Early Fall Colors

With the arrival of fall, the garden is starting to show some new blooms of color. I thought I would share some of the changes and additions.

 

 

Dragon Spine Redo

Earlier in the summer I decided to trim back the Japanese Dwarf Maple in the Dragon's Spine.

Originally, it had an odd shape where the tree was growing out towards sunlight on one side. I left it alone for years and wanted the tree to do its own thing. 

However, this year I decided to shape the tree into a more circular even shape. To do so, I had to remove several large limbs.

In so doing, I created a problem with all the smaller plantings around the tree. There was now an odd gap without plantings in front of the tree. It also threw off the symmetry that I attempted to establish last year when I moved some plants around and added new ones.

So, now with this large open space, I decided to create a uniform consistent look. Given the shade of the area, and the fact that the Maple will probably continue to grow, I decided on Astilbe plants as the solution.

I headed off to the local nursery to look for some on-sale plants. Luckily, I came across a collection of two varieties: Montgomery Japanese Astilbe (Astilbe japonica 'Montgomery') and Rheinland Astilbe (Astilbe japonica 'Rheinland'). I purchased and planted five plants total.

 

The Montgomery will produce a deep red flower, and the Rheinland a pink flower. Since I bought five plants, they will alternate between red and pink.

I also moved some of the existing Hosta to try and maintain some symmetry. These made need reworking in the future.

I also moved a Heartleaf Brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla "Jack Frost') to this area near the East Gate. I have not had much luck here this year - something keeps eating everything I place here. Hopefully it won't like this plant.

 

In time the Astilbe should fill in the are in front of the Maple and make a nice border edge for this bed. If I keep the Maple trimmed and under control (open at the bottom) it should look more balanced. I can't wait to see how it turns out next year when the flowers bloom. 

Future Plans

As summer ends and we enter fall, I have started to prepare parts of the stroll garden for a future fence extension. 

In order to keep the fence extension in line with the existing fence, I have to move plants out of the way. I started with the Black-Eyes Susans. 

These plants, which produce a lovely yellow flower, are right in the spot where the fence has to go, so out they came.

I ended up with 21 feet of plants, so I transplanted them to several places on the property, but outside of the Zen garden. There just isn't enough light for them anywhere in the Zen garden.

After building a fence structure on the other side of the house, I needed a lot of Black-Eyed Susans to match the existing bed, so this spot made a lot of sense.

I also planted some in the small bed out front around the apple tree.

Next I have to move the Spirea at the end of that bed. It's too close to the fence and has to come out several feet to make room for the new fence.

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but the more I can get done now, in increments, the easy the work will be in the spring when I start to install the fence.