Monday 11 June 2012

Can this jungle be tamed?

I don't often share any pictures from this part of the garden for a reason.  This is what ivy does when left unchecked in the PNW.  Mixed with blackberries and some other weeds that die off and look horrendous in the summer sun, something needs to be done.  If you've been following my recent nursery escapades, I've been considering taming the jungle for a nice dry garden bed.  With all that green it's hard to believe but this area is actually quite dry and bakes in the summer sun (if it decides to show up this year).


I would love to add a couple of nice yucca rostrata, a few agaves that deserve more sun than they are currently getting, dasylirion wheeleri (?), maybe a chamaerops humilis cerifera, sedums, and other drought tolerant plants.  It will have to be done in stages.  But it's time for phase 1.





4 comments:

  1. Yikes...that's a project! Of course the rewards will be huge. Good luck! (do you have a few friends you could con into helping?)

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    1. I'm a bit apprehensive even at the onset... hence much talk about doing the work and a whole less action. I'm not usually a planner type person but I think some plans need to happen. The hard part will be deciding where to stop and trying to make it look a little less abrupt. I really don't want to will ivy pulling on anyone but maybe. I'm thinking of just extending the planting space to the right of the first photo for now (the yucca filamentosa sits at the far edge of that space).

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  2. OK, now you have my attention. I'll have to watch what you put in the dry area. I have a similar space just inside our front gate with rock heading up a hill. Previous owners here put in a Japanese Maple and some Clematis, with nothing for them to climb on! Seeing that it is bone dry in the summer, and I am NOT carrying water up there, I have been moving things to the lower garden and wondering what to put there. You may, in time, answer that question for me.

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    1. I'm kind of worried about the amount of work it is going to entail. It will have to happen in small chunks. I have a few ideas in the works. I have a trachycarpus fortunei there but I want to add a nice yucca rostrata, an opuntia, and I have some agaves on hand to go in. I have been hunting for the right yucca for quite some time now and I think I will have to settle for one without a trunk (bummer!).

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