2010 – Wellyssa's Womb

Go West!

I’m working my way through the garden design from east to west. The poor lonely, boring west berm is all out there by itself, just some Tam junipers and crab apples trees. Time to add some color, texture and layers.

(Another crappy, blurry 2010 picture!) Among the Tam junipers , some wild multi-colored yarrow blew in from across the street to the south. So I let it grow. It adds some nice color in the spring, and something interesting to look at in the winter. At the base of the berm I planted a row of Black-knight Spirea. then I tilled up and prepared the soil in front of the berm so I could put in some perennials. I planted a variety of fancy Iris (mail ordered from Breck’s bulbs), and purple salvia, cause it was on-sale and I want pinks, purples and whites on the west berm. I also planted a variety of winter hardy roses both on my side of the berm and on Roy’s side. They will be white and pink.

The sycamore tree at the west end of the south berm

In the far background you can see the new Sycamore tree that we planted, I think 2 years ago? It’s finally starting to look like a tree. The two bookend boulders (see above pic) were purchased with the boulders that form an energetic boundary between our property and the neighbor to the north/west. They weigh 3 tons each.

Creating color

I don’t know what happened but most of my pictures for 2010 are blurry. You can’t make out what the shrubs are, but I decided to post this pic anyway because you can get an idea of what I’m trying to create with the red/orange/yellow colors on the south shoulder and berm.

this pic is really blurry, but you can see the color on the south berm

The tree furthest back is a Russian Hawthorn. The tree in the middle is a Northern Red Oak. The yellow shrubs are Ninebark, Mock orange and Duetzia. The red/orange round-shaped shrubs are a form of multi-colored Spirea.

The Snow-White crab apple by the west berm has wonderful fall color.

Another 25 tons of rock

The two front rock berms are finally done. There’s a total of 25 tons of black and red granite on each berm: 12.5 tons of large boulders, and approximately 12.5 tons of 6-12″ rip rap. Jester and I worked on these berms for an entire week. We set each stone so that you can walk on it and it will not move. When I’m weeding or tending the plants on the berms I can walk from rock to rock without worrying about it moving out from under my foot and possibly turning an ankle.

I bought a variety of dwarf evergreen shrubs and xeric roses to go on he berm, and snaked the irrigation lines down in between the rocks, out of sight. It took me 18 months, shopping at sales and getting lucky at the nursery to get all the shrubs I needed. The tree in front of the berm is a brilliant fushia crab apple. the catalpas that we planted (the most expensive trees we have purchased to date) died in this springs early freezing temps. I called the nursery where we purchased them and they said that 100’s of Catalpas had died that winter. Apparently they pulled their sap up into their branches during a warm spell in February, and then when it went down below free double digit temps, the sap froze and burst in their veins. So sad.

This isn’t the best picture, but take a look at how much the privet hedges have grown! they are about 24″ in this pic. And we put a rock edging in front of the lily bed too.

Spider!

So I am gingerly stepping through the day lilly garden, pulling our the dead flower stalks. This one is not quite ready to pull free from the bulb so I bend over and get a little closer and . . . . OMG! Sweet Jesus save me! i come face to face with this beauty!

She was only about 3″ from my nose. I teetered on the back of my tennis shoes and backed up.

What in the hell kind of spider is that!?! I hope it’s not poisonous.

I run inside and look it up on the computer: it’s a St. Anthony’s Cross spider. (“Cross” because they keep two legs close together so their legs form an x shape, or a cross.) Non-poisonous. Whew! They eat lots of bugs and flies. Yea! But yikes, she is HUGE.

As I turn look slowly around me, trying to refocus my eyes into the thick tangle of lily leaves, I can see 2 more of these beauties. I tip toe my way outta there and decide the dead flower stalks can stay up a little longer. Besides, the spiders are using them to anchor their webs. Wouldn’t be right to mess up all that hard work.

She’s about 3 1/2″ long. Her abdomen is as big as my thumb.

A Martha Stewart Moment

I’m sorry, but when I look at this picture it reminds me of one of those cheesy poses that Martha Stewart does: you gotta hold the bowl just right so the cherries show, make sure you’re wearing a colorful gardening hat, smile a cheesy smile, stand straight, and have something interesting in the background of the photo. LOL!