Desperate times

I have reached the end of my rope regarding the front yard and have called a landscape designer to help me out. He will be here Thursday. I won't be doing the tear out or installation, and I may even turn over the maintenance to them. This decision has brought me a great sense of relief.

Meanwhile, I am identifying what I like and don't like.

• I like the cotoneaster but it needs pruning
• The mugo and elderberry need to go
• I want to keep the gold mop even though it is blocking a walkway. What grows under it - barberry, firebush, POISON IVY - can all go
• I'm meh about the boxwood
• The pampas grass can stay or go
• I love the smoke bush, but wish it were not so close to the house
• Can the rhododendron be rescued?
• No more yucca or false indigo. Both are out of control.
• Open to suggestions for the bed along the front walk
• Eliminate the northern sea oats PLEASE

What was the final straw? I am having the windows replaced in my house. Needless to say, there are plants of one sort or another growing under almost all the windows. The mugo growing in front of the picture window on the east side is the most problematic. My SO and I tried to hack out a path for the installers, but it is still barely passable AND now there is a big hole in the landscaping.

If that were not enough, our pathbreaking behind the mugo revealed some house damage. The picture window resides in a "bumpout" that resembles the bumpouts one sees on some RVs. The house looks less flat-faced with it, but it has been problematic, moreso now.


Repairing this damage will become part of the window replacement project. At one point, I was going to skip replacing the picture window, but now I am glad I included it.

I was hoping once it stopped raining so much, the flopping plants would right themselves a bit, but no. The natives along the fence are so floppy that it is difficult to get the mower through that area. I'm wondering if one problem is I (optimistically) planted them all too close together.


This morning, before the heat drove me inside, I propped most of this mess up with some hardware cloth supported with rebar so I can at least mow along there. This is a perfect example of how things go in my yard. I plant something, it looks like it is going to work, but then my vision eludes me.

August is being August - hot and humid this week, with scattered rain. Before the heat moved in, I managed to clean out most of one raised bed, where I hope to transplant the coneflower and penstemon. The bird feeding ban has been lifted in most of the state, but not this county.

Just can't resist

I haven't been posting many photos of my yard and garden this year, but sometimes one just can't help oneself.

Last summer, my SO and I attempted to shape the purple leaf smokebush. It doesn't get quite enough sun, so looks rather rangy late in the season. Our efforts paid off. This baby looks almost perfect. We will have to keep up the good work.

The Golden Spirit smokebush isn't smoking much yet, but it looks wonderfully lush. It is in a sunnier location than its cousin, so hopefully will not get so gangly.

I know I have already posted a pic of the Lemony Lace elderberry, but I just can't get over how great it looks this year. It's framed by mugo pine and cotoneaster. Some of my neighbors are probably shaking their heads, imagining my shrubbery as the perfect place for a creep to hide. Quite frankly, if someone manages to get into this shrubbery, I doubt he will be able to get out without a lot of thrashing around.

I forgot I had tucked a couple of extra black hollyhock plants next to the climbing rose. One is languishing - not enough sun - the other surprised me with these blooms, earlier than the ones in the garden proper. The rose is not very prolific this year, probably due to that harsh winter we had.

I'm still struggling a bit with my hip. My GP sent me to an osteo surgeon who had only one solution to offer: replacement. Talk about a one-trick pony! Most days I can walk without much pain, so I'm holding off. I'm following Pete Egoscue's skeletal alignment exercises and self-administering trigger point therapy, practicing some yoga poses and physical therapy exercises I've picked up over the years. So far, so good, although there are days when I wonder if I'm being too stubborn.