More to do, but at least the bulbs are tucked in!

[city_farmer]

Finally.

The bulbs are in:

Anemone blanda: The Bride and Mr. Fokker (Yikes, what horrible names. It just hit me. One is white and one is blue.)

Allium oreophillium
Allium caeruleum

One half of the planting parking strip is more or less finished. Among other things, I've planted

Albizia summer chocolate (a variety of mimosa tree)
Escallonia Gold Brian

Comments

[thegrackleshack]

Oh, wow. These all sound great!

[city_farmer]

I'm excited about the mimosa trees. I've seen a few mature mimosas in Seattle, and they are spectacular. I haven't seen any of these burgundy-leaved ones, but from photos they look spectacular. I hope it survives our wet winters...

[thegrackleshack]

That mimosa is lovely, but I confess I'm more into the mugo pine. Probably because I was just raking up seedpods in my gravel driveway from my neighbor's mimosa a couple of hours before I made that comment. : P

The pillar barberry is drool worthy too. I can't wait until I have some beds ready for things other than veggies!

[city_farmer]

Yeah, mimosas are basically giant runner beans. I hope the pods make good compost.

They're so rare around here that the few that you see are very striking. Mimosas are subject to all kinds of problems with rot because of all our rain, so I don't know whether these will make it. I have them at the tippy top of a tall berm for good drainage, but the soil is very rich, so I am a little concerned...

The mugo pines are tiny ($4 at Lowe's!), so it will interesting to see whether they end up the nice ottoman size I'm going for, or whether I'll have to candle them into submission to keep them in line.

Your Japanese garden is incredibly lovely. I love the tranquil, enclosed look of it from the pictures you'd posted earlier. Do you have other garden places on the drawing board?

[thegrackleshack]

I pull up mimosa sprouts all the time. Everywhere!

The majority of the mimosas I've seen here are not thriving. They have rot or are in decline. In contrast, where I grew up in Florida, they look great and definitely get more rain/humidity than here.

Thanks re: the Japanese garden. Next up is the Mediterranean herb garden. We use those a lot and mine keep dying. The inherited rosemary(s) bit the dust, so too the thymes, sages, lavenders, etc... Where it's not rock in my yard, it's hard clay. So, I'm doing some raised rock beds in a sunny, hot area between the garage and the house.

They're going to get their own special blend of soil and hopefully I'll keep them alive! I'm debating some small trees or bushes. Dwarf lime or lemons? Olive or pomegranate? It's going to be hard going no matter what - the previous owner put inches of large gravel over what seems to be hardpan. Ugh. It's seriously compacted and horrible. (and probably full of round-up as the gravel was weed-free when we moved in) What are your garden dream plans?

[nigita]

That's really good news for me! (That is, the part about them thriving in the rain and humidity in Florida, not the part about your pulling up sprouts all the time. Everywhere. Hmmm