Hi Deb ...
My garden is still pretty much a mono garden of roses. I didn't do much planting during the drought. It just didn't make sense.
I started with lousy soil and spent years hauling back leaves and shredding them and adding them to the soil to improve the soil. (Of course, I also spent a lot of time making my novice mistakes. This is my first in ground garden.) I thought I had made significant progress with the soil until this spring. I went from having soil that I couldn't dig a hole in with a pick to soil that had lots of worms and I could dig in with a trowel. Since we got a lot of rain last winter, this would be the year I would be adding different plants. Mother Nature had a surprise waiting for me. Since my house and garden are located on a water shed, all of that beautiful soil I built up washed down through the base soil and disappear and now I am back to my original lousy soil. The roses are mature and are doing fine.
I don't have it in me to haul that much organic material back to the garden again, so the next phase of the garden is to plant things that like lousy soil that drains very well and that like heat. It's almost like starting over. The only difference is that I am not a total novice like I was when I started.
>>>Siting of plants can really make or break one's affection (or lack of), can't it?
It sure does ...
As for thyme ... I think that plants like that which die off in the middle need a more arid climate during the growing season. I don't have any problems with it. The bed that was invaded by weeds has a weed that looks very much like the wooly thyme and I didn't catch it soon enough. It's gone to seed, so I am going to pull everything and just mulch that bed and not plant anything and then clear it again next year until I get that weed gone.
I tried to find information about heat tolerance for smooth rupturewort, but couldn't find any information. Your photos look beautiful.
I'll leave the rudbeckias and peonies alone this fall ...
thank you.
Lauri ... thank you for your input. I am at 2200 ft, but don't get much snow at my elevation. Most of the time it doesn't stick more than a few days. There have been a few exceptions. I was pleased to read that you are growing clematis. Do you know what heat zone you are in ? Do you get a lot of direct sun. I don't have much shade on my property, so finding any shade is like finding gold.
I don't have room to plant trees as half of my back yard is taken up by a slope covered with junipers. Yes, I know they are a fire hazard, but they were here when I bought the house and their roots are probably what is keeping that slope stable. I am not touching them ...
Getting to a nursery on the coast or down in the valley will continue to be difficult for the next year because of major highway construction going both ways on highway 299.
I just realized this is the first fall I've really had time to work in the garden. Usually I am stacking wood. I am having a furnace installed at the end of the month, so no wood chores this year ...
Thank you for the information.
