February 2004 Garden Photos

The Carex testacea sedge (grass tufts) thrived all winter, growing a little thicker and taller. The sedum in the little blue pot continued to grow too. I put it where it would get a full southern exposure, but I didn't expect it to grow in winter. Looking at this picture reminds me I need to do something with that cracked but pretty blue birdbath. We used it all last year as a kitty water bowl on the patio, but it doesn't hold water any more.

Speaking of sedum, a clump by the front steps has nice coloring in winter. It's pinkish-green in summer too, but not this purple. It also seem to have continued to spread a bit throughout the winter. All of the sedums I have in the ground may enjoy winter because that's when they're not partially covered by leafier plants.

I'm always complaining about the varmints (whoever they may be) biting off my crocuses--at least, that is, the ones they don't dig up altogether. Here, in the foreground, is the evidence of the little biters' work:

The crocuses in the gravel at the edge of the patio have not been plagued with bites. On sunny days, the flowers open. It looks like more are sprouting there in the center.

The leaf-shoots from some of the bulbs have pierced the wet leaves on top of them! How do they do that?

Below is a narrow raised bed against the east foundation of the house. It contains mostly plants that love to bake in summer. Apparently I planted some bulbs in it too, though I don't remember what they are. I was surprised to see them sprouting here.

The other end of the same bed. This area has three or four small sedum clumps that will fill in over the summer, a patch of blue star creeper, and on the lower right, some little purple-flowering plant I moved from a spot where it didn't do much. It has grown new leaves all winter. Of course, I can't remember what it is. I do write down a lot of what I plant, but especially a few years ago some of the smaller ones would escape my spotty recordkeeping.

Several of my buckets of yard rocks. I'm planning to use them to fill a pool and a channel for the overflow from the rain barrel. I have to get out there with the shovel and sod-stripper pretty soon.

An azalea 'Sir Robert' that I planted in a pot after several I put in the ground promptly died.

Below is a small piece of the little planting strip along the south foundation. I put a lot of hollyhocks, daffodils, and anemones here, along with a euphorbia 'Orange Man' that didn't do well in a pot. I also have a lot of California poppies coming up as volunteers from way over on the other side of the house. I keep on pulling most of them out because a few go a long way.

The lavatera 'Barnsley' below was described as a tender perennial, but it has not stopped growing since I planted it last July. It's a foot tall. I'm hoping it will get tall and willowy in summer.

Below, the winter-flowering viburnum 'Dawn' that is so happy in the terrible clay soil in the weediest part of the back slope. Behind it is one of the spots where I dump removed turf, prunings, and other non-weedy plant material to smother some of the giant weeds that like to grow there. This view is looking south from a spot where I climbed up onto the slope. Normally you'd be looking east from closer to the house, and it's hard to see this viburnum because the giant ceanothus (looming into the picture from the right) partly hides it. Every year I cut the ceanothus back severely, but it doesn't care; it just grows that much faster to spite me. I am going to get another viburnum 'Dawn' for a more visible location.

The next two pictures are also at the top of the back slope, farther north: some hollyhocks and lavender I planted last fall...

...and an unassuming (for now) cotoneaster dammeri 'Coral Beauty' that I had thought might have been killed by the dry summer. As soon as the rain started, it came back to life. It's supposed to spread out quite a bit and it has pretty, tiny white flowers. Consider this the "before" photo.

I have about four of these colorful dogwood shrubs (cornus s. 'Midwinter Fire') in one area and even though they're new from last year and only a foot high, I can see their bright stems from the kitchen window. I am hoping they're going to shoot up to five feet tall this summer. I know they get tall, but I don't know how fast they grow.

Below is the red-flowering currant 'Kind Edward VII' in the southeast flower bed I put in last fall. It has huge buds, and I can't wait to see what it's going to do this year, along with all the other plants in that new bed. In the background is the adjoining yard to the south of us.

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February 2004 Garden Photos

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