Garden Mistakes: Artemisia

Have you ever put something in the garden that you just shouldn't have? Maybe you thought "I don't have a better place to put this so I'll just stick it in here" or even "I'll stick this plant here and keep it trimmed back." I've thought both of those many times and made mistakes and the latter statement gets me all the time! One of my more recent mistakes was with an artemisia.

Don't get me wrong there are several artemisia varieties can be great or even awesome plants. I love 'Powis Castle' with it's large fluffy mounds of silver foliage and I like 'Silver Mound' also (I would rate it higher if only it wouldn't flop open in the middle). Both of which I'll keep in my garden and neither one is invasive to any degree. In fact I'd be happy if they did spread around a little more! The mistake I'm talking about is with the artemisia that was pawned off on my at a plant swap. You see, I knew the reputation of other artemisias to spread and yet I took the plant home anyway. Once it was home I should have planted it somewhere where it had space to grow and spread without taking over other plantings. Did I? Of course not! I planted it in and among the plants of my deck planting bed. Other plants like boxwoods, caryopteris, a daylily or two, an 'Oranges and Lemons' gaillardia, and probably one or two other plants have now been engulfed by this silvery colored monster artemisia.

And to think this thing started off as a small stem of a plant. Once I get the chance I'll be removing this thug of an artemisia. It's just one of many plants I've decided needs better homes - maybe even in other states.


What does this teach me? Know the plant and put it in the right place for its growth habit! Will I do that?

Without a doubt...

I'll screw up again!

But sometimes mistakes are what makes gardening fun and interesting, or does it just seem that way to me?

What was the last mistake plant you planted?

The Deck Garden: Then and Now

I was out today looking at the sorry state of the gardens and though it might be an interesting exercise to look back at how the gardens appeared last spring and compare them. Over the next few posts I'll go back for a few photos of the spring time version and contrast it with that same garden today. Let me start off by saying I have a lot of cleanup to do! On with the show:

The Deck Garden Then (May):

I built the timber raised beds around the deck for an additional planting area in conjunction with the patio I built.  The hand me down irises are blooming here as is the pink phlox from Gail. I'm looking forward to that combination this spring since the phlox has had some time to grow and should have filled in . To the right is a 'Walker's Low' catmint about to bloom and just past it is a salvia - one of my favorite perennials. You just can't go wrong planting a salvia.

This is a little later in May when the red 'Firebird' penstemon is beginning to bloom. It's very easily propagated. Sometimes a glass of water is just fine.

Here we are standing back a little to look at the garden as a whole. The irises are done blooming and the catmint is coming into its time.

A little farther down the bed you can see gladiolas, a daylily, and caryopteris. Caryopteris is fantastic perennial for late summer and fall.

The Deck Garden Now (February):

The scene is much different. Please excuse the messy foliage and dead branches. I like to leave the perennial foliage to provide a little extra frost protection. It's time to cut things back and start getting them cleaned up for the season.

 

In the center is the 'Walker's Low' Catmint from the earlier picture. The penstemon is to the right and on the left is a Sweet Autumn clematis. 

  

A viburnum anchors the deck corner.  I'm always excited this time of year about the potential the garden has. Each year there are changes, plants grow larger, plants die and get replaced, and of course new plants get added. Spring is a time of excitement in the garden, now if it would just get here!

 

Perennials Around the Deck

In my last post I showed you some of the perennials around our vegetable garden. In this post I'll show you some of the perennials in the garden around our deck.

Despite my title not all of these plants are perennials. One of the most striking plants in this grouping is in fact an annual - the moonflower. It blooms in the late afternoons and evenings, plus looks great on arbors! I hope to start several of these indoors in biodegradable pots before planting outside. I suspect rabbits took a few nibbles and delayed the growth of moonflowers in my 2009 garden. In the foreground is one of my favorite perennials 'Oranges and Lemons' Gaillardia and is surrounded by mint. The mint is contained and was used frequently in our southern ice tea - I like it sweet! The blue flowers you see near the moonflower is a 'Longwood Blue' Caryopteris. I like caryopteris for its fall blooms. It reliably flowers every September here and is a perfect pollinator magnet. In between the gaillardia and the caryopteris is a spent gladiola. I try to leave foliage on my bulb/corm plants as long as possible to help them get as much benefit from the sun as they can.