2008: Lots of Blooms -- A Gardening Success!
The same plants last year (after bloom time):
And the lattice wall garden soon after it was installed in 2006:
This 'Hollywood' heuchera still holds its own at the base of the lattice wall, even though this year the 'Cricket Dance' daylilies are begging to be divided (as so many of my daylilies are this year -- I wish I knew more people to share them with).
To call this combination of 'Velvet Night' heuchera and plantaginea hosta "pleasing" is an understatement. This is one of my favourite plantings in my garden.
'Velvet Night' Heuchera and Plantaginea Hosta with Harlequin Honeysuckle Blooms
Another pretty bloomer at this time (oh yeah, some people do Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the 15th of the month) is 'Ankums Pride' hardy geranium. It thrives because it's aggressive, but it hasn't quite taken over this small space yet.
Ankums Pride Hardy Geranium in the Bed by the Stone Steps
Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without permission.
I have an ulterior motive in showing this photo. It gives you a good idea of how badly the Eco-Lawn grass came through the winter. It was so nice last autumn, but sadly the low maintenance solution we were looking for is NOT found in Eco-Lawn grass. To maintain this grass it would need to be raked over and reseeded every spring, and possibly even in September again -- not the kind of lawn we were looking for.
18 comments:
I love the harlequin honeysuckle. I had no idea there was such a variety. I agree that it with the 'velvet night' and the day lilies is a lovely grouping. Sorry about the eco-lawn. I think somebody need to do a little more in developing a care free eco-friendly grass.
I'm afraid we don't even have an "eco lawn", just "eco dandelions and other stuff that we don't appreciate". Winter is hard on our regular lawn anyways. Your heuchera/hosta combo is really nice and that honeysuckle is a treasure. Nice job on the garden!
Karen: So sorry to see your lawn in such a sorry state. I am even sorrier to say that we've gone right ahead and Eco-lawned our own yard already! Granted, only half of it is done, but in for a penny, in for a pound I guess; we've still got bags of the stuff, so we will probably use it up this fall. Website said it is hardy to zone 3 and if it was not cut in the fall, it may take 2wks longer to get green in the spring than if it was cut. I'm guessing you are way past that 2wk mark. I wonder what went wrong?
THanks for the pic and reply. I will cross my fingers for us both! (Maybe yours will still recover!)
It probably would have helped a bit with the spring recovery if we had cut the grass in the fall before the snow came. Also, raking and overseeding at the end of April or so might have given this patch a better chance of looking good right now.
Anyway, I see some bigger companies are now jumping on the "drought-resistant" bandwagon, so maybe a commercial version would fare better in the long term. I'm not sure.
I can't get over the growth of the honeysuckle!!! I have it climbing on the rails of the front porch and although it is going well, it is not as full as yours. As far as lawn of any variety goes, I'm giving up in the backyard until we no longer have the neighbourhood kids hanging out with ours, wearing out whatever we plant. It looks horrid, but the kids are happy...
i planted a honeysuckle this year, my mom had one when i was a kid and i still remember that wonderful aroma. i had a clematis in the spot i planted the honeysuckle and i think it was getting too much sun, so i transplanted it and replaced it with the honeysuckle, which is already done better than the clematis was and there is that aroma...
bsts
Oh my gosh I love your honeysuckle!!! I've got to remember that and look it up to see if that is something that's possible here. Of course, then I have to write to the owner AND to the HOA and get permission to grow it in our fenced in, unseen back "yard". And who knows how long we'll actually live in this rental, so it probably won't be worth it. I'll look it up and dream and wait until I have my own yard that I will garden. Your garden is the stuff of my dreams. :)
For selfish reasons only I am glad that you posted the eco-lawn failures (I am sorry that you had to experience this for my knowledge). I was considering this as an option for the new backyard that we moved to in May...I will keep looking.
Sorry to hear the eco-lawn did not work out. For me the best lawn solution is no lawn.
Hmm, we just bought 10 pounds of seed. We are north of you but I am hoping it was the very bad winter that damaged the grass. I thought this was a really tough winter, and perhaps we will have a few easier ones that will allow the roots to really develop before hitting another like this one.
Karen, your honeysuckle is gorgeous and the lattice is a perfect backdrop for it. The hosta and heuchera do make a lovely grouping with it.
It's too bad we don't live close enough to swap lily thinnings. I'd be so happy to have a few of yours!
I was given 'Joan Senior' by a friend this spring and she's doing well, although I haven't seen any scapes yet. I almost bought her at the lily farm last year, but chose a taller 'white' instead. I first saw 'Joan' on your blog :)
Your gardens are looking lovely. Isn't it wonderful to have blooms again?
I love the honeysuckle, and your series of photos shows the progress nicely. I have one which was just tiny all last year, and took off like mad this year, so I've been frantically trying to tie it all up to the fence (I didn't plan as well as you did!).
I'm really disappointed in the performance of the Eco Lawn... since (doh!) we're in TO and just bought a bag of the seed. And I don't consider last winter to have been particularly harsh, though the last few weeks of snow were annoying for sure. Any possibility the lawn has rallied since this post? Update appreciated, but I know how depressing it can be to focus on garden "failures". :-(
Hi Karen
i just got a big bag of this seed ... is that a possiblity to see a latest phots as of July/Aug of ecolawn? did u try any repairs to that area like throwing some more seed etc?
Thanks
Sri
This grass didn't work for me. If you have bought the seed, I hope it works for you. Good luck.
Karen-
did you do the eco lawn "right"? I mean did you seed it over for 4-5 years before calling it a failure? I'm wondering because I am conducting some research on it- but only so far as I am reading and reporting my findings, you actually grew some. I think it will help lots of others to know the findings. Thanks
In response to Anonymous who asks "did you seed it over for 4-5 years before calling it a failure"... based on the blog here (have you read it?) it's clear that she tried this ONCE, which is fair enough. Who'd be willing to leave their lawn looking gross for 5 years before calling it a failure? Regular grass seed from the garden store sprouts and greens up right away and with care pretty much stays nice forever. If her Eco-Lawn didn't, and she's not a stockholder in the company, I would definitely recommend trying something else, not wishing & waiting & hoping (all the while spending more for overseeding!).
Crossing my fingers that my ecolawn made it through Winter 08/09!
Looking for grass that would need less fertilizer and especially watering (I hate "wasting" good drinking water by just pouring it on the ground) I took up all of my "regular" grass and entirely seeded my lawn (1/4 acre) with Eco-Lawn in Labour Day of 2007. I heard about Eco-Lawn from the TV garden designer when he gave a presentation in our town in Southern Ontario. The designer was all for it and it sure sounded good to me.
It came up patchy and not particularly well so I did a dormant over seeding at the end of November 2007 and again in very late April 2008. It wasn't too bad but not what I had been lead to believe. I again over seeded Labour Day 2008 and in some patchy areas once again in later April 2009. Going through 50 lbs of seed every year I have been able to get it to the level of not bad but that’s as far as it goes. It grows somewhat slower but I cut it at 3 inches and to keep it neat and needs to be cut every week just like “regular” grass.
I had a new patio put in last year and on a bit of hill built up to level the patio the installer laid some sod to keep the hill in place and the sod seems to grow at about the same rate as the Eco-Lawn. About the only thing is that the Eco-Lawn doesn’t come up as thick (i.e. it seems to be returning to “patchy”) so doesn’t need any bagging of the clippings during the fast growing months in the spring. I do have a mulching mower but my previous regular lawn grew so much in a week it would just overwhelm the mulching capability of my mower. So Eco-Lawn does cut well but maybe that’s just because it’s thin (and thinning out as time goes on).
I don’t know about the needing less watering as last year was very wet and no one had to do any watering around here last year. I haven’t fertilized either but have to see if it holds up over a longer period of time. In the shady sections Eco-Lawn doesn’t seem to grow well at all – most grasses don’t do all that well in these areas but I would say Eco-Lawn does not do as well as a regular shade lawn seed mixture. I am going to do some heavy raking and get some regular shade mixture into these areas, hopefully by May 20 (hope that is still early enough).
I have put a lot of time and work into trying to make my Eco-Lawn a success but it is disappointing to see how much work it is for results that are not particularly great.
I would like to hear if anyone that has had any different luck than me.
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