Fingers Crossed

We have a lace leaf Hydranga on one side of the yard.  We decided to move it to another side of the yard.  Of course, I make this decision after it's already started to come back to life.  That's how I roll.

I also realized as my son and I were digging that the cinder block wall put in before we moved in runs right over half the root ball, so there was a large amount of sweating, grunting, swearing...and that was just the boy.

We finally got it moved.  So, fingers crossed as this is one of my wife's favorite plants.

The Never Ending Side of the Back...

The great daylilly experiment was an absolute failure.  So, we replaced them with boxwoods.  In the front near the grass, we're going to drop in some annuals.  I moved some of the surviving daylillies over to near the shed.  We also added some Peacock Irises, Cordilyne "Cha Cha" and Cordilyne "Electric Pink.  Lastly, I moved the Pink Panther Phormeum from the front yard where it was getting it's ass handed to it by the lavender.

Lastly, the orange tree has been ripped from the ground and I dropped a multi-trunk white Crepe Myrtle in its place.  Only, it's more of a stick at the moment, so I'll get a picture of it when it actually has some leaves and doesn't look like, well, a freaking stick.

That Four Letter Word

P-L-A-N.  That's it.  I said it.  It's out there, now.  I never thought it would come to this, but it must be done.

We have been very slow in getting off the ground here at Castle Turling.  Because we have so much space (by California standards), we are stymied on even where to begin.  Trips to the nursery turn into walking around events where nothing gets accomplished.  So, we've decided, we are going to map out a planting scheme for a section, visit the nursery and buy what's on the list.  Stick to the list, I say.  Here's where we're starting.

This is the (wait, rises in the east, sets in the west) east side of the backyard.  Where our so called orange tree is that I've written about in the past.  Yes, it looks exactly the same.  It's so sickly, you probably can't even see it in the pictures.  Anyway, it's moving somewhere else.  No, not the compost pile (we don't have one, yet), but another part of the yard.  If it doesn't thrive there, then it will be the first visitor to the compost pile that it will begin the formation of.

Here's the plan:

 

Not a good rendition, no, but it works for us.  I think it also shows that you don't need a lot of fancy stuff to create a plan.  This is actually on a piece of graph paper and I used our kids crayons for the original.  That didn't show up in the scan, so I did it again in markers.  The plants or pretty close to what their fully grown size will be.  The top photograph above is taken from the gravel.  See, down at the bottom, it says "gravel"?  My handwriting is horrid, but you should be able to make out the "G".  The second photograph is taken from the top of the plan looking back towards the gravel/patio.  We're putting in the following:

• 1   Fan Palm in the upper left.  That's already there in the background of the top photograph.
• 2   Catmint.  About 14 to be exact.  That's the row of purple on the right.  It will be up against the lawn.
• 3   Daylillies.  Behind the catmint will be about 14 or 15 daylillies.  Different species.  Species?  Is that the word?  Types?  Colors?  Kin?
• 4   Jerusalem Sage.  Moving from another part of the yard.
• 5   Italian Cypress.  To give some height.
• 6   Not shown is the Hollywood Juniper.  It's the plant in the two photographs that looks like an Italian Cypress falling over.
• 7   Monkey Flower.
• 8   Echinacea.
• 9   Aster.
• 10 Coreopsis.  I think I spelled that wrong.
• 11 Sedum.
• 12 Lion's Tail.  That's moving from another part of the yard, as well.

This area received full sun, which is why the Jerusalem Sage (4) and Lion's Tail (12) are moving there.  On the other side of the walking path behind our house are two massive Pepper Tree's.  You can see part of one in the upper right corner of the top photograph.  They have in the last couple of years pretty much blocked the sun from the area the Lion's Tail and Jerusalem Sage currently nest.  The backyard is south facing, by the way.

Since buying so many plants will be pricey, we're making an attempt at growing some from seed.  Won't that be a treat????????  The catmint looks like poppy seeds.  I hope the DEA doesn't show up.

In the meantime, I'm off for a pint.  Speaking of pints...stay tuned for the next post.  (That's called a "cliffhanger" by the way.  Let's see if it works.)