busyThis is what it looked like in mid-March with the crocus blooming. You can see three colors: yellow, purple, and white. In the very upper left is the end of the drain spout. Near the upper right, that bundle of crinkly green leaves is the white columbine plant.
Then the white columbine bloomed in mid-April.
In late April, I added a new columbine in the back, a Winkie. I'm hoping it will bloom blue-and-white; there is also a burgundy-and-white version of that style.
I also planted some annuals in late April, including blue lobelias across the front.
They mature into this by mid-June.
There are three colors of torenia in this garden: purple-and-white, fuschia-and-white, and pale pink-and-white. This picture from mid-May shows the purple one blooming.
Here are the other two colors, in mid-June.
This picture from early May shows the white columbine, torenia, and blue lobelia in bloom. What looks like browning grass is actually the dying leaves of the crocus as they go dormant.
By mid-June, the white columbine has gone to seed, leaving the blue lobelias and the torenias to carry on the show. Toward the upper left you can also see how much the new Winkie columbine has grown. If it lives, next year it should fill half of that back row.
June 22 2010, 23:24:24 UTC 11 years ago
Hmm...
June 22 2010, 23:58:31 UTC 11 years ago
Some good rain garden plants:
http://www.rainscaping.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.main/typeID/37/index.htm
http://www.rainkc.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.main/index.htm
June 22 2010, 23:58:11 UTC 11 years ago
Thank you!
June 23 2010, 00:06:21 UTC 11 years ago
Yes, this is probably the smallest of my gardens, except for the pots. The barrel garden is only a little bigger, but much deeper. This concrete basin is only a few inches deep; it has a drain, but not much depth.
June 23 2010, 03:27:12 UTC 11 years ago
Thank you!
June 23 2010, 03:36:44 UTC 11 years ago
June 23 2010, 11:48:50 UTC 11 years ago
Yay!
June 23 2010, 16:20:01 UTC 11 years ago
June 26 2010, 09:15:47 UTC 11 years ago
We have a section at the back half of the garden. There's a cement walkway down the back and the rain pools between our place and our neighbor's place along the cement. The right side of the cement walk is a high wooden 'fencing' (not right word) which holds the soil and grass/etc for the back yard. The left side however is a low 'fence' kind of like a small wood phone pole (or a 1/2 pole). I built the soil up in that area (is clay base like the rest of the garden) & put weed mat and bark down. I've got about 3 dahlia pots on top of the bark, 3 native makuka/kanuka (tea tree) and a few other potted plants.
I could figure out what kinds of native plants would grow in boggy/drought conditions and create a rain garden.
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you!
June 26 2010, 16:56:15 UTC 11 years ago
Yes, it sounds like you have an ideal location for a rain garden of your own. There are always some plants that are adapted to places that fill up with rainwater and dry out. Around here we have ditches full of cattails and sedges, for instance. A little research should turn up what will thrive in your location.
Re: Thank you!
June 27 2010, 01:27:56 UTC 11 years ago
I'm thinking about this mossy stuff for the edging and some of this grassy sedgy Carex next to it but further from the path. I'll put a few rosy maidenhair ferns and some other maidenhair ferns along the 'inside' near the tea trees and finish off with some of this Centella Uniflora along the back part, closest to the neighbor's house because it sounds nice and right now I've got a running battle going with weeds there anyway.
I've also got a friend who is growing some (non-native) swan plants once the season turns so I can have monarch food so might put some of that in the area too. He said it has pretty deep roots and that would be good to hold the water deep and break apart the clay. His plants are growing in marginal conditions and he said they're pretty hardy. So that would take care me planting a lot of native plants for insects/birds as well as something for butterflies.
Now to sit and do the budget so I can actually afford the plants at the nursery! I could probably buy the carex somewhere else cheaper but would like to support Oratia as they're a local native plant nursery and do their own biosourcing and growing. I've also been wanting to order some filmy ferns for terrariums so I can split the rain garden order up and tack the ferns on too. (I think there's already a fern that is living in the rain garden area, that should be happy to stay there).
Re: Thank you!
June 27 2010, 04:16:02 UTC 11 years ago
This sounds good.
>>along the back part, closest to the neighbor's house because it sounds nice and right now I've got a running battle going with weeds there anyway.<<
I recommend that you try to identify the weeds, and whether they are native or introduced, before deciding to tear them out. There might be something useful in there.
>>I've also got a friend who is growing some (non-native) swan plants once the season turns so I can have monarch food so might put some of that in the area too.<<
A mix of native and non-native plants is fine. I plant all kinds of stuff here. In the rain garden, I think only the columbine is a native and it's a cultivated color.
>> Now to sit and do the budget so I can actually afford the plants at the nursery! <<
If you can't do the whole thing at once, consider doing one section front-to-back with all the varieties. Then you can encourage those to spread.
>>(I think there's already a fern that is living in the rain garden area, that should be happy to stay there).<<
That's another good reason to take a close look at what already grows there. Look at the ground surface too: if you have moss, you might want to keep that.
Re: Thank you!
June 28 2010, 08:50:43 UTC 11 years ago
More detailed gardening post to come!
Re: Thank you!
June 28 2010, 17:59:36 UTC 11 years ago
That is so cool! I had a few relevant classes at college myself, but I've learned a lot more about nature independently.
>>My bias is to slash and burn the non-natives (especially in the NZ environment where natives are so threatened).<<
If there are NO natives in the target area and/or if the non-natives are invasive, that can be a suitable tactic. But it's a good idea to look very carefully for natives first, because sometimes they show up in unexpected places.
>>But I'm reading a bit in the permaculture book and think it's interesting they are talking about a place for both natives and non-natives. <<
The main idea of permaculture is function. So you have to look at the role a plant plays in its environment: Is is a nitrogen fixer? Is it an emergent that shades more delicate plants beneath it? Does it provide food for wildlife and/or humans? Sometimes it's difficult or impossible to find native plants to fill all the roles in a given environment, because the old ones may be so rare you can't find or afford them. Then you have to think about imported plants that will fill that niche and NOT be invasive. You can always crowd out the non-natives later if you can get natives that will fill their niche.
And of course, if the place is managed for mutual human/wildlife enjoyment -- as are most permaculture plots -- then there are probably exotics that you just want to include because you love them. As long as they're useful and not harmful, that's okay. Nature isn't static. As a human being, you are the part of nature that thinks with a conscious mind. If that mind is well trained, you will probably not make mistakes any more often than nature does with mindless experimentation.
The butterfly meadow that I have is a mix of native and exotic species. I would like to put more native plants into it, and I'll do that over time if I can. But it already works as a prairie. Wildlife treats it as a prairie. Birds, butterflies, rabbits, and other critters enjoy it. The native sedges don't seem to care that their nitrogen comes from imported clovers. I'm just happy the nitrogen doesn't come out of a can!