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<\/p>\nWhere were we? I’ve been working at the day job like a navvy, trying to clear some time for spring garden visits, shows and whatnot. But the garden in March initiates a measured sequence of distractions, which can really mess with the most resolute work ethic. (I think “resolute” was a one-word self-description used by one of the Republican primary candidates but now can’t remember which. Romney? Strange how none of them used the one-word descriptors that are always at the tip of my tongue for them.)<\/p>\n
Back to the much more important business of gardens. I’ve recently discovered that a good part of the front gravel garden has been planted almost exclusively in blues, greys, and yellows. Yes, at one time I apparently mustered some self-restraint.<\/p>\n
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It’s mostly succulents, grasses, and small evergreen shrubs, very few perennials except the self-sowing Spanish poppies. The orange blooms will get a fantastic backdrop here. I don’t remember consciously planning this blue\/yellow-only business. I’ll have to search the back pages of the blog.<\/p>\n
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March’s Garden Design features an interview with landscape architect Andrea Cochran. The interview was emphatically not plant-driven, since landscape architecture, not horticulture, was under discussion, but this quote was a compadre<\/em> thrill: More chartreuse from Agave attenuata ‘Kara’s Stripes.’<\/p>\n The gravel garden now has some of the nicest looking agaves, including ‘Blue Glow’ in the first photo and a powder-blue A. potatorum below. The attenuatas can really look beat up, but ‘Kara’s Stripes’ has if anything improved over the winter.<\/p>\n The opposite end of the gravel garden by the driveway doesn’t continue the blue\/yellow-only theme. There’s lots of breakage and damage at this end, and ad hoc replacements are made on the fly. Very easy on the eyes, this blue\/yellow\/green.<\/p>\n *Reddish stems on this one makes it more likely Sideritis cypria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where were we? I’ve been working at the day job like a navvy, trying to clear some time for spring garden visits, shows and whatnot. But the garden in March initiates a measured sequence of distractions, which can really mess … Continue reading
\n“I’m a sucker for anything in the blue-gray family…If you go blue-gray with chartreuse: home run<\/em>.” To have anything in common with Ms. Cochran’s taste I count as a personal home run.<\/p>\n![\"Photobucket\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/february2012\/016-1.jpg\")
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\nRecent death of a large agave provided an opportunity to try out Sideritis syriaca<\/del>* here. I haven’t been this smitten with a plant since my first ballota.<\/p>\n![\"Photobucket\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/february2012\/225morn008-1.jpg\")
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