This wasn't really meant to turn into a blog post. But here we are!
Recently I was feeling discouraged with my landscaping efforts. One of my Daisy plants randomly died, my new Geum keeps wilting, we didn't buy any mulch this year, and some voles nearly decimated my couple of clumps of Sedum and devoured the few tiny Poppy sprouts that came up.
To help myself feel better about the plant carnage, I went looking through photos from the past few years to see how the landscaping looked when we first moved in. We moved in a week after Adeline was born in 2017, so I didn't have the time or energy to change anything outside until the following year. After comparing old photos to the current state of things, I was actually impressed with how much I had accomplished, especially considering a large section of landscaping didn't even exist until last year.
I thought y'all might enjoy taking a walk down memory lane with me while I share my garden progress. I suppose I'll start at the back of the house and work my way around to the front. You should be able to click on the photos to make them bigger.
I have struggled A LOT with this section of landscaping. When we moved in it was filled with lava rock and a clump of Hens And Chicks that didn't look very happy. I removed all of the rocks, a bunch of old landscape fabric, and pulled out a lot of intrusive roots from the nearby maple trees. Here is a picture of everything I pulled out.
Between 2018 and 2021 I had a hard time figuring out what to plant back here. It is a VERY shady area and I didn't want to fill it all up with just one type of plant. While the Creeping Jenny took off in the smaller section (I later added the Jacob's Ladder in the corner) I didn't really want to repeat it next door or just plop some Hostas in there either because I already have quite a few growing on the North side of the house. I tried a little Primrose plant and it died. We bought an Azalea that would supposedly grow in shade and it nearly died too (I moved it to a new spot this year). I planted some Mint but then Noah wanted me to relocate it because he was afraid it would take over everything. The one thing that did end up thriving was a little clump of Irish Moss. I bought two more clumps the next year and for a while there were just three clumps of moss and a half dead Azalea in this area until Noah's mom gave me a Fern to add to the space last year. We not so affectionately called this area "the dirt patch" for quite some time. I had a hard time finding shade plants that I actually liked until earlier this year I came upon the idea of turning this area in to a "shaded woodland rock garden kind of thing" (that's how I described it to Noah). I discovered a plant called European Ginger on Pinterest which led me to a shade plant nursery in New Hampshire. I ordered six different shade plants from them (none of them are Hostas) and they finally arrived in the middle of June. They were a little smaller than I anticipated and ragged from going through the mail, but plopping those little plants and some rocks into the dirt finally made this landscaping actually look nice. I'll list the new shade plants below.
Anemone 'Wild Swan'
Pearly White Painted Fern
Heuchera 'Wildberry'
Brunnera 'Emerald Mist'
Coming around the house we have this little area.
The little bush is a Dwarf Lilac, and for a while it was the only plant growing here. I later relocated some Daffodil bulbs to this spot and there used to be some Russian Sage growing here until I moved it to a different place. The two smaller plants in the newer picture are a Yucca we transplanted from Noah's parents' house and a pink Coneflower from my Mom.
Next is the biggest landscaping project. Taking down the garden box.
The garden box was crumbling at the corner and slanted on the East side when we moved in, so we weren't sure if it was going to stay there. The Hens And Chicks from the shady area in the back were transplanted into the box, and while they were a lot happier in a sunny spot, it was difficult to find other plants that enjoyed the arid conditions because the dirt in the box dried out so quickly. In early March of 2020 we took down the garden box, as you can see in the middle picture, and created an area of landscaping to somewhat mimic the landscaping on the West side of the front steps.
The fence in the next couple pictures is annoying and makes it hard to see the plants, but I have to put it up otherwise the wild bunnies will obliterate my young plants.
I had a bit of a rocky start filling in this new area. In 2020 I started a lot of plants from seed. Daisies, Rosemary, Sage, and Lavender. I planted about twenty Daisies and the bunnies ate all but one of them. Only one Lavender plant survived and it has exploded this year. I successfully over wintered a Rosemary plant and replanted it outdoors this year. The Sage has gone crazy and is starting to take over everything. I have a whole bunch of different plants growing in here now and it's starting to fill in nicely.
On the West side we pulled out a few Boxwood bushes that I wasn't a fan of. My motto is "plant as many flowers as possible!"
I'm going for a bit of a wild cottage garden kind of feeling and I think I'm headed in the right direction. I really love the Hollyhocks and I'm quite excited to be growing Morning Glories this year. A couple of friends have given me Russian Sage, Black-Eyed Susans, and tall Daisies to add to my garden. My Mom gave me a clump of yellow Irises that are from our house back in Texas. I'm excited to have finally planted some Thyme this year and I grew my own Chamomile from seed! You can't really see it in these pictures, but I relocated the sad Azalea to a spot under the Flowering Cherry Tree in the middle of the Irises. It is much happier in its new location.
All of these Irises and Day Lilies came from a one-foot square section on the North side of the house. You can see how sparsely I planted them and I can't believe how much they have grown! It took a couple years for the Irises to recover and start blooming, but they are so pretty and I really love their scent. The blank section of mulch in this area is filled with Daffodils and Crocuses in the Spring. I dug so many rocks out of this section of landscaping in 2018 and some of those ended up coming back to the house for the shaded rock garden at the beginning of this blog post.
I have had some failures and a lot of learning opportunities while building the flower garden of my dreams. While it has sometimes been frustrating, there is a lot of excitement over each new flower that blooms and how much the plants change from year to year.
I will include a few closer shots of the plants in the bigger sections of landscaping so you can see the details better. I tried to label the different plants, but I wasn't sure if the text would be big enough to read. If you see anything you want to know the name of, just let me know!
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