Moon Garden Beginnings

It stayed clouded over quite a bit of the day which allowed me to spend more time outside than I had anticipated. That meant I finished getting at least the first space in the Moon Garden dug up and planted, which includes the "entrance."

And look at this nifty stepping stone I got from a local artist, Matt Borema, to be at the very beginning of the walkways! It has the "tree of life" motif on it.

These are most of the plants I have so far. I suspect a lot of them will get moved eventually, but it will be easier to water if most of them are near each other for now.

This group has a variegated Miscanthus (the grass). It will get huge and can not stay here more than this year, but I have to decide just where it should go because I suspect I'll have one chance to move it somewhere. I could have ordered the Hakone grass I wanted. But it was very expensive, and not all the variegated ones are so white. Many are quite golden, and when you order, you can't actually see the plant. This wasn't very expensive and I picked the whitest one to bring home.

I got two things that are annuals because most of those are marked way down by this time of the summer. There is a Dusty Miller, and a 'Frosty Kiss' Gazania. I'm going to try propogating some of these over the winter. At the worst, I won't succeed, and at best, I'll have more plants for next year.

The little one on the left is Greek Mountain Tea. Betsy brought me this one. The leaves will get whiter and fuzzier. I was not familiar with it at all, so this will be fun to watch.

On the other side of the walkway are things I have lots of. The four plants you can actually see are Lamb's Ear. I have a ton, ton, ton of that- all spread from one sad end-of-season plant a few years ago. But it's perfect for many filler spots in a moon garden.

Behind that maybe you can see some tiny stalks. Those are common yarrow I dug up out of the yard. These are the wild ones with white flowers and the usual feathery foliage. But the flowers last a long time, so I think it will work well, and it spreads easily. They will get almost 2 feet tall.

Despite how much Lamb's Ear I now have, this is the first time one has bloomed for me. I'm much more interested in the foliage, but a flower is always fun too. (This is by the driveway.)

Now for a focus on another of the plants I bought that you can see in the first grouping. This is a Veronica (Speedwell) called 'Snow Candles.' I cut off quite a few of the flowers that are fading and it's getting some new ones. I'll probably trim it some more in a couple of days.

Basically, when I was cruising the greenhouses the other day, if I saw something on sale that was on my moon garden list, I bought it. I was surprised to find some things I thought I would have to order. Finding them locally saved me, on average, about 50% (factoring in shipping).

This was a surprise find- again 50% off for end of season annual. I'd never seen 'Frosty Kiss' before with the white foliage. One of the flowers opened today.

There's also a White Sage from Betsy, but it's small yet. I'll show you another day. She says it's annual here.

I have three other plants I've purchased, but they need to go in specific places. Whatever time I get to play outside this week, I'll need to work on getting them placed, hopefully in their long-term locations.

And, um... I may be guilty of ordering a specialty Hosta. I saved so much money on most of the ones I just bought that I splurged a bit.

And I have, for sure, two other plants I already own that can be split and some put here. But there's no rush on those.

I went to the annual patriotic concert this afternoon. It's always good, but this one was great! Lots of younger people involved which is sure important to the future of things like it. The instrumental music was live with local musicians, a full choir, and a children's choir.

And now they are saying rain tomorrow on top of the heat. But that's ok. I was thinking a whole week of heat without rain was going to be tough on the plants, and I'd probably have to water quite a bit. Now, maybe not.

Betsy has brought me so many plants I'm struggling to decide where they should go and get them in the ground!

See Bonsai Apple Tree Is Getting Friends

1,3,5,5, and More

I showed you the yellow lily when the first blossom opened on June 19.

Then two more opened to make 3.

I forgot to get a picture of 4, but then there were 5 all at the same time.

I wondered if all 6 would open together. But the first one faded as the 6th one opened today, so only 5 at a time. Last year, it had 5 total. So this is the best year ever. Not bad for a flower that appeared in my garden and I have no idea how. Someone must have given it to me, or maybe even snuck it into the ground to surprise me.

I promised the Mason County Multi-Use Trail Committee that I'd do some scouting for a small section of potential trail route. Cathy went with me. Except for some pieces of what might be old logging roads, we saw a lot of this sort of thing. We didn't actually connect where we wanted to because there was an unexpected fence through the M-DOT property. From the other direction we gave up at a solid thicket of buckthorn and autumn olive, and possibly another fence. I might try again on a cooler day with a pair of loppers. Anyway, we bushwhacked for 1.6 miles and it took 1.5 hours. But I did collect some useful information, I think. Quite a bit of evidence of homeless encampments, although we didn't encounter anyone.

We went back to Cathy's for cold drinks and crunchy carrots. She also had a 300-piece puzzle set up. That was perfect! We easily finished it in one sitting, and I had been sort of hankering for a puzzle. It's called "Kitchen Garden." Such a fun, plant-rich picture!

In other news, I edited and did projects. Managed to get in the gardens a bit in the morning, and again late in the afternoon. This coming week is going to be a test to have time to work or do anything outside with the coming heat and humidity. But they say it may be the hottest of the summer. I won't mind being done with that.

Miles walked in 2026: 188.2

See Color Me Smiling

More Sedum Fun

Yesterday, I said I'd looked up how many Sedums there are, and it's between 400-500. Of course, now they've added three new genera: Hylotelephium, Petrosedum and Phedimus. Most everyone is still calling them all sedums or stonecrops. But the numbered species doesn't account for all the varieties- there are apparently more than 500 recognized cultivars. So... a lot.

Not all of those are hardy enough for me to even try in my gardens. My records have 58 entries, but a few of those are repeats for a second acquisition. Not all are still alive as I pointed out in the link about Sedum failures.

But I've added three this week. I got this one yesterday. This is the one the nursery had no clue about. It's one I've previously tried, but not the variegated form. This is Sedum sieboldii (but now one of the Hylotelephium.) I'm really happy to have found it. It can get about 8" tall. Some sites say hardy in my zone, some say not.

And this is one Betsy gave me that I didn't previously have. This will form a mat that drapes all over. It's Sedum stolonifera, still a sedum. I don't know much about it, so we will watch it mature together.

Betsy also gave me this. This is Sedum hispanicum, of which there are at least 5 cultivars. I have two of them, but I think this is the basic version. She raised it from seed! It needs a little time to fill in more. This is a mature clump of the 'Pinkie.'

And then, this is the next wave of sedum to blossom. This is the Sedum reflexum (and I see they've changed it to Petrosedum). There are at least 6 cultivars of this. I have two and covet two more. This one is 'Blue Spruce' because the leaves look a lot like small blue spruce branches. Here is a side view.

It moves itself around a lot- after it blooms, those stems often die back and it pops up with new stems nearby. But it likes to get into cracks between rocks, so it often fills in spaces where there isn't much else. It's easy to rip out of places I don't want it, so I pretty much let it do its thing. Here is a top-down view, and I think you can see the little spruce-y stalks.

The garden is getting a little drink right now before the temperatures start going up tomorrow, and then I'll be going to lie down.

It's not really a secret about my tiny summer job. I'm helping with laundry and cleaning at a local resort. I spent 3.5 hours this morning vacuuming couches! I'd never thought of that as being strenuous, but I'd never done nine of them in a row before. Stopped at a store on the way home and did a tiny bit of gardening in the afternoon. Betsy brought more plants!!! But mostly... I'm beat.

See Sedum Failures

Bonsai Apple Tree Is Getting Friends

Today was dentist for last check on implant before the new tooth can be installed. Two hours, 30 minutes of driving for a 10 minute appointment.

I couldn't let the fact that I was within range of other garden centers be ignored. So, the first plant I bought was not a commitment to a new garden... it could go in my front bed. But then I found another one. When I find plants that were already on the wish list but for half to 2/3 the price, and I can actually see the plant I'm getting...

I have now moved beyond dreaming. This will be a years-long project, but that gives me something to do as I get old, right?

Back to the beginning. Yes, it's an apple tree. No, it's not been trained as a bonsai, but it's so asymmetrical and melodic that I like to think of it that way. It's been featured fairly often by itself- link below has three different "moods" of the apple tree. It's also a giant pain in the patootie to mow around. I've thought about cutting it down more than once.

Instead, I'm putting a garden around it. This will be a moon garden. Those feature plants with white flowers and silver/white foliage that glow in the night. Fragrant plants are also important. Here's the tree with a few scattered pots of things. I also see it's sending out some suckers that need to be trimmed, so I guess that will make it a bonsai!

The first thing I did was mark the area of deepest shade with some spray paint. The entire area has both sun and shade, so that allows me a nice variety of plants.

I used all my dead hoses and pieces of hoses to roughly define the edge, and then the pathways. I'd already worked some of this out on graph paper, but I really wanted to see if those dimensions worked on the ground.

Laid out some of the pieces of broken concrete blocks and bricks I still have to start envisioning the paths. I'm going to be looking for people who want to give up piles of broken blocks or old bricks. I will come get them.

There will be a bench. This isn't it, but it's roughly the same size as what I want, so it makes a good placeholder.

The layout on the graph paper is basically a starting point. If I think things look better a different way as I progress, I can just change 'em. But it would be nice to have the structural things more or less stay put.

Now for the commitment. I actually started digging dirt for a while this afternoon. This always goes slowly- digging up grass for the first time. But I was pleased to discover that the soil underneath isn't too bad. I'm putting in a few things I got today and locating them near each other. None of these will ultimately be in this location, but for now it will at least be the beginning of a grouping. Some of these are annuals. 50% off by this time of year! I'll show and tell when at least this bunch is planted.

Found one plant for the rock garden. You'll see it soon. Pet peeve of the day- garden centers that don't label plants, and when they do, many of them are wrong. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure I know what plants I actually bought. I asked the person what kind of plant one of them was. She said, "Sedum." I tried not to roll my eyes. Apparently she doesn't know there are hundreds of sedums. OK, I just looked it up to be accurate. There are between 400 and 500 different sedums.

I did not do any work on editing or other projects. If I don't get to those in the morning, by afternoon, I'm just itching to get outside, especially since most of this morning was spent in the car. Had to get moving earlier than I like again this morning.

Tomorrow, I work. That may require all my energy. We'll see.

Should I have started this? I dunno. I probably shouldn't be spending money on plants. I probably should be working harder on house repairs and sorting stuff. But I gave in to temptation today.

See Three Tales of a Tree

Driveway Bed 1- Report #1- 2026

Since it was cloudy/rainy all day today I was able to get a picture of this cleaned-up garden space while it is all in the same light.

Just for comparison, here is that space in June of last year.



And in June of 2024 when I first started cleaning it up and seeing if I could do something with it without spending money. I did sketch out a plan and used flagging tape to deliniate some spaces (you can see that in the picture above). I've mostly been sticking with that general idea.

Some serious progress has been made. I've spent $1 on one plant that is alive, and $10 on another that is dead. That was my own fault. I really thought it was not hardy here, but the tag said it was, so I gave it another shot. Nope. Dead in spring. Everything else has been free.

The orange stakes are holding two wire cages in place. They are protecting (I hope) wild orpine which has only managed to bloom for me twice because the deer ate it down to nothing. Perhaps it will live long enough to flower now that it's in prison.

This is where the purple iris bloomed this spring, and a bunch of daffodils. It's where the deep purple meadow sage is. Partly by design and partly because it's what I have, the primary color in this garden is going to be blues and purples. Right now, three plants in that scheme are blooming at the same time. I moved some of the blue globe campanula over here. I thought they would like more sun. Not sure if they do, but three of them are blooming. In this shot there is one on the right, with a stalk of the deep purple meadow sage, and a tall stalk of the viper's bugloss with the lighter blue. As I often say, it's just a "weed," but I love it.

The Variegated Artemesia is spreading like crazy, as it does. If the patch gets too aggressive, it's not hard to rip out. It's supposed to get really tall, but mine never does. In fact, I put a few sprigs in the top of the rock garden a couple of weeks ago. The bright yellow on the leaves lightens the area.

I put five of the plants Betsy brought me in here. I'll just share two of those today. She raised them from seed.

This will get quite a lot larger. It's Lemon Balm Melissa officinalis. Native. Can be used to make tea or used as an herb.

And this is Monarda punctata, Horsemint. I'm tickled to have this because it's a native plant I love.

Here's what it will look like when grown.

I'll save the other three. One of them might not make it. Something has already dug it up twice. Now it's got a wire cage.

In other news: It did rain today-- not very much, but enough to keep everything wet. I did a little bit of garden puttering, editing, projects, had a great phone conversation with a friend I don't hear from much.

And spent some time dreaming and making drawings for a garden I'd love to have, but I sure can't make this one happen for nearly free. So far, dreaming, looking at plants on line, and fooling around are free (except for the time). We shall see what happens beyond that.

Oh, I did buy two on-sale annuals to put in a planter with the geranium Betsy brought me. I put that together this morning. You'll see it some time. The geranium isn't blooming yet.

See Driveway Bed 1- Report #1 2025