Red Solo Cup

That's right ya'll... It's time to PARTY!

After three years of reconfiguring and plotting and despairing, I finally talked someone into helping me move the large chunks of flagstone, and bring me a pickup trucks worth of dirt to begin operation "Hide My Neighbors Ugly Chickenwire Fence" and operation "Plant Something, ANYTHING, In the front portion of the Parking Garden."

Let me explain why exactly things have gotten to this point.  The house next to me, with the 2 story garage...yes that one...2 feet from my property line wasn't always as big as it is today.  In the mid 90s someone got the great idea to nearly double the house size and include monster garage.  First it goes against every historic preservation rule the City has, and likely got done with a little under the table dealing, but SECOND it created an enormous draining issue onto my property, specifically in the parking garden.  Those of you who have witnessed a coastal southern downpour know how violent and copiously wet these storms can be, and massive massive amounts of water come cascading both through the downspouts and directly off the roof during these squalls.  This has left erosion issues like I've never seen in a backyard.  All of the dirt is gone, and most of the tree roots are exposed 3 feet below grade in a 10ft by 5 ft area.  At some point in the intervening years, probably to stop further damage, and maintain several trees in an upright position, someone got the wise idea of coating the area in huge fieldstone slabs.  And, I have to say, it worked.  But after even more intervening years, some additional erosion, and new owners on both sides, the area looks somewhat like an ancient crypt which has been broken into on multiple occasions and vampires and other creepy crawlies are running around back there.  Really gross 4-8 legged creepies.

This entire winter my neighbors have been redoing their house (ripping out rotting wood etc), with some disastrous effects to that side of my garden, resulting in the most hideous and (probably also not city legal) long and thick PVC piping running along the house, of course on my side, so I have to look at it (grrrr).  There is going to be a LOT of hiding of that wall going on this spring.  But, back to the point: the drainage issue has been mitigated.  Not completely solved, but solved enough to really dig into the parking garden, after I paid for enough dirt to actually dig in, of course!

So, I sort of forgot the befores...but here's stage 1 afters of the front parking garden bed.  Sure, sure, I know its a stretch to call a bed of dirt a garden, but if you had seen the befores you'd be raising your red solo cup to me.. that is 2400 pounds of dirt.

And just look at the stack of slate pieces previously used to ameliorate the original problem. And of course, yesterday in anticipation I had to go on a massive plant buying spree.  3 azaleas, 1 camellia, 1 autumn fern, 1 star jasmine, 1 gardenia and a holly.  Six pack of beer.  Lots of the big stuff, the bones.

And here is a very not to scale drawing of my back yard, so people can get an idea of where I'm talking about when I'm talking about the gardens outside the white picket fence.  The area that is technical my land alone is the white picket fence garden, left narrow drive bed, front garden, lirope hedge, left parking garden, front parking garden, main parking garden (all three the 'parking garden').  I co-own the back border.  The side border, the 'little bed' and the right narrow drive bed are not owned by me but mine for the planting should I ever get around to it.  So as you can see, for a city garden I really can make myself a paradise, and I have years of work to go still.  I mean just look at that 'after'... years.

Azaleas Hino Crimson are already in..as is the jasmine vine to start covering the chickenwire.  I am sooooo tempted to put some ivy on there....

Beyond the Picket Fence

With a few exceptions, which can only be completed when it cools down, and of course some tinkering, the garden in the white picket fence is chock full.  For now, I can do no more.  I still have to replace the hedge screen hiding the hideous and huge furnace, which also requires replacing the fencing there, but that will be done when I can be outside without risk of heat stroke, severe dehydration and possible death.  It involves digging up privets, digging a bunch of post holes and doing this amongst a front row of roses which I don't want to dig up if I don't have to.  So, yes, definitely putting that off.  Its funny, I almost never take pictures of that view, because despite how pretty the roses are, the rest of it is such an eyesore I pretend it doesn't exist.  But the dang photos don't seem to have my brains ability to edit out all the stuff you don't want to see.

So anyhow, instead of doing this, I'm moving on to the next garden at Chez Children of the Corm, what will be hereafter forever known as 'the parking garden.'  Here is the inaugural 'before' shot.   What lies here now is a very large pecan tree, some runaway lirope, and while now underground, a seriously beautiful amount of Summer Snowflake (Leucojum Aestivum).  These have populated this area en masse pre-Jess, and bloom in February, one of the very first things out of the ground.   The rest of the space, and even under those weeds, all around the tree is gravel.   I've mentioned that this house used to be a college rental and there are still many vestiges of these days, like encasing a tree in said gravel.

My plan, which is ill-formed at best is this: plant things that are extremely drought resistant.   My second plan is try not to do too much damage to all the summer snowflake bulbs hidden there.  My third plan is that I need to get that gravel up, and it is a doozy of a job.  However one that can happen 30 minutes at a time each morning.  Because of the compacted gravel it cannot be shoveled, and even the hand trowel doesn't get too far. Its all about the hand cultivator and the hand.

Final plan is I got my mom to donate a host of drought tolerant daylilies when she divided them. Woohoo, and I accepted delivery a few days ago.  This area gets only morning sun, so we'll see how that goes, but I can envision a swath of daylilies here next year, can't you?  Isn't my Mom cute with her little labels, knowing how I can't stand not knowing what things are? She's made them waterproof for me so I can just stick the stick in right beside the plant when done.

Fun With Layouts

After spending what totaled a disgusting amount of time, I was finally able to put together a floorplan of my back garden space.  It might be another year or two before I create the other two (front garden, parking garden) unless I get a lot faster at this.

Double Click for Larger View

Anyhow here it is!  This is what I prattle on about over and over and over and over.  But I figured it would be nice to see the entirety, which is impossible in a picture.  (click to make a reasonable size). The best I can get is from the guestroom window.. I am not climbing a tree to get the opposite view!  This is the garden inside the white picket fence, and the liriope in the beds right outside the picket fence.

Click For Larger View

I spy with my little eye:
-8 rose bushes and 1 climbing rose
-1 jasmine vine
-12 monstrous liriopes
-4 ugly varigated ligustrums whose days are numbered and who will be replaced by boxwoods and roses
-2 tree like chinese ligustrums
-1 palm tree
-5 hydrangeas
-2 potted japanese maple trees
-2 nelly moser clematis
-3 holly ferns
-1 autumn fern
-1 large fatsia bush
-1 sum and substance monster hosta
-1 beautyberry bush
-lots of sunny perennials on the southern exposure
-little grill
-1 tree stump, from sayonara to southern magnolia
-godawful furnace, and much less conspicuous heat pump
-lots of creeping mazus on the way up the path to the statue (who is conspicuously missing - I can put in a compost pile, a dog house and storage locker, but no statue...some programs are not brilliant)

The Second Year Garden

I went out to the garden to do a little work for the first time since December.  The rotting remains of once vibrant leaves, looking like zombies of their former selves, are coating all the available dirt.   The ephemeral-ness of gardens sort of pisses me off.   Sigh.

I learned a lot last year from my first gardening year.  Most of what I really tried to make survive, did just fine, despite less than an inch of rain during summer.  Yes, the entire 3 months, with 89 straight days above 90.

But today, I am ripping out my mistakes none the less.    Lantana is a great plant for this area, but I have to face it. I hate it.  It just smells awful to me.  Its unkempt in a way that does not appeal to me.  And its downright huge.  I pulled the biggest offender out of the back garden today, and the other 3 in the front garden's days are numbered.   Life is too short and there are too many other things I want to grow for lantana to be in my life anymore.  (if any of you Charleston people want a 4x4 ft lantana plant you just let me know).

I also moved the butterfly bush.  It is also too big and needs too much sun for where it fits.  So he's gone out back to the parking area where he can have all the room and sun he can stand.  I won't really get to see him much as he lies beyond the fence... but hey, my neighbors will be happy come August with this great purple bush growing where weeds once grew.

Showy evening primrose is doing a little too well, and I ripped out half of that.  Now that he's very established, and in an idea situation, according to the experts, he better be covered in blooms or he's gone this time next year.  Too invasive.

I got rid of the crinum lilies (gift to my mom).  They just aren't me.  They grew well though.  And by the way should you ever want to dig them up they the bulbs are the size of eggplants down there!

I got rid of the Sedum (Autumn Joy).  For the time it was blooming it was great... but at least here, it looks like giant broccoli for 80% of the year.  Just not me, and doesn't match all the other flowers in that super sunny portion of the garden.

The yarrow, which I cannot keep from the super flop, is also going to Virginia, as soon as things thaw up there, where it can be planted in the 'ignored' bed, and just be a field flower.

In the spaces left by all this, I am adding some more of what did great, AND I loved.  I will be adding a few more coneflowers, more agapanthas, more area for cleome to reseed, and a few more rose bushes.  I have another hydrangea whom I got for 4 dollars in late November and never made it out of its pot.  And its out there putting out buds, despite his severe neglect.   I have planted a start of blue sky vine (Thunbergia Grandiflora) which was stolen (the cutting) from a neighbor (I hope he forgives me, and cringe if he saw me out there at 7am trying to cut the piece with my keys).    And when the time comes in May foxgloves will again be the star of the show around here.  

For full year top performance at my house anyway the awards go to the various rose bushes and the coneflowers, they really didn't care that we had a real feel temperature of 104 for all of July and August.  As far as annuals go, the angelonias, torenias and African bush daisies are the winners and they will all be back, in force.

Finally, I also learned that I can't be a full time blogger.  I just get too distracted, so I think what I'll do is just post when I have something to report or show, and if its twice one week and then once in 3 months, that will just be the way that it has to be!!!  I want to do it, but I don't want to stress about it!

Happy Gardening 2011 everyone.  I have the next two weeks to clean up and get the garden ready for the race, and then we're off to a year #2!!!

Here a Statue, There a Statue

I have been thinking of getting a statue for my garden.  One made of concrete or cast stone that will year after year weather, streak and become less defined: it will become perfect.  Granted, I had my coffee this morning perched on top of a couple of bags of mulch, so I could be thinking of more useful garden accessories, but eh.   Garden chairs are boring.

I love statues in gardens.   No not the kind commemorating some big battle victory with a general on a horse, on a plinth 20 feet high, but the kind with soft worn mossy faces halfway hiding behind a fern.  Somehow they add peace to a garden in my eyes, the same way running water might.    There is no doubt they can add a major focal point, which, unless I want my focal point to be the palm tree, is something I desperately need.

The Savannah Bird Girl Statue, probably the most famous statue ever to come from this area, thanks to Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (which, if you have any interest at all in the south, or plan to visit, is a must read) is the right style for me and my spot, I think.  It stood virtually unnoticed from 1936 until the book was publish in 1994 before it had to be moved from its cemetery plot for safekeeping.     I love this statue, but given its fame and proximity and number of replicas in this area alone, it is probably not the one for me.

Charleston itself is replete with statues of course.  Its just that kind of place.   You see them peeking out of driveways, tucked under camellias and many a Charlestonian has their entire teensy garden planned out around a favorite piece of cement.   Many are cherubs, Greek gods, angels, various Madonnas and fair maidens.   Some are part of fountains.  I saw a gargoyle guarding someone's trashbin area the other day too.  Its an interesting concept on how to keep the evil (i.e. raccoons) at bay, I'll give them that.

Surfing around as it pours outside, resigning myself that I am not going to get anything done today - at all - I revisited the offerings available on the internet.   To be honest, I am in love with a collection in my local nursery of marble "4 Seasons" maidens, but seeing as I only have room for one season, and I cannot afford any seasons, I have to expand my level of acceptable stone countenances.

Here are some of the ones I like, and I'm leaning towards choice #1.  If only she were a little taller on a shorter pedestal.   The combined height is near perfect (56").  So maybe the search goes on.   Well, like I said, I could invest in something to sit on out there instead...

Oh, and one final picture and note: if I could find this, this is what I'd get in a heartbeat.  I took this from someones blog a while back and I have no idea whence it came, so I apologize for not putting a credit.  But I love your statue/planter.

What's your style?

I might not be able to put it down on graph paper, but I definitely have a style of garden that I like, and plants that I like.    What about you?  Or do you like them all?

Charleston is in zone 8b, but practically speaking, the peninsula has a microclimate that is more like 9a.  People who have lived here their whole lives say that we haven't had a winter like this one since 1940.  But even that said, if you look at the rules of what makes a hardiness zone, even with many below freezing days, we never once dipped below 20 degrees Fahrenheit even this year.    This puts us in zone 9a, and it is apparent through the plants that you frequently see.  Many people here grow tropical plants and things like lime trees with success.   The problem is I don't like any of those plants.  Not really.  Oh, except for Brugsmansia, which I definitely will have in my garden somewhere.  I might even have two.  

Now maybe this will change after years of struggling with other plants that aren't really fit for this climate.  You see we are also heat zone 8-9, with high humidity, which means we have around 120 + days above 86 degrees, with that high humidity.  Insane, I know, but you get used to it.   Generally, if its below 80 degrees and there is even the slightest breeze, I get a chill.   Can you believe I lived in the NE for 13 years?  Goes to prove that your blood gets set when you are 2 years old or something.

Okay back to the point.   Many of the plants that I picture in my minds eye will be a struggle to grow here.  I know this.   Some of them I'm not even going to try.  Like peonies and dahlias.   Others though, like tall garden phlox, which is my absolutely favorite garden plant in the world, I'm going to grow if it kills me.  Sure, our 365 days of humidity are going to cause powdery mildew problems, but I don't care.

In general, I like tall vertical plants.  Pretty much all of them.  Among my favorites are delphiniums, foxglove, cleome and agapanthas.  I can't think of a tall flower spike plant that I don't like.    I also really like coneflowers, which is weird because the rest of the daisylike bunch is "meh" to me.  It has something to do with the way their faces are curled back like a pink lion.   It might also have something to do with the fact that they bloom for months on end.  And you only have to plant them once, you never have to water them, or deadhead them, or even fertilize them if you don't want to.

My final loves, stylistically, are the whispy many tiny flower faced plants.  Like catchfly.  Swamp milkweed.  Yarrow and even sedum sort of fit into this category.

My dislikes, besides the alien looking tropical plants, are silver blue foliage plants, anything the color orange, anything that looks like it can maim you, and irises, both because they smell awful to me and they rot in such an unattractive way, I just can't take them. 

So, just judging by the plants I like, a style sort of forms in my head.  But there is more.  I love densely over-planted wild looking gardens.   My front garden won't look like that, because it faces the Charleston street where formal gardens are the rule. The carriage rides that go by daily would likely tisk tisk an overgrown botanical warzone.  How un-Charleston, they would say. She's clearly not from here, they would say.  However, my back garden, hidden completely from everyone behind the tall fenceline, I want to be a wild place.   To some degree I don't care if a 4 foot daylily is in front of my coneflowers, if 4 o'clocks have reseeded themselves in the bushes, or if one plant (within reason) is taking over another.  Its all green life for themselves out there.  Let the best plants win.  And of course the phlox need to win too.

Maybe this is why the graph paper isn't working.

Pencil to Graph Paper

I finally managed to get outside with a measuring tape and see how many plants I'm eventually going to need to fill out the garden.   Now, there is a good chance it will be a few years before every spot in the garden is full up on blooms, but it hasn't stopped me from planning it to within an inch of its life.  In my head, that is.

I got out the graph paper this morning and drew a big square, with a big circle in the middle of it.  My backyard.  Then I proceeded to draw tons of little mini circles all over the place.   Then I balled it up.  It was an unintelligible mess of scribbles and circles which represented nothing that gave me a better understanding of how to arrange the garden.  It was unintelligible the second time too.    And then it occurred to me.  For maybe the first time I can think of, at least recently, my natural inclination to plot everything out wasn't working.    And whats more,  I don't think it is going to work for me.   Even if I do manage to get something resembling a snazzy garden plan onto graph paper, I highly doubt that my garden will resemble that in the slightest.     After all, the reason to put brainwaves to paper in the first place is so you can cement whats roving around inside and visualize it so that you can see if it works or not.   I can't tell anything more on paper than I can in my head!    This means, dear reader, you get no garden plan to peruse.  Instead you get this:

"Best garden plan yet"

So despite what nearly every book I keep reading is telling me, I am not going to really plan my garden beyond a sense of color, size and the need to put shade plants in the shade.   I am not going to take advantage of the opportunity for planning that an empty garden space brings with it.   I have a short list of plants that I would really like to have.   The rest is just going to have to happen.  Seat of the dirty garden pants.

The Light Of Day: Novice Garden Planning

With a few exceptions, I have the enviable (or non enviable?) task of starting a garden from scratch, and it is going to start in just a few days really, as the last frost date here slowly creeps toward me.   

Garden planning and space design is something I've been thinking about since October.   I want it all, but I can't have it all.  I am limited by sun and by space.  I will never be able to create the wonderous corridors and pathways that my Mom's gardens have, because with a square fenced in space with stone patio already set, the design of the space as far as hardscape is pretty inescapable.    I also have my neighbors monolithic garage extending through the south side of my backyard. Yes, the worst exposure I know.  Where was the infamous Charleston Board of Architectural Review when this thing got built?   This has a bifold effect on a third of my garden space in the back: I have shade, and I had a very large brown featureless wall to contend with, i.e. hide, in that shade.

"The Great Brown Way"

The lighting factor is a tricky one, at least in my back yard.  My front raised bed, which faces ENE gets morning sun and afternoon shade.  Pretty simple.  The back yard though, due to the southern exposure having this 2.5 story garage on it, blocks the entire garden of direct sunlight during the deepest days of winter (Dec and Jan), as the low trajectory of the sun never clears the garage. The come Feb, March, and November the fence opposite my neighbors property goes from no direct sun, to partial sun, to full sun (or vice versa) in short order as the trajectory of the sun rises, and the days lengthen dramatically through those months.   By April, basically through early October, I BELIEVE (having never seen it myself), at least half of the garden is going to be full sun.  Or maybe only a quarter.  Maybe 3 quarters.    And you see, whatever is in the sun is going to be in that southern full sun which renders many a full sun plant actually part shade.  Whatever doesn't make it over the shadow cast by the garage is going to be in the full shade. Its like a razor edge.

Shade is something I've been thinking about too.   Exactly how much shade is my shade?  Even in the deepest of shade underneath the shadow of the garage and the palm tree, was it really deep shade?  The sun being so bright, and the reflective light off of my house and the white fences it doesn't seem very ferns and moss shady back there.

So what does all this mean?  I have a feeling, the same as anything else, it will have to be trial and error.  Not just for what looks good together and against the steep 'walls' that frame my garden (which is a whole other blog post) but also what kind of sun I'm really going to be dealing with.   My likely very expensive plan, unless one of my new blog friends can think of something else, is to have a full sun section against the one fence line, a large section of partial sun plants where I'm not sure the sun will extend to (and just hope that if they do end up in mostly sun they don't scorch to death), and then I don't know what type of shade plants by the garage but hopefully they are both narrow and tall!  I also cringe at the fact that such a small garden space might have to have two different looks to it, given the fact that there is no way to visually separate the two halves due to the existing design and small size.  I am very aware of visual continuity in spaces, be they indoor or out, and I am very much hoping to create a well designed 'room' out of my back garden.