A Garden Is Always Changing

People who do not garden just don't understand all the movement we undertake to make things just perfect!  I have about twenty plants in my head that I know I must move because they are not in the right place.  Some years I get this mission accomplished and some I do not and must look at them misplaced for another year.

I took out my Persicaria Polymorpha, gave it almost nine years, just wasn't in a happy place.  In its place is Dwarf Fothergilla a wonderful shrub that grows three to four feet tall, blooms with a bottlebrush type flower in the spring and has beautiful fall color.  It is small enough that it will not fall over on the path.

I have looked at my Chicago Apache Daylilies for many years, great bloom in the south raised bed and then nothing for the beginning and end of the summer and fall.  I must get a companion plant in there that keeps going all season.  It is going to be Heliopsis Loraine Sunshine, blooms late spring, summer and fall.  Why didn't I think of this before, looking at it falling over the walk for years?

I will move Chicago Apache to the back of the raised bed, planted in triangles, with Heliopsis Loranie Sunshine in front.

I think Loraine will be in a much happier place in the raised bed.  It can spread its wings!

I am also going to redo this bed with Happy Returns Daylilies and Orienpet lilies.  The lilies are way too tall for this raised bed and the daylilies are dormant too much of the time.

There are probably some things I need to change in this long south border, but I don't even want to think about removing some of the roses (Japanese Beetle destruction).

The beetles were even all over Morden's Pink Lythrum this year but after cutting off the eaten flowers it came back.

I have placed some Panicum Shenendoah in and out along the border so there will be some fall and winter interest.

I bought Ginger Bamboo in the beginning of the season for my front planters and found it just couldn't take the heat or the sun.  So, I moved it along the south walk with the Sunpatiens and it has flourished.  I am finding the Sunpatiens like to be in the ground not a pot and in my garden they like a little shade time.

I already took out my bleeding hearts in the spring and relocated them, gave some away, so that I would have more going on on the north side rather than just dying foliage  It is very difficult to layer under mature bleeding hearts.  So, I have scaled down, ferns, smaller hosta, astilbe (which may be short lived if we have another scorching summer) epimedium, hellebore and heuchera.  I even put in a couple of sunpatiens as an experiment.

Even with a watering system the astilbe could not take the heat.  I will have to rethink this area because it has been talking to me for many years now about not working out in this area.  If the north side of my house can't accomodate it, I do not have a place for it in my garden. 

This is a plant that has flourished in the heat in the same area as the astilbe.  Believe it or not it is a bleeding heart Dicentra Exima, blooms all summer.

I really like this north side, Unique Hydrangeas were just fine this year but smaller, Pachysandra didn't even notice the heat and Solomon's Seal just like it was in the spring.

This is the area where I removed the bleeding hearts and put in a variety of part shade plantings, Peach Flambe Heuchera (this one will take full sun), Interrupted Fern, Hellebore, June Hosta, Japanese Painted Fern, Heucherella Stoplight, Fanal Astilbe (can't believe I put in astilbe after what I just said) Epimedium.

This is a high maintenance grass, Carex Ice Fountains, at least where I have it along the north path.  Each season it has to be trimmed down a couple of times and then again in the fall.  It will spill over if not supported.  Well, something less demanding will be the new occupant, but I haven't told my helper yet that he will have to dig it out.

These are new in the front garden beds, Allium Summer Beauty, supposedly looks good all seasons.  We'll see as I am not liking the way some of them look after done blooming, but it could be because I have just planted them.

Autumn Fern is lovely but it just began to show in the too tall Lirope.  I need to move them where they show up much earlier in the season.

The vegetable garden is probably the one area where I do not make too many changes.  It is not even big enough to rotate crops but seems to do well year after year.


The header is from a garden walk which I will be posting in the future.