From Disaster To...

5 years ago

Well hopefully you guys enjoy this thread. I feel like our backyard could be on a tv show :) and I could use all the help I can get. I’d love if you’d all review my plant list in a week or two. See if there is anything I should rethink.

All suggestions and ideas are welcome. I love debating and discussing. We’ll be reworking and improving as long as we are alive.

Featured Answer

Alyssa Schear
Original Author

last year

New update! Plants have grown in. Added some trees and a new cutting garden 🌸 Added a hydroponics system so I can harvest all year long. AND my pondless waterfall kit should show up next week. I can’t freaking wait! That’s it before we do the deck. (Some pics from fall)

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Comments (68)

Alyssa Schear
Original Author
5 years ago
Hahaha. I was totally thinking about his limit. I won’t get it down to 10 but I don’t think I need as many as I listed either. It’s a small space. Even smaller once I add a shrub and clematis to add privacy from the neighbors. But some of them were just different varieties of pink phlox so I can get just one- whatever is easier to find.

I have white in the mix in the front. Most of them bloom in the spring with my red tulips and yellow daffodils and then the bed changes to pink and purple into summer. Only problem is I mostly found candytuft and phlox for white and I love them while they are blooming but not a huge fan when they aren’t. Hmmm. Maybe I should ditch the phlox but add white. This also makes me think I should put in some bulbs in the bald spots until everything grows in.

Loving the help. My husband just stares at me with a blank look and my mother says “I wouldn’t know I’m stuck in zone 3” lol.
Jerry (Broomfield CO 5)
5 years ago
Okay, I finally had time to pull together some pictures.

Here is my new tall raised bed just after I added the cap/seat. All of the visible wood is Douglas Fir. The lower part had been treated about ten days
earlier. I held off installing the
cap/seat until after I added the soil because I figured it would get dented up
in the process. The box is about 3ft x
15 ft.

Here is the box about 24 hours after I treated the cap/seat.

Here is a scrap piece of cedar 24 hours after treating part
of it.

You were asking about vertical elements. I don’t have good pic right now, but we like
our Arnold Sentinel which anchors one end of our front garden.

Finally, here is my albino seedling! It won’t last long without chlorophyll.
Related Discussions
To: TOS
Q
Comments (19)
TOS before defining my post "rants" and writing that i intentionally confuse your answers to scaruso with the answers to my las posts, please read it: my last post begins with : "Finally you answered to MY very simple question: "Would you like somebody collecting porn OF YOUR OWN CHILDREN and his father or stepmother not reporting him ? " Reread my last post and show me where I misquoted you, otherwise I will report you to the boards'adminstrator as somebody advocating not reporting sexual offenders (CHILD PORN COLLECTORS, even of just 2 images of prepubescent girls ARE SEXUAL OFFENDERS). It is time you came out from your moral and legal ambiguity on this point To get this matter absolutely clear, as it concerns the moral position and action to take in view of even the possibility of such an heinous crime like the sexual exploitation of minors, i will cite INTEGRALLY your next to last post. YOU wrote: "She did not say he had a huge collection of CHILD porn. She said he had a large collection of porn, which made her uncomfortable. She did not specify whether she was certain the girls (I assume they were female) were definitely children, whether the pictures were definitely pornographic or were pictures that were just inappropriate or creepy when in the possession of a teenage boy, or whether the pictures were taken by an adult or something that a girl took herself and stupidly posted on myspace. We weren't there so we don't know what was going on. My daughter who is in her mid-twenties was once mistaken for a middle schooler, and that was in person, not just from a photograph. How do we know that the "preteen" she referred to wasn't really 17? For that matter, how does one know that the "18+" pornographic pictures readily available on the Internet are not really of girls younger than that? Obviously no reasonable person wants anyone to take or possess pornographic pictures of their children. I wouldn't want anyone to take or possess any pictures of my children, period, unless there was a good, logical reason for doing so. No, I wouldn't expect his parents to report him to the police, especially if he were a teenager. I would want them to get him help from a mental health professional." This is your original next to last post. About its first statementI i must remind you and the board'administrators that EVEN THE SUSPICION of sexual exploitation of minors must be reported and investigated: if the said photoes are 2 or 100, of 17 year old or a prepubescent-looking 25 year old, according to the law against sexual exploitation of minors, can not and should be left to the judgement of the families and friends of the possible offenders... About the second statement , I see that you don't like the idea of somebody's having any kind of photoes of YOUR OWN children without good reason. So I will ask you for the SECOND TIME (the first was in my last "raving" post) why you find acceptable for somebody to collect naked photoes of somebody's else children, I would like a clear answer from such a moral, quick to judge person like you, always so certain about other people's and particularly step parents'behaviours. About the third statement of your next to last post: finding mental help for a kiddie porn collector is not acceptable in the eyes of the law for the simple reason that, provided that the sexual offender agree to get treated, while his family or friends find the right help, he is free to continue the sexual exploitation of minors. So the choice of reporting this kind of crimes is not given to parents, mates, spouse and not even to maids, cleaners, employees or even to anonymous web users etc..: if you stumble upon even of a dubious (even if it could be of a young 18+ and not a real 14) picture you must report it and if during an investigation comes out that somebody saw such a picture or site and did not report he can be charged with aiding and abetting and rightly so. BTW, if , as you say in your last post: "I have received spam with those words in the subject a couple of times, along with all the spam for enlarging body parts I don't have. Neither you nor I have actually seen the pictures." please report the sites you are receiving such a spam from so the relevant authorities can investigate them and you will not incur in the risk to being possibly aiding and abetting criminals. I don't see how a person like you, so invested in protecting children from any real and perceived ills and from a child-hostile culture , can be so carefree about this and condone even the possibility to be compliciting with children's sexual exploitation. I would expect somebody like you to be up in arms at the first whiff of child porn.. But maybe I am a 44 year old moralistic prude and you are a middle age tolerant and think-the-best-about-anybody-especially-if-a-stepkid lady.... Now, about your last post : - about your precisation in your next -to-last post on the difference between B&D and S&M: as in numerous threeads on this forum you expressed yourself vehemently agaist plain, vanilla dating for divorced and even widowed parents I was just curious about your open attitude on this particular activities, so I wrote (in my last post) : "And you are open and knowledgeable to bondage too, as I see from your last post: "I think "Men dressed in leather having sex with women in bondage" is B&D, not S&M, which involves pain": again would be okay for YOUR OWN ADULT CHILDREN to be involved in BONDAGE & DOMINATION as long it is not SADISM & MASOCHISM, involving pain ? Just let us know with a yes or no please, so we can know where you stand on this ... Maybe you feel that B&D (but maybe not S&M ?) is okay as long it is not adulterous" Really, I was just curious and I see that you answered me right on in your last post: "And why would I care if consenting single/married-to-each-other partners were into B&D, just because I have no interest in it?" So I understood correctly that you are okay with B&D for consenting adults (does this include your adult children ? for them you would approve B&D but not engaging in adultery ? and what about somebody collecting photoes of your adult children engaging in such acts? would it be okay for you once your children are old enough to give their consent ?) but NOT with plain vanilla dating for divorced/widowed parents ? Just let us know CLEARLY your moral opinion on this, you are always so quick to express yourself on any other matter regarding marriage, families and stepfamilies.... About the second statement of your last post: "Scaruso and her husband are in a much better position to judge whether the SS was actually committing a crime than either you or I. " Interesting . If according to you (but not the laws on Minors'Sexual Exploitation) scaruso and her soon to be ex husband are in a much better position than you and me to judge their stepson's porn collection, they are also in a much better position to judge if this young man is mentally ill or not so you had no business in writing in your next to last post (to scaruso) : "Since your H was adopted, he will probably never know the medical history of his parents, which could be relevant to your stepson's behavior. I know you disagree, but there is such a wide range of mental illnesses and behavioral disorders your stepson could be afflicted with. At a minimum, I am relatively certain he could be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and executive function disorder." So the "incoherency" you accusing me of in your last angry post (you don't like it when somebody does not back off to your prepotence, isn'it) is all yours. Again, as in my last "ranting" post, I must ask you : "are you a trained psychiatrist ? are you licensed to diagnose online ?" Yes or not, please. If not, you are not more qualified than me on discussing this stepson'mental state and anyway, once again scaruso and her soon to be ex husband think he is not mentally ill (as according to you they are the most competent ones). So if scaruso and her soon to be ex are the most competent in ascertaining if this 26 year old is mentally ill and they think he is not, ALL your previous posts on mental illnesses in convicted offenders, serial killers, collectors of child porn -that according to your second to last post, should not be reported but helped by mental health practictioners- DO NOT APPLY HERE: if THIS 26 year old guy is not mentally ill, he can find himself a job, if he is collecting child porn (2 or 1000 photoes makes no difference) he should be in jail and not in a mental hospital... Lastly, i think the majority of posters on this forum see very well that you are ready to embrace any outrageous statement or position just to go against stepparents. I expect your apologies on the "intentional misquoting" (there was no misquoting, intentional or not) and "ranting" otherwise it will be clear to everybody as you are here in bad faith, just to badger and bully people coming on this forum to look for support and advice, kind and polite people that mostly try to ignore you (as I usually do at least when you are not advocating anything illegal, like not reporting the possible sexual exploitation of minors, or dangerous, like getting 8 year old girls sitting on the front seat) or even to be gracious and charitable about your bitterness and scorn.
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How to? Tomato sauce from fresh
Q
Comments (9)
Dozens of basic harvest tomato sauce recipes exist. We all have our basic one. Those that make sauce every year. I'm cleaning up the garden this weekend expecting a frost soon. We will stop at a local farm stand and buy a big box of sauce toms to make our basic bulk sauce this week...25cents a lb this time of year. I just call it our '25lb sauce'. Similar to the Alton sauce posted above. These are farm stand Jersey Beefsteaks. With a pot of simmering water 4-5 toms at a time are quickly nicked with a small slice piercing with a sharp paring knife. An inch is enough. Then dropped into the water. 30 seconds-one minute we take them out, large slotted spoon, into a large waiting bowl...skins slide right off. More toms into the water...as the batches cool off a bit and skinned, i crush them with my hand, or chop up a bit, and into a stock pot to start the cooking process. At the same time i prep a parchment lined sheet pan or two and add quartered skinned toms, a full head of peeled garlic cloves, a big onion in 1-2inch chunks, a couple carrots sliced in rounds, about 1/2 inch slices. One or two habaneros or any pepper, (this year i have Hatch from NewMexico. Drizzle of olive oil. Roast in the oven for 2 hours on lowish heat...225-250. I add the roasted toms to the simmering sauce toms for another hour or until it looks the way i like it...not too thick or too thin. Let it cool down, (it will get a bit thicker as it cools and more moisture evaporates). I freeze in pint containers. Some as is. About a half of the pot i further grind in the Cuisinart and some of it goes into the blender for a smoother sauce. I'm set for the winter to pull out sauce for various dishes like chili, pasta sauces, tomato/veggie juice by adding celery carrot cucumber juice to the pureed toms...virginMary or BloodyMary. I already have a couple dozen bags of cherry toms frozen whole and heirlooms from the garden sliced and frozen. Those i don't bother skinning. I have never seeded or put through a mill type thing. The frozen slices of heirlooms will become salsa all winter that i add home smoked pepper and tomatillos frozen in small packages.. Smoking the last batch tomorrow.
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"To Kill A Mockingbird" removed from Biloxi, Miss. schools curriculum
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Comments (41)
rob, I'm flattered that you remembered something I'd said in passing. In return, I looked at the link you posted to find where The Lorax had been banned. It turns out it was in 1989 in Laytonville, CA, population 1200. There in logging country, it was banned for demonizing the forestry industry. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. It may be instructive to know that the area around Laytonville, in Mendocino County, has long been the most active center for the cultivation of another, higher value agricultural product. The school district may have partaken of a bit too much of the second when enacting this ban. You can pass over this one and forget about it safely, it's indicative of nada. And the other ones on the map aren't much either, pockets of dumb things done in very small places. After going through that, I'd conclude - no significant censorship exists in California schools. That surprises me a bit. But this is something other than political correctness, if I understand. Just like the Scopes Trial (over 90 years ago and still debated in some places), it's a matter of a minority of parents trying to control what's done in schools for all children, when it doesn't line up with their own views. Efforts to stop discussions about racism are focused in the South. That wasn't my information, it was in the article. An irony is that I would guess some percentage of the parents in Biloxi complaining about the book, and the presence of the offensive N word, may very well use that word themselves. And not in a friendly way.
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Front porch new color from green to????
Q
Comments (0)
My father painted the front porch green why i don't know the house is Tan Stucco and dark brown trim and front the door is a dark cherry wood . I want spruce the look of my parents place with new shade tree is going be red or lavender with matching color along the entry repainting trim , replacing broken gutters , updating bricks looks around garden area and get rid of gopher reseed front yard .
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Alyssa Schear
Original Author
5 years ago
That planter looks fantastic. I’ll look up Arnold Sentinel! Thanks for the photos Jerry.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
5 years ago
Here is today’s progress!

Saw a post on Nextdoor for taking the trees to the city so found them a home. Now just got to figure out where to take the yard waste. Feel bad throwing organics in the dump.

Gathering up more rock and then I can sheet mulch!
mmmm12COzone5
5 years ago
Your new fence looks fantastic!
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
5 years ago
Hi Rossnagl,

I've been out playing for a couple weeks so I haven't completely read this thread, but in your last post you said you were looking for somewhere to take your "yard waste." From the pics it looks like a pretty big yard! Isn't there a corner somewhere where you could start a compost pile?!! If you can find a place to do it, you'll never regret the decision. Home Grown Compost is some of the best stuff you can ever get to use in the garden! If you decide to do it tho, be sure none of the stuff you're putting on the pile has weed seeds on it! Throw anything like that in the dumpster lest your "eventual black gold" spreads weeds hither and yon! If you compost the Lazy Way, and just let it lay on a pile and rot without turning it, it might not get hot enough to kill weed seeds! (No! A compost pile that's "working" properly does not smell!)

Also, I saw a comment above about the heights of the plants. Remember that the heights given on plant tags and in plant descriptions are the height of the plant when it's blooming. Many/most perennials are quite short before and after they bloom, so consider that when you're deciding where to plant things.

Just one other comment! It's YOUR garden, so do it however YOU want it! Lots of people write books, and have "formulas," and give advice--but they're not the ones that are going to be looking at it! MANY years ago on the perennials forum (before I found RMG) somebody was posting that you should NEVER plant only one of each perennial--that doing that created a Polka Dot Garden--and it looked awful! I have a small yard--and a LOT of different perennials I want to have--and I only have room for one of each of them! I LOVE my Polka Dot Garden! I don't care if anybody or everybody else thinks it looks awful--it's MY garden, and I love it! Make your garden Your Garden--no matter what anybody else thinks you should do! If you do that I guarantee you'll LOVE Your Garden too!

Happy planning,

Skybird

P.S. Heading back to your side of the hills tomorrow! Spent this afternoon watching the smoke from the Durango fire billowing up into the sky and head eastward! It's totally dark now and the flames aren't big enough from where I am (Ignacio!) to see any "glow" in the sky! This entire area is in extreme drought! I wonder what tomorrow will bring!!!
mmmm12COzone5
5 years ago
Rossnagi,

How goes the construction? Any updates (with pics)?
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Well it’s a year later mmmm12 but I have an update! We’ve graded everything and started on the hill. sequence is a little backwards because I’m planting before we put the rocks up but we got the trees treebarb and I reviewed for 50-60% off! So next is the rocks, more plants, irrigation, and mulch. Then I’ll start on the sod and waterfall.

My helper
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
Sooo much rock
popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
4 years ago
Is that rock you removed? Or?

I recognize the little shopping carts from Echter's. I just bought a tree there a couple weeks ago. It's not looking so good already. I'm trying not to panic. Try try try, breathe breathe breathe. :-)
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
Yep. Tons and tons of rock. This is just the last round. Overall probably sent off 10xs this. Plus 4 30yd dumpsters. More yet behind the garage that is fine where it is for now. Getting rid of more rock gives me nightmares.

ya I’m super nervous about the trees. At least they weren’t full price. Followed Treebarb’s instructions as much as I could but planted a bit earlier then planned. I figured being in the ground was safer then remembering to water them in pot. We will see.
treebarb Z5 Denver
4 years ago
It looks so good, rossnagl! Sometimes you have to do a thing when you have the time. I don't worry too much about what deciduous trees look like this time of year. They'll be losing their leaves over the next month anyway. Conifers are a little trickier. They can take months to show stress/transplant damage and by then you can't remember what you may have done wrong!

Just make sure to keep the root balls well watered in the heat coming next week. I check by getting my fingers in the soil near the trunk and again near the edge of the root zone a couple of times a week. Moisture meters work well, too, I just prefer to use my hands. I'd hand water them through this fall and at least once a month through their first winter if we don't have snow cover. You'll get a feel for how much to water. You don't want to drown them, but you definitely don't want to underwater them for the next couple of months. They shouldn't need daily watering in the ground, but do check at least twice a week. Take the tags off of the plants when you can, they can twist around in the wind and damage branches.

Meanwhile, I'm watering most of my pot ghetto everyday, so good for you on getting them planted! I'm so glad you got a good deal on the plants. That picea glauca 'Pendula' is beautiful!

Barb
mmmm12COzone5
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Looking good rossnagl.

Do you have a plan drawn up? A wish list of plants?
popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
4 years ago
Thanks, Barb for the tips! My new tree is already stressing me out! :-)

Rossnagl, that is a lot of rock. My mom just got rid of a bunch of rock at her house too. She was able to give it away to some ranch via Craigslist. They actually came and picked it up from her curb, made two trips.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
I gave away a bunch but this last batch was a mix of every kind of rock possible and would have taken a ton of work to clean. I did post anyway and gave away a bit to someone who used it for fill or something but it would have taken forever to give it all away.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Mmmm12. Well I had a plan to look like this. Low mounding pinks and purples. Some that fall over the rocks. Maybe a bit of different green and blue foliage.

but then I bought all tall plants at the Tagawa sale. At least i stuck with pink and purple I guess. They can go back by the trees and it should still look good. They were 50% off and I caved.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
mmmm12 here is my sorta list. I’m pretty flexible vs the front. Please let me know if any of these spread like crazy! I have enough that take off on their own - trumpet vine, Virginia creepe, bindweed....

Ice plant

thyme

lavender

artemisia, silver mound

beebalm

hyssop

butterfly bush - have

phlox

stonecrop (

ameria pseudarmeria/thrift

asters

dianthus

gayfeather, kobold or other

amorphana false indigo

geranium Johnson’s blue

penstemon

echinacea

tick-borne

rockcress

wall cress deep rose

Sun sparkler or dark magic sedums

dalmation bellflower
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
If the aster you have is the perennial aster, Aster novae-angliae, New England aster, they're incredibly invasive! (I think all the A. novae belgii are too!) I got one, 'Purple Dome', at a swap, and after a couple years it was going EVERYWHERE--including under the landscape fabric and rock and coming up thru the whole mess! After a few years I dug a bunch of it up and gave it away at a swap--with proper warnings! But AFTER I "dug it up" it kept coming up all over the place for several years--in spite of the fact that I was spraying it with Weed-B-Gon every time I saw any! On the other hand! If you like bees, it is an absolute bee magnet late in the year! The plant was absolutely covered with bees when it was blooming!

Your dalmation bellflower, Campanula portenschlagiana, could be considered invasive--probably ok for the first couple years, and then could start to "take off." I'm pretty sure it's one of the ones that spreads near the surface tho, so "controllable" by removing what you don't want if it's going "too far!" (Some Campanulas spread underground by rhizomes and are totally uncontrollable!)

And beebalm/Monarda can definitely become invasive if it's happy where it's planted. Again, it'll probably take a couple years before you notice it starting to spread. I've never grown it because it often has a mildew "problem," so I can't speak to that one from personal experience!

If you have the tall garden phlox, that can start to spread a lot after a few years too, but I suspect you could fairly easily dig up any "outliers" to give them away. Mine is coming up thru the landscape fabric and rock so I've never (yet) tried to dig up any of it--but it IS starting to spread big-time!

Some of the geraniums are horrendously invasive, but I'm pretty sure 'Johnson's Blue' is ok!

Not familiar with some of the other common names you have--and don't have time right now to try to figure out what they are. I don't see anything that I KNOW is "Hopelessly Invasive"--except the aster if that's the one you have!

I LOVE Armeria pseudarmeria! When it blooms for you, sniff it! It's fragrant, and if you wind up with different colors on the plant, each color is slightly different--they have a sort of "spicy" scent--I think!

Skybird
Alyssa Schear thanked Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
4 years ago
I've tried to grow thrift about 6 times. It never takes for me. I agree that Johnson's Blue is a well-behaved hardy geranium. I have one that is about 15 years old and it has always remained in a nice, controlled clump. It gets kind of ratty this time of year, but you just sheer it off and move on. I also have one that is NOT well behaved. I believe it is called Bloody Cranes Bill. It has a pink flower and it is a thug.

Some of the hyssops reseed like mad and will be popping up everywhere. The one that does it the worst for me is that giant one. I think it's called Adder. It's huge, like 6 feet tall. It's a prolific seed maker and the babies are everywhere. I would consider it "hard" to control.

The agastaches I have are very well behaved. I have Sonoran Sunset and Double Bubble and about 3 others in different colors. They are well behaved and the hummingbirds are wild for them.

If you have the room, I highly recommend a Redbirds in a Tree also. The hummingbirds and bees are madly in love with it. But it does get big. Not invasive though.

False Indigo is all the rage right now. I have a blue one and it took 3 years before it finally bloomed. This year. Seems well behaved though. No spread.
Alyssa Schear thanked popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
We’ve been busy but you can’t tell really. Installed our irrigation system last weekend and hooked my drip to it this weekend. Sooo much work but I love that I can control it from my phone and it knows when it rains. And then it rained a bunch so I can’t test it but yet grateful for the rain. Don’t really have pictures.

But we did also get some rocks up on the hill so I can plant all these perennials I got on sale next weekend. I have a week to stare at this picture and decide how to make this look more natural. Not sure if I want to move or add. I’ll definitely get more dirt around their bases to make them look like they’ve been there awhile and then all the plants will help. (And I promise I’ll get those tags off the trees. I was going to run out and take pictures and remove them but with the rain it’s super slippery. Should have done it earlier.) I should take a picture in the morning but I’m always in a rush.
mmmm12COzone5
4 years ago
Lots of hard work! Wow! Before you get any more plants in you might want to think about how you will get around on the hill for weeding, sprinkler maintenance, cutting plants back, hauling cutoff material out etc. and put in some type of hardscape path and/or tiers. Whomever designed our beds made them much too deep without any sort of paths in between so we ended up cutting out bushes and plants to give access to the beds. Also have laid down a couple of paver paths.
Alyssa Schear thanked mmmm12COzone5
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
It’s hard to tell but per advice from some of you I made three flat spots to make a sort of path or swale. One very narrow at the very back, wider in front of that row of rocks and another near the front. When I layout the plants next weekend I may change my mind but I’m hoping I can make them less noticeable with a few well placed rocks and plants. You have me thinking- I have some flat rocks I wasn’t sure what to do with but I could incorporate them as a place to step up or down into areas farther from the paths. Also I need to bring in a bit of soil so maybe I should make at least the center one a bit more of a swale. With all the rock moving it’s flattened out from how I graded it.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
Hmmm. Read your post again. I sorta planned for it but oops. A couple of those will be harder to access once those trees and bushes grow in won’t they? Not sure how to get around that. I’ll stare at it some more ;)
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Rossnagl,

My main perennial bed is too wide too, so what I did was bought a bunch of irregular shaped "stepping stone size" pieces of flagstone and put them in enough places that I can pretty much reach all the plants without stomping the soil down all over the place. With all the other small and large rocks I have all over the place--many collected on my trips--the flagstones pretty much just "blend in" with the rest of the rocks--IMO!--even tho the perennial bed is rectangular, so they're all placed pretty much the same distance "from the front to the back." And when I'm out trippin', when I see a flat piece of rock that's big enough to be a stepping stone I abscond with it and bring it home, and that's what I've been using since I ran out of the flagstone pieces. You definitely will need some way to maneuver around up there without totally compacting the soil. If you're using some sort of stepping stones they can always be moved a little--or a lot--if something starts to grow over them "too much!"

That's quite an impressive Labor of Love you have going on there!

Skybird
Alyssa Schear thanked Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
mmmm12COzone5
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I think you might like it if you put a path on the left to the top and a path on the right to the top. Then in the center of the two a little paver or flagstone platform with a cement bench or a small table and chairs. It is always helpful to have a place to put your weed bucket or tools where they aren't on the ground and disappearing into the garden. Also it gives a place for the dog, kiddo, guest and you to follow a path and be in the garden with out weaving through the plants. If there is room, I can't tell from the picture, you can even weave it back and forth like they do for steep hiking trails.

I wouldn't worry about burying the rocks any more. When you put mulch and plants in they naturally become buried. In fact they may disappear too much and then you will find yourself digging them out so that they show more.
Alyssa Schear thanked mmmm12COzone5
Faith
4 years ago
I second adding a real path and a table and chairs (or at least a bench). It will dominate the space now, but as your plants grow in the path will be much less noticeable—but it will always be useful. Hopping from one random stone to another makes garden work less enjoyable! Plus, your toddler will want to follow where you go.

We landscaped our yard 4 years ago, and once the plants started growing in, I’ve just been adding more and more hardscape: paths, shade, seating.

Oh, and regarding your plant list, just bought I’d throw in my two cents: unlike popmama I have had no trouble growing thrift, but the foliage looks very similar to grass so I’m always worried about pulling it up. For your purples, I recommend lupine for a lovely mounding plant, and allium for a fun shape. It’s also nice because it blooms in that awkward gap after the spring bulbs but before the summer flowers. And irises! They’re not really mounding, but I love them and they’re easy to grow. Here are a few purples from my garden. The allium pic won’t load for some reason; I’ll try it in a different post.
Faith
4 years ago
Here’s the allium, along with some dianthus and a few late tulips. It looks very nice paired with mounded plants.
Alyssa Schear thanked Faith
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
That looks great. Its too early to plant bulbs eh? It would be great to get them in the ground as I go this weekend so I don’t need to go back over and amongst all of those newly planted perennials.
Faith
4 years ago
It’s a little bit early, but I don’t think it’s TOO early! If I were in your shoes I’d throw them in the ground as you go this weekend. I see bulbs at the grocery store so I imagine the big box stores probably have them now too. Have fun!

You can also add early spring bloomers like squill, chionodoxa, and iris reticulata later, they‘ll bloom before your perennials leaf out. They only need to be planted 3” deep so just wait for a moist day in October or November and push them into the earth with your finger. The mini irises aren’t super hardy (only about half come back the next year), but they’re cheap and give you early color.

I also like anemone blanda (soak them before planting) and muscarI for low April color; you can push them in, too. Some people complain that muscari is a little over-enthusiastic, but I love it.
Alyssa Schear thanked Faith
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
4 years ago
Found some of the bulbs you mentioned on my morning travels Faith. Will need to order some of the others. Laid out the plants today and I’m going to get them in the ground tomorrow. There are a few bare spots where I’m going to put some bulbs, plants that will drape over the rocks or low mounders but I want to buy a few more and intermix them with the front after my husband places some more rocks so I’m holding off another week. Hopefully you can’t really see my little path near the back. Also holding of on anything to the left since we’ll be trampling around over there in the spring for the waterfall. Oh and as the trees etc grow I’ll move or pull out some of the plants closest to them.
Faith
4 years ago
So exciting! This is when it changes from hopes & plans, into reality!
mmmm12COzone5
4 years ago
Looking good! Going to be gorgeous.
mmmm12COzone5
3 years ago
Rossnagl,

How goes the project? Any updates and pictures?
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
3 years ago
A week or so until any big changes. We had an irrigation problem to fix last night and just got 6yds of compost delivered that needs hauled to the backyard. So hopefully sod for the little grass area for my daughter to play next week and then I just need to weed like a normal gardener! My tulips and alliums look great! I was shocked the alliums bloom so early. For some reason I was expecting later but I’m glad because it also looks messier then I thought and I’ll enjoy getting the leaves out of there. Lost my weeping redbud so that was expensive but it’s been replaced and then some lavender which I knew was a risk but I wanted that silvery color. Finally found some dark pink phlox that I’ll plant today and bought a really ridiculous amount of sempervivum for around the rocks.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
3 years ago
Also I can’t wait for the lilacs and saskatoon to grow in and cover some of that fence. Im thinking sunflowers in that little strip of dirt between the drain pan and fence but up for other ideas. Its a foot, maybe a bit more.
mmmm12COzone5
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
It looks really great! What is the purple flower in your first picture? You mentioned tulips and in your wide picture they look like tulips but they have so many gorgeous petals.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
3 years ago
Pretty sure it’s a dream touch tulip but not positive. I cant find the tags at the moment but I think I got them at the Botanic Gardens sale.
mmmm12COzone5
3 years ago
They are gorgeous!
Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

A couple quick comments, rossnagl! Your Allium are very pretty, I have some myself, but you should know that they will reseed like crazy if you don't deadhead the flowers before they start to drop seed! I learned the hard way! Some varieties do it more than others, but I'm pretty sure they all do it to some extent--not positive about that!

Also, for ALL spring bulbs, when they finish blooming you must leave the foliage on them until they die down completely, naturally. After they finish blooming is when they're "storing energy" to bloom the next year, so if you cut off the foliage as soon as they're done blooming you'll get "poor," or, conceivably, no flowers the following year. I LOVE spring bulbs, they're the things that "keep me going" after a long, dark winter, but I also hate having the ratty looking foliage in the yard until it's finally "done"--but I've learned to live with it! The first few years I kept trimming off "bits" as it started to yellow, and I was getting fewer and fewer flowers, so I finally just left it laying there looking ratty until "it was done," and now my bulbs are "coming back" and looking pretty good in spring (if we don't get a hard freeze at just the wrong time). So don't start cutting foliage off--you'll know when it's "done" because you'll be able to "easily pull it out of the ground" when it is! If you "pull lightly" and it doesn't come off, the bulbs still need it! And don't "braid" it or "tie it together," which a lot of people suggest! The foliage needs to be exposed to as much direct sun as possible. I try to "flop mine over" to one side, to keep it off of other plants, and kind of keep it from "going all over the place," but I don't "cut" anything off anymore, I just wait till "it's ready" and comes out easily. It's a trade off to have the flowers in spring!

Just a heads up so you get nice flowers again next year!

Skybird
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
3 years ago
Its a big day over here! My back is so sore but I’m soooo excited. Going to put in the gate on the way into the yard, my new garden planters should ship soon, and some patio stones on the far side for drainage this year yet. Then a deck where my feet are and the waterfall next year. I’m thinking sunflowers along that 1-2’ strip by the fence.
mmmm12COzone5
3 years ago
Looks fantastic! If you do Sunflowers I have two Hardy Yellow Ice Plants rooting for you (if you want them) to mirror the yellow into your rock hillside.

These are the Coopers ice plants. I can't tell if they are rooting or not. I will cut you some fresh cuttings just in case. My husband bought some mix stuff for the soil but it appears when it is mixed with our soil the result is concrete. Everything he put in this year used it so we shall have to see if any of it survives.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
last year
Hydroponics!
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
last year
Waterfall is going in here. Been waiting for yearssss and I can’t wait. I’ve watched every Youtube video there is on pondless features waiting for this.
Laura (Z5a Fort Collins, Colorado)
last year
Wowww, that's quite the growing wall! Cool!

I do some hydro on a smaller scale (sister in law got me one of those Aerogarden gadgets) and it works really well for cilantro.

My only concern with a full indoor garden is, what do you do if there's pests? I'm currently battling aphids, whitefly and scale with my (admittedly overly-massive) houseplant collection, and it's a real pain.

I would love a water feature besides just the birdbaths, but have no idea where to start. Maybe one of those whiskey barrel numbers would be nice...
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
last year
I’m waiting for that moment. Haven’t come across it so far but I can take this apart (a lot of it is just pressure fit) and disinfect it. So far I feel like it would be easier then my houseplants but I don’t bring anything in or out for that reason. I’d rather not deal with it unless I have to. I had an Aerogarden for a long time and I really loved it. The simplicity is awesome. Cilantro is definitely easier. Outside it just bolts on me but inside I can get a lot of cuttings before I finally start fresh.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
last year
For outside features you can check out Aquascape for ideas. Price wise for a smaller feature…but ideas and philosophy are great. I’m paying the $$$ for the water feature because it’s such a time investment and impact to my plants, yard, etc more then anything.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
last year
I’m soooo excited for this update! Our waterfall is in. Plants are in. Yard is almost back together in time for the garden tour. Just need to finish the gate and put in the deck (next year). I’ve also started my first water garden and have my first water lily bloom. We can actually enjoy the yard. Phew.
mmmm12COzone5
last year
Your waterfall is impressive! Sounds like your back yard is getting close to completion. You should post a walking tour. I would love to see it.
Alyssa Schear
Original Author
last year
I’m on the Sustainable Green Mountain Tour on the 6th or you can message me about a garden party on the 9th! It won’t be done but…is it ever?