This summer, after getting over the shock of losing so many plants in the spring, we still had a pretty good show in the garden. We had lots of blooms, and the plants from 2018 were noticeably bigger this year.
After loving our wildflowers last year, I added more annual seeds to the plot and expected last year’s perennial wildflowers to finally bloom. Unfortunately, I did not account for the fact that, along with last year’s perennials, and this year’s annuals, we would also be in for a bumper crop of weeds. So this year’s wildflowers, while pretty, we’re not nearly as spectacular as last year’s thanks to the weeds.
I also cleared out the small, very shady area at the very far end of the Hellscape, and put down wildflower seeds for shade there. While I got a few flowers, part of the space gets no sun at all, so even the shady wildflowers didn’t do that well.
At the end of this summer, Tom built a deck next to the fern garden, completing the hardscape.
This is what the garden looked like in the summer of 2019.
The Hellscape is certainly looking a lot less hellish. The agastaches were lovely but sadly never returned. But the sweet woodruff and the goatsbeard are keepers.
I love the cornflowers, alliums and artemisia here
The Cecile Brunner is blooming and climbing like crazy while Jerry has never looked sharper
The snow hill salvia is a nice backdrop to the bench
I’m not sure what that tall yellow wildflower is
Apparently tomatoes do really well in Oregon!
Early summer in the wildflowers
View from the house
This is one of the roses that we inherited. I can’t figure out what kind it is, nor when it blooms, because in the three years that we have lived here, we have not gotten a single rose. Yes, that’s my thumb
Another view into what was once the most terrible part of the yard
The lovely Ms. Brunner!
A nice view of the Jupiter’s beard, the rose that makes no roses, the lambs ears, and the lupines. We started with three lupines, but come spring 2020, we are down to two
Closeup of the wildflower/weed garden
Another view of the Jupiter’s beard and lupines
On the left is a big clump of Gooseneck loosestrife, which has since spread well into the shade garden, and next to that, spiderwort. These might be the two best plant names in the garden.
Closeup of the shade garden, with creeping Jenny, ferns, columbines, penstemons, and tufted hair grass
Perennial herb garden
The shade garden from above
Salmonberry, lamb’s ears, catmint, peony and salvia
The “upper deck”
We put up an arbor for one of the roses to climb on
Closeup of the roses near the arbor
Tom is building a deck!
Decking!
Another view!
The new deck!
My professional (lol) paint job, with Tom’s new deck in the background
These guaras are among my favorite plants in the yard
Wallflowers in front
The view from the back
And from the deck
At the height of summer
Late summer in the shade
Late summer in the wildflowers
Who knew that lambs ears made these spiky flowers? I did not.
Margo DeMello 