Summer's End

I made some last minute changes today. Starting with the ornamental Switch Grass (Panicum Virgatum 'Ruby Ribbons') I planted last year near the side entrance to the garage. 

I had been optimistic that this grass would do well in in this spot. Unfortunately, it didn't grow back as expected, an what did re-emerge took a long time to grow.

As a result I decided to move it to make way for a Spirea. 

Its small now, but in time will grow to fill in the space. I am hoping to hide the electrical line. Additionally, the Spirea on the other side of the door will held to frame the door with similar plantings.

As for the switch grass, I moved it to the semi-circular area within the East gate area.

I had created this shape in the hoes of placing a grass plant in the peastone to differentiate the large open area outside the mulch bed. I will have to wait and see how it does next year, but given the amount of light this area receives during the summer, I am hopeful that the plant will do better in this location.

I also removed a Hosta from the mulched portion of the bed and replaced it with a Rheingold Arborvitea (Thuja occidentalis ‘Rheingold’) that had been planted in the font bed of the house. The plant had become crowded-out by other larger shrubs, so it was time for a move. I also planned on rearranging some of the Hosta in that front bed, so the switch worked well.

In time this shrub should grow to a good size to fill in this bulge I created in the mulch bed layout. Given the amount of sunlight this area gets, this shrub should do much better here and now has room to grow.

Overall, I am happy with these changes - they were always part of my plan, but I was going to do it next year. Given the last few days I had of summer, it seemed more reasonable to get them done now.