This Old House Summer 2010 In My Garden

I didn't post much this summer (as in only once) but I've been hard at work on the house on the weekends where weather and time allowed.

The following pictures are of my new gardens.  I put one  of the front gardens in and worked on the west side of the house.
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You can see bridal veil spirea in the back, it'll bloom early in spring in white.  There's also bleeding heart in white, a Japanese primrose, a bloodroot, some delphinium for blue and mid season bloom, and 3 azalea for late season color, and along the stonework is some pachysandra I had left over from the west bank.  At least that's the plan for when the garden is established.  It was a bit of a struggle keeping it watered this summer with the record heat.  Also  Centaurea montana, keeps trying to take over the neighborhood.  It's pretty,  but it is also an extremely aggressive self seeder and I never planted it.

pacysandra

Centaurea montana

Most of my early mornings were spent removing the grass and planting the west bank of the house with pachysandra.  It's another fast spreading plant, but it is contained within the retaining wall and sidewalk. In spite of the heat, and the fact that i was told it couldn't tolerate the heat you can see by the photo below that it is doing well.  This side of the house gets all the storms and afternoon sun.  So, though I spend a lot more time weeding i no longer have to mow this slope.


As the yard slopes into the backyard I've planted agastache ( not  nearly as large as this pic).  I love the smell,(and so do the bees) somewhere between licorice (anise) and root beer.  I don't know how tender this plant is but it is certainly in the warmest spot in my yard.  Beside it are some hybrid daylilies in Moroccan sunset and another of the lavender/purple color whose name I've forgotten right now.


In addition to gardening, which I love in spite of the back breaking work of it, I've been painting and doing some landscaping.  Pictures of that are in the next post.