A new shade garden for Marianne

Apparently, it was a rough spring for impatiens, which meant Marianne couldn't plant them in the shallow bed in front of the duplex. 

Grandma Hendricks and I spent a fun morning looking for shade loving perennials while Rob very kindly turned the soil and got the bed ready for planting.  The soil ended up being really nice so when we got back with our choices we went right to work.

We started out at Home Depot but were mightily disappointed in their selection of shade perennials and their Hosta's didn't look very healthy so we left and went to Anderson's Seed and Garden.  I haven't been there since Rob and I registered for wedding gifts over 30 years ago.  I was very impressed with their selections and their service.

We were initially thinking about doing just hosta and huechera but once we saw the options available we decided to go for a more of a real shade garden. 

Here are the plants we added.

Astilbe 'Vision in Red'

Height 15", Blooms midsummer with deep red buds that open into a lovely reddish pink.

Astilbe ' Rock & Roll'

(I'll add a picture when it is in bloom because right now it looks almost like the astilbe above)

Height 20", Blooms midsummer with clear white blossoms.

Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears'

Height 8", Spread 12", blooms early summer with short spikes of lavender flowers. 

This is a great miniature Hosta.  It stays compact and the blue-green leaves really look like mouse ears.  It's adorable and is easy to tuck into any shade garden because it is so well behaved.

Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum'

Japanese Painted Fern

Height 12", Spread 12"-15"

This fern is always a nice addition to a shade garden because the lovely foliage adds a touch of interest and brightness.  The range of colors tie the foliage of the plants we chose together.  Besides that, it is just pretty to look at.

Hosta 'Big Daddy'

Height 24", Spread 36", lilac blooms in midsummer.
I'm excited to see this plant mature as the leaves will get really large, with a cupped, almost quilted look.  These Hosta are quite substatial in size but will not overpower the size of the bed.

Hosta 'Francee'

Height 18", Spread 24", Midsummer lavender blooms.

We chose this Hosta because it was the closest match to the one Marianne had planted already.  I was trying to create small groupings of Hosta with the perennials tucked in between for interest.  I do like the white edges as it gives a touch of brightness to a very dark, shady spot.

Cimicifuga 'Hillside Black Beauty'

Black Snakeroot

Height, 48", blooms pinkish-white, fragrant bottle-brush clusters in late summer

I love the foliage on this plant and just as the flowers on the other plants in the bed start winding down, this will start coming into it's full glory. 

Ligularia 'Britt-Marie Crawford'

and

Brunnera ...

Siberian Bugloss

We needed another small plant to fill in the middle of the bed and I decided to grab this Brunnera instead of putting in another 'Blue Mouse Ears' Hosta.  I lost the tag, so I'm not sure if this is 'Jack Frost' or another variety, but they all get to be about the same size , 18" tall) and have similar blue flowers in spring.

The Ligularia is a bit of an experiment.  I haven't grown one before and they do like quite a bit of water, but if it survives will be a nice touch of color in the bed.

Heuchera 'Ruby Bells'

Coral Bells

Height 16", Blooms late spring to midsummer

After starting with a plan to fill the bed with Hosta and Heuchera I think it's kind of funny that we only actually put in one variety.  We both loved the color of these blooms and I like the brightness of the foliage.

Here is the final result, the day after we planted. 

It actually looks good in person and will look great as the plants mature and grow. As always, the rule for perennials is, "First year they sleep, Second year they creep, Third year they leap". So, I'll have to come back next summer and the summer after that to see how Marianne's garden grows.

Yellow Jackets!

The Yellow Jackets have been so busy already this spring.  We've had several in the apartment, vacuumed up a lot from the shed area of the garage and have seen them flying everywhere.  Too close to the doors, too close to the cars, too many of them for comfort. 

I made a trap out of two-liter bottles but they weren't interested because there are too many blooms on the shrubs.  While we were at Lowe's on Saturday I saw a display that promised it would keep yellow jackets away.  I picked up a package and was loooking at it when another customer came by and picked up a package.  We got talking and she said she had come to the store specifically to purchase this item.  Apparently her parents have one hanging up and they haven't had any yellow jackets all spring.  That was good enough for me to be willing to try it out.  I grabbed two packages (for a total of 4).  They are supposed to be hung between 6-8 feet off the ground and about 20 feet apart.  We have two hanging in the front yard of the duplex - one by our entrance and one by Aunt Marianne's.  We also have two hanging in the back - one near our back door and one by the garage. 

They just look like big hornet nests.  And yellow jackets are afraid of hornets so they stay far away.  No chemicals, no sweet and sticky liquids with dead bugs floating in them to deal with.  HOORAY!  I also know I'm not attracting more yellow jackets to the trap (which I always worry about when I put out bait). 

The first day they were up we still saw several yellow jackets flying around, but when I was out today I didn't see one yellow jacket outside of the garage.  I don't quite know how to get rid of the ones that are trapped in the garage, but Rob and I figure they will probably die and then we will just vacuum them up.  Emily just came over and said she saw one yellow jacket, but compared to last week when she was afraid to get out of her car I think that's a positive result.

Two green thumbs up!  I'll have to revisit this over the summer, but so far, so good.

New Season of Life

Spring is here in North Logan.  It's a different type of spring than I have grown accustomed to.  It's a different altitude and a different zone (to say nothing of the difference in humdity levels).  It's crazy to think that I lived and gardened in Chicagoland for 20 years.  I don't feel that old and I don't feel that experienced.  But now it is time to adapt to gardening here. 

First change - we are several zones colder!  Since the winters in Chicago get so cold I thought that the gardening zones would be similar from place to place.  But apparently here in Cache Valley we are zone 3-4.  That means flowers are slower to come out and that my container gardens get started later in the spring.  I'm used to planting my annuals right around Mother's Day and now I have to wait clear until Memorial Day. 

However, it's been such a warm spring and our front porch is so protected that I decided to jump the gun a little bit and planted up some perennials over the weekend.  It feels so good to have a pretty pot to greet me at the door.

I went with my good old standby's, Hosta 'Brim Cup', Heuchera 'Plum Pudding' and Pennisetum 'Rubrum'.  I added in a pretty Dianthus 'Coconut Surprise' for blooms.  I don't know how long she will bloom, or if I will get much rebloom from her, so I may take her out and replace her with a long blooming annual once it really warms up and we get well into May.

Even if we get below 32 degrees at night I think these plants will hold up okay.  Especially considering that the porch is very sheltered.

Sorry about the image quality, the flash washed the colors out.  I obviously need to practice shooting without the flash. 

The colors actually play very nicely together in this combination.  I thought about using Hosta 'Patriot' to play off the white from the Dianthus but the green and yellow in 'Brim Cup' worked so much better with the other foliage colors. 

I still need to add a "spiller" to the pot, and will do that once we are past Mother's Day.

We should be closed on our house early enough next fall that I can go ahead and plant these in the ground once we move in.  I'm not sure if the deer will eat them or not.  Another thing for me to learn about and discover.

In other news.  We put together a quick and easy raised bed garden so Aunt Marianne could grow her tomatoes this summer.  It was much bigger than we expected so I decided to claim half of it for myself and planted lettuce and peas.  First time in years I haven't had to fight rabbits for a salad!