Plant Sale Booty

All I have is a moved AC unit and a new fence. I’m not ready for plants - not even close - but I couldn’t help myself last Saturday. It was a plant sale!! I was looking for hummingbird and beneficial insect plants as well as plants that would go into the soon-to-be-purchased pots that I am coveting at Pottery World.  I hope they live long enough so I can be a part of the California Native Plant Society (Sacramento Valley Chapter) ‘Gardens Gone Native’ plant tour next spring. 

Check it out:

The Booty

(2) Carpenteria californica ‘Elizabeth’/bush anemone. This compact form of bush anemone is only supposed to get about 6’ tall at the most. I hope so, because they are going into the pair of large pots that will flank the gate of my courtyard.

(4) Scrophularia californica/bee plant. These are so cute. They are supposed to attract bees (go figure!) and will go in the pots with the bush anemone.

(2) Monardella odoratissima/mountain pennyroyal. A native bee was actually on the cute puffy flowers at the plant sale. How could I resist? Well, I didn’t, so I bought two. These are supposed to be shade or sun plants and will also go into the bush anemone pots.

(2) Monardella villosa/coyote mint. Another native mint that can handle some shade. This will go in the ground and I hope it will bring some butterflies to my courtyard.

(4) Fragaria vesca/wood strawberry. These are supposed to handle shade as well and will go in another pair of pots that will flank the house entry door into the courtyard. Who knows, maybe I’ll get enough strawberries to put in a salad once in a while.

 (2) Satureja douglasii/yerba buena. This likes shade and moisture, has wonderfully fragrant leaves, will look really cool draping out of pot and guess what? It will go in the shade pots.

(1) Lonicera hispidula/pink wild honeysuckle. This deciduous honeysuckle works in sun to shade and has pink tubular flowers that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. The berries attract birds. This will go in the ground and I need to get a trellis so it will climb up the fence.

(4) Lilium pardalinum/leopard lily. These will go in the shady part of my garden and their bright orange color will really pop against the dark terra cotta walls of the house.

(1) Mahonia aquifolium ‘Compacta’/compact Oregon grape. I was going to put this next to my relocated AC condenser as a screen. But after just a week, it’s already dead!

So that's what I have to get started. Once I get the courtyard paving done, I'll continue the planting. In the meantime, I’ll just move the containers around the courtyard and imagine them in the ground and in pots.

The Courtyard of My Discontent

Finally. It’s really going to happen. After living in our house for 7 years, I’m finally going to start putting my courtyard garden together. As a new house, it came with bare, compacted earth, a 3-foot square concrete pad, and a rattling, air conditioner unit. This Saturday, the first phase of the garden design will begin with the arrival of HVAC man and 4 hours of his time to relocate the air conditioner condenser. My days of trying to conjure up courtyard cuteness with bark mulch, rootbound potted plants, and desperately artful hanging of twinky lights will soon be over.

please try not to gaze too long at this sad little arrangement.

the ac unit's new home pre-plant dig

The foxtail asparagus fern (Asparagus meyeri) and the California wild ginger (Asarum caudatum) have been doing great on this north side since they were planted 7 years ago. I have no supplemental water to them since the adjacent turf irrigation provides enough overspray to keep them happy. This shade garden also includes western columbine (Aquilegia formosa), Catalina perfume currant (Ribes vibernifolium) - a fragrant, sprawling evergreen native from the Channel Islands, and heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica 'Compacta').

getting closer ...

pile of plants waiting for their new home

It probably wasn’t the best idea to try and move my shade plants in mid-August, but I have high hopes for their survival.