Sunny Spell

After last week's rant about hating March, I have changed my tune three days into glorious sunshine and actual average (not below average as it has been) temperatures. While it's still a despicable month, if it offers up a spell of dry weather during my days off I'll be nice and forgive the typical nastiness. Here is a tour around Chickadee Gardens mid-March, photos taken in a dazed trance by that glorious fire globe in the sky. 

This vignette, one I had imagined years ago but have waited to see it come to fruition, is quite satisfying as a dry garden combination. Arctostaphylos 'Saint Helena' in the background is large enough to limb up the bottom branches thereby exposing gorgeous bark. In the foreground is Euphorbia rigida, on the left Hebe 'Karo Golden Esk' and on the right Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata'. 

Red bark of coralbark maple, Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' stands out against greens behind it.

A second Arctostaphylos 'Saint Helena' on the left and Callistemon sieberi on the right. At the callistemon's feet is a small Yucca rostrata while many hebes dot the area, adding rich greens to a dry gravel garden.

Erica arborea 'Golden Joy'

Drimys winteri

Arctosaphylos 'Sentinel'

Not all of the garden was planned. The salal, Gaultheria shallon is here in a few woodland areas and this vignette is one I especially enjoy. We tend to leave stumps and snags to decompose as they will.

A view of the meadow garden and gravel garden from a distance. Many grasses in the meadow are evergreen such as Carex testacea and Anemanthele lessoniana that seeded around quite a bit last year.

Hellebore seedling from the gardens at work. Every year there are thousands of seedlings that are cleared out. One year my colleague and I collected dozens at Mike's encouragement and planted them throughout our respective gardens, expecting white flowers. They are finally blooming and have all turned out to be this lovely dark raspberry color.

Evergreen grasses and emerging perennials in the meadow. 

Striking winter maroon foliage color on Cistus corbariensis.

Similarly gorgeous color on Hebe 'Red Edge'.

Phlomis russelliana seeds against Berberis darwinii that will soon be in bloom, covered in orange.

Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Sasaba', one of many osmanthus in the garden. This is by far the most dangerous with its super spiky foliage.

This may not look like anything spectacular, but it illustrates my process. I had a bunch of terra cotta pots surrounding Buddha from the moment we moved in five years ago. Primarily to detract from the immature garden above, they added much needed color to a lot of hardscaping. Over time, however, some pots cracked or flaked apart. They became something I overlooked that did not bring me joy, so I removed them to clean the area and pick up the broken bits. I liked the clean look much better, realizing the broken terra cotta was a bit of an eyesore that I did not see because I was so used to them being there. Plus, the color of terra cotta here just doesn't work for me. Add to that the fact that the garden above is filling in nicely, that's what I want to look at. The pots were moved to a sunny deck for now. The garden happens in stages, after all.

Always a sight for sore eyes, the barely visible new growth on Salix eleaganos var. angustifolius means foliage is on the way. Wahoo!

FM used a tree trunk as a bench long ago when he cleared the land for the veggie garden. The north side of it has become a miniature ecosystem.

My mossy paths are nearly covered. A vision imagined countless times, it's so satisfying to see this come to fruition.

Ardisia japonica is an evergreen spreading groundcover for shade. It is semi-woody stoloniferous plant and spreads by underground runners, slowly in my less-than-wet shade garden. It reaches about 12" tall.

The garden was rototilled March 12 and 13th, a little later than last year.

The garlic is up an' at 'em! That's a welcome sight.

Last autumn was the first time I have ever planted daffodil bulbs. I'm not a fan of dying bulb foliage in summer, pretty picky that way. But now that we have an orchard with tall grass, daffodils seem a necessity. I ordered up a mix of Narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête’, 'Ice Follies' and 'Jetfire' This is the first to bloom - the petite ‘Tête-à-tête’. They are so cheerful we can hardly stand it.

Narcissus 'Ice Follies' in its first stages of opening.

In the heart of the orchard, islands of yellow can be spotted. Oh, how I have imagined a daffodil sprinkled orchard over the years. We have planted the seed, let's hope they naturalize in a speedy way.

March is the month that spring begins, so I can't really hate it. A little sunshine went a long way towards making me much less grumpy. Nature always has the last word, after all and I for one am glad for it.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you so much for reading and commenting, we love hearing from you! Happy gardening!