The Parking Strip

So much for our unseasonably warm weather.  It's been cold and pouring down rain for a solid week.  Which means I haven't been in the yard at all and all of a sudden there's a ton of work to do.  'Tis the season.

We had a brief dry spell the other morning, so I ran out and took some pictures of the parking strip plants.  I took out the lawn down there three (four?) years ago and said I was only going to put in a few, super-low-maintenance, plants and bark the rest.  Famous last words.  Every year since, it has filled in a little more.  BUT, the plants have to fend for themselves, 'cause I know me, and me won't go down and water more than once a week, if that.  Or do much of anything else.  It's full sun and faces west, so it's hot and dry.

So far, everything has learned that it's sink or swim.  The ornamental grasses that were getting to be naughty got yanked this year, but I did put some new things in this spring, so we'll see how they manage.

Here's the parking strip, aka The Hell Strip:

See that variegated iris?

I've wanted one FOREVER.

I finally saw one at the garden center last week and it leapt (is that not a word?) right into my cart.

So exciting.

Also right in that area is the artichoke, a huechera and rudbekia that went in last year, a piece of geranium that I dug out of my sister's yard this year, a greyish colored grass (it might be an Idaho Fescue) that I moved from another part of the parking strip, another ornamental grass that I can't remember the name of, and a couple echinacea starts that I moved this year from the front yard.

On the north end, I put in a rhubarb this year.

I hope he does okay.

 

I stuck in a few zinnias around the rhubarb.

I couldn't help myself.

Also on that end, I put in a new plant that I got this year that I had never heard of.

Silene alpestirs 'Flore Pleno'.

It's evergreen, the flowers are super cute, and it supposedly blooms from May till frost.

I put this one in two years ago and it's SUPER happy.

I love it.

I think it's a Sun Rose, or Helianthemum.

It's evergreen and has white flowers.

I bought another one this spring and put it in.

This one is called 'Golden Nugget'.

 Now that I'm lookin' at it up close, maybe that's not what the white one is.

Oh well.

I put this next plant in the first year I dug out the sod.

I should be shot.

Or the person who told me to put it in the ground should be shot, ahem, Mother.

Snow Berry.

So pretty.

The naughtiest plant known to man.

The runners are coming up six feet away from the plant.

It rivals Kerria japonica, another one that took me years to get rid of.

It's gotta go.

Where the Snow Berry is, I also planted crocosmia the first year, which surprisingly doesn't do all that great.  

It gets fried In July.

I'll give it one more year to redeem itself.

On the far south end, I put in a rosemary this year, as well as Gaura, 'Ballerina Rose', which I've never grown, and Campion, 'Passion', which I've also never grown. 

I also planted a new echinacea called 'Cheyenne Spirit'.

 The pineapple sage came back from last year, which I'm super excited about.

If you've never grown it, get it.

The leaves are delicious, smell good, the flowers are pretty and the hummingbirds LOVE it.

 I also have a Jupiter's Beard that Athena from the gardening blog, Minerva's Garden gave me a start of.

She came by in March (?) and we did a mini plant swap.

The last little section is all things I put in last year.

A chocolate cosmos that my mom gave me at the end of summer,

 that I can't believe came back. 

A scabiosa that she gave me at the same time.

I've never had much success with them, but this one seems to be perfectly happy.

 A penstemon that's just getting ready to bloom.

 There's an iris right behind it that I dug a start of out of my sister's yard before she moved last year.

I also got a start of her yellow phygelius, or cape fuchsia, and it's starting to bloom.

It's SO pretty.

We'll see if it lives up to its naughty reputation in less than ideal living conditions. 

And while I have you here, buwahahahahahaha, there are just a few more new things blooming on the outside of the front yard fence, and a couple up in the yard.

Another climbing rose.

It's more of a rambler than a climber.

It was in the back when I bought the house and after digging it out a zillion times over the years, and having it come back, I decided it was meant to stay.  

So I moved it out front.

The Snow In Summer is starting to bloom.

It's naughty, too.

 Another rose, that I call my Tina rose, after the girl who gave it to me when we worked at a nursery together.

I have no idea what it's really called.

A geranium that I bought when I worked at that same nursery.

He's also a rambler.

A spiderwort who thought a crack in the driveway seemed like a good place to take root.

And last, a lone calla lily bud.

The flowers are all beat into the dirt from the rain.

 Now, send some good thoughts for sunshine my way, would ya?

Our extra day off will be spent attempting to purge the garage.

It's kinda hard to pack up a kitchen when there isn't a single inch of bare floor space to stack boxes.

Looks like an episode of hoarders out there.

But first, banana pancakes.....

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