shade and once established will tolerate no watering throughout the summer.
• Iris 'Avalon Sunset': It prefers full sun to partial shade and blooms late mid-season. This was ordered from Schreiner's Iris Farm in Salem, Oregon.
• Hemerocallis 'Ledgewood's Jumpstart' (Daylily): This blooms early-midseason. Full sun to partial shade. This was ordered from Schreiner's Iris Farm in Salem, Oregon.

We're trying to keep the area between the stepping stones planted with shorter plants and groundcover. The only plant shown, not already identified is  

Aquilegia caerulea 'Swan Pink-Yellow' (Swan Pink-Yellow Columbine) which was purchased on clearance from Santa Rosa Gardens.

Sharon is still considering options for which groundcover to use around the stones.

The shrub to the left of the existing maple tree is Camellia x williamsii ‘Night Rider’: This camellia tolerates full shade and is drought tolerant once established. It blooms early in March to April.

The Japanese maple is Acer palmatum 'Sherwood Flame'.  Websites conflict about whether it prefers sun or shade; we're going with part shade. Hopefully, it won't get too big.  Websites say it will get about 8' in 10 years. We'll surely be long gone by then. 

There are only a few new plants in this view. 

• Achillea 'Desert Eve Terracotta' (Yarrow, Bloodwort, All Heal): Full sun to part shade. This was another speculative clearance plant from Santa Rosa Gardens. Yarrow is a native in this area so Sharon figured this would probably do okay in our yard.
• Aquilegia 'Ruby Port' (Ruby Port Columbine): Surprise, Sun to Part shade.
• Epimedium cantabrigiense or Epimedium x ‘Supernova’ or something else, if we find a good deal. These are for the full shade areas behind the large maple. These will probably be purchased next spring so we can see the color of their flowers before we buy them.
• Hemerocallis 'For Aunt Marian'. (Sharon almost didn't buy this daylily because it has such a stupid name, but she liked the colors.) Already ordered from Schreiner's Iris Gardens.

Daylilies

We've lived in this house for over ten years and this is the first year we're noticing some of the plants that came with the house. Like these daylilies, for example. We actually had to go back and look at old photos to find them, because we had no recollection of them even being there. We certainly didn't plant them.

Here they are in the remodel chaos in Jun 2012.

We've done absolutely nothing to care for these plants. In fact, during the remodel, they had all kinds of remodel debris piled on and around them. And we've certainly never divided or watered them. They've probably gotten a little water when we water the blueberries.

Anyway—the point of the post—Sharon was thinking, those daylilies look so great after more than ten years of neglect, I should look into getting more for our landscape project. And maybe I should see if they come in different colors...

Well, holy cow, was she ever shocked to discover absolutely thousands of daylilies in a rainbow of colors and in lots of different shapes. There is an auction website solely dedicated to selling daylillies. Folks obviously are serious about their daylilies; they must collect them. We aren't to that point (yet). We were just looking for some dry part-shade tolerant flowers for our backyard.

Sharon found a business online, Schreiner's Iris Gardens, located in Salem, Oregon. When she discovered they were having a summer sale on their daylilies, she decided to give them a try. (Their sale lasts until 9/1/2019 in case anyone else is interested.) She spent hours scrolling through their daylilies and, with Jeff's help, managed to narrow it down to four to order. There were so many more that made a tour through her shopping cart, but she decided to keep the budget to $100.

The flowers we picked, because they went well with our other plant purchases, were

• Ledgewood's Jumpstart
• For Aunt Marian
• Burnin' Down the House

Here is our current plant collage. Not everything is purchased, so some plants may change.

She also ordered a purple daylily for the parking strip up front, Blue Racer. Plus she had insufficient resistance and bought a few purple irises. The order, with shipping, was just over $100.

Hidden Garden Plans

Sharon spent quite a bit of time during the last week planning the area behind the garage. We have taken to calling it our hidden garden. Sharon did most of the research because it's the kind of thing she likes to do.

We don't have any kind of software that helps with this process, so we winged it with pictures of the plants laid out on photographs. Excuse how unprofessional they look. LOL

We ended up choosing a Japanese maple to plant in the planting bed in front of the wall. Our current plan is to get an Acer palmatum ‘Sherwood Flame,’ but we could probably be persuaded by a 'Bloodgood.' We like them both.

We're going to go ahead and list the plants because it helps us later when we go shopping, or have questions about the plan, so here goes...

The Japanese maple is mostly transparent so you
can sort of see the plantings behind it.

In the planting bed directly behind the garage—in keeping with the color scheme—we're hoping to put in two hellebores: one burgundy, and one apricot. Of course, since most of the varieties out are patented, we're not really sure what we'll be able to find this fall when we go shopping. At the moment, Sharon thinks she could buy:

• Helleborus x hybridus 'Red Sapphire’ OR Helleborus 'Rome in Red' Honeymoon® series OR Helleborus 'Red Racer'
• Helleborus x ‘Apricot Blush’ Winter Jewels® OR Helleborus 'Tropical Sunset' Honeymoon® series OR Helleborus x ‘Golden Sunrise’ Winter Jewels®

Apricot Blush Group

Red Sapphire Group

We're also going to plant quite a few Heucharas because they provide some great color and tolerate mostly shade. Sharon actually already ordered some on clearance (oops); she could not resist $6 a plant. She ordered the Heuchera ‘Cajun Fire’ because she liked that the color changed throughout the season. Also, the color change will be out of sync with the Japanese maple, which will hopefully be really fun.

She also ordered a couple of Heuchera x 'Carnival Peach Parfait'. And if we run across them, she'll probably buy a couple of Heuchera x 'Caramel'.

The iris in the corner is an Iris x pacifica ‘Big Wheel’.

The larger shrubs we plan to plant along the back fence:

• On the right side, we're planning to plant a Rhododendron 'Seaview Sunset' OR Rhododendron ‘Honey Butter'. (The picture is of the Seaview Sunset Rhododendron.)
• To the left of that, we're thinking about putting in a Ribes x gordonianum (Flowering Currant). It has coral-colored flowers that are really pretty.

In front of the wall, to the left of the maple, we plan to plant a Physocarpus opulifolius 'Hoogi018' (Angel® Ninebark).

We would also like to install some sort of trellis on that ugly cinder block wall. If we manage to get something put up, we're expecting to plant a Lonicera ciliosa (Orange Honeysuckle) because it is a native, and will tolerate dry shade once it's established.

The rest of the beds will be filled in with a variety of plants, as we can find them. (This is a list of possible plants, we won't end up with all of them. This is just a starting point for when we go shopping.):

• Adiantum x tracyi (Tracy's Maidenhair Fern)
• Aquilegia caerulea 'Swan Pink-Yellow' (Columbine, wild honeysuckle)
• Aquilegia oxysepala (Oriental Columbine)
• Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Bordeaux Barlow’ (Columbine)
• Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata 'Ruby Port' (Columbine)
• Asarum caudatum (Wild Ginger)
• Athyrium filix-femina  (Lady Fern)
• Blechnum spicant (Deer Fern)
• Cyclamen persicum (Dreamscape™ Deep Burgundy Cyclamen)
• Dicentra x Hybrida 'Sulpher Hearts' (Bleeding Heart with yellow flowers, if we can find them)
• Dryopteris erythrosora (Autumn Fern)
• Epimedium × rubrum  OR Epimedium x ‘Supernova’ OR Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum' (Bishop's Hat)
• Gymnocarpium dryopteris (Northern Oak Fern)
• Polypodium glycyrrhiza  (Licorice Fern)
• Polystichum munitum (Sword Fern)
• Polystichum setiferum var. divisilobum (Soft Shield Fern)

We'll be adding more as we go shopping and as we find more plants that tolerate dry shade. We might also try a few plants that prefer full sun just to see how they do.

Parking strip planting

The time had come to deal with our parking strip. We originally thought it was a hot, sunny spot, but after Jeff spent the day digging it out, we realized it only gets a couple hours of direct sun a day. The neighbor's maple tree is so huge, it shades most of our front yard. So, we shifted the original plan to focus on plants that would tolerate more shade.

Sharon spent hours researching locally-available plants that would fit the parameters and she came up with this collage of plants that she thought looked pretty good together. (Yeah, purple and maroon were obviously a major theme.)

Jeff wanted to shape some planting berms with space for water to flow across the space.

We were delighted to get Aaron's help again. He came a couple days ago and helped Jeff double dig the bed and mix in 8 bags of composted manure.

With the plan mostly ready, and the site prepped, we spent the day driving out to a couple garden centers and Joy Creek Nursery. Plants were purchased and placed.

Then planted.

For future reference, here is the list of plants we've planted and planned for the space:

1. Adiantum x tracyi (maidenhair fern). This plant will act like a groundcover and spread. We only bought 2 because they weren't in the original plan. We put them out there and to see how they do in the spot.
2. Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant' (bugleweed) for  groundcover. We bought 6 but probably should have bought a few more of these. I hope they spread fast.
3. Aquilegia (columbine).
   
   We bought 3 columbines of various varieties. All purple tones. These were also a spontaneous purchase.
4. Athyrium nipponicum var. pictum (Japanese painted fern). What's not to like about a fern that has purple on it? The last time we bought purple ferns, they didn't survive. Today we couldn't resist trying again. If it survives the winter, we'll probably get more.
5. Campanula Pearl Deep Blue (Carpathian bellflower). We bought two of these, but sadly one of them has already died.
6. Corydalis flexuosa 'Purple Leaf'
   
   (Purple leaf corydalis). This plant has the strangest looking blue flowers. Sharon thought it was cool looking and couldn't resist.
7. Geranium x 'Johnson's Blue' (hardy geranium). We bought 2 of these and planted them in late July.
8. Heuchera FOREVER® Purple (coral bells). We bought a total of 7 of these because Sharon really liked the color.
9. Juncus patens (spreading blue rush). Jeff likes these and put 3 of them in the base of the ditch.
10. Iris Lazica. Sharon loves irises. This is one of the few varieties she found that would tolerate shade.
11. Polypodium scouleri (leather-leaf fern). We didn't have any of these in our yard yet. We just bought one to try it.
12. Polystichum munitum (western sword fern). Can you ever have too many ferns? These can survive anywhere.
13. Polystichum polyblepharum (tassel fern). This fern is pretty interesting looking. We bought 2 of them.
14. Polystichum setiferum (Alaskan fern). When we picked this up we didn't realize how huge it could get (4' tall by 3' wide). We may eventually end up moving this to a better location if it outgrows this area.
15. Pratia pedunculata 'County Park' (blue star creeper). These weren't actually in the original plan; they were a spontaneous purchase from the nursery because it was a good match color-wise and it would work in the shade.
16. Sisyrinchium bellum ‘Rocky Point’ (west coast blue eyed grass). This plant was a substitution for another plant which was not available. It will hopefully survive the location because the flowers are quite pretty.
17. Dicentra formosa 'Luxuriant' (bleeding heart). Another late addition. We put it in the shadiest spot we have and hope it lives.

We mapped out the planting so we can remember what went where.

Updated with plant additions on Jul 28.

Bulbs ordered for fall delivery:

1. Crocus 'Remembrance'
2. Hyacinth 'Purple Sensation'
3. Hemerocallis 'Ledgewood's Belgium Blues' (Daylily)
4. Iris 'Dakota Smoke' (Tall Bearded Iris)
5. Iris Reticula 'Harmony'
6. Tulip 'Negrita Double' 

We Bought a House!

We bought a new house in Prineville, OR. It's on the side of a hill, so this is what our backyard looks like.

The rest of the yard is flat and mostly dead.

And, if the dogs don't chase them off, it comes with deer. There were four of them there that day, resting in the shade.

We have quite the project ahead of us.

Garden planning -- the apple tree mound

Apple Tree Mound Aug 18, 2012

I got my hands in the soil yesterday at a friends house helping them plant garlic. That has succeeded in getting my gardening juices flowing. I pulled out my The Maritime Northwest Garden Guide and started planning out my beds for the year. I am making a spreadsheet table for each bed and thinking through what I'm going to want where.

One great idea that Debra uses is to have a "ready to plant" pouch where you keep the seeds you intend to plant this season that are ready to go into the ground. And on the packet, write how long the planting window goes so you know how much flexibility you have if you have to triage what goes into the ground based on how much time you have available in the garden.

I am also thinking that if I try to only focus on one bed at a time, I might find the planning a little less overwhelming. So the bed d'jour is what I am calling the Apple Tree Mound, between the path and the driveway in the front yard.

State of the mound -- July 9, 2012

A harvested squash -- Aug 31, 2012

I liked the tromboncino squash I planted last year. By the end of the summer it had taken over the "apple tree mound". But by July 9 it had just started to spread.

So I'm thinking that this year I will try to get a crop of early veggies in this mound that I will harvest as the squash overtakes them. Radishes, salad greens, etc. I may even be able to selectively prune or arrange leaves to provide a little shade for greens to continue later into the summer.

I also want to get some more herbs established in the north edge of this bed. It makes a nice kitchen garden since it is just a few steps from the front porch and within easy access to water. Last year I had basil and italian parsley. I'd like to also have some oregano and thyme. Long term I'll likely have to do something else here once the apple tree has really established itself.

 I'll probably plant some chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium). It has a long tap root, so I'm not sure if my transplant will work. But I also have some seed to sew.

I also want to grow cilantro, but mostly for the coriander seeds.