What's Bloomin' - July 2013

July is one of my favorite months in my garden.   The hard work of spring is over and I can just enjoy my garden and the wildlife it brings.   What better way to spend the day than strolling through my garden with no specific agenda, just deadheading perennials here and there, plucking a few weeds,  marveling at the bees and butterflies, and pausing to take a picture of the newest bloom on the scene (and yes, I must admit, dripping sweat and swatting mosquitoes -- this is Texas in July, after all).

So humor me with my delusions of garden grandeur and come stroll through my garden with me to see what's blooming...

The front perennial beds are full of color:   

Lantana, salvias, phlox, rudbeckia, loosestrife, daylilies, and more.

This swallowtail butterfly paused just long enough on the 'John Fanick' Phlox for a nice photo op.

 

Last month the swallowtails were partial to the bee balm

The fountain by the front walk bubbles away among 

the phlox, rudbeckia, and ferns

 

 

Unlike those pesky mosquitoes,
annual cosmos is always welcome wherever it lands.

The bold foliage of the 'King Humbert' Canna provides a beautiful backdrop for the orange cosmos and 'Karley Rose' fountain grass on one side, as well as the spikes of 'Morden's Pink' Loosestrife on the other side

The new hellstrip (a/k/a heavenly patch of perennials) along the street is starting to fill in nicely.

The crape myrtles are in full bloom

 Mosquitoes being the exception, good things can come in small packages.   

Katie's Ruellia is a faithful summer bloomer

I am starting to become a daylily addict, 

recently adding seven new varieties to my garden.

Here are a few still blooming this month.

Top Left:  Orange (unknown variety - gift from a friend)

Top Right:  Hawaiian Nights

Lower Left:  Persian Market

Lower Right:  Rosy Rhino

Moving to the backyard....

This pink water lily is new to my garden (also a gift from a friend)

After getting off to a very rocky start after being transplanted in 2011 (our worst summer on record!), the 'Endless Summer' Hydrangea proved to be a survivor and bloomed beautifully this year. 

 

And the Oakleaf Hydrangeas have faded to a lovely shade of pink.

 

Unlike my sweaty clothes after a day in the garden, 

the blooms of my 'Guacamole' Hosta have a gardenia-like fragrance :-)

Speaking of sweating, on a recent trip to Beaufort, South Carolina 

(it's just a wee bit humid there),

 I purchased this new hummingbird feeder.  

I hope the hummers like it as much as I do

All sweating and swatting aside,
I hope you've enjoyed July's blooms in my garden.

Join Carol at May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day
and a look at more gardens around the world.

And may your delusions of garden grandeur become reality

Toni :-)

Hellstrip Redemption

Redemption:  The act or process of redeeming

Redeem:

1. To reform, change (for the better)
2. To save, rescue, or recover.
3. To reclaim (to return land to a suitable condition for use).

My hellstrip has been redeemed!  It has been reformed, transformed, and changed for the better.   It has been rescued from a mundane life of Bermuda and weeds needing to be mowed on a weekly basis.  I have reclaimed that long hellstrip of lawn and returned the land to a suitable condition for growing beautiful blooming perennials that attract visitors of the pollinator and people kind.

Here is how the area looked in January right after having the utilities marked.

The transformation began in March by having the Bermuda grass removed.  As the Bermuda attempted a comeback, and as soon as temperatures allowed, I followed up with Roundup applications to make sure the Bermuda was killed to the root, leaving me with a clean slate. 

Then in late May the day I had been waiting for arrived.  

    

3 cubic yards of compost, 2 tons of cobblestone, and 1800 pounds of moss rock boulders were delivered first thing in the morning, and I got right to work.

Since phone cables run the length of the area literally just inches below the surface, and sometimes on top of the ground, I could not till the soil, so I opted to mound the bed with compost. 

Then with the help of my husband, the largest boulders were placed in random spots throughout the bed.    I  also added several pieces of flagstone along the front edge of the bed to make an area for visitors to have something to step on instead of flowers.  Then I began adding cobblestones along the edges to hold the mounded compost.

On Day 2 I finished adding the cobblestones along the edges of the bed.

 

On Day 3 I added the plants, and on Day 4 I mulched the bed.

And here's the finished product!

Notice the heart-shaped boulder :-)   

I love how the new bed turned out!!

You can see the taller plantings in the bed on the other side of the sidewalk.   All of the plants I chose for the hellstrip plantings are lower growing.

 (See detailed plant list below)

Elfin Thyme was added between the flagstones.  I am not sure if it can take this much heat, but I will replace it with sedum acre if it does not do well.  A variety of sedums and thymes were added along the cobblestone edges to soften the look over time as they creep between the rocks.

Before and After

Here's a list of the plants I used:

Catmint 'Walker's Low'

Zexmenia hispida

Lamb's Ear 'Helen Von Stein'

Pink Skullcap, Scutellaria suffrutescens

Dianthus 'Bath's Pink'

Blackfoot Daisy, Melampodium leucanthum

Salvia nemerosa 'Snow Hill' and 'May Night'

Four Nerve Daisy, Hymenoxys

Creeping Phlox, Phlox subulata

Dwarf Mexican Petunia, Ruellia 'Katie's'

Daylily 'Little Missy,' 'Little Zinger,' 'Little Trooper,' 'Dutch Art,' 'Sissy'

Pine Muhly, Muhlenbergia dubia

Germander

Gray Creeping Germander

Santolina (gray)

Thyme:  Thymus vulgaris Lavendar, Elfin, Silver Posie, Lemon, Woolly

Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce,' 'Lemon Ball'

Sedum kamtschaticum

Sedum potosinum

Sedum sarmentosum

Sedum mexicanum

Sedum acre

Daffodils:  'Golden Dawn,' 'Tete a Tete,' 'Erlicheer,' 'Carlton,' 'Ice Follies'

'Wise Blue' Starflower

I also added some 'Cora' Periwinkles and 'Sundial' Moss Rose just for some annual color this year until the perennials grow and fill in the extra spaces.   

Yes, my hellstrip has been redeemed!    In fact, I'd say it's downright heavenly now.

Do you have a piece of ground that needs rescuing?

Happy Gardening!

Toni :-)

My Garden is Growing

Spring is well under way here in North Texas, and my garden is growing.

The wildflowers and ornamental grasses are growing, 

and more perennials are emerging every day.

Buds are turning into leaves.

Ferns are unfurling.

The lawn has gotten its annual topdressing of compost,
so it is growing and greening.

 My veggie garden is growing like gangbusters, and I've already had my first harvest of carrots and asparagus :-)

But my garden is growing in another way.   The front perennial bed is expanding.  That patch of grass between the sidewalk and the street, commonly known among gardeners as the "hellstrip," is on its way to becoming a heavenly patch of perennials.

I have been wanting to rip out this section of lawn for a couple years now, but with other projects going on and having my garden on tour last spring, I put my plans on hold.

In January of this year we had a drain repaired in another part of the front yard, so the underground utilities were marked across the whole front yard, including the hellstrip area. I thought, as long as the utilities are marked so that we can see where we need to be careful, now sure seems like a great time to start the hellstrip project.

Unfortunately, some of those utilities are just inches below the surface, so the grass removal could not be as thorough as I would have liked.  I am going to have to resort to spraying with Roundup to kill any remaining grass because I am not going to battle Bermuda for the rest of my life.   I consider myself an organic gardener, but I do have my limitations.  If there were ever a reason to cross over the line for a bit, it is for the eradication of Bermuda.  Believe me, if I could dig without either cutting phone service to the neighborhood, electrocuting myself, or causing a gas explosion, I would be digging to my heart's content, but that is just not an option.  So, my fellow organic gardening friends, please forgive me, but I will be nuking the Bermuda as soon as it starts to rear its invasive little head.

I got online to look for inspiration and ideas for designing my hellstrip plantings, and I came across a blog called the Art of Gardening.  Jim's post called Living Hellstrips shows a collection of beautiful hellstrip planting designs.

When I came upon this picture, I knew I had found what I was looking for.   Adding the cobblestones will hopefully allow me to raise the planting areas enough to be out of the zone of the utility lines.    My plan is to use low-growing perennials (no taller than 1 foot tall) so that the perennials in the beds on the other side of the sidewalk can still be seen from the street. 

So at this point the initial grass removal has been done.

Complete eradication of the Bermuda roots now lurking below the surface will just take some time, so I am trying to be patient.  I need to wait until the temperatures are warm enough and the Bermuda is actively growing in order for the glyphosate applications to be effective.

Here's the list of plant options I'm considering:

Lamb's Ear - Stachys byzantina 'Helen von Stein'
Pink Skullcap - Scuttellaria suffrutescens
Sedum (various)
Katie's Ruellia - Dwarf Mexican Petunia
'Azure Skies' Heliotrope
Thyme
Creeping Phlox - Phlox subulata
'Bath's Pink' Dianthus
Scabiosa
'May Night' Salvia - Salvia nemorosa
Four-Nerve Daisy - Tetraneuris scaposa
Catmint 'Walker's Low' - Nepeta
'Hameln' Fountaingrass or Mexican Feathergrass

Stay tuned for further updates on my latest garden project; I can't wait to get it growing!

Toni :-)

P.S. Check out Rhone Street Gardens to see the beautiful transformation of the parking strip in front of Scott's Portland home.