End of November

As the active growing season settles down, the mood in the yard has shifted, with the view of the Bay opening up as trees lose their leaves, and the dominant color is no longer green.

Relationships between plants and sections shift, as the evergreens grow in prominence, the bare branches of the deciduous shrubs become transparent, and herbaceous perennials shrink down to the cluster of leaves at the base or disappear altogether.

The view from the path circling around to its end in the center shows some of the changes.  There are only a few leaves left on the Katsura, while the crape myrtle directly ahead is still dark green with leaves.  The very dark green of the Japanese cedars appears almost black, while the blue-green leaves of the false indigo at the bottom/front of the photo are losing intensity.  The two evergreens behind the crape myrtle are shifting.  The Dawn Redwood, just to the right of the crape myrtle is shifting color from green to bright brown, soon to a golden brown before the needles are dropped for the winter.  Then further to the right, the Franklinia has yet to move into its dominant winter role as the only large evergreen visible in the view to the Bay.   So, as the trees that block the view of the Bay during the summer become bare branches, other trees step forward.  Soon much of the foliage will need to be cleaned out, creating an openness that is refreshing.

Turing to the right, the mixture of shapes and colors of the border hedge along our neighbors yard attract much more attention.  The yellow-green of threadleaf false cypress, the narrow vertical shapes of the Sky Pencil hollies, the irregular masses of the Chesapeake hollies, the red berries of the Winterberries are all playing against each other.  The Osmanthus, which are still small and cannot be seen in the spaces in front of the white fence on the right side of this photo.  Eventually they will fill that area in with a mixture of green, white, and red accents. 

I will end with the view over the heather garden toward the Bay.  It is a mixture with a sprawling rosemary in the front, grasses, spirea, clethra, and all of the trees.

Remaining November Flowers

There are a few plants still producing flowers at the temperatures cool.  I suspect this Oxalis regnelli is a bit confused since it is supposed to only bloom in the spring time.  However, since it is barely winter hardy in the North Garden where it resides, there is a struggle in the spring for it to get going again.  Since it can be an aggressive and invasive plant in milder climates or locations, I am not bothered by how colder winters can radically reduce the size of the colony to a few plants. I am not sure whether to move any to the warmer sides of the house on the South and East, where it would likely be more of a nuisance. 

As the photo shows, the color of the leaves does shift to the more blue color seen in this photo in the fall, while the leaves display a much warmer purple along with warmer temperatures.

A plant in the North Garden finishing its first full season is Tinantia pringlei, the Speckled Wandering Jew, which I bought from Plant Delights.  It has been an amazing performer.  In this close-up shot, you can see the combination of features such as the dark purple stem, the freckles on the leaves, and the small pale flowers.  The plant has spread out about three feet in a low, loose mound with the stems mixing themselves into other plants, such as the Japanese painted fern in the photo.  I am hoping it will be winter hardy, and a few seedlings appear to try in other areas.

Over in the labyrinth, on a harsh site near the road, there is the Aster oblongifolius 'Fanny' which is also a new purchase from Plant Delights.  I have been trying to find more late fall blooming plants, and this is certainly the last aster to bloom, long after the native ones.  The descriptions in the catalog says it will eventually become quite large, but for its first year it has only grown to about 18 inches in diameter.  I like its loose, informal look, and look forward to seeing what happens next year.

Just so you don't think that I have a blue/purple bias for flowers, the dwarf reblooming German Iris Baby Blessed is putting on its late fall display.  I only wish I had these near those other blue flowers because I like combining blues and lavenders with this kind of light lemon colored yellows.  But this iris needs lots of sun, which would be a problem for the Tinantia and the Oxalis.  Once I get a sense of the final size of the aster, which does like sun also, I might be able to put the two together.

My final shot doesn't have any fall flowers, but it is doing so well, I just had to put it in.  It is an Agapanthus "Stevie's Wonder," also from Plant Delights, that started as a single plant.  It had a single flower stalk, with a long lasting cluster of flowers on the top in July.  David was quite surprised by it, never having noticed an Agapanthus before.  I fell in love with them from spending a month at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA where I did my training as a spiritual director.  It has developed at least three and maybe four plants, and they are going strong.

The Finished New Shed

So the contractor is done, and the new shed has siding, a roof, trim, and a door.  As this first picture shows, the majority of the walls are well hidden behind the retaining wall when viewed from the street.  I am particularly pleased that the Bay is still visible behind it.

While walking around the labyrinth, the shed is tucked behind the bush clover, and we expect to add more plantings along this side to further distract the eye from it.  Actually it does even more, since it is hiding all of the utility area on that side of the house, including the propane tank, compressor, electric meter, and septic tank cover.  While I don't particularly like the trim color on the house, which is a faded red color, they did a very good job matching it so that the visually fits into the same appearance.

The flower beds in the labyrinth area are slightly past their fall peak. We have begun trimming out the dying brown leaves and tops as the perennials pull back for winter.  The photo from this spot looks more like a jumble of plants, since only small sections of the grass path are visible.  I will show more of this with the next blog post.

Walking further back into the yard, the front of the shed becomes visible, along with the utility area.  There are a number of things we need to do, like putting blocks inside the front edge, so we can fill in the soil up to the edge of the shed.  We want to keep the soil out of contact with it to avoid rot.  The wood beams supporting the shed are laid on concrete blocks to keep them above the ground.  I am not sure what options there would be to prevent termites from climbing around them.  On the left side we also need to dig more soil out and put in a low retaining wall to keep the soil away from the side.  Of course, we now want to put in a nice, secret shade garden into the utility area, which is visible from the sun porch and kitchen sink.

Stepping further back, and looking up the hill, the shed now plays a very effective role of providing one of the most private areas of the yard.  The only other equivalent area is the North Garden, which I also consider a secret garden, since only one neighbor has windows overlooking it. This is much better since it has the view out toward the bay, shade from the crape myrtle tree in the morning, along with the nice sense of separation and enclosure from the shed.  Maybe we could put in a small patio area, which would double as a shed work surface? 

End of October

It is the season to to shift attention again, from the large effects and colors to the smaller details.  For example, this is just one of the two praying mantises, one in the juniper and the other in the yew.  While I will admit they are not small, when the garden is full of foliage and flowers, they are much harder to see or find. I always have felt a certain magic when I have found just one of these, and this year there were two within a few feet of each other.  How can you tell which are the males or females?

I have seen the same yellow beetles with black spots that I saw last year in Fall Details. This year there were a couple on a spike of salvia.  The camera didn't focus on the beetle, but on parts of the flower, so it is a bit fuzzy.  You can barely see the second one further down on the stalk.  These seem to drink the nectar from the flowers, but I still haven't been able to find out anything more about what they are. 

The final picture is a plant that first arrived as a stowaway in a pot with another plant.  The sorrel is usually considered a weed, but this variety with bright red veins is a small, low to the ground grower..  I have not had any problems with it becoming a pest, even though it is a self-seeder. It has been easy enough to dig it out where I don't want it. So, it stays in many places, and probably it could be harvested and used for soup.  We tried sorrel soup one but didn't find it very interesting. 

The New Shed

After a long wait, the construction on the new shed has begun.  Originally ordered in the early summer, it was several weeks until the contractor got to ours on his list of orders.  Then there were small problems like hurricanes and heavy rains in between vacations and trips to Haiti.  So, two weeks ago construction began, and the roof has been added since these pictures were taken.  It will house all of the garden tools, pots, the two electric mowers (one is battery), stakes, netting, and the other assorted materials. The first picture shows how it sits in behind the concrete retaining wall.

The picture on the left shows how it will look from the front porch.  This area is the closest we have to a back yard, since it includes the propane tank for the kitchen, the HVAC compressor, and the septic tank cover.  It is the most hidden from any road. This has been our vegetable plot for for ten years, but as the crape myrtle has gotten over twenty feet tall, it is casting too much shade. I am sure we will be planting bushes and vines to provide more screening once it is finished. 

The view from the side shows how it will actually hide most of the utility area from people who are walking the labyrinth, which will be very good.  I expect we will do something on the side with the door and windows to make it more friendly, but there is plenty of time to live with it over the winter before we decide upon anything.  It might even be possible to make a small, "secret" garden, with lots of shade which is very rare for our lot.  As long as we put in some fencing to keep out the long legged rodents that wander in from the nature preserve, we could grow some of those Hostas that David likes so much. 

September Showers bring October Flowers

Well, maybe that is not totally true since there are not a lot of new flowers to be seen.  All of that rain has had its impact, at least in keeping the grass green and growing much later than usual. In this early morning shot, the tops of the 'Karl Forester' grass glows in the nearly horizontal sunshine, a very nice complement to the over 7' tall Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus' visible at the background.

To the left of the photo above, and to the left of the photo on the left, (I guess this proves I am really very leftist!) you can see the early fall color of the Parrotia persica.  This Persian Ironwood has been slowly and steadily putting up more vertical branches and has endured drought without  problems.  It doesn't change color all at once, so it provides a wide palate over several weeks.  Behind it, and to the right, is a Lespedezea Liukiuensis, or Bush clover.  The variety is "Little Volcano" and originally was bought at the National Arboretum sale 4 years ago.  The second year in this location, it has grown to 8 feet tall within the year.  We cut out the short, weak stems in March, and left in the tall ones.  Most of what you see is new sucker growth.  It would keep spreading out wider and wider without our digging out chunks in the spring and giving them away to neighbors.  The flowers are good for 3-4 weeks in the fall when little else is blooming, and leave a purple haze in the grass when they fall off.  Here is a close-up of the flowers.

Staying in a very similar color range is the Echinacea, Katie Saul, a new addition from Plant Delights Nursery.  This was just added this summer, and has already done much better than other Echinacea that we have had for years - I think it is time to give up on those that have continued to be disappointing with short blooming times and flowers that quickly became ratty looking.  I had read that breeders were pushing out Echinacea before thoroughly testing them, and from now on will only purchase them from nurseries like Plant Delights that test them before selling them to the public.  The local garden center has failed me a number of times in providing plants that are appropriate for our climate.  So, I am much more cautious about spending money there.

I am still undecided about this next plant, a lime green leaved version of Pheasant Berry, Leycesteria formosa - the label listed the formal variety as "Notbruce" while in large letters calling it Golden Lanterns.  Why not Bruce?  I have a personal interest in that!

It dies back to the ground in the fall, and only this year has it gotten quite sizable for its third year in the labyrinth.  It does create a spot of bright yellow-green, and the very top of the growth is stained with red.  The flowers do not start appearing until about the middle of the summer, and continue emerging at the plant grows larger.  The bracts are a purplish red and not particularly attractive close-up.  The seeds are supposed to attract birds, but I have not seen any birds eating them so far.  Some places warn that the seeds can get spread around and become invasive, which I have not seen yet, and if it begins, I will grub this out to avoid that happening.  Probably being on the edge of its hardiness zone will avoid that problem.  However, I am curious that if it really has the danger of becoming invasive, why was I able to buy it at the National Arboretum sale?  The deer have left it alone, which gives it an advantage since the deer regularly wander through for a snack. It is pleasant enough, and probably will be fine where it is growing - for now at least.

So, since I have not been keeping up with the blog as much as my readers have expected, I will throw in one last picture.  An arty shot of the sunrise sen through the flowering grasses.  This is one of the great pleasures of growing these tall grasses, along with seeing them sway in the wind, like the waves on the Chesapeake Bay.

After Irene

Yes, I know, Irene passed through at the end of August.  But amazingly, there was no significant damage to any of the gardens in the yard, and only a small hole poked into one porch roof by a falling branch.  Our next door neighbor told us that one branch was "planted" about 4 feet away from our sliding glass doors out of the basement.  We found a deep hole created by that branch.  Our neighbors moved it away, so the picture on the right may be it.  It was about 30 feet long, and the butt end was about 6 inches in diameter - amazing when I consider how far it must have traveled in the wind!

The front of the yard had shredded twigs, with leaves still attached, that had been pulverized by the heavy wind.  The leaves included both oak and tulip popular, and Mike from next door told me that he had looked out in the middle of the night and saw many of the trees between his house and the bay bent at 90 degrees!

The rain arrived first for 24 hours so that the sandy soil was saturated with water when the high winds hit.  Many of the trees were pushed over sideways ripping roots out of the soil.  But other trees had been damaged with some micro-burst patterns, because the trunks were severely twisted.  They had been wrung out like a washcloth, all twisted and splintered.  I am just as glad we were not at home when it all happened, especially since the power was out for a week.  Debbie, from next door, counted 26 trees across the road between our street and the main road.

There is one major improvement for us, thanks to Irene.  Many of the tall, weedy sumac trees that grow on the steep slope between our house and the "flats" were blown over.  This shot of a sailboat seen between the trunks of the crape myrtle show how much more open the view has become.  There is still one ugly sumac surviving. I do hate them because the roots are very in-effective in holding the soil in place, and they are constantly breaking off in much milder storms.  I don't have a picture of the wild cherry that is near the top of the hill, but the top of it was severely broken up.  While I like the cherry for the sake of the birds, the top keeps getting shattered in every wind storm.  Weak sucker growth fills in the top of the cherry, then it is partially broken or bent, and hangs there, slowly rotting before finally falling off.  We want to get a permit from the county to cut it down, and replace it with some smaller, deep rooted trees.  But I know the birds will miss feasting on all of those cherries as they ripen every summer.

 So, the labyrinth seems to have survived the heavy wind and rains.  I am very glad we put in the 10 tons of rock earlier, holding the soil in place at the top of the ravine.  There is fresh color from a new aster and echinea, and some of the foliage is turning colors in anticipation of the cooler temperatures.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  There are more photos to finish up for the next entry.