Your garden is already pretty, but it will be stunning when those plants mature! Thanks for sharing! I wish I could get volunteers like that pumpkin.

Thanks Mary. I thought liners were a good, inepensive way to get the bones going. Next Spring I can work on fine tuning things.

Jon

Oh Wow! That really looks great. I especially like the Hakonechloa. It makes it look like water is burbling down the hill.

Love the dry stream bed, beautiful rocks. Bet it looks terrific in 3-5 years. Good luck with the ferns, one of my favorite plants. So delicate and graceful.

Great start, Jon. You've got me thinking about doing one of these. Just in the thinking stage right now.

Steve

Thanks Jag and Mad,

I haven't had much luck with grasses except fountain grasses, but Hakonechloa hopefully will do well in the shade. It actually seems to have perked up from when it was at the nursery in the hot sun today.

I have another area with Japanese Painted ferns that will probably be split and some (or all eventually) planted here. Ferns grow wild all around here, but getting them to grow where I want them has been a challenge.

It is just a start, but in a couple of years, if all goes well, it should fill in and look pretty good....I hope.

Jon

Were you lucky enough to have all the rock in the dry gulch or did you have to make it. What a beautiful setting for a new garden ... keep us posted as it progresses. It already is so nice

Thanks Steve. I had a hard time finding the Hakonechloa macra around here. I found it at Sylvan's Nurseries in Westport.

almost hooked, the rock is all from my property. I started just using it as a place to put rock that was in my way or that I had dug up. I have purposely hunted around for some of it, but it is mostly rocks I occasionally pick up and throw over there. It could use some more rocks in some spots, but finding them will not be a problem. A day or so of collecting will take care of that.

Jon

Your garden is going to be a real knock out when those plants fill in. As for the Hakenochloa, I have it in part shade. It didn't do anything for 2 years, or so I thought. I decided to move the rock that I had it planted behind and then I saw all kinds of new little plants growing there! I thought I could have it draping over the rock but I guess it had a mind of its own! Marg

Marg I may have to keep cutting down trees until it is happy.

I have the skeleton of a Crabapple tree that I pruned severely. It hasn't bloomed at all in many years. I have kept it hoping it would rejuvinate at some point. I don't think it will be around next Summer. Right now the grass seems to like where it is in the shade as opposed to the hot sun. Some references list 'Aureola' as good in the shade; I hope this is correct as this area would be classified as dappled sun with bright shade as I have it now.

Jon

As a temporary precaution against deer (at least) I have spread some Millorganite around the new hosta liners.

I have found a spray of peppers, eggs, water and a couple of drops of detergent to work well against both deer and rabbits. Is there any precaution against spraying very young hostas like this with a very hot pepper / egg concoction? It has zero effect on my mature hostas...except they don't get eaten.

Jon

I hope / don't think it will do any harm. We'll see.

That looks great! I have a dry creek bed, too, but it is now full of leaves-looks pretty bad. :(. You have inspired me to get out there and clean it up...which will take a while, but judging from yours and the way ours used to look, it will be worth it. Congratulations on a job VERY well done. Can't wait to see it next year!

Can't definitively answer your question, but I would guess a small amount couldn't hurt. Just wouldn't drown the babies in the concoction.

cyn427, thank you. I find if you take the large branches out of the dry gulch, gully, creek and then hit it with a leaf blower, it does a great job of getting into the crannies and cleaning it out. I haven't done that this year. I need to. I need gather up a few more wheelbarrows of rocks. I also have some more good sized boulders to add to the dry gulch, gully, creek.

I really didn't expect so many nice compliments. I looked at it as the start of something that others might find interesting. I guess now I will have to work extra hard to live up to the nice words that have been expressed.

Thank you all very much,
Jon

Rocks on your own land- how I envy you. We have to haul them in, and even a truckload doesn't look like much.

Hakenochloa is iffy here. I had some big beautiful clumps. Then we had a colder than normal winter and 95% of it died out. I'm still nursing along what's left, but it's never really recovered. Annoying, it is such a lovely grass when it gets big.

Ferns can be so quirky. I can't get maidenhair fern to grow in the beds, but it planted itself in a weed patch under a wild rose.

Jonny, it looks great so far! If you can find some at a good price, Blackout or Obsidian Heucheras would be outstanding as a foil to the Hakone Grass. I know HD had some decent sized Blackouts marked down to $3.00 a couple weeks ago.

John, your use of large rocks inspires me. I think I will buy some rocks at $27/ 100 lbs tomorrow morning at Faddegons Nursery in Colonie, NY, when my hosta society has its annual public plant sale there. My dry creek needs some more focal points, the bags of small rocks from HD or Lowes do not do it. Bernd

MadPlanter, I haven't seen much Hakenochloa around here or maybe I just haven't been paying attention. The nursery where I bought it (huge, mostly wholesale) had hundreds of plants so someone must be planting it relatively close.

Lavender, I bought a few Huecheras this year and while very slow getting going they are doing well now. I am sure I have room for some. I'll check HD, but locally they don't have good selections at all.

Bernd, Buying rocks? What a strange concept??? My neighbor has some nice boulders that the builder set aside when their house was built. On their next neighborly visit over here I might hint how the boulders would fit very nicely into my gully. I will have to carefully disguise my lust for their boulders and not appear pushy.

Jon