{"id":104339,"date":"2024-07-03T18:36:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T22:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=104339"},"modified":"2024-07-03T18:36:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T22:36:00","slug":"three-years-in-a-zone-8-garden-toddler-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=104339","title":{"rendered":"Three years in a zone 8 garden (toddler phase)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As Metapanax delavayi in the center fills in, many of the surrounding herbaceous plants needed relocation. Tetrapanax towers over the patio roof now, changing light patterns under its canopy and running at the root into the gravel. Stipa gigantea has an enormous footprint but is indispensable. Extreme right, a glimpse of 5’x5′ Persicaria polymorpha . Its shrub-like enormity will most likely have to be thinned out next spring. For now branches are pruned to allow sunlight on neighboring plants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I broke my shovel yesterday, the trusty decades’ old one I brought up north. There’s a metaphor there somewhere. It’s seen a lot of action, especially this spring\/early summer. The back garden has left behind that deliciously expectant phase, like being pregnant really, and entered the sobering reality of caring for a rambunctious toddler. Margaret Roach’s excellent article on the High Line<\/a> was a reassuring and timely read for me. (“Change is the only constant<\/em>.”). My 3-year-old garden now requires many of the same maneuvers, interventions, and relocations to settle land disputes and preserve air and sun rights as the 15-year-old High Line — on a vastly different scale, of course (and without having to contend with only 16 inches of soil!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Things are tight! Persicaria polymorpha does not run at the root but it’s still a beast, a beautiful one<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dreamy phase of contemplating a future garden has had a hard stop this third summer, where harsh judgments must be meted out — which plant is the more valuable and which needs to move elsewhere. Even after three years some plants are still getting settled, while others have doubled or tripled their footprint (Sucissella inflexa, a pale knautia-like bobblehead, I’m looking at you<\/em>!). It’s engrossing and fascinating to watch the maturation process, but admittedly unnerving to be flung out of the design department and moved to a management position. I have nothing but respect for the 10 full-time gardeners managing the hard work of maintaining the High Line’s complex plantings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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astilbe has been one of those slow to establish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Euphorbia griffithii will want more ground, but I’m willing to work with it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What’s really centered me again and reinvoked that dreamy, expectant state of mind is starting lots of annuals and biennials from seed. Many of the annuals like cosmos, castor bean and amaranthus are getting popped into newly vacant soil as permanent plants are thinned. I’m more than willing to perform the daily triage an overplanted garden requires, but I’m a born nurturer and love the caretaking of young plants. I need to take care of plant babies!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And my preference for big bodacious plants only exacerbates the challenges of managing a quickly maturing garden. For now, I wouldn’t want to part with any of them. The big shapes that dominate the border closest to the back fence include, left to right, a 5×5 Euphorbia stygiana, Persicaria polymorpha (both not pictured), Sanguisorba ‘Red Thunder,’ and Selinum wallichianum, center in above photo. Its ferny leaves are great cut — discovered after trying to relieve some pressure and congestion off nearby plants. Huge umbels in late summer. The Silver Spike grass, Achnatherum calamagrostis, has started to bloom, and the garden finally feels like summer because of it. Deschampsia started to bloom this week too. Most of the miscanthus have been moved to the front garden, as has Festuca ‘Glowsticks.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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for now new purchases are limited to small stature stuff like clove-scented Dianthus ‘Key Lime Pie’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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doesn’t get any easier than a bowl of semps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Digitalis parviflora — right at its feet two Kniphofia pauciflora were dug up and relocated to the front garden. A great little kniphofia that deserves the best home possible<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Solanum laxum, Iris ‘Gerald Darby’ — not all of the garden is threatened by imbalance. Some things are just right. Malva ‘Zebrinus’ and Darmera peltata in the stock tank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Zebrina Mallow in the stock tank with Corokia ‘Sunsplash’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For those who’ve been having trouble commenting, deep apologies. Again, management is not my favorite task, and that applies to the blog as well, which barely limps along. Thank you for your patience! Enjoy the long holiday weekend — temps in the 90sF expected here for Friday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I broke my shovel yesterday, the trusty decades’ old one I brought up north. There’s a metaphor there somewhere. It’s seen a lot of action, especially this spring\/early summer. The back garden has left behind that deliciously expectant phase, like … 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-r8T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104339"}],"version-history":[{"count":83,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104423,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104339\/revisions\/104423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}