One Jooly morning...

The Japanese blood grass is finally showing its color, and the Sedum Neon is getting it's gold coat. The sun is really bringing on the other blooms as well. I'm especially happy with the Cupid's Dart (Catananche caerulea) I found in the 4" size and planted a drift. There is red yarrow behind, and also the plumes of Sea Lavender, which gets a bit overblown this time of year. I plant it for it's large leaves, and it comes back every time. Beyond this garden area is the stairway to the beach.

The Sun's Bounty

Thanks to a week of sun, the Verbena Bonarensis is finally blooming, and the Japanese Blood Grass is showing its color. The Verbena Bonarensis was planted to give some height, but also to not hide the alligator log behind it. The blood grass is the only thing that has never left my garden since I planted it in 2005. It sort of gets moved around, covered up, etc. but always comes back. I can't plant enough of it!

It's crab season! This is some of my yard art made from horse shoes and a shovel. Yep, we had crab salad for dinner, crab quiche for breakfast? crab melts for lunch? No, it's the 4th of July; give me a burger! We're having more sunshine and a bit warmer than Seattle area, so my yard will be blooming by the time we have our grandbabies play date on the 17th.

With so many gray days, I'm really appreciating the blue sky when I see what it does to the water. Here's the new pathway to my sitting rock. I've made it a little more "hide-a-way" too, so a good place to contemplate, or think of nothing at all! I made the fence from 2' stakes that have an aging color wash and inexpertly wired them together. So this one of the watercourses to catch runoff instead of the water washing away soil. At least that's the plan! And since it's flat, I'm hoping the path itself doesn't get washed away as well.

Great to have a sitting rock when grandkids visit and want to watch the fish jump. This was taken late last summer (2009) when the humpie salmon were running, and a neighbor took his racing boat out. We live in a boating community that has 2 canals accessing the Saratoga Passage.

Here's a close up of that Sedum Neon. It actually glows! The plant behind it in the pot is a Podocarpus alpinus blue gem, and is supposed to be a salt water tolerant evergreen shrub, but we'll just try one first...and it is underplanted with sun roses.

Winter storms

These are some pictures of a storm in January, 2010. As you can see, the waves are pretty powerful and can wash away plants quickly. I try to plant things that have deep roots, and reinforce with rocks and logs to keep the soil in place, but sometimes it isn't enough. After the storm, we shovel the dirt back on the berm and hope for the best. I've tried to channel the streams by reinforcing the sides of my walkways to the seawall, so the water flows down to our patio and out to the side lots, where it dissipates as soon as the tide goes out.

Between our house and the road, I have a few more options on plants, but have our drain field to deal with and always, always, wind tolerance. The fountain is turned off when it's too windy, but the birds love it, and I can see it from my kitchen window. I got the large water pot last week from a rental business that didn't need it and sold it to me. I'm trying to have a plant that looks like a fountain. As you can see, it is next to the driveway...for some height!

On this cold 2010 June, my waterfront garden is finally showing some color and hiding all the brown and damaged leaves from the late wind storm at high tide. I added more shrubs this year, and threw all the driftwood that came over the seawall last winter to the back of the garden as a protection for the existing/surviving plants. I'm loving LOVING the Sedum Spectabile Neon (light green in the picture) and don't care if it blooms at all! It will bloom in August with hot pink blossoms though.

The taller plant in the bowl is Fine Line Columnar Buckthorn newly available in our area. I will probably move it to a protected area for the winter, but like the airy height it adds to the garden. We have a 14' height restriction on plants in our neighborhood, so adding height is always a critical element. The purple plant at its base is a sedum also, but don't know the variety. Also a variegated sea thrift.