Inaugural Foliage Follow-Up

This is my first ever Foliage Follow-Up, and it has perfect timing: just yesterday I was marveling at my gorgeous and HUGE Stachys byzantina (a.k.a. Lamb's Ear) Helen von Stein!

Helen von Stein Lamb's Ear and 'Valentine' roses

I tried them once in my old garden and they died, but not before looking profoundly craptastic. Not sure what the secret is this time except they're in a slightly elevated bed? But whatever, I look like a Lamb's Ear rockstar.

Then there's the Canna 'Flambe', with it's glowy goodness:

I flippin' love Canna 'Flambe'

My Pennisetum 'First Knight' doesn't make for a spectacular photo, but it's actually growing (which was questionable a month ago) so it deserves recognition:

Pennisetum 'First Knight'

I tried to capture a decent picture of the 'Ruby Falls' Weeping Redbud, but I don't think I succeeded in doing it justice:

Weeping Redbud 'Ruby Falls'

It's a funny looking little tree, and I do mean little. It's only about 2 feet tall, and the top of it is totally flat. It looks kind of out-of-place in the front bed with all the Salvia, Canna and Yucca, but I ain't moving it.

The Chocolate Mimosa requires no words:

Chocolate Mimosa

 But it DOES require two pictures:

My pots against the fence, with Bamboo Muhly (which may or may not do okay in that much shade) and my now-tiny 'Sun King' Aralia (which definitely will):

And because potted plants need love too:

 No idea what any of these are, but I love them together.

I blew my whole wad on a single Foliage Follow-Up, didn't I??

Mother Nature in action

This amuses me:

That's a Salvia Clevelandii, which blooms purple but has two random white blooms. Why? Because it can.

As an aside, deer HATE the smell of this plant. They were boldly eating my roses until I planted this single plant, and they haven't been back since.

And then there was the Leonardo DiCaprio of Yuccas:

"I'm king of the world!!"

Lastly, as I was sitting on the back patio recovering from digging up a big stupid stump, two little birds landed on the grass and started squawking furiously. I walked over towards them, thinking maybe a baby that had fallen out of a nest? They flew up into the trees above the fence, but kept screaming. 

As soon as I sat back down they went right back to the grass to yell some more, so I walked back over there and looked around more carefully. Turns out they were yelling at this:

I was mildly freaked out - I've never encountered a snake before, and there he was right by the back patio! I never saw one in my old garden and we didn't have those in Hawaii either, so I don't have a lot of practice dealing with them. He was looking right at me and I did notice that his head wasn't diamond-shaped, so I thought that meant he wasn't poisonous? 

I hollered for Ryan (who took the picture as the snake took off), and apparently it's just a rat snake. Glad I didn't kill him. Even more glad I didn't encounter him during any of the ba-zillion times I was sitting on the ground panting from digging the stupid stump out. From now on I guess I'll look before I flop!

There are SNAILS on my siding

Where are they going??

There's nothing up there, snails!

Someday I will have dirt-colored siding, so you can't tell when it needs to be power washed. Don't judge me.

Plant all the plants!

Today I died and went to heaven: I got to go see two amazing gardens up close and personal, meet bunches of talented and creative Austin gardeners, AND got some new (free!) plants!

I was so inspired by both the hardscaping and the plants! When I left my brain was working overtime, trying to imagine new ways to incorporate rock, wildflowers, changes in elevation, you name it.

Some were crazy thoughts (magically persuading my neighbors to cut down their trees around our back fence so that area gets more sun), some totally feasible (gradually removing more front lawn so I can plant big gorgeous agaves and yucca and cacti).

Both gardens had some impressive solutions to serious drainage problems. I've got a lot more pondering to do on that front.

I'm so ecstatic to have met more obsessive gardeners!! It's freakin awesome to geek out about plants and not worry about boring anyone!

I'm thinking about converting my backyard into a koi pond

I'm mostly there after today's rains, I just need the fish.

Front of the house. All that water is flowing from our yard and Neighbor Steve's yard into the street.

Flooded area between our houses. You can see why the bottom of the fence is rotting....

Inside our fence. Note the submerged edging.

When the water gets too high on Neighbor Steve's side, it pours between those salvia and into our yard.

This is when I start to get nervous: when we have waves of water on the back patio. I've had to redirect/block the water with boards on a few occasions. Today was not one, but we got close.

Those yucca are not going to be happy about this.

That blank area between the beds is where water flows in from the yard of the neighbor behind us. They ripped up their soil and put down a ton of rock, so it all just flows "downhill". I hate them a little.

That's not the way I had those boards laid out.

I put some mulch down here today, just before the rains started. And then Mother Nature dumped an ocean on Austin.

Could be a lot worse, though.

Remember the sun?

I've decided to post some pictures of the garden and my plants from just before Austin became Seattle.

I love my new Canna 'Flambe':

And this happened, which made me soooo happy:

I have to confess, my love for pokey things is growing in no small part due to this beast:

Loving my Chocolate Mimosa tree and my Bonfire Patio Peach!

I think I have peaches growing!

Last but not least, my healthy and happy Pachys:

Look how tiny they all were in 2011!

Sigh, now excuse me while I put on my waders and get our ark stocked up with cat food and wine.

Gardener's remorse

I find myself second-guessing my decision to add shades of purple to the back yard.

I find myself second-guessing my decision to try to combine purples and reds.

I find myself wondering if I should put the Azaleas over in the "red" beds on the left side of the back yard, and make the right side beds purple-y.

I find myself second-guessing my decision to use any color, even red, and wondering if I'm just lazy/taking the easy way out.


I need to stop looking at pictures of gardens in Oregon.


And then just before I click 'Publish' for this post, I come across this picture and realize it might possibly work out just fine.

Bloomtown, Darcy Daniels