Front Garden: The Halftime Report

In December 2011 I wrote about my hopes for "Leap Year" in my front garden which was re-planted about three years ago.  As the saying goes perennials follow a three year pattern of "sleep, creep, leap" and with this being the third year for much of the front garden I had high expectations.

Intending to write the halftime report in early July, I found that things were not going well out there and decided to wait.  Some parts of the garden don't look that much better in the heat of August so it's time to be realistic and assess what did not go right and needs to be corrected this fall.

Overall the front looks good, especially for August in San Antonio.

The garden area nearest the front door was planted three years ago and was almost immediately hit with two years of record freezes and drought.  That's where I'll focus in this post.
The Blue Hill Salvia (Meadow Sage) was meant to grow over the low rock terracing, but has died back again in the heat of the summer so I plan to add Nepeta 'Walkers Low' which thrives in the summer heat.

Winter 2011                                                          Summer 2012

Oak sprouts are a fact of life under live oak trees and spring rains brought on a bumper crop.

 
Trimming the oak sprouts is only temporary and I can't keep up so I'll take a tip from local landscaping pros and plant a groundcover disguise where they present the biggest problem.  If that doesn't work then I might just let them grow as ground cover as shown in The Desert Edge blog. (scroll down to the third photo in David's post)

The Inland Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) should have been divided last fall and are splayed outward from an empty center.  They will be divided as soon as the weather cools.  I'm reworking this entire bed around the tree since the iris get too much shade in early spring to bloom properly here.  Salvia 'Indigo Spires' (right of the tree) bloomed well in the winter but continues to wilt every afternoon in the summer.

The bed of white blooming and silver foliage plants has filled in a lot.  But the oaks have also filled in so the bed gets too much shade, so the plants are not blooming.  The best bloomer here is the white Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata 'alba').  Most of these plants will be relocated and I have plans for a sedge "lawn" which should do well in partial shade. 

Winter 2011 (top photo), Summer 2012 (lower photo)

Russian Sage in the island bed has underperformed this year and is obviously declining.  It will be replaced with low maintenance yucca and a new blooming plant.  You can see how this spot should look in the photo second from the right in my blog title collage.

Winter 2011 (top photo), Summer 2012 (lower photo)

 
 The Creeping Germander continues to creep along, although slowly.

Winter 2011                                                             Summer 2012

Across the way the Hamelia patens and Flame Acanthus (Aniscanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii) are not getting enough sun to bloom and Calistemon 'Little John' continues to grow very slowly and I need to check to see if it is in too much rock.  Typical of the rest of the area, the blue Plumbago is also the best bloomer here.

There you have it, the part of my yard I see most often is not looking the way I'd like it to look at all.  Far from being discouraged, I plan to rework the problem areas as soon as the weather cools off.  This will be an opportunity to apply what I've learned about gardening in San Antonio over the last three challenging years.

Leap Year

The calendar shows 2012 as a Leap Year.  And in gardening terms, It should also be "leap year" for my garden.  There is a saying among gardeners regarding perennials that the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap.  In other words, after transplanting perennials, they need to first get established, then they slowly start to take hold, and finally -- beginning with the third year -- they leap into full growth.  If that holds true, the perennials I began planting in 2009 should be "leaping" by early summer.


Of course, the weather has to cooperate and that's sometimes a tall order here in south Texas.  The big freeze in February 2010 and the heat and drought of last summer knocked some of the perennials for a loop.  This creeping germander has been set back by the heat and spent last summer sleeping when it should have been creeping.   It's beginning to creep a bit now so what will it do next spring.  Will it leap or creep?

 The Russian Sage should be taller and fuller by next fall's bloom season

 

 
Perhaps this Blue Hill Salvia will "leap" over the stone edging as planned

The white-blooming lantana, salvia, and plumbago in this bed have definitely slept and crept, so even a little leaping would be appreciated next year.

 
No doubt the Artemsia "Powis Castle" will leap.


This Flame Acanthus has not disappointed so far with its growth and blooms last summer.   I will enjoy seeing it leap and set even more blooms next summer.

Will the Callistemon "Little John" (in the foreground above) recover from last year's deep freeze?

This Firebush (Hamelia patens) is already growing well and setting blooms right through December.  Should I expect even more next year?

Is this the year Pomegranate "Wonderful" will set fruit?

 

This Indigo Spires Salvia has already grown and bloomed beautifully these first two years, how much better will it look when "in-Spired" by leap year?

 Yes, this should be a great "leap year" in the garden.

Sources of Inspiration - Wolfgang Oehme

It might seem odd that a newbie garden blogger in Texas would be moved to write about the great landscape designer Wolfgang Oehme who passed away on December 15th.  I never met him yet his influence motivated me to type out my thoughts here.


I don't remember when I first heard the name Wolfgang Oehme, but I clearly remember the first time I connected with one of his landscapes -- I never forgot the experience.  In the mid-1990's we were living in a suburb of Washington, DC and riding the Metro train almost daily.   When the train pulled into the National Airport station that day I glanced over at the new parking garage and saw....trees, shrubs, and grasses; not just in front of the garage--but rather all over the garage.  Trees, full size shrubs, grasses, and vines were being installed in horizontal boxes on each level of the structure.

Wow!  That's so different.  What a contrast to the boring office buildings of Crystal City just behind it.  It's a parking garage!  Who did this?

(For an idea of what I saw that day check out professional photographer Roger Foley's site and the five photos in his portfolio)

Eventually I learned the designer of this landscape Wolfgang Oehme and his now famous firm Oehme, van Sweden & Associates were at the forefront of a style called The New American Garden.  I was intrigued and by intentionally choosing a seat on the north side of the train car as often as possible, I could see how the plants grew and changed over time.  I began to note other installations around the Washington-Baltimore area.  His work was always special and so different from the standard.


Definitely thinking outside the box(wood).

Arriving back in San Antonio in 2008, I noted an increased use of ornamental grasses in landscapes here and thought the trend could be Oehme's influence.

Examples abound:  For instance...

Would this combination of perennials and ornamental grasses along the River Walk Museum Reach have been approved without his groundbreaking work?

And this scene along Josephine Street might just as easily have been a row of dwarf yaupon and mulch

 Would I have thought to do this to my little driveway island?

  
And understood that I should enjoy it even when dormant

An article I read this week mentioned he often used Russian sage and ornamental grasses in combination.  I'm not sure I knew that when I planted this spot, but it works beautifully.
 

While my little front island garden here in suburban San Antonio is no match to the estate-sized swaths of grasses, wildflowers, and perennials for which he became famous, it does make me smile everyday.  The past few days I've been remembering how much his work brightened my day from the window of a train for a few years.

Bluest blue - Russian Sage

This year the Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) seems more intensely blue than previous years.  Could it be the weather we've had brought out the color more?  
  

 

Or perhaps so many other things didn't bloom their best this year and that just makes it seem so much prettier right now.
 

Russian sage is a great garden plant for many climates.  I've seen it blooming in Colorado even after the first snow of the season.  It's common in Provence to supplement lavender's earlier bloom time.  It does look similar to lavender doesn't it?
 

Russian sage is less picky than lavender, these plants replaced lavender that didn't do well here.  It works great in this hot island between the sidewalk and the circle drive.

Russian sage loves our full Texas sun.  When planted in morning shade it will flop over and reach for more sun.

It's such a beautiful plant I plan to add as many as I can fit in.