Garden Snapshot

Tonight at dusk, I went out and took a few quick shots of the garden. The seemingly unending rain of February/March has stopped and the garden is on the cusp of waking up. I spent several days last week cutting things back, planting, and mulching -which was just the respite I was needing from, well, life.

Many of my plants did not fare too well over the winter. I have had an ongoing battle with slugs, which I seem to be still losing, and the dog seems compelled to pee on anything still remotely alive. Seriously, I had some beautiful tufts of creeping thyme, santa barbara daisies and various carex grasses that are all but gone. I remind myself that a garden is always changing and in process. 
  

I moved the sickly little rounds of rosemary that were previously against this wall to a more sunny location by the apple espaliers. In their place, I planted some Green Beauty Boxwood, which should like this location better. Behind them, some fencing scraps, leaning against the wall to hide the hot tub's pvc pipes, which need protection from the sun. Once the boxwood grows larger, I'll remove those.

This area still needs some filling in. It gets partial sun and I haven't yet determined what to plant. I'm leaning toward some large grasses (too big for Calvin to straddle). 

The crops of maiden grass, which I hacked back in January, are starting to come in nicely. I plan to partially sink those stumps to make a walkway for rolling back the hot tub top.

I started transplanting moss in earnest this winter. I bought a few flats from Mossin' Annie, which are beautiful and doing well and also added to my crop from transplants taken from my various spots in the city -all taken from abandoned urban areas where it crops up on hardtop in the shade. 
  

I bought 14 bags of mulch on Saturday and probably need as many again to properly cover and amend all my plants. The potato vine is quite happy and I'm still hopeful that the wisteria I planted by the shed will finally @%^#ing flower this year! I'm also contemplating adding a cecile brunner to the west wall but would have to transplant a jasmine vine in order to do that. I also see that I need to finally get around to building a screen for that ugly heater and electrical box.

I hauled out the cushions this weekend, but am now learning that I was a tad premature. We're expected a few final hurrahs of rain this week so I'll move those back in tomorrow until the weekend. 

This past week, I also cleaned up the concrete with a power washer and really cut back the bougainvillea which is just starting to send out new leaves. I'd like to add just a few large pots to this area without overcrowding it, and to spruce up the succulents on the table, which also needs a little scrub down. 

Ah, so much to do but in an exciting sort of way.

Cheers.