Walking down the bike path on Friday night, Corey and I took a little side-route that we'd seen but never actually used before, and in so doing we happened across the most beautiful garden. At my exclamations of delight, a passing gentleman told us that this was actually maintained not by the city but by a private individual living in a nearby condo.

I'm pretty sure some of the gorgeous plants I saw were mallows, which confirms that I need some in spite of their reputedly near-invasive self-seeding. There were also these gorgeous pink poppies everywhere. A google search suggests that they were actually opium poppies (papaver somniferum), another self-seeding annual.

In my googling I found this website - I don't think I share this person's passion for organic gardening, but I'm happy to buy from a local source. I also note mention of an event called "Seedy Saturday" that happens practically in our backyard - will have to keep an eye out for that next year!

I've also been thinking about shade plants, since I have acres of shady beds to fill. Leafing through a Fine Gardening magazine, I see repeated mentions of a Japanese forest grass, Hakonechloa macra, which makes for nice bright green foliage. I think I actually saw some in Kanata earlier this week but I wasn't sure of the latin name at the time and left it there, and now am kind of kicking myself. And fine, FINE, I will probably give in and get some hostas, but for the record it will be under duress. And I will only be bothered with the nice colourful ones.

The finished wall!




Also, some blooms (pardon the flash-lighting, it was getting late when I took these):

David Austin rose, continuing in gorgeousness:


Cleome. Have I mentioned how delighted I am with these, despite their annualness? If I can track down some of those variegated pink ones next year my happiness will be complete.

Tonight, after I planted the juniper, the piles of extra rocks sitting around the yard were suddenly so annoying in their messiness that I spent an hour or so starting to pile them into a dry-laid wall, as maundered about below. For a snap decision this is working out gloriously: it's gotten rid of about half the rock piles so far, and it looks fantastic. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies in it, which I may try to stuff with plants, but which will no doubt also shelter snakes and toads and all kinds of good garden critters. Also, I hear that you can paint rocks with some sort of yogurt solution to encourage moss - will have to double check that Fine Gardening article again.

How solidly this wall is constructed is anyone's guess, especially since I remember hearing that a dry-laid wall actually takes considerable skill to build, and I have none such (as the blog title notes, just enthusiasm). Well, if it falls over on the hydrangeas, no loss there, right?

As mentioned, I would looooooove to have a gorgeous copper fountain in front of this wall, where it would make a stunning centerpiece for the whole yard. The trick there is that the fountains I have my eye on require a power source, which would involve burying a line in conduit all the way across the yard from the house - a.k.a. total, abject pain in the ass. I'll have to ask if there's some way to substitute a solar or battery powered pump.

I've been making a mellow end to the evening with strongbow and a garden magazine - specifically, a special issue of Garden Gate called "Easy Weekend Gardening". Being American, it's peppered with irrelevancies for my situation (so annoying when a plant catches your eye and then the caption says "ha ha! Not hardy past Zone 9!") but less so than, say, most Better Homes & Gardens publications I've skimmed. And I happened across a couple of scheme-inspiring points.

* It claims that tree peonies can take part shade, since they flower early in the year and hence can get the sun they need before other trees leaf out. I think I may have the perfect setting for that under the apple trees. Then again, the intarwebs don't seem to think tree peonies bloom THAT much earlier than herbaceous peonies, and I'm pretty sure it's too shady there for the herbaceous kind. Hmmm. Worth pondering.

* I've been needing a use for all the rocks left over from the patio. A little dry-laid wall might be just the thing - in the middle bed, in front of the hydrangeas and spirea, maybe. And then I could start sedums and thyme and such growing in the cracks. Wouldn't that be an awesome backdrop for one of those gorgeous copper fountains I've been coveting!

To illustrate

Here's the sun bed as it stands:



And here are my preliminary schemes as maundered about below (1 = blue star juniper; 2 = sarah bernhardt peony; 3 = prairie joy rose; devil = a dandelion):

Took advantage of a late-season sale to snap up another rhododendron and a candelabra primrose. Two shrubby things also caught my eye - kind of surprisingly, usually I am not a big fan of junipers:

Blue Star


Japanese Dwarf Garden Juniper


The second one is low-growing but spreads up to 6', which is way bigger than I have any use for. Alas. I might be able to pop a Blue Star into the sun bed, though, since it's a slow grower and eventually maxes out at about 3' across and 2'-3' high. It could be a nice "structural" addition to that bed, especially with its lovely colour and texture, but I'm not totally sure whether it fits in my wild and crazy palette.

Some thoughts on the intarwebs:

Try to plant 'wild' plants or their relatives that associate well with junipers, such as heather (Erica and Calluna), phylodoce, Gaultheria, Pernettya, dwarf rhododendrons, Vaccinium, ferns and a whole range of creeping, herbaceous and shrubby alpine plants. Creeping thymes in particular associate well with junipers, as do sedums. Large rocks strategically placed can be very effective in this kind of garden, as can old logs for a more 'woodlandy' feel.

Well, ferns, thyme and sedum I can definitely do. Here's somebody else's rather lovely sedum/juniper combination, with some ornamental grass thrown in for good measure:


Elsewhere I see a suggestion that the foliage looks good next to peonies. That I could do; in fact I'm going to have to move the peony on the east wall over to the sun bed come fall. Fine Gardening puts it with roses, and likewise I have a rose I'm going to have to transplant. Hmmmm! This begins to sound promising.

The sun bed is actually starting to fill up, I think. I want to leave some space for the few annuals I have any patience for, after all. Next year I will have to concentrate on the part-sun beds, which are much barer, and will be more so once I move all the stuff that's stupidly sited there.

With the latest issue of my gardening magazine came a catalogue for Breck's Bulbs. Oh lord, another plant catalogue. Including an early ordering discount coupon, no less. I can hear my wallet wailing already.

Shopping list:

Camassia Quamash, which just looks funky.


Scarlet Majesty tulips ("peony" double tulips - I saw these in somebody's garden and they are just stunning.)


French Lace tulips, also doubles.


Since I adored the two globemaster alliums I planted last fall, I'm going to get an additional zillion alliums of all different colours and sizes, including blue.


I am also toying with the idea of picking up some crocuses. I was not too fussed about these before, and planting 40 bulbs seems a little labour-intensive. But then this year a clutch of them came up in the neighbour's garden, and I was insanely jealous of his having flowers so very early in the spring.