"New" gardener's new pix

Hi, all. I finally got some pictures uploaded. Let me preface this by saying the "garden" at my home is tiny, tiny, tiny (which suits me fine). What you see in the pix is all of it. When I started,the back yard was a plain wood deck, the ground was dirt covered with pine needles, nipplewort, dandelions, twigs, debris, and that's about it. I turned, amended, raked, hoed, sifted out rocks, dug, amended some more, planted, mulched, planted, mulched and-- well, you've probably all been there too. The three pine trees (I'll get around to identifying them later) and the --I think it's pieris-- were already there when we moved in.

First picture is kind of a "before" pic of the back yard facing the house.

Next, here is the "after" pic of the deck from the back concrete slab facing the back fence.

Now for some of my many heucheras (I wish I could post more than one pic at a time):

This container has Peach Flambe, Mocha Mint, and two oxalis "Sunset Velvet"

Here's Encore. These are all in the back yard, by the way; most on the deck.

Pinot Gris with Ice Sedge

This bowl has two oxalis deppei and one little Citronelle

This grouping has Carpathian Bellflowers in the back (they haven't been sheared and have lost all their flowers-- bad gardener!), next to it is a recently-acquired Plum Pudding; hidden in the middle is a small urn with two baby heuchs: Crème Brûlée and and Harvest Silver; and in the front planter is Regina, Mahogany (and it's a wow!), a variegated polemonium, and Japanese blood grass.

I utilized a lot of the rocks I dug up as a natural (and free) landscaping material.

This is a newer planting as well; Green Spice and Georgia peach, flanked by Moneywort and propping up a really nice scrophularia auriculata (variegated figwort).

In th background you can make out the shade plantings I did of ajuga "Burgundy Glow" and two varieties of lamium. Oh, there are also three corydalis lutea. Yes, I'm hoping for invasion. :) Dry shade under huge trees. I want ground cover!

Under this planter in the walkway around the deck, I'm going to lay some cheap concrete step-stones surrounded by medium-chunk bark mulch. Should look really nice.

Here is the left side area of the concrete patio, just in front of the deck.

You can see my Mystery Plant, a pink broadleaf hydrangea (whose leaves are getting so big the flower balls are covered up), a Nikko Blue hydrangea, a "rescue" cyclamen (office plant service provided), Huecherella "Stoplight", two geums, and a phlox I bought because I like the leaves. I'm addicted to variegated foliage as well as heucheras!

This view is just over the heads of the side bed plants:

My favorite hosta, Fragrant Bouquet, flanked by two corydalis lutea. I also planted three clumps of Mexican feather grass and mulched with pebbles.

Finally (in the back yard), the worst patch of five-by-five hell I have ever experienced. This is where the Mystery Plant sprouted before the ground was turned. It was layers of pine needles, weeds, plant debris, junk, rusty bottlecaps, rocks, rocks, and more rocks (I can't get them all out; there's still a ton more in there), dryer lint, ashes dumped by former tenants, and all on a bed of the hardest, nastiest clay you can imagine. Ugh. I thought that piece of ground might kill me, but it didn't.

Now it is home to a dwarf aruncus, lamium, H. Key Lime Pie, autumn ferns, 3 hostas, and a pretty happy fatsia japonica.

This area gets two hours of direct midday sunlight a day; just enough to scorch a shade plant, so I put up one of those fabric shade tents and everything in there is happy.

In the front yard, I tore out a really good crop of dandelions and put down mulch and pebbles, and stuck a fern, a polygonatum, and a Sun power hosta in the shade under whatever the flowering bush is under the window. That pic came out blurry.

On the left of the pebble "path" is a Branford Beauty fern, some campanula that were already there, a couple of Key Lime Pies livening up a pretty white rock I found (plenty more where that came from), and a cute little H. Mini Mouse that I didn't notice had a big fat leaf dropped on it when I took the picture.

On the right side of the "path", I planted two Caramels and a Crème de Menthe. The demonically hot weather we just endured scorched one of the caramels, but I think it's coming back. I also put some veronica down and I want it to spread.

Next to them is the semi-shade beside the steps. This view is over the head of a geum that is currently vacationing in the front yard so I can attempt to spray it clean of spider mites without infecting the other geums.The empty space next to the Paul's Glory hosta was the little Snow Angel that croaked. I just this evening planted another Key Lime Pie in its place.

Also there are two hardy geraniums

At the end of the "path" is a container with a new shrub, Enkianthus Siko-kianus, and some marbled ivy.

The other side of the steps is a small five-by-five patch that was already planted with an iris I haven't yet identified, orange daylilies, gladiolus Priscilla, and Queen of the Night tulips. Oh, yeah, and most of the front yard was also overtaken by a thuggish bulb called Spanish bluebell. They shoot up in early spring, bloom like crazy for weeks, then die back, still in early summer, and their strap-shaped leaves disintegrate into a nasty, slimy mess. I dug up as many as I could, but there were ENORMOUS underground colonies. Ugh. I'm sure I'll see them again next spring.

Anyway, I planted oxalis 'Zinfandel' and dwarf jewel nasturtiums. I'm planning this fall to dig up most of the bulbs and re-plant them so the patch doesn't look so out-of-control. The iris and gladiolas all needed to be staked. Some of them just fell over and brioke off from their own weight. I don't think I would have planted them.

Last photo for now.

Good job, shadeplant. You have a nice collection of plants in what you define as a small space. Apparently, no matter where one looks there is something pleasant to see. It's time to kick back and enjoy your hard work.

Gary

ShadePlant, thanks so much for the tour of your lovely gardens. Your hard work has paid off, you have a beautiful yard. Would love to sit myself down in one of your chairs there and spend some time taking in the scenery. I love the way you have used the rock you dug up. Looks like a very natural setting. Fantastic job!

I agree! What a big job you had! I looked at your first picture and said "oh boy". You really did alot of hard work and the nice results show. Love all your heuchera and other shade plantings. There are so many great colors and textures to use when planting in shade. You really took advantage of that. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Well I thought so much of the great job you did I actually wrote down and drew diagrams of some of--*most* of--your container arrangements and started making plans to see if I can duplicate some of them...really outstanding work. You've got a real flair for putting together just the right colors and textures.

It looks to me like you and I share a similar sort of yard in that it's split up into multiple discrete areas--either that or it seemed that way because of the necessity of breaking it up into pictures. I think my yard's a good bit bigger than yours. And I envy you your wet-cool west-coast weather. Wish I could grow ferns. All I ever seem to grow here is sweaty!

Anyway, beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL, but dear god, WHAT is a NIPPLEWORT?! Wait, ... do I even want to know?

Melis, who has to grow her heucheras in tiny manmade microclimates.

Thank you all for your nice comments. It was a pretty big job, but worth it, I think.

Melissande; yes, my yard is actually chopped up just as it looks. My shed is between the 5x5 Hell and the container grouping with the Carpathian Bellflowers; I think you can tell by the full-deck shot; the shed appears on the right.

I'm very flattered that you liked my containers. I'm actually an artist (besides my day job) and I'm always looking for beautiful color and shape combinations. I have fibro, too, BTW, so I "feel your pain." :) I love your little cottage garden, too.

Located at http://www.arthurleej.com/a-nipplewort.html

Common Nipplewort

Melissande and Shade Plant - I didn't know what Nipplewort was either...never heard of it. I don't think we have that in our area, I've never seen it... thankfully from what you say Shade Plant!

Cute. weird name tho...if it's okay with you I'm gonna call it 'Fred'.
Did my garden seem cottage-y? That's nice. I like cottage gardens. I wasn't really sure how it was going to come out. I'm an artist too, but it doesn't always show when I start gardening and planting things. Thank you for your kind words, ShadePlant.--M

Fortunately, "Fred" plants have really shallow roots and come up easily. You can actually use a hoe on larger areas and they come right up with no trouble.

I have tons of Nipplewort here in Woodinville. Didn't know what that was.

ShadePlant - thanks for the tour - your garden looks lovely. And it will be so cool to see it fill out next year. Are you familiar with Naylor Creek Nursery on the peninsula? They specialize in shade plants: http://www.naylorcreek.com. I can just see a few epimediums interspersed in there.