Not for the faint of heart...

mmmm

mmm

TIMBERRRR!!!

That would be the sound of trees falling in the backyard jungle.

This is BEFORE:

Note the expansive deer and tick habitat (I've pulled eight off the youngest planting assistant thus far this year) and the state of the so-called lawn.

Here's the view to the right-hand side, where I recently cleared a small patch of jungle myself to make room for the Mother's Day Cercis and the (now deer-destroyed) hydrangea and blueberries:

You can see, midground, the four-stemmed maple that I particularly like; and, through the encroaching euonymous, the stone wall that extends back from the Mile O' Shade.

Here's the same view, AFTER:

Of course it looks lovely now, with the wall all exposed and all that sun pouring in; but by the time we return from vacation the euonymous will be fighting their way back and a whole new host of weeds will emerge.

And I'll be spreading grass seed:

Of course the planting assistants are having a lot of fun with the chips:

And we did leave a few specimens still standing, including the four-stemmed maple and this beech growing out of a rock:

Still, I feel a bit like Saruman before the Ents got their revenge.

Clink!

That would be the sound of digging, in the Mile O' Shade...

Mined from the 12-ft stretch in which I put the four hydrangeas...

This one's for you, Ruth...

The Ferns:

First off, you'll be glad to hear that I managed to get the ostriches in right away.  I put them in several close clumps, of which here are two:

In a few days the fronds will droop and then dry up completely; but for the moment they look terrific; and by now I trust that they will come back, next year if not later this summer.

Thank you!

Existing Items:

And here are some of the garden highlights I told you about:

My Mother's Day cercis, newly planted in the newly cleared former jungle  (I realize this picture looks as if it were taken at midnight.  It wasn't, but my planting assistant, who took it, hasn't quite mastered lighting issues.)

Note the hydrangea and blueberries in the foreground.  After surviving successfully for three weeks, both were chomped to nibs while I was at your house.  Sigh.  Live and learn.

Here's my existing pieris, which I've always thought was some sort of kalmia.  I had my planting assistant stand next to it so you could see the scale, which is... substantial.  Ask your Chief Pruner if he has any suggestions, if you would.

And here is (ba-da-da-dum)... Ilex Party Boy.  Yet more evidence that size really doesn't matter.

Note the cast iron urns, here and also beside my cercis.  I planted them with odds and ends and blue lobelia and, principally, bright pink New Guinea impatiens.  Those blasted deer ate the impatiens in the time it took me to take a shower.

New Items:

Once I got all the ferns planted, as, you know,  a little reward to myself for all my industry, I set off today to the only-moderately-expensive nursery, to see if they had any clethra or kalmia.  As we discussed.

Guess what?  As of today, nearly all of their shrubs are half price!!!  What kind of karma is that??!  Naturally I picked up a few things:

(If you double-click on the image it'll come up much bigger.)

(Don't strain your eyes, though, searching for the clethra or kalmia.)

Here are a few close ups:

These are Hay Scented Ferns, a type of which I currently have none and which are reputed to be abominable to deer and also to spread with enthusiasm; virtues both around here...

This is -- be still, mine heart!  -- variegated pieris!  Can you even believe it?!  It's not even in the Dirr's, but here is a write-up...

Here's a close-up of the tag, which in my enthusiasm I didn't bother to read closely (OK, at all) in the nursery, which claims that these babies -- of which I bought three! -- will grow to 6-8' high, with equal spread.  If, of course, they survive.  Which makes finding three spots for them a little tricky, even in the Mile O' Shade.

The Internet assures me, though, that this growth will occur very slowly.

And here is variegated liriope!  Just as we discussed!

These are Ilex Shamrock -- relatively soft, oval-leafed, with, as you can see, small white flowers, suggesting to me (with all my vast Ilex expertise) that they're girls (see glabra, on the lower left of p. 195 in Dirr's).  However, when I asked the lady at the nursery if they needed a pollinator, she just stared at me blankly.  I guess we'll just have to hope that Party Boy is up for the job.  Will report back later...

I got a few of these big leaf hydrangea because their leaves are interestingly chartreuse, though perhaps that only means they're dying...

I also picked up a couple of bags of this, mostly just to prove to you that it is, in fact, widely available....

And, last but not least, I got one buddleia Black Knight, not for the Mile-O-Shade, but for out near the cottage, just because I've always wanted Black Knight and it was, after all, half price.  

Let the record state that all these things, including the cow poop, came to a grand total of $217.52.

I was not, however, successful in getting either clethra or kalmia, the two items I had expressly ventured out looking for.

(This is why your garden has a distinctly more intentional feel to it, than mine does.)

So I headed over to the incredibly-expensive-nursery, just to, you know, poke around and see, just for, you know, research, if they had clethra and kalmia.

Indeed they did:

This single specimen of clethra, which when planted will come up to my assistant's knees, cost $45.  I declined the kalmia.

My husband's looking into 12-step programs for me.

Party Game: Name That Plant!

Challenge No. 1:

As discussed, this is the view standing from the front door looking out over the courtyard (in the process of evolving into a "Sunken Garden")...

Here is the mysterious woody shrub planted next to the steps leading out of the front courtyard that I was telling you about:

Medium range view, with my planting assistant alongside...

Close up view, happily still in bloom right now.  It started blooming when the Siberian irises were still going, at least two weeks ago.  It's now past its prime but definitely still going.

What do you think?

Challenge No. 2:

And then here's another, that I totally forgot about.  These shrubs -- there are four of them-- were totally overrun and overshadowed by the insidious native euonymous.  Early this spring, in preparation for The Year of the Shrub, I cut the euonymous back to stubs and revealed these things -- all legs, barely any leaves, no shape, yet... laid out in this unmistakably intentional line.  I gave them air and light and cut them back to four feet -- which left not a single leaf on a single one of them -- and granted them one year's reprieve to do something.  This is what they did:

With my planting assistant, to show the scale...

And here are the blossoms up close.

I'm just wondering.  Is it possible that I already have clethra?  The blossoms are definitely not spires, as most of the clethra in the Dirr's seem to be, but they're definitely something.

If they are clethra, then clethra are very, very forgiving plants.

And one parting comment:

Lest you thought I sounded a bit cranky when I complained that my lawn guys were "part of the problem; certainly not part of the solution," this is what I discovered when I tried to hook up the soaker hose to water your gorgeous ostrich ferns:

(Note as well, the state of the underlying "lawn."  Sigh.

And the fashionable shoes, as discussed.)

Happy weeding!

xox, PK