Garden

[vaneramos]

Before throwing away the tags, I'm recording the perennials planted in the front garden: Antennaria dioica 'Red Wonder' (pussy-toes), Campanula persicifolia (peachleaf bellflower), Campanula poscharskyana 'Blue Waterfall' (Serbian bellflower), Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer), Delphinium grandiflorum 'Blue Elf', Dianthus 'Royal Midget' (cheddar pinks), Echinacea purpurea 'White Swan' (white coneflower), Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead' (English lavender), Leontopodium alpinum (edelweiss), Linum perenne ssp. alpinum (alpine perennial flax), Penstemon barbatus praecox nanus 'Pinacolada' (blue beard-tongue), Phlox subulata 'Emerald Cushion Blue' (moss phlox), Pulsatilla vulgaris (pasque-flower), Salvia officinalis (sage), Sempervivum arachnoideum 'Red Cobweb' (hens and chicks), Sempervivum ciliosum var. borisii, Thymus x citriodorus (lemon thyme), Thymus praecox 'Purple Carpet' (creeping thyme), Thymus pseudolanuginosus (woolly thyme), Thymus vulgaris (thyme), Veronica whitleyi (Whitley's speedwell), Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary), Felicia amelloides 'Pinwheel' (periwinkle). These last two must be treated as annuals. This year I also included several annuals to provide fast colour: white Portulaca, lavender Alyssum, indigo Lobelia and purple Angelonia.

A different image was posted to texture.

Comments

[missprune.livejournal.com]

What fun! I am guessing that where you live, foraging deer are not a problem.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Ha! No, I have a used car lot next door, an aging industrial park behind, an old bank converted to a deli across one corner, and a quiet neighbourhood of bungalows across the highway. There is a woods in that direction, but adventurous deer would be blocked by the river. I don't get rabbits. I don't even get squirrels, because the nearest large tree is a long scramble across the highway. The echinacea did get nibbled a couple weeks ago. I suspect it was a groundhog, because I saw one half a block away in the industrial park a few days before, but now that all the weeds are coming up I doubt the creature will care to venture this far very often. In the back garden Sylvie and I are planting vegetables but we will avoid the cabbage family, because in my experience those attract groundhogs.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

You can sometimes persuade rosemary to be a perennial if you can be bothered to dig it up and put it in a pot and take it inside for the winter. That's what we've been doing for the last many years, with mixed success.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I've done that before. For $3.99 next spring I would rather spare myself the hassle!

[willowing.livejournal.com]

i like that you're around more on lj. :) hi van. xo

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hello. Yes, it's some kind of renaissance. I like it, too.

[apel.livejournal.com]

I can tell from the list that it's a hot, sunny spot. Lots of drought-tolerant Mediterranean and Alpine plants. Do you have experience with getting the flax to overwinter? I wasn't successful with it in my garden in Sweden. Love the blue colour though, so it was worth growing from seed each year.

Your photo reminds me to go sniff the cheddar pinks on my balcony. I can't get enough of the scent.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's such remarkable fragrance. In the garden I planted as a teenager there was some other species of Dianthus; that's the plant I remember best because of the delicious smell. I have never grown cheddar pinks before, but an herb book I've had for 30 years recommends them for the fragrance garden.

The only problem I've had with flax is that it self-seeded profusely on the soils where I've grown it across Southern Ontario. So I don't know what might be the problem. Poor drainage? Insufficient snow cover?

There are no trees around, and the garden is on the south side of my building, beside the highway, so it gets full sun from dawn to dusk. The soil is rich but stony and well-drained.