Viewing post #454109 by Polymerous

You are viewing a single post made by Polymerous in the thread called Moon Gardens.
Image
Jul 23, 2013 4:45 PM CST
Name: Marilyn, aka "Poly"
South San Francisco Bay Area (Zone 9b)
"The mountains are calling..."
Region: California Daylilies Irises Vegetable Grower Moon Gardener Dog Lover
Bookworm Garden Photography Birds Pollen collector Garden Procrastinator Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Frillylilly, thanks for your comments and suggestions. While running water might be nice, we probably will not do a fountain or any such water feature. Not only does my husband not like such things (and the water would constantly be evaporating here in our climate), but we already have a creek cutting through the property, and a pool at the north end. I guess I am saying that we have water features enough.

Regarding taller things...

At one edge of the Moon Garden, adjacent to the house, we have the white flowering crepe myrtle 'Natchez'. It is a vigorous grower; we have to keep hacking it back, or else it would completely cover our kitchen window.

Around the base of the crepe myrtle, we have a jasmine ground cover. That provides a small amount of fragrance to the Moon Garden. (The 'White Stripe' daylily is planted just at the edge of the jasmine; in the second to the last photo of the original post, if you click on the photo and look at it, you can see the tiny jasmine blooms in the upper left corner.)

We are partway through deer fencing our property (a task which has some challenging issues and which we really don't want to do, as we fear the garden will take on a "concentration camp" look once the creek banks are fenced). The deer raids have decreased somewhat with their favorite entry point at the back hillside fenced, but we are still not deer proof so long as the creek banks are open. All of the plants (except for the daylilies and the blooms of the Pelargoniums and Gerbera) which I currently have in the Moon Garden, are there because the deer leave them alone.

In anticipation of finishing the deer fencing (the fence contractors are MIA and we may have to call someone else), I have started making some changes to the garden overall.

I have two somewhat "deer proof" roses in the Moon Garden, 'Baby Ballerina' (which is actually just outside the Moon Garden) and also 'Marie Bugnet'. They are both on their second year here. 'Baby Ballerina' is turning out to be a ground swallowing thug, so I may dig and recycle that to a bare spot on our back hillside. 'Marie Bugnet' has white flowers, but not a lot of them. (There is what appears to be a seedling of the plant growing vigorously right next to it, though....but no blooms there.) I am going to put in two 'Flower Carpet White' shrubs at the entrance to the Moon Garden, and I have 'Saratoga' (which I had to buy just for the name, but it has white flowers) on order. That last may replace 'Marie Bugnet'.

Anything additional (beyond what we already have) tall or climbing would really be out of place in this garden spot, though, not to mention that such would block views of the back from the house. We do have an ornamental crab apple planted smack in the middle of the Moon Garden, which is the only non-near-white flowering thing that is not on the periphery. (Yes, I know... a garden designer suggested it when we were doing the huge landscaping job on our property, and I wasn't really thinking about the flower color (rather, the leaf color) when the contractor got and planted it. In retrospect, the white flowered crepe myrtle should have gone smack into the middle of the Moon Garden, and the crab apple next to the house. It is much too late to try to dig and move the crepe myrtle now, though, and I don't want another one of those.)

This is actually the second such crab apple tree in that spot, as the first succumbed to disease. The second one isn't doing all that well either; it is still alive, and maybe has grown a little, but I am having my doubts about it. If we end up taking it out (which might, perhaps, be a good thing; if the tree thrived, it might end up being too big for that spot, blocking not only house views, but also shading parts of the Moon Garden), then perhaps I can put in a taller white flowered shrub, or else a small white flowered tree (maybe some kind of weeping sakura), in there.

I should mention that my line of Gaura above the creek bank has been throwing volunteers like crazy this year. Normally we just pull the volunteer seedlings, as I have had no success transplanting them when small. This year, however, we left some to grow in place, and they are flowering now. I transplanted one of these larger seedlings into the Moon Garden, underneath the crab apple, and it is thriving and blooming beautifully in that spot. I may dig and move some of the others into the Moon Garden, too. (But what I really need are more large flowered things, and something which will be shade tolerant but also not too high... more like a ground cover. My creeping Euonymous is constantly being eaten by something (maybe the rabbits?). I am considering whether or not to replace it with a variegated ivy... or perhaps there is a white flowering perennial vinca?)
Evaluating an iris seedling, hopefully for rebloom

« Return to the thread "Moon Gardens"
« Return to Perennials forum
« Return to the Garden.org homepage

Member Login:

( No account? Join now! )