Cottage Magpie Gardening

What's Blooming: November 2008

2008-11-20T02:37:01Z

Sunny days are a rarity here in the Pacific Northwest. So I knew I had to capture it and the fall colors on this "Green Vase" Japanese Zelkova tree (Zelkova serrata 'Green Vase') I planted last fall. I planted three of these across the front of my property as street trees, and I can't wait for them to grow.

I also planted this teeny tiny unnamed japanese maple. Isn't it adorable? It's not one of the weeping types, it's a tall, vase-shaped tree that I planted outside my living room window. I can just imagine how pretty it will be when it's big.

The one pre-existing tree is the namesake of my home, Pear Tree Cottage. I love these gnarled old trunks and how the tree is centered on our family room window for a year-round view.

The rest of the garden continues to amaze me with late season blooms. Especially the roses, I'm astounded by the roses. My neighbor has told me that she has had bouquets of home-grown roses on her Christmas table, and I'm starting to believe her. Some of things still going are: 1. Mystery rose 2. Brazilian sage (Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue') 3. "Tutti Frutti" Hummingbird Mint (Agastache x 'Tutti Frutti') 4. Hebe 'Patty's Purple' 5. Mystery hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) 6. Mystery, volunteer sunflower (Helianthus annuus) 7. Bacopa (Sutera cordata, not sure of the variety) 8. Pincushion flower (Scabiosa caucasica) 9. Black stem hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nigra') What about you? Do you have a favorite tree? Have you planted any or were they already there? This post is a part of the November Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, sponsored each month by May Dreams Gardens.

Foxglove Seedlings

2008-11-09T01:54:16Z

I love, love, love foxgloves. They are one of the classic, top ten cottage flowers, in my book. I've had them in all of my gardens, including the ones above from my previous home. Naturally I brought some with me to Pear Tree Cottage. They didn't bloom well, probably the transplanting, and I didn't think about them again until the other day when I was outside and noticed a green haze around each plant.

Guess what I found? Seedlings! Hundreds upon hundreds of foxglove seedlings.
I am SO happy! I'm sure I won't have room for them all, but I certainly won't be lacking in foxgloves. I've never had such good luck with anything self-sowing before. I'm so excited! I hope some of them come up purple like the ones I had before. What about you? What are your best self-sowers?

What's Blooming: October 2008

2008-10-16T03:30:05Z

Fall is well and truly here in the Pacific Northwest. How can I tell? Not the position of the sun, the turning leaves, or the crisp cool air. I can tell because ornamental Kale looks absolutely beautiful to me. I have some in my containers out front, and the crinkly leaves have such lovely color, I knew I was going to have to include it in the October Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, sponsored each month by May Dreams Gardens.

As I think I've said before (repeatedly), this has been an odd year. The garden has been odd, too. Case in point: this basket of tomatoes. We just harvested these last week--our plants were loaded with them. Our tomatoes only started turning in mid September, and the plants were still loaded with green fruit when the frost hit.

I've also been surprised at the roses continuing to bloom. I found this floribunda, "Guy de Maupassant" (Rosa 'Guy de Maupassant'), on clearance at a big box store a few months ago, and it smelled fantastic. I picked up four of them for $2 each. I love plant clearance.

The hydrangeas have managed to put out a last few blooms, like this new one I found, "Sun Goddess" (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Yellowleaf'), which has chartreuse leaves and seems to handle the sun better than most.

Then there's the classic Nikko Blue (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nikko Blue'). It looks so pretty, glowing blue in the shade by the shed.

This Brazilian sage (Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'), is something I've not grown before. I saw the gorgeous deep blue color in a friend's garden last year and snagged a cutting. Now I've got two and they're going strong.

I left the Bacopa (Sutera cordata, not sure of the variety) in the containers--it's so healthy and I can't believe how many blooms are on it this time of year.

This ephemeral thing is actually a weed. I found it growing in the garden over the summer, and finally identified it online as a field weed called Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria). But I think it's pretty, and it's exactly like the cultivated verbascum I bought this year except yellow instead of purple. So I found a spot for it. We'll see how my experiment works out.
How about you? Do you have things blooming that you weren't expecting to in October?

Bird & Butterfly Garden Progress

2008-10-08T05:05:43Z

The back garden is one of the spaces I made the most progress on this summer. All those long summer days home with my four year old, we hung out back here. He and I decided we wanted a colorful garden that would attract birds and butterflies. So throughout the summer we worked on it. Well, mostly I worked on it while he flooded the lawn with the hose. At least he enjoyed himself, right?

This is how this corner of the yard looked when we bought the house last summer. Kind of a weird way to divvy up the space. But it left me room for some kind of structure.

This Spring I put in the three sections of fence, to help screen the chain link and the neighbor's shed (the hedges on either side will cover the rest eventually). I threw down some gravel and plunked a pool where the gazebo would be (a temporary concession to my non-gardening family), and started framing in the beds with the cheapest thing I could get, $1.99 "garden timbers."

Once the weather cooled off, we pulled the pool back out, and put the table and chairs there from the old house. We planted with a mix of things from the old house and things we scrounged up for free or cheap, and we tried to stick to plants attractive to birds, bees and butterflies.

Another "before" shot, from the porch. See the big empty space in the corner? I'm told that years ago there was a beautiful garden here.

I'm still working on building the supports for the pergola. You can see I just have two of them in so far. I'll have to work on that this fall. It's kind of fun to look back. I didn't realize I had gotten so far! There's still a bunch to do, but it's nice to see that it's better than it was a year ago. Better than I thought! By far, though, the best part is the wildlife we attracted. More on that, soon!

What's Blooming: September 2008

2008-09-16T04:43:59Z

This month, I'm once again reminded of how misaligned peonies are as a multi-season plant. I mean, everyone loves peonies, but many people dismiss them as a one-hit wonder. But their green foliage provides a lovely counterpoint to other flowers through the summer, and their fall colors are drop-dead gorgeous. Case in point, the peony foliage in the photo above. Isn't that pretty? So of course I had to include it in the September Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, sponsored each month by May Dreams Gardens. It's not technically a bloom, but it's certainly where the color is right now!

Blooming in September were several hydrangeas, including this beautiful blue mystery that was here when I bought the house. It's huge and multi-crowned, so I'm going to divide it this fall and spread the hydrangea love.

My treasured Pee Gee standard (Hydrangea paniculata 'Grandiflora') also bloomed. I have it on the covered patio with all the other white flowers.

The achillea (Achillea millefolium 'Cerise Queen') that was blooming in July is still going. Maybe not "strong" -- but still flowering, which I think is impressive.

The agastache impressed me too. This is the first year I've grown it and it just bloomed and bloomed and bloomed. I believe this one is a variety called "Tutti Frutti" (Agastache x 'Tutti Frutti' ).

These sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), one of many all over the garden, were a special treat because I didn't plant them! They just popped up everywhere. I mean everywhere! But they're fun and the color is great this time of year.
How about you? Did anything impress you in your garden in September?

What's Blooming: July 2008

2008-07-16T04:46:07Z

Probably the biggest surprise, and I mean that literally, is the clematis growing on the back fence, behind the pear tree that the cottage is named for. I had a hard enough time believing it when it spread out 15 feet on either side to cover the fence, but when it bloomed? Wow. I knew I had to capture it to include it in the July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, sponsored each month by May Dreams Gardens.

I tried to capture the vine's immense size, but without anything for perspective, it's hard to tell. I'm sure others have seen bigger, but *I* haven't!

I took hundreds of pictures of it, trying to capture all of the shades of blue and purple on this one plant.

It wasn't until I looked at these photos that I realized there were two different types of blooms in two different colors. I know for sure it's one plant (I had taken a good luck at the structure over the winter). Is it reverting to a species, perhaps? Or is this common to clematis? I don't actually know.

Either way, I love taking pictures of the blooms. I just think they're beautiful.

And, oh yeah, there were some other flowers blooming in July here. 1. Ditch lilies I brought from the other house (Hemerocallis fulva). I love these, taken them everywhere. 2. New Minarette lupines (Lupinus polyphyllus 'Minarette') 3. Some old-fashioned pincushion flowers that I found (Scabiosa caucasica). I like the height and larger petals on variety better than the more common "Butterfly Blue." 4. Something new for me, a native plant, Oregon fleabane (Erigeron speciosus 'Pink Jewel'). 5. Another volunteer, some feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium). 6. The rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) from June is still going strong. 7. This yarrow I brought from my old house. It's called Cerise Queen and I never see it in nurseries anymore (Achillea millefolium 'Cerise Queen') 8. Another transplant, one of my favorites, the Brazilian verbena (Verbena bonariensis) brought from the other house. 9. And last but not least, that mystery rose from June is going and going and going.... :-) How about you? Did anything blow your mind in your garden in July?

What's Blooming: June 2008

2008-06-16T03:25:18Z

It's my first summer at Pear Tree Cottage (what I'm calling my new home), and I'm still discovering what's here in the garden. Despite it appearing to be a completely blank slate, there is still a fair amount of life here, despite the previous owners' best efforts. So I decided to photograph it all for the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for June 2008 (sponsored each month by May Dreams Gardens), and I found equal measures of things I found and things I brought. The pink peony above is something I brought with me, along with several other peonies. This one is a Sarah Bernhardt peony (Paeonia 'Sarah Bernhardt'), one of my favorites.

I found another favorite flower lurking in my back yard by the fence, this dramatic white calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica). I really love these, and I feel lucky to have them in my garden. But I'm going to have to find a different spot for them, because the dog keeps trampling this spot trying to say hello to the neighbor!

The foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) I bought this year at the garden center. I didn't have a chance to bring any with me. These turned out to be fairly pale. I'm hoping they'll seed and some darker purple ones will come up next year.

There are parts of my backyard that have some "secret garden" potential, like this one. There's an enormous clematis growing on the fence--the biggest one I've ever seen. The neighor has an arched trellis there that it grows on also, so we trained it to leave a little porthole.

I have a soft spot in my heart for prairie flowers like this rose campion (Lychnis coronaria), so I had to bring some with me.

Another new discovery is this mystery rose on the back fence. It's not a rootstock rose, those are a darker red. So someone planted this on purpose, but neither I nor my neighbor know who. It's pretty, though, and surprisingly healthy and floriferous considering it is growing in the shade of an Ash tree and an arborvitae hedge. It doesn't have a tag, but it does look kind of like this photo of Blaze climbing rose (Rosa 'Blaze') I found, what do you think?
How about you? Were you surprised by any of your June blooms?

What's Blooming: May 2008

2008-05-19T03:26:52Z

I'm still in my first year at my new-to-me-home, and the garden was nearly a blank slate when we moved in. So there's not been much blooming. But I wanted to join in the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (sponsored each month by May Dreams Gardens), so I prowled around the yard and managed to find a few things in bloom.

One of the things I was happiest to inherit in my new garden was a pink dogwood (Cornus florida var. 'Rubra'), shown here and above. Isn't it pretty?

Another pink blooming thing we inherited is this mature "Wine & Roses" weigela (Weigela florida 'Alexandra') that was along the side of the house. I tend to be fickle with the weigelas--I see them in other people's gardens and love them but never make space for them in mine. But this one is staying, albeit in a new location, and even inspired the color of our front door.

Another surprise in the new garden is a small patch of Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica). They're getting a little tattered now, but they were a welcome bit of color as I have no other bulbs planted yet.

Yet another previous resident of my garden is a sizeable patch of Lithodora (Lithodora diffusa). I have to say, despite the bright blue flowers, I'm not a huge fan. Anyone want a bunch of it?

Interestingly, one of the plants that I really wanted to bring from the other house but couldn't without leaving a gaping hole was a Japanese Snowball Bush (Viburnum opulus). As luck would have it, I have one at my new place, and it had several stem rootings going, so now I have a half-dozen. I know they only have this one show, but I just love them. I don't know which variety it is--we'll see if it produces berries or not.

I did bring quite a few plants with me, including several large container plantings. This one is overflowing with one of my favorite groundcovers, Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor). I don't care how common it is--I love it's draping habit, evergreen foliage and those pretty purple flowers every single Spring.

I've also installed some new plantings, particularly some foundation and "backbone" plantings in the front garden, like David Viburnum (Viburnum davidii), seen here in flower. This hardworking evergreen subshrub gets a bad rap for its extreme overuse in too-sunny parking lots and commercial landscapes, but in the right location it can add a wonderful backdrop and interest with it's large, distinctly patterned leaves.
So that's what's blooming in my garden at the moment. Hopefully as the summer wears on and more plants find their way into permanent homes I'll have more to show. But for now, I applaud all these pedestrian plants for creating a lush backdrop for the flowers yet to come. How about you? What's blooming in your garden?

Signs of Spring

2008-03-13T03:45:36Z

It's official! Spring is in the air here in the Pacific Northwest! The daffodils are blooming. The primroses are fluffy. But the most telling? The rain has changed from winter's misty grey drizzle to the powerful Spring deluge. I love listening to it, especially now that it's just (barely) warm enough to open the windows in the afternoon. I'm always excited this time of year, waiting for those summer gardens. I love Spring. I love Fall, too. I don't know if I could choose one over the other. And I'm partial to Summer as well, though I could live without the dog days of July and August. When winter comes, I'm usually well finished with sunshine and looking forward to the holidays, cozy fires and cocoa. So I guess I love them all. I don't think I could pick just one. But at the moment, I'm really excited about Spring! What about you? Do you have a favorite season?

Planning for (Daydreaming of) Summer

2008-02-29T04:43:24Z

Even with Easter just around the corner, Spring doesn't seem to be arriving soon enough. I do enjoy winter gardens, but about now I start to feel like I've been holding my breath for the last few months. So I'm daydreaming (or planning) my garden, looking through last year's photos to try and remember what it was I wanted to do differently or the same.

This particular border at my last house was such a lovely surprise. It was primarily passalong and swap plants, and not my usual classic pink and blue cottage garden color scheme. But I loved how it turned out and I ended up continuing the theme for the entire border. And I love the birdcage, too. Nothing says cottage style like birdhouses and birdcages, right?

I'd like to play with this color palette at the new place, although it will most certainly evolve. But I am glad I rediscovered these photos. Sometimes trying a completely different color palette leads to fabulous results. Of course, sometimes it can be a disaster. Sometimes doing something different is freeing and liberating. Sometimes trying too hard to be different makes a huge mess. So how are you going to plan your summer garden? Meticulously? With the tried-and-true? Freewheeling? Going for the experimental? Or maybe no planning at all? Seriously, I want to know.

Late Summer Perennial Border for Sun

2007-07-02T16:16:36Z

You've all seen the garden I just bought. Well, this is the backyard I'm leaving behind. When I got here it was just arborvitae a mess of a hazelnut tree. Some of it is still fairly new and not filled in, but the middle of the back border along the fence is one of my favorites. I really want to recreate this at the new place, so I hope you'll indulge me in documenting it here. Well, maybe not with the stumps, though. I got those for Rocket Boy, but he almost never uses them, and every time *I* sit on them I get some kind of nasty uber-itchy bug bite. Ants, maybe? The other thing I might change is the variegated grass in the back (Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light'). I love the exuberance of it, and the height, but it's not very well behaved. It wants to fall all over the other perennials, the edges of the leaves cut my arms when I get back there to weed, and it dies back in the winter, leaving a huge swath of fence to look at. So I'm thinking maybe a barrel of bamboo instead. I have some golden bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea) that would work, though it wouldn't be vareigated. I'm also considering a variegated elderberry (Sambucus nigra 'Aureomarginata'). The border is on the Western permiter of the back garden, so it gets lots of morning and midday sun, then the back half is in shade by mid afternoon, and the front half in shade by early evening. Also, when facing ther border, the right half gets more shade than the left. The color palette is mostly purple, dark pink, blue and rusty orange with splashes of chartreuse foliage. I wish I could say I did that on purpose from the start, but it just kind of evolved. The first thing that really clicked was the Matrona sedum next to the echinacea. I just fall in love with that combination all over again every year. Anyway, the plants. In the back, from left to right are: Buddleia 'Black Knight' - Black Knight Butterfly Bush Iris 'Black As Night' - 'Black as Night' Iris (Behind that is a trellis with a mystery dark purple clematis) Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light' - Variegated Ornamental Grass Nandina Domestica - Heavenly Bamboo Verbena bonariensis - Brazilian Verbena Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Worcester Gold' - Golden Leaf Blue Mist Spirea Sambucus nigra 'Gerda' - 'Black Beauty' Elderberry In the front, from left to right are: Mystery Orange Crocosmia Mystery Yellow Thuja Iris pallida 'Variegata' - Dalmation Iris A blank hole where a peony used to be that I'm taking with me (sorry, new owners). Echinacea purpurea 'Magnum' - Purple Coneflower Sedum 'Matrona' - Matrona Sedum Hemerocallis 'L'il Grapette' - L'il Grapette Daylilies Achemilla mollis - Lady's Mantle I've taken so many pictures, and written these plant names down a hundred times. But I'm sure I'll still be standing there at the new border and scratching my head going, "Now, what the heck did I do before?" And don't worry, I know the new border will be great no matter what I do. But it makes me feel better to know I at least have something to work from. I'd like to not repeat all the same 'learning experiences' at the new place! :-)

The New Garden! Woo hoo!!

2007-06-28T18:16:00Z

I know you've all been dying to see what the garden looks like at the new house. We'll be getting the keys tomorrow, so I think it's safe to finally say it's really happening and show it all off. So that first photo shows the front yard. You can see the foundation plantings are a wee bit, uh, ~~completely out of control~~ mature. Here's the back yard. That's a pear tree in the middle. I have to say I considered losing it, but my husband and I were married under a pear tree, and it's centered on the family room window, so it's going to stay. But it's going to get pulled back into shape. When you look at its undercarriage you can tell it was once in great shape but hasn't been pruned in years. Here's the back porch. I'm totally psyched about having a covered porch. I've never had one before! You can see in this photo the one and only perennial in the entire garden, the clump of daylilies at the corner. No idea what color they are yet. But I'm sure they'll be staying. Here's the shed in back. I'm hoping to make it look like a cute little cottage: And here's the best part; the side yard. This is the future home of my fruit, vegetable and cutting garden. Aside from ~~hacking~~ trimming back the ~~house-swallowing~~ mature foundation plantings, this is my number one garden project. Just imagine a picket fence, arbors, fruit trees, beds of veggies and cutting flowers....I can't wait. As you can see, it's pretty much a blank slate but it has some good structure. So I'm very excited! Even though it's a ton of work, at least it's mostly just adding beds and plantings, no major landscaping, which is nice. And I'm happy it's devoid of plantings (except that clump of mystery daylilies). If it was already beautiful I'd be faced with (a) nothing to add, and (b) having to contemplate ripping out perfectly good garden because it's not the way I would want it. So this is the best posible situation for me. And don't worry. Every little detail of the progression will be posted right here. :-)

New Sod In Front Garden

2007-06-17T04:32:00Z

Who new $300 could bring me such joy? Well, taking a step back, who knew a lush, green lawn could bring me such joy? Not me. I mean, seriously, I'm not a big "lawn" person in general. I definitely subscribe to the eco-sensitive, "less is better, none is best" school of thought when it comes to bluegrass. Which probably explains why ours was a weedy, lumpy mess. But hey, lawns sell houses, and we want to sell ours, so we figured we'd go with what most people would want, and we had the front lawn replaced with new sod. Stunningly, it was super cheap to have it done, including the sod AND gorgeous black compost to put under the sod (should've gotten a picture of it, it was beautiful) AND them ripping out the old lawn and everything. And it only took them a few hours to do it. Literally. They got here at 9:00 am and were cutting the round holes around thet trees just after lunchtime. And I figured it'd look nice. I expected that I'd like it, you know, as an objective observer. In a detached, not-really-approving sort of way. Rocket Boy definitely liked it. He called it "a new rug of grass." Then he ran circles around the weeping birch tree over and over and over again until I realized he was shifting the new grass out of place and the poor guy who just installed it had to fix it all. Which he did very generously. But that's not what surprises me. What surprises me is how much *I* liked it. Me. Grass hating, water saving, organic-gardening-loving, sod-ripping-out-even-when-six-months-pregnant me. But I like it. I really really really like it. Now, I'm not saying that I'll be installing brand new sod at my new place or that I'm going to preach the praises of lawn anytime soon. And let's face it, if I stayed here with the lawn, it would certainly come to a gruesome demise. Lack of water, lack of mowing, lack of fertilizer and a serious lack of weed control (oi vey) and within a few short years it'd be right back to the weedy, lumpy thing we euphamistically called a lawn before. I am not speculating, I know this from direct experience. Because that's what we did to the lawn that was here when we moved in. Not that it was this perfect, it'd been here awhile, but it was pretty darn nice. Yeah, for a few months anyway. But just look at this thing. I mean, just look at it. It's so gorgeous it's almost surreal. I want to go roll around in it and rub my face in it and do grass angels in it. Or play croquet on it. Or something, I don't know. But in case I haven't made this clear by now, let me say it one more time, I like it. I like it A LOT. So for the couple of weeks that I get to be the proud owner of an absolutely prestine, amazingly green, perfectly trimmed, jaw-droppingly lush lawn, I am going to enjoy it. Every water-guzzling, fertilizer-requiring, eco-not-at-all-sensitive stinkin' minute of it. Yum.