Human! Human! Make her move! She's sleeping in an irksome spot! And give me cookies!
(Hoover is feeling well enough today to be annoyed by Cuddles, who simply ignores him.)
There's really no excuse for all the plants I have languishing in pots. I have empty spots enough; the difficulty is matching the plant to the spot--somehow I never seem to have a good match.
And I buy plants (still) sometimes without the right spot to put them in, or I think I have the exact right spot, but I don't. I do claim to be getting better. This morning I spotted Agastache 'Acapulco Salmon and Pink' at Lowes, and thought: I have a spot for that. Non-secateur's excellent blog post made it sound like such a winning plant I almost thought about mail ordering it, but corrected myself: I have plenty of plants. I do not need more. But there it was at Lowes, cheaper than it would be mail ordered. Therefore, a must have. (This is how plant nuts think.)
I do have empty spots, irksome empty spots. Can I be the only gardener with this problem? I know some gardeners make use of every square inch of their property, and I admire them no end for being able to do that. I find I need some space between plants. I need to get in there and trim, or weed, though gardeners who cram desirable plants into every available spot seem to prevent all weeds.
It is not the maneuvering spaces between plants that bother me. It is the corners and edges that absolutely no one else probably notices at all. Me, they annoy, bother, irk, no end. Part of the problem with these spots is that there is often a sprinkler head right in the corner. If the plant just in front of the sprinkler is too tall, it will block all the water. Its's irksome.
Here is a spot has been bothering me for years. It is right by the front door and I see it and am irked by it at least ten times a day. I finally popped an Aeonium noblis (pupping version) there. It will be in dry shade in the summer, its dormant period, and in some good sun in the winter, when it needs to grow. It will be just big enough--I hope. If there are many pups, I can move them. I hope. Plus the Aeonium was sitting in a pot. One pot down, only a gazillion to go.
Yes I know I need to mulch:
This spot right along the driveway was irksome for years, but I finally filled it in this past winter and am so very happy. It's an itch, finally scratched. The relief is heaven.
Yes I know the Teucrium needs deadheading:
Not all empty spots are irksome. In this next spot I had a volunteer lavender, and will replace it with an agave, either havardiana or guingola. They are both sitting in pots, beseeching me for a spot in the ground. Havardiana, I think. Too small for guingola; those aloes will grow. Okay: now that I have a plan, another happily grounded plant, another pot gone...
The spot next to the future Agave spot is a maneuver spot, which for a reason that seemed good at the time, I filled temporarily with corn. I wanted to try out this year's garden fad: "incorporate your edibles in with your ornamentals!" Garden fads are usually good ideas taken to such levels of silliness that they are eventually rejected, only to be revived in twenty years or so. I try this fad in my usual spirit of silliness, though really all I want is a few ears of perfectly fresh corn, meltingly tender and sweet.
Sometimes I gain temporary relief from irksome spots by temporarily filling them with a potted plant. And the potted plant's reactions can be unexpected. Surprisingly, the potted baby Yucca queretaroensis is thriving with a fuchsia. Pots do have their virtues.
Sometimes I find a solution, only to have the solution fail. There was a volunteer Madeira Geranium here, and a %^#&^@ rabbit came and ate all the foliage, leaving only the stems. Yank! Grrr.
Yes I know I need to sweep:
Certain plants seem to work for me in irksome spots: small daylily cultivars like 'Janice Brown', or one of the 'Siloam' series, 'Elija Blue' Festuca clumps, Anagallis monelli, Alyssum and Impatiens, of course, Echeverias, Nemesia, small Aloes. I've filled some spots, but some stubbornly remain.
'Siloam Little Darling'
Echeveria 'Imbricata' has filled in so well I've forgotten I was ever annoyed about this area:
In other, hotter spots, Echeverias failed.
I tried the Agastache out in a number of irksome spots. It was between this and this:
I put it in the first of the two spots. I don't know--maybe I should move it to the other one. Just as long as I don't put it back in the pot.
My goodness all those pictures are ugly. Sorry about that. This one isn't much better, but it's a little better:
(Hoover is feeling well enough today to be annoyed by Cuddles, who simply ignores him.)
There's really no excuse for all the plants I have languishing in pots. I have empty spots enough; the difficulty is matching the plant to the spot--somehow I never seem to have a good match.
And I buy plants (still) sometimes without the right spot to put them in, or I think I have the exact right spot, but I don't. I do claim to be getting better. This morning I spotted Agastache 'Acapulco Salmon and Pink' at Lowes, and thought: I have a spot for that. Non-secateur's excellent blog post made it sound like such a winning plant I almost thought about mail ordering it, but corrected myself: I have plenty of plants. I do not need more. But there it was at Lowes, cheaper than it would be mail ordered. Therefore, a must have. (This is how plant nuts think.)
I do have empty spots, irksome empty spots. Can I be the only gardener with this problem? I know some gardeners make use of every square inch of their property, and I admire them no end for being able to do that. I find I need some space between plants. I need to get in there and trim, or weed, though gardeners who cram desirable plants into every available spot seem to prevent all weeds.
It is not the maneuvering spaces between plants that bother me. It is the corners and edges that absolutely no one else probably notices at all. Me, they annoy, bother, irk, no end. Part of the problem with these spots is that there is often a sprinkler head right in the corner. If the plant just in front of the sprinkler is too tall, it will block all the water. Its's irksome.
Here is a spot has been bothering me for years. It is right by the front door and I see it and am irked by it at least ten times a day. I finally popped an Aeonium noblis (pupping version) there. It will be in dry shade in the summer, its dormant period, and in some good sun in the winter, when it needs to grow. It will be just big enough--I hope. If there are many pups, I can move them. I hope. Plus the Aeonium was sitting in a pot. One pot down, only a gazillion to go.
Yes I know I need to mulch:
This spot right along the driveway was irksome for years, but I finally filled it in this past winter and am so very happy. It's an itch, finally scratched. The relief is heaven.
Yes I know the Teucrium needs deadheading:
Not all empty spots are irksome. In this next spot I had a volunteer lavender, and will replace it with an agave, either havardiana or guingola. They are both sitting in pots, beseeching me for a spot in the ground. Havardiana, I think. Too small for guingola; those aloes will grow. Okay: now that I have a plan, another happily grounded plant, another pot gone...
The spot next to the future Agave spot is a maneuver spot, which for a reason that seemed good at the time, I filled temporarily with corn. I wanted to try out this year's garden fad: "incorporate your edibles in with your ornamentals!" Garden fads are usually good ideas taken to such levels of silliness that they are eventually rejected, only to be revived in twenty years or so. I try this fad in my usual spirit of silliness, though really all I want is a few ears of perfectly fresh corn, meltingly tender and sweet.
Sometimes I gain temporary relief from irksome spots by temporarily filling them with a potted plant. And the potted plant's reactions can be unexpected. Surprisingly, the potted baby Yucca queretaroensis is thriving with a fuchsia. Pots do have their virtues.
Sometimes I find a solution, only to have the solution fail. There was a volunteer Madeira Geranium here, and a %^#&^@ rabbit came and ate all the foliage, leaving only the stems. Yank! Grrr.
Yes I know I need to sweep:
Certain plants seem to work for me in irksome spots: small daylily cultivars like 'Janice Brown', or one of the 'Siloam' series, 'Elija Blue' Festuca clumps, Anagallis monelli, Alyssum and Impatiens, of course, Echeverias, Nemesia, small Aloes. I've filled some spots, but some stubbornly remain.
'Siloam Little Darling'
Echeveria 'Imbricata' has filled in so well I've forgotten I was ever annoyed about this area:
In other, hotter spots, Echeverias failed.
I tried the Agastache out in a number of irksome spots. It was between this and this:
I put it in the first of the two spots. I don't know--maybe I should move it to the other one. Just as long as I don't put it back in the pot.
My goodness all those pictures are ugly. Sorry about that. This one isn't much better, but it's a little better:
I'm sorry, were you talking? All I could do was look at Hoover and Cuddles. They are so adorable.
ReplyDelete: )
It's funny--your irksome spots look like mine. One "solution" I have is to put something annual in, like a Nicotiana, and hope I can think of a more permanent solution. Sometimes works, but other times doesn't because the spot turns out to be in a dead zone for watering or next to thugs who don't play well with others.
ReplyDelete@Count Timsky: Glad to know it's not just me!
ReplyDelete@Jackie: they are indeed!
How we hate those voids when we know there are perfectly good candidates to fill them. I did the corn thing too last year when I had some coyote bush seedlings that weren't reaching their appointed landscape height soon enough. Corn, however, was a terrific quick architectural statement. You've got some compelling "after" shots, so I know you'll make some great decisions about what to put where.
ReplyDelete