Shrubs for easy gardening

Although when I began my gardens I was only thinking of the grand perennials called main event flowers, I soon realized it took more to make a real garden.  Shrubs have made a great addition, adding height, fullness and color.  A huge advantage is the easy care.  Nandina rarely requires any attention at all.  Azaleas require none.  Lilacs might be pruned once a year but we know they go on and on for generations with no care at all.  Hydrangeas, camelias, red twig dogwood, and viburnum are more great looking plants that require little to no effort.  Let them go a few years and they are fine.  Or you may like to tidy them up once a year, or cut the flowers to bring indoors. There are of course others, but these have won a place in my gardens due to their color, longevity, and flowers. 

Iris

Two years ago a gardening friend Jen gave me these iris. I have never been a fan of iris, and they require replanting every few years so I thought them not worth the work.  However, I love the the wide bluegreen blades o the foliage.  So I decided to try more, and these are exceptional.  The purple in the falls blends with the other purples blooming now and the tall flower stalks are justly regal.  They are impressive during this short bloom time, then I will have the foliage as a foil to other colors and textures through the year. 

Peonies

On Saturday I saw peony plants for sale in a local nursery for the first time ever.  Costco usually has bare roots that need several years growth to flower, but peonies have not been a plant of preference here.  I really do not know why.  Perhaps because we are called zone 9, and perhaps because most of our local nursery people are Puerto Rican, we get a lot more tropical type plants which do not take to our sloppy cold winters.  SoCal is where you get your real zone 9.  But now Monrovia has taken to growing and selling the old time plants like lilac and peony.  Good! 
So peonies are blooming!  The key to growing peonies is to get the eyes (those little pink shoots at the top of the roots) situated correctly in the soil.  Peonies need chill, and while we have enough for them to grow, the eyes need to be very shallow, even sitting at the surface, to grow well here.  As perennials, peonies shoot up dramatically in the spring.  The buds come up with the peonies, they flower at various times, all in April and May here, and then sit all summer with rich green foliage, and then die back in the fall, again at varying times.  The dead foliage needs to be trashed, not composted.  While peonies are lovely here, they really come into their own in cold climates with shorter growing periods.  In Alaska, Denise has peonies blooming nearly all summer by planting early, mid and late blooming varieties.  Her lilacs do the same.  I am just happy enough to have some, even though my main plant is pink.  My new species plant that Rob and Candace gave me last year does not have flowers this year.  I am not sure if it is just settling in or if it actually needs more cold.  We will see as time goes by. 

Resurrection Sunday

Orange blossoms:  Jerry's little taste of heaven  : ) 

 

Back door garden

This is my herb and lettuces garden, right outside the back door.  Maybe you can tell I often step out for a piece of aloe for my hands.  I have veggies and herbs in various places but it is nice to have these right outside to step out and snip a bit for meals. What's growing right now?  Across the bench, aloe, seasoning celery, parsley, cilantro, and then a pelargonium for color.  At the end, lemon verbena, rosemary and potatoes.  Coming back along the ground, two kinds of chives, spinach and several kinds of lettuce.  Time to get some basil going! 



Front yard redo in spring

Here is our front yard before the peach tree died and fell down. Everyone loved that tree, but we are so much happier with the new front beds. I have read that beds connected to anything need to be 2/3 the height, so a six foot deep bed in front of a typical rancher house would be appropriate.  We lived for years with the skinny little strip of azalea and fern before taking this big step to redo it all.

Paving still to come.

Spring shady bed