Before and after, and after that.

Here is a comparison from early May last year, in Dad's back yard. The first two are of the "garden" when he bought the place, and after I ripped out old, dead shrubs.

This is May 15 this year. I had left some raspberry canes, but they didn't do much, and aren't much to look at. So they are replaced by a Miss Kim Lilac, and a white potentilla.


Here is the bed with the most dramatic change. Before, it was 8 shrubs. I pulled all but 2 out. These are last year.

Here's how it looked May 15th.

Before and after

Dad's front yard. Before.



After.



It doesn't look like much now, but there is a flat of begonias, and a flat of coleus planted in there. I'm tired just looking at it.

New things

I lost my Oakleaf Hydrangea; some of my garden fell prey to the long, hot, dry summer. But this was killed by workmen, and I was very upset about it. I specifically pointed it out, said that was the one plant in the garden that needed to be guarded, and they still snapped it off at ground level.

I replaced it, and this version is small as yet, but has a lot of nice looking branches. You can see it just in front of the bleeding heart.

The other plant that I lost, and was sort of happy about, was the cotoneaster. It was vigorous, but I wasn't that pleased with the overall look. So when it appeared that it had suffered lots of winter damage, I went looking for a replacement. And found these wonderful little woodland groundcover plants. They are a dwarf dogwood, called Cornus Canadensis. Or Canadian Bunchberry. They are native to North America in a band from Alaska to Newfoundland, and are apparently a favourite snack for moose. My challenge will be to keep them mulched, because they don't like really warm soil temperatures. They will have tiny white flowers, then berries, and the whole plant turns red in the fall. I am holding out great hope for these!

May is for gardens

As of May 15th, I have planted all of the new material at my house, and finished planting my Dad's gardens. I also took a lot of photos, to establish what's happening this year. I'll do more before and after comparisons later, but for now, here's a sample of what's new.

Our small raised bed has never been spectacular. I moved a few ferns and hosta, and replaced them with a perennial that's new to me called a Turtlehead. How can you not love a plant with that name? I put in three for now, later in the season they should send up spikes of pink flowers. In front, I have a variety of exotic annuals, and I have entirely forgotten the names. But I put the plant tags beside each, so I can figure out what they are.



The side of my house was a huge hosta bed. It was spectacular during the two weeks of the year when they bloomed, with fragrant, lily like white flowers, but for the rest of the year, it was boring. I divided the hostas, and interspersed about a dozen different daylilies, all blooming at slightly different times. The lump of ground cover is some very successful vinca. This just proves that a gardener can't leave well enough alone; last summer that side bed looked all finished, so I had to take stuff out and start over.



And finally, we put a new rhododendron in the front to replace the purple sandcherry that we took out. It's not so big this year, but it has flowered. It will be an evergreen, which is nice for that spot, and it should do a lot to cover the unsightly brown paint on the foundations. I also have a pvc lattice to cover some of that.


The Rhodo is in back, the lovely big plants in the front are my Anabelle Hydrangea, and the Snowmound Spirea.