Yard Renovations Continue–Summer 2013

Documenting our continued yard renovation has been on the back burner for several weeks, due to yard renovation.  I really wanted to take advantage of the (finally) good weather of cool temperatures and periods of dryness. Although much more is planned, I have a rainy day to show  what has been done. 




This Solar Eclipse Redbud will anchor the back corner.  With it’s variegated green and cream leaves, it will be a showy addition all year.  I may be unimaginative, but the base of the Redbud is ringed with a green with white edge Hosta. ( I lost the variety name, sorry.) 



Epimedium was transplanted from another area to flank the tree.  It too has lovely chartreuse leaves all season with red-tinged new foliage in the spring.



This area – the former home of the Epimedium – also had miles of Creeping Jenny, an invasive ground cover,  which I hope will not invade the new plantings.  So I literally pulled the roots of the plants apart and tried to pull even the littlest portion of roots of the Creeping Jenny and Solomon’s Seal before I moved anything. Primrose and a lovely purple Ajuga did make the cut. 


Not sure when or where so many rock came from, but apparently over the years of scavenger hunting in construction sights, I had quite a few.  We used them to create a border along a now cleaned out area along the fence where firewood was stacked.

 



These four shrubs were chosen for several reasons.  The Viburnum have blooms, and fruit for winter interest and food for wildlife, and the Quince was just pretty!


The shrub on the left is ‘Alfredo Compact Viburnum’, Viburnum trilobum ‘Alfredo” Although it’s name suggests it is small, the mature size is 5’ to 6’ tall and wide.  Careful plant selection and knowing the space will allow for less pruning and possibly moving the plant from it over-crowed location in the future.  Less maintenance is my goal for this new garden space. ‘Alfredo’ will get masses of white blooms followed by bright red fruit.  Fall foliage turns a purple-red for a stunning finale.
 


The second shrub is Viburnum lantana ‘Mohican’’.  This viburnum has a leathery texture to the leaves, and get white flowers in the spring. The orange-red fruit comes on in summer.  The 6’ – 8’ mature size will fit well in this new border.




Next new shrub is a Quince called Double Take (t), ‘Pink Storm, Chaenomeles speciosa’Pink Storm’ USPP20920. The coral blooms caught my eye and the occasional re-bloom in summer will be an added bonus to this lovely shrub. I don’t have deer in my area, but for those who do, this Quince is deer resistant, topping out at 4’-5’ tall and wide, I placed in in front of the honeysuckle vine for a vertical color splash.





The shrub on the right is another Viburnum called ‘Blue Muffin’, Viburnum dentatum ‘Christom’ .

I’m really looking forward to the blue fruit in the fall which follow white blooms.  Blue Muffin is  popular with birds.  This compact shrub likes well drained soil and will grow to 5’ – 7’, so give it room to grow.   

When planting container or balled and burlapped plants, keep a few things in mind.  Plants should only be planted to the depth they were in the container, or just at ground level to the top of the root ball. Enrich the soil  only minimally with organic material like humas or compost.  The majority of soil should be the native soil that was dug from the planting sight.  This allows to transplanted roots to adjust to their new surroundings and reduce stress.

If our summer gets as hot and dry as last year, these shrubs will need supplemental watering for the plants to completely get established.




As my project continues this summer, I’ll be making more decisions about hardscapes, and landscape.  Keeping in mind the general use we plan for this area will go along way in the decision making.  Budget is very small but I do not want to have an unusable space for our needs or have to undo an area in the future which will be more costly in the long run. Having a plan always keeps the project renovation on track.