Peek-a-boo!

3/29/19

White daisy
first year for the transplanted iris (white, pink and black)
turkish yellow poppy
Winter aconite. these were grouped around the base of the red dragon, but the bunnies dug under the dragon and threw the bulbs everywhere.
Tulip and orange daylilly on the berms. I have about 12 patches like this sprinkled all over the berms
Daffodils. there are 200 daffodils planted around the tree. I’ll be adding more this fall!
Iris at the edge of the noodle garden, with daffodils int he background
close up of the tulips and other spring bulbs in the noodle garden
the noodle garden. Mixed early bulbs in the front (tulips, grape hyacinth, purple glory of the snow and crocus). In the background around tree is a daffodil mix
Orange oriental poppy
Mother’s Wort and Cat mint, always first to pop up
Giant purple alium and dwarf stella de oro daylilly
Tulip mix

Water feature?

I’ve been designing elemental gardens at the edges of the main sacred space, between the Dragons.  I’ve been having trouble figuring out what to do for water.  What I want is a shallow fountain that will continually circulate water and mist it downward from a trellis-like support above.  I’m still trying to talk my husband into that idea.

I set up some temporary bird baths to bring water to the area instead.  Then I noticed that the city was cutting down a large dead cottonwood tree at the end of the block.  So I asked Jester (who’s time I paid for) and my fired Don to come over and help me get enough log segments out of the ditch under the tree to make a better display in the water feature.

Hauling the logs home

We dug holes to stand the logs in, according to the individual size of each log, added some gravel for drainage and tucked in the logs.

Don and Jester unloading the logs and setting them in the holes

 

 

 

 

cutting to size and cutting off the pockey parts

 

 

 

I filled a set of fancy matching pots that I have been  saving for the right project with spring bulbs, and then tucked them inside of some larger black plastic pots, adding mulch for insulation between the pots.

Stumps in the ground, pots filled with bulbs, waiting for spring.

 

The fancy pots will get dug out of the bigger pots and placed on top of the logs.  Their flowers reaching upwards and green vines hanging down mimicking water flow.  we’ll have to see what it looks like.

Spring bulbs coming up! (2016)

After the bulbs faded, I replaced them with annuals. (2016)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bulbs and Tubers

I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees last fall planting bulbs and tubers.  I planted tulips in the front yard:

Tulips in front of the day lily garden, south side

I planted them around the cupola,

Tulips around the cupola

 

 

 

 

and around the womb of the earth.

Tulips around the womb of the earth

I planted them in patches all over the north and south berms.

Since the tulips don’t bloom all summer long, I planted twinkles and drumsticks and kaleidoscope lilies.

 

Little twinkles come in yellow, pink and white

Drumstick alium, bloom in May

Kaleidoscope lily mix

Kaleidoscope lily mix

Kaleidoscope lily mix

Kaleidoscope lily mix

Kaleidoscope lily mix

And added some purple Iris to Mom’s yellow ones, just for fun.

Purple and yellow Iris

 

Adding color

 

Noodle garden, spring 2008

Daffodils and tulips

Catalpa, Spring 2008

 

 

 

 

 

White tulips planted under the catalpa

Korean Lilacs in bloom
Rosa Rugosa and white alium
Soo much going on in the willow garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The willow garden is really coming along.  I planted dwarf stella ‘d oro yellow daylilies at the edge of the rock border, and more of Aunt Judy’s giant orange day lilies behind those.  Dark purple salvia, and Russian sage.

Big improvements in the willow garden

The 3 sand cherry shrubs are filling out nicely, and the willows have reached about 3 and a half feet tall.  Brian bought a second bird feeder and I painted it to match the first one.  I added Golden Spirea, mother’s wort and lovage herbs (because they are prolific and take up space), and two beds of my Mother’s yellow and white Iris.

Mom’s yellow Iris
I had no idea catalpa blooms were so huge, fragrant, and beautiful

I have no idea what the name of this Iris is.

Anyone?

 

 

 

 

Aunt Judy’s day lilies – south bed

Waiting for a wabbit
the purple ash has beautiful fall color
Red Maple and Sumac

The Dragons be gettin all fancy

Last fall I decided to add some bulbs to the Dragon Garden.  I planted about 150 bulbs in each of the four elemental dragon beds.  After the big pampas grass gets cut back in the early spring, nothing is growing out back, and the Dragons look so stark.  Each bed has a different variety of short, early blooming bulbs like snow drops or winter aconite.  Then the hyacinth should come up next, followed by daffodils, tulips and lastly the Asiatic lilies. I tried to color coordinate the bulbs with the elemental representation of each dragon.    Air should be white and yellows.  Fire, yellow, orange and reds.  Water, white, blues and lavenders.  And Earth, a mix of color.

 

 

 

 

 

I planted bulbs that would bloom early spring through mid summer.  The mid summer lilies did not come up well, maybe they need another year in the ground, we’ll see.

 

 

 

 

 

As fate would have it, some of the bulbs I ordered did not look like their picture, or maybe they were mislabeled.  Of course, I’m not going to dig them out and send them back – I think the bulb companies are banking on that.

 

Water Dragon

 

 

 

 

I used a different on-line company than I have used before, because Breck’s didn’t have  all the colors I wanted.   Never the less, I think they turned out beautiful.