{"id":106163,"date":"2025-04-30T14:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=106163"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:39:02","slug":"tuning-up-notes-on-spring-cleanup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=106163","title":{"rendered":"tuning up; notes on spring cleanup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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late April 2025 after a couple weeks of cleanup mostly on dry days. Though I did grab Marty’s foul weather gear from his LA harbor days and suited up to work in a rainstorm for a full day — the drive to spring clean the garden is strong!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I worked for 20 years in a profession famous for repetitive stress injuries to the wrists (court reporting) and never suffered from one and could only wonder what it must feel like to those having to wear wrist splints as part of daily attire. Now I wonder no more. Cutting back the garden since arriving in early April, the right wrist really started to feel it. It’s back to normal now, but that marathon spring cutback session needs rethinking. While the pain memory is still fresh, I thought some notes on tuning up this spring garden might be helpful to review next spring, hopefully prompting some workarounds. (For comparison, the cleanup work we put into the Los Angeles garden last October was exhausting, but no one particular muscle group was affected more than the other — everything hurt!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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asphodels are this cool with no attention at all<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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another flawless presence in spring, Polemonium ‘Golden Feathers’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I was resigned to the libertias performing as tidy foliage plants — finally some flowers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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compact form of Brachyglottis greyi joined by flowers of Euphorbia ‘Miner’s Merlot’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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late April 2025 feels like the garden is an orchestra, chaotically tuning up. Between my efforts to cut back and clean things up and the afternoon wind blowing out the chaff, we’re getting there<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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backdrop with new wood of the fence repair. On the right, Stipa gigantea and dierama both require labor intensive tidying.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dierama needs careful cleanup due to its asymmetric and akimbo growth pattern that juts out stalks awkwardly. I sacrificed some summer blooms to lasso it back into a more vase-like outline and trimmed a lot of its ratty blades. (The Olearia x mollis ‘Zennorensis’ directly behind the dierama surprisingly flourished, but the two shapes fought each other. Which one to move? Not wanting to set back blooms on the dierama, I opted to move the olearia to the front garden, which has a mostly evergreen presence.) The giant restio Rhodocoma capensis was thinned a lot; arguably, it needs a bigger garden than mine, but even reduced and thinned it has a strong presence, so it stays for now. And it definitely has more breathing room now that the tetrapanax is gone — above ground anyway!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The removed tetrapanax was sited roughly where the round tank is now temporarily situated, I’m finding and removing new shoots of the tetrapanax daily. Rhodocoma capensis just behind. Euphorbia characias seedlings are progeny from the mother plant in full bloom this spring that had grown thin and woody so was removed . Great temporary plants for a new garden. A division of mountain mint, Pycnanthem muticum, replaced the euphorb (roughly between stipa and dierama),<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Something Ketzel Levine said at Manzanita’s Wonder Garden plant sale last weekend stuck with me. Some of us volunteers were looking at a congested clump of Eryngium paniculatum, and our fearless director said sometimes it’s best to dig up and divide a mature clump rather than waste time trying to clean it. Now, to me, a mature clump of anything is a huge asset, capable of producing more blooms, and some tap-rooted plants don’t take lightly to being divided, but the general point is well taken. The giant eryngo in my garden, E. padanifolium, becomes a congested mass of spiky leaves, very scratchy cleanup work. I opted for a shortcut this week and removed most of the rosettes, leaving the largest. And as for Stipa gigantea, this evergreen grass needs a lot of tidying and cutting back of old bloom spikes, and I’ll most likely divide it next spring and start fresh –.I wouldn’t be without it. The seslerias and deschampsias also need extensive raking and trimming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chionochloa rubra, practically perfect in every way, needed no cleanup at all, fronted by one of the many eyrngos in the garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Achnatherum calamagrostis, camassias, and Symphyttum ‘Axminster Gold’ planted in April. This grass needs only the old flower spikes cut back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Between the two clumps of Silver Spike Grass grew one of the many divisions of Succisella inflexa spread throughout the garden, a fizzy pollinator-attracting perennial that adores growing conditions here and quickly extends to sizeable clumps. With pale lavender, knautia-like flowers, it was a boon to the new garden but becoming an aggressive spreader. Only one clump remains. Symphytum ‘Axminster Gold’ was found at Blooming Junction, a good nursery an hour and a half away. (We made a couple trips to a nearby mechanic to get my Mini Cooper checked out, so there were some unexpected plant shopping opportunities. Garaged all winter, nevertheless, upon startup the Mini had a fit and was throwing multiple computer codes, and the windows, turn signals and windshield wipers wouldn’t work. A hefty repair bill for the Mini at 14 years old, 100,000 miles, but we’ve no interest in car shopping at the moment!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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from left, Eryngium padanifolium, Euphorbia griffithii, camassia, geum, backed by Silver Spike Grass and comfrey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The comfrey is a much better background for the camassias than the nondescript green leaves of succisella, and as it gains size and spills over the riser it will help conceal the dying camassia leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Euphorbia griffithii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Metapanax delavayii loved the relatively mild winter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overall, since breaking ground in October 2021, more plants have survived than failed, so there’s been lots of digging and relocating this spring. (The only transplant I fear may not survive is Sinopanax formosanus, which flourished in a location that was inappropriate for the size it was attaining, so it had to be moved in any case.) Regrettably I did remove Hebe parviflora var. angustifolia, and will miss its glowing willowy presence when at its peak of summer\/fall beauty. As it grew to over 4 feet, however, its scruffy spring presence became harder to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hebe ‘New Zealand Gold,’ Phlomis monocephala and Cassinia x ozothamnus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I expected a similarly scruffy appearance from the stock tank beschorneria, but the buffering effect from the nearby Cassinia x ozothamnus may have saved it from winter’s worst. See, it pays to overplant!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Angelica sylvestris ‘Ebony’, one plant survived from a packet of seed. Wonderful spring presence. If it blooms in late summer, fall would be the time to collect the seed and sow it fresh for more plants next spring<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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also new to the garden is another dark-leaved plant for early spring presence, biennial Anthriscus ‘Ravenswing’ –known to reseed true to type<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The anthriscus share ground with a young Stachyurus salicifolia, melianthus, Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’ and a nicely maturing Thalictrum ‘Elin’ just in front of the stock tank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Also here, Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’ can’t hold a candle to the majesty of ‘Elin’ (imho). Digitalis ferruginea is reseeding almost too prolifically here, and I’m trialing a couple Digitalis lutea too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More photos and less words soon! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I worked for 20 years in a profession famous for repetitive stress injuries to the wrists (court reporting) and never suffered from one and could only wonder what it must feel like to those having to wear wrist splints as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[550,5119],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rCj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106163"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106163"}],"version-history":[{"count":72,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106236,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106163\/revisions\/106236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}