Another opinion

This week I got another opinion on the design. It was cheap - he literally just drew over the other design with his ideas. He had some good ideas and it was more or less what I was after. Here are his annotations:

Design 2

These are his comments from top left to bottom right (roughly):

1. In place of the Bottlebrush Buckeye, he suggested Burkwood Viburnum or a Burning Bush because he didn't think there'd be enough light.
2. Same for Japanese Anemone for which he suggested pink Astilbe instead (labeled "1").
3. He wasn't thrilled about the Dogwood tree, and instead suggested a Rosebud Tree.
4. He agree with heavily trimming up the existing viburnum.
5. He was unsure about the Blackeyed Susans (labeled "2") getting enough light. Instead he suggested Gayfeather.
6. Likewise with the Cransebill 'Rozanne' (labeled "3") in place of which he suggested Stella Daylily.
7. He agreed with getting rid of the existing spirea bush (replacing with endless summer hydrangea).
8. He suggested putting the hydrandea bushes around the corner and to not have the one out away from the house (he 'X'ed it out in the design). I agree.
9. In front of the hydrangeas (labeled "4"), he suggested planting white Astilbe (7). He said it would in with the pink Astilbe. I like it.
10. In front of those around the curve (labeled "5"), he suggested planting 8 hostas. I'm not sure I like this idea. And I'm also a little concerned with the area under the tree not having much winter interest.
11. He didn't like the idea of the Liatris 'Kobold' in front of the window (labeled "A", previously "4") and instead suggested planting 3 Blue Holly bushes (which actually was what was there before I ripped them up earlier this year).
12. In front of those (labeled "2/7"), he suggested either Stella D'ora Daylily or Sedum 'Autumn Joy'.
13. In front of those (labeled "6"), he suggested Myrtle Vinca ground-cover. I'm tot sure about this.
14. And finally, an alternative to the the barberry is a single bush of either Globe Blue Spruce or Euonymos along with "summer color" annuals (labled "B"). Euonymos is what is on the other side of the sidewalk so that would tie into those, so I'm leaning in that direction.

And that's it. I wish I could have had a completely fresh design instead of just modifying the existing one, but it was one of the ways that I was able to get it for cheaper - I got what I paid for, I suppose.

I still don't feel 100% confident in everything, but I do think it's closer to what I had in mind, so I think the rest is up to me. What I feel the most confident about is the Hydrangeas, so I think this weekend I'll get to work on removing the existing bush on the corner and plant some Hydrangeas (I still have the potted one that my mom gave me)!

A landscape design

Recently, I hired a professional landscape designer to help with redoing some of the landscaping in the front yard. Visual design is not one of my strong points and since this is our home and also an investment we decided to hire some help with it.

First, I'll explain the problem. I have touched on it when I was spreading mulch and, of course, the recent landscape alteration which is really what spurred this endeavor since a large area was wiped clean of all vegetation. Much of the shrubs on the South and South-East corner of our house are old and overgrown - they just don't look very good and for a while I have been thinking about what I could do to about it. Ultimately, I think the best thing solution is to replace them, but with what? And so, here we are.

This is the design (click to enlarge):

Landscape design

And the list of the new plants with links to an image search for visuals of them:

• Crimson Pygmy Barberry
• Boxwood 'Green Velvet'
• Hydrangea 'Endless Summer'
• Bottlebrush Buckeye
• Dogwood
• Japanese Anemone
• Blackeyed Susans
• Cranesbill 'Rozanne'
• Liatris 'Kobold'
• Sedum 'Angelina'

Overall, the design is a lot more plant-y than I was expecting. I thought it would blend better with the existing landscaping, but it seems quite different. In general, I like it, but I'm also hesitant.

I really like the hydrangeas around the corner of the house. I also think that the Blackeyed Susans would be really nice as well as the other plants in that area: Cranesbill, Japanese Anemone, and Bottlebrush Buckeye.

What I'm most unsure about is the line of Boxwoods under the tree. I have a hard time envisioning it, but it just seems too linear and similar to the bushes we have now. I think I'll have to see if I can get an alternative idea for that area - perhaps just having fewer of them and more separated?

Of course nothing is set in stone yet and I'm sure they can give me some other options for some of the plants. I'm very anxious to get started on this project, but I also don't want to rush it.

More plants!

We got lots of new plants this past weekend - all of them gifts!

I'll start with some plants that my parents brought for us. First is a beautiful hydrangea plant:

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer'

This plant like part sun and grows to 5 feet high and 4 feet wide. I'm thinking about putting it on the north side of the house that was recently "renovated", but still working on that.

They also gave us another beautiful fuchsia hanging plant which we hung on the front porch:

Fuchsia hanging plant

This plants also likes part sun, so I'm hoping that it gets enough there.

Next, my mom and I made a visit to a nearby plant nursery, and of course we couldn't leave empty-handed... and my mom insisted on paying.

Here's what we bought home:

Japanese Painted Fern 'Pictum'

Creeping Phlox 'Candy Stripes'

Goat's Beard 'Misty Lace'

Calibrachoa hanging plant

The fern, creeping phlox, and goat's beard haven't yet been planted (speaking of goat's beard, I should introduce him to his dwarf relative). I hung the hanging plant in the back yard. It needs full sun, so I'm really hoping it does ok there.

I'm planning on trying to find a designer to help figure out what to do with the north side of the house, and what to replace some of the old overgrown bushes in the front yard with. Until then I'm going to hold off on planting anything in the front yard.

Thanks again to my parents for all the plants!

Tall fescue, rose bush, & daisy kit updates

Quite a few updates today:

First of all, thanks to my wife for the guest post. I look forward to following her vegetable project! Also, just to make it very clear: I'm no plant whisperer! I have quite the knack for killing plants, which is why I think this tall fescue extermination project has a very high probability of success!

That said, I think the tall fescue is starting to succumb to the herbicide. My observations are that the grass has gotten even lighter in color (almost yellow), is not growing nearly as quickly as it used to, and when I look closely there are even some completely brown/dead blades. This about right on schedule according to the instructions. Here's a few shots:

Dying Tall fescue about 2 weeks after Certainty herbicide application.

Note the many dead blades.

Needless to say I'm very excited.

In other exciting news, our new rose bush is beginning to grow leaves! Here's a few shots of that:

I haven't had to water it yet since we have had a steady amount of rain lately.

And finally, an update on the daisy grow kit planted back on March 22nd: they're still growing! I gave it some fertilizer a few days ago according to the instructions (once they reach 2-3 inches). I'd guess they're up to 3-4 inches now:

Daisies after 6 weeks.

And finally (for real), so far it appears that no other plants have been infected by the fungus (or whatever it is) and the phlox doesn't appear to have any new spots on its remaining leaves, thankfully.

That's all for now.

Calum Memorial Garden is planted

The sun came out today for just a little bit and allowed the temperature to reach 72 degrees, so my wife and I got out and worked on the memorial garden for our son and planted the plants that we purchased yesterday.

I started out by digging up the phlox and transplanting it to the front yard. My options for where to put it were limited, but I snuck it in near the hydrangea tree:

Phlox transplanted to the front yard.

It will hopefully be more happy there. However, prior to moving it I noticed that the lower leaves of about half the plant had some dark speckles on the leaves.

Dark speckles on lower leaves of Phlox.

I thought that it might be the powdery mildew disease that Phlox are prone to getting and it might be, however, upon looking at photos of the disease online, it doesn't look very similar, being not white and all. In any case I pruned off every leaf that had it. The really interesting thing is that those speckles weren't present yesterday. I looked at a zoomed in photo taken yesterday and they don't appear to be there:

Photo of the same plant just yesterday with no speckles present.

I did a quick online search and found a forum post with pictures that look similar (yes, quite the scientific diagnosis). According to the responses it's leaf spot fungal disease / septoria divaricata fungus and is spread from the soil. This would make sense since we were digging up plants there and soil was flying everywhere and I know some landed on and near the phlox plant. We also had rain last night that could have splashed it up onto the leaves. I'll be keeping a close eye on the other plants we just put in in that area. I need to get some mulch ASAP to help prevent it from getting on the plant leaves. I can't believe how quickly that infected the plant. I hope it survives because I really like it, and of course all of the new plants that we just labored over.

Anyway, I also transplanted the other hosta that was behind the phlox to the north side of the house along with the other hosta I transplanted over there yesterday. Boy are there a lot of roots over there. I could barely find a spot to plant them (oh and I almost cut our cable line...). Here's a shot of what that area looks like now:

North side of the house with hosta transplants.

There'll be a stone pathway through there soon someday.

And after deciding how to arrange the plants (which was borderline random), my wife and I got to planting them and this is how it ended up:

Calum Memorial Garden

To finish it off we are going to get an engraved stone to put in it.

Here is the list of plants that we planted:

Wild Sweet William, Woodlan Phlox
'Blue Moon'
(Phlox divaricata)

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans)

Tiarella 'Jeepers Creepers'
Creeping Foam Flower

'Praying Hands' Hosta

Dwarf Goatsbeard
(Aruncus aethusifolius)

Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba')

Golden Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart')

White-flowered Epimedium
(Epimedium x youngianum 'Niveum')

New Guinea Impatiens
(Impatiens hawkeri)

Who names these things?? Woodland Phlox - hey that sounds nice; Jacob's ladder - sure, I can buy that; but Jeepers Creepers? Dwarf Goatsbeard? Huh??

Anyway, in addition to the garden, my wife put together the pot of Begonias for the patio:

Pot of Begonias.

Brigitte & Nadine Rhine Begonia

They look lovely! My parents gave us a pot of yellow begonias as a house warming gift in 2007 and they bloom beautifully all summer long! That is why I bought them.

And finally to wrap this long post up, I planted another pretty hosta that we purchased next to some other hostas in the backyard:

It's the lighter colored green one in between the two large ones
toward the left center.

Hosta 'Orange Marmaloade'

Good luck, plants.

The plants are starting to come up

I took a look around the garden beds and I noticed that many other plants are starting to grow in addition to the daffodils. Here are a few photos:

Phlox

Astilbe (I think)

The 'Montgomery' Astilbe

Rose bush buds

I believe this is a Crocus (right) next to a tulip (left).

I'm excited!

2010: Part 1

In 2010, I was a bit more busy. I did some planting in July and major work on the lawn in the fall.

For this post, I'm just going to cover the July plantings. These are the perennials that I planted in the front yard:

'Kobold' Spike Gayfeather, 'Montgomery' Astilbe, Perennial Gaillardia

And here are the perennials that I planted in the back yard:

'Nora Leigh' Garden Plox, Coral Bells, 'Midnight Rose' Coral Bells

I also planted some Impatiens. Here are some photos of what it looked like once planted:

Phlox, surrounded by three Impatiens. Also visible are some Hostas and the
Japanese Maple.

This is just to the right of the above photo. Both Coral Bells. Also
visible is a large Hosta.

And finally, I bought some potted plants (one was a Geranium) and a hanging plant of some sort.

Geranium

Hanging plant. I can't remember what this was, but the pink/orange
 flowers opened when it was sunny. Very beautiful.

An awesome colorful leafy plant that I will definitely be getting again.
These leafs were in excess of 8" in length. Unfortunately,
I don't remember the name. 

This is a close-up of the Phlox. Very beautiful.
Unfortunately, it lost its flowers as time went on.

Everything did fairly well except for the Phlox and Geranium. The Phlox didn't get enough light and quickly lost all of its blossoms and struggled to grow more (but stayed alive), and the Geranium I over-watered. Lessons learned: Geraniums like it dry; Phlox need more light - being in the backyard, I'm not surprised and knew when I bought it that it probably wasn't going to have enough light. I'm going to try to transplant it this spring to the front yard in a hopefully sunnier spot. We'll see how that goes...

In the next post, I'll cover the lawn project that I did in the fall.

2009

I haven't done much since we moved in. I really only trimmed the bushes up as best I could until the fall of 2009 when I won a silent auction for about $200 worth of plants and some manual labor. This was the first semi-major work done, granted I didn't do any of it. First of all, we had the extremely large and overgrown burning bush removed and replaced with a much smaller Kyushu Hydrangea Tree. In addition, we had the two "prickly bushes" (maybe Barberry?) on both sides of the garage replaced with two rose bushes (forget what type). Other than that, we had some other flowering plants planted in other parts of the yard. In the backyard along the deck, we had some Lily Turf (I think) planted. In the front yard, we had a handful of different varieties - all perennials, but I didn't pay close enough attention at the time to remember what they were. I'll have to figure them out some day. However, some of them didn't make it the next year, probably due to my lack of properly caring for them. It also could have been the soil they were planted in as I noticed when later replanting in 2010 that roughly 4-6 inches below the soil is clay.