Z8 Portland OR/gardening style
Hi Mary..I am trying this here( in Z8 Willamette Valley Oregon) this
year for just that reason. I have also been seed starting later this
year to have fresh annuals when the perennials give out as we are having
a wedding reception in the yard in late July.
Our 'spring' lasted about 3 weeks in April-since May we have had cold
rainy almost wintery weather! It feels like winter yet my iris are just
starting to bloom..strange.
Anyhow, I have about 60 roses-the most recent additions are heritage
roses grown on their own root stock. 20 varieties of japanese, german
and traditional but flashy regular iris, an established herb garden and
4 raised perennial/rose/shrub beds crammed full of primarily yellow blue
and purple blooming flowers with some pink and white thrown in for
contrast. I worked hard on my view out the front window where a very
nicely established Hellebores orientalle and a couple of very happy
dicentra, both pink and white, are surrounded by oriental poppy in deep
reds and pinks and one orange one (where did that come from?) I also
had what I bought as a yellow gerbera daisy come up orange. I think
these babes are going to my daughters house however I also have some
california poppies who reseeded themelves for years in this bed and are
coming up orange too. Maybe I should move the orange volunteers to a
less visible spot!
I had what was an overgrown grassy slope terraced last summer. This is
on the side of my garage and visible only by going there (or by my neighbor)
It's very hot in the summer in this spot and I have actually !!made a
plan!! and planted it out with this plan in mind. Not my normal style
at all.
Again, there are old roses in yellows and pinks, astillbe of all colors,
transplanted mums and daylilies, salvia elegans against the garage wall
intersperced with yarrow and shasta daisies.
On the top terrace I have tilled in lots of sand and mulch and compost
to make a good draining less oregon clay bed and have planted
penstemons, a yucca transplanted from a front bed (a gift from my
hubby-not something I would normally buy and I'm not sure how this plant
will do, but it's in the sunniest spot in the garden now)
This bed is just about half done but the weather isn't being very
helpful to me.
My favorite garden is the one in my front yard under a very large
Douglas fir, flowering plum and 4 birch trees. We tried for years to
grow grass but finally gave up, had a load of good topsoil dumped, mixed
compost in and collected fir needles from all over the block and made a
Pacific Northwest Natives garden.
Wow-have I gone on and on!
Sorry but I do love gardening and being retired gives me the time to
spend as much time at it as I want!
What a good topic!
elle aka motor keyboardist
Mary R Wills wrote:
> My garden always looked terrible late July-August, but I've found that if
> I wait to seed warm-weather annuals (zinnias, cosmos, etc. ) until the
> first two weeks in June, then the annuals are looking fresh and terrific
> right about the time the perennials give up.
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