Houseiversary Picture Post!

Getting there!!

Front yard, 2011


2010


My schemey schemes, they ripen apace! Will have to keep repeating the purple and silver notes I'm acquiring, because I ♥ them so much - case in point: newly acquired smoke bush and Thume spruce.



Latest purchase in this direction is some purple fountain grass, which I'm not 100% sure is hardy here, but Canadian Tire seems to think so, so we'll see. A "Fine Wine" weigela (compact and purple-green) would be a nice addition somewhere, I'm thinking, in addition to one of the splashy colourful "My Monet" kind. Our newly-dug bylaw-compliant trench at the very front will eventually be lined with some pea gravel and river-washed stone, which should make a nice grass-free front border for the yard.

Also need to keep an eye out for more splashy colourful drought-resistant midsummer-blooming perennials, like this maltese cross, which is working out pretty amazingly for a 2010 impulse buy:



The combination of coreopsis, lavender, and blue alliums in the very front is pretty awesome, too; will have to find things to keep building on that. More lavender in general, actually, since it's doing so well there. More alliums in general as well - maybe some chives? - since my roses have been suffering from the depredations of various insect plagues. GRRR. At least soap and water seems to be working, mostly, and they're almost all putting out new growth.

Back yard, 2011


2010


A little more civilized, a little better balanced, a little more filled in. Still not as colourful as I'd like on the shadier side - although I gather this is an ongoing shade challenge anyway...more colours of astilbe maybe? - and need to beat the hydrangeas back a bit around the birdbath. And the patio badly needs some sort of border to define it against the "lawn".

Going around the beds:

Shade bed, 2011


2010


Tsk. Needs work. That anonymous tall red thing definitely needs to move further back. Otherwise need some definition and variation of texture in here somehow. Grasses? Astilbe near the back? More ground cover in the front?

Sun bed, 2011


2010


A little on the chaotic side, still - will have to be more ruthless with the stray rose campion - but the bee balm is definitely better off in its new home(s), and the Quadra rose will hopefully provide some nice height and colour at the back eventually, although I'm told it takes a while to get going. Maybe I should try some delphiniums back there, too, although I think it may be too ruthlessly hot and dry for them just there...although I suppose I've seen them growing in not-exactly-moist conditions around the neighbourhood.

In any case, there are some nice combinations emerging here as things start to form clumps - rose campion + bee balm + globe thistle, for example:



Wall bed, 2011


2010


Another tsk. Disappointing lack of change here. Replaced the Fairy rose with Seafoam, but it needs some sort of other colour or texture between it and the hydrangeas or it just sort of fades into them. Will have to browse over my garden magazines and see if they have any combinations to suggest for hydrangeas.

Corner bed, 2011


2010


Very pleased with the improvement here. Not only has it filled in, but: colour! texture! variety of height! If I could manage more of the same that would be awesome. Maybe I should try some begonias or impatiens here and there...

Also, check out the results of Operation Sudden Lily Beetle Death. Bliss. Ed Lawrence seems to think that the key is getting the drop on them early in the season, combined with ongoing vigilance. Will have to try to duplicate these results next year.


Side bed, 2011


2010


Well, I struck a blow against the ferns of insanity, anyway. And the bee balm makes a nice combination with the delphiniums (which I think were a little early last year due to freakish weather):


The hydrangeas, as previously mentioned, need to be beaten back, as does the stupid grass, and there's a peony and a rose that compLETEly do not belong here - I will move them in the fall and replace them with another clematis, I think. One that blooms nowish, if I can finangle such a thing.

Sweet merciful crap. After a week of hard frosts and even a couple centimeters of snow, this is what the Fairy rose looks like:

And because I am just this dorky: season retrospective!

Picture post for October!

Front yard:


Dun dun DUNNNNNNN - foundation bed expansion begun! This will be the leaf dumping ground for the season, and in the spring I will pile on some more mulch and/or topsoil. Now I just have to finish my bulb-planting extravaganza by chopping some holes in the cardboard and putting in the last several alliums and tulips.


The view from above, with the future spiral laid out in orange mason's line. MY GOD it will be awesome. Of course, the cheapest bricks I've been able to locate ($0.50 apiece on kijiji) would STILL run me $400 plus the cost of aggregates. Siiiiiigh. Must brainstorm other hardscaping materials. Large stepping stones in a bed of river rocks/gravel over landscape fabric, maybe? That's probably not much cheaper, although it might be somewhat less labour.

Back yard:


Overall. Not as colourful as I would have liked, although that Japanese Blood Grass sure rocks the fall foliage.


Shade bed, with beans gone and rheum palmatum lurking at the back.


Sun bed. I'm thinking I may prune the willow now-ish and try to root the cuttings over the winter. This is supposed to be ridiculously easy to do. Then I could plant a few of these in the front yard to round out the shrub selection in the foundation bed expansion. Also, I suspect the Blaze rose has developed the dreaded black spot. Not really a big deal this late in the season, since the leaves would be dropping soon anyway, but I'd better muster out there and pick off all the affected foliage so this problem doesn't come back in the spring.


Wall bed. The Fairy rose is still going!! And the toad lilies did in fact emerge from the oregano with a couple of little buds. Must rein in the oregano, though.


Corner bed, particularly messy-looking. Next year I will stake the Joe Pye weed so it stays more upright.


East bed, devoid of ferns for the season.

Here's an overall pic for September, just for the record:



And some documentation of the rosesplosion:



Stoopid flash lighting - you can really see the buds in this one, though.


Prairie joy rose, finally somewhat resembling a shrub.


Also, because I am sick to death of the weedy, crappy lawn back here, this is what I've been thinking we should replace it with (as close as my mad Paint skillz can render it, anyway).


Basically: a little corner deck enclosed by lattice with stairs leading down to a larger, lower deck that would leave no more than a strip of grass around the edge of the patio. And even that maybe I would convert into a planted border. What say you, internets? Would it mess with my riotous secret-garden aesthetic to have something so structured and rectilineal taking up half the yard? And maybe I'd be wiser to leave the lawn there for kids to play on...but then by the time we can afford to do this our kids will probably be old enough not to need the lawn anymore anyway :P Considering that we'd need to cut a door opening into the exterior wall and I'd want to do the whole thing in cedar, this is kind of a big-ticket renovation...$7500 at least, I'd guess, and probably more. And it would be strictly mad money, because there's no way we'd get that kind of $$ back from resale.

One way to make it a little breezier/more romantic would be to have...not a roof, precisely, but an arbour-type structure around the top section, which could have virginia creeper and clematis growing up it and from which one could hang billowy canopy/curtains and a candle-chandelier. Although again with the $$. Not as bad as roofing it over entirely, though.

Drive-by picture post!

Overall:



Newly edited sun bed:





Added purple emperor and autumn joy sedums, as well as heaven's gate coreopsis. Bee balm has been chopped up and relocated all over, as previously mentioned - it didn't even wilt; rose campion is now propping up the joe pye weed, although it left seedlings behind - but those are back behind the rose and juniper, though, where I think they'll be quite nice.




Shade bed as it stands: beginning to fill in. Some sedums from Canadian Tire, as well as a funky ruffly purple heuchera.




Crocosmia. Need a hoop for these next year.




Awesomely filling in patio thyme.

Happy houseiversary to us! I believe I will keep up last year's tradition of a compare and contrast picture post. Feast your eyes!

FRONT YARD

2010:




2009:



Lawn: similarly fried, but somewhat less weedy. Magnolia is a few inches taller. Foundation bed: more civilized in some ways, wilder and woollier in others. Need to take some shears to that yew.


BACK YARD

2010:



2009:





Now THAT I think I can call half-decent progress. Awesome.


Sun bed

2010:





2009:



Damn, that bee balm really needs to move.

Wall bed

2010:



2009:



Holy crap, look how far the golden oregano has gotten! Too bad about the delphinium and the toad lily, though. Need some more stuff to go next to the wall that flowers around this time of year - the cotoneaster has nice red berries, but those will be another month or two yet.

Corner bed

2010:



2009:



This is filling in nicely, although again it could use more colour to bridge the gap between lilies and Joe Pye weed. And speaking of Joe Pye, so much for the "dwarf" variety; it's as tall as the delphiniums were (~6').

Side bed

2010:



2009:



Hmmm...improving, esp with the nice height of the delphiniums, but need to beat back the bastard ferns again; they're sprouting in the lawn, now.


And for future reference, here's the shade bed in 2010: