Organic Garden Dreams: End of Month View - The White Garden Bed: On the first glance at the photos there has been embarrassingly little
change happened in the White Garden Bed between this End of the Month
View post and the one from January.
February 2015
January 2015
This is mainly due to three reasons. Firstly, when I shot the photos for
this post, it was a mostly cloudy, overcast day and I took them later
in the day time than the ones for the January post, with the unfortunate
result that everything looks kind of "brown" in the February photos and
the plants are "disappearing" into the mulch.
Secondly, and that is the bit frustrating part, I, with the support of
my husband and the gardener, have worked hard on this bed, but that work
doesn't show on the photos. All plants are fertilized, a decent layer
of new mulch has been put down and a big new hole has been dug to the
very right of the bed (not visible on the photo above, it is obstructed
by the pool spa). Of course, I would have loved to have filled the bed
with perennials and annual spring flowers already, and believe me,
knowing that the next End of Month View post was due soon, the
temptation was great. But I know, that in my garden I always have to be
patient and reasonable and work on improving the soil first, otherwise
nothing is going to grow well here in the long run.
Thirdly altogether there was very little time to work on this bed,
because I was still pruning and fertilizing the roses in the whole yard
and without that being done as soon as possible there will be no rose
spring flush in the garden. So this had definitively priority over
working on the White Garden Bed.
Are you tired of my explanations and excuses why there is not much
change to see on these photos by now? Yes? Then let's actually focus on
what has changed.
February 2015
January 2015
Well, the roses have leaved out and have grown quite a bit in comparison
to February. If you look at the February photo to the very right you
can spot the massive hole that has been dug to accommodate one more
rose. I placed a rose in its black plastic container into the hole to
see how it would look in this bed and I think this is a good location
for it.
The rose to the very left, 'Pope John Paul II', wasn't even pruned on
the January photo, as a matter of fact, it was one of the last roses
planted into the ground that I pruned this year. But to my own surprise
it has already produced a new basal cane which is carrying a spray of
buds and a pristine new white flower is blooming in the middle of this
spray already again.
Here is a shot of the new spray of 'Pope John Paul II'. I love that the
buds have a green tint, before they are opening to a very clear white
color.
The photo above shows a closer look at the big hole to the very right of
the White Garden Bed that has been dug for the new rose. I always
prefer at least 3' deep x 3' wide holes when I plant a new rose, because
as you can even see on the picture, my native soil is very poor and
contains many rocks of all sizes. The excavated soil gets completely
replaced by a planting mix from E.B. Stone, called Rose Grow, which is
especially formulated for planting roses. This stuff isn't cheap, but I
have very good experience with this soil mix. The roses are really
thriving in it in my garden, so it is worth the expense to me.
February 2015
January 2015
In these two photos you can more clearly see the difference in the
roses. One plant that also has continued to fill out is the
alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire', in the foreground in front of the
cycad to the left.
Here is close-up of alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire'. Isn't it looking juicy and healthy? You almost want to take a bite...
And if you look even closer at this plant, you can see the very first
blooms emerging. I can't remember the exact color anymore, only recall,
it was a very light one, therefore I can't wait to see the buds opening
and hope that they fit into my white color scheme.
Hardy geranium 'Biokovo' to the right side of the cycad on the right in
the bed is still blooming prolifically. It is good to know that this
plant has a flowering period of at least four weeks.
Just another view of the White Garden Bed.
Even though I haven't been planting anything new into the White Garden
Bed within the last month, I have been thinking a lot about what I could
possibly plant there. Since it is a very narrow bed it is not realistic
to expect to have an impressive display of white flowers there at all
the times unless I exchange annuals on a very regular base. So I thought
I would go with Vita Sackville-West's approach in her White Garden, and
use silver and gray leaved plants in this bed, which come the closest
to white flowers, but are there year round.
I have these two dichondra sericea, 'Silver Ponyfoot' sitting around in
my pot ghetto for quite a while now and thought I will plant them into
my White Garden Bed and see how this looks. When the sunlight hits their
leaves they have an almost metallic shine to them, which I find quite
fascinating. Another good thing about these plants is that they are
supposed to be drought tolerant.
Hopefully next month I have some more progress to show and I would be
happy if you would come back to check in with the development of my
White Garden Bed.
I am joining Helen Johnstone's End of Month View meme at
The Patient Gardener's Weblog. Please click on the link to see views of other gardens at the end of February.
Wishing all of you a nice rest of the weekend!
See you in the garden!
Christina
