I wish I had more to report in the way of progress in the Sea of Juniper bed, but alas, forward ho is stalled. Everything takes so much longer than I think it will. Between the remaining juniper stumps and the weather, it’s not going as fast as I had hoped. I always imagine I can put up with rain and cold–and heat, too–but turns out, I’m quick to scurry back inside when the weather is less than ideal. We got so spoiled by our early fabulous weather, and now it’s back to rainy cold spring. So I’m out between storms, staging compost and plants, ready to rock and roll when those juniper stumps are completely gone–and the weather decides to cooperate.
The front northeast corner of the lava rock wall has a tiered lower-level bed. Last fall, the guys employed tools and the rig to extricated old azaleas and spireas. I had designs on that area from the start, imagining a tapestry of Agaves and other succulents. But it didn’t seem prudent to plant until I was fairly certain my new plants wouldn’t get wiped out from the pile O’compost above.
So I’m happy to report, that lower garden is now on its way. And though it’s hard to believe those little 4″ plants will fill out the area, they’ve never let me down before. Many of the plants came from our bloggers field trip to Little Prince, and others from Xera Plants. Soon, I plan a visit Cistus Nursery to find an Agave with a bit more girth than what I’ve got planted now.
This might just be the weekend when the final juniper stumps come out. Then I can begin planting the area in earnest. In the meantime, I’m staging the compost, sneaking a few plants in where it seems safe, and plotting and planning on what’s next. This is the fun part.
Cheers
P.S. I mentioned to a neighbor that I’m not all that crazy about the red lava rock of the front wall. He said it’d be fine once I got it cleaned up. So this morning I walked down to look at it, and just as I thought, he meant the moss. Holy smokes, that’s the best part. Beware pressure-washer-wielding friends and neighbors!
