From commentor Dan B:
Our back garden was a turf covered shallow slope when we moved here in 2009. It was too much slope to stand on comfortably and too steep for a chair. We fixed that by moving 90 cubic yards of soil, concrete pavers, and sawn Columnar Basalt.
In the top pic, the Alstroemeria ‘Aztec Gold’ mid-photo is starting to bloom with a “dwarf” Catmint on the right.
This is the view from the top of the stairs back to the toolshed. It has a clear plastic roof, great for sitting out on a drizzly or chilly day when we fire up the woodstove. This is how to cope with Seattle’s typical weather. It came in handy during Covid.
Above the steps a variegated hardy Banana is going to go nuts. Behind it the creamy flowers of a Viburnum I believe is yunnanense has finally come into its own, nine years after planting.
Here’s the view from the shallow reflecting pond in front of the toolshed to the landing and upper terrace. The fluffy inflorescense is Rodgersia pinnata, named after a Mr. or Sir, Rodgers. It’s in a huge celadon pot in the pond, likes moisture. Underneath the pond is a water storage tank that collects water from the roof of the shed. It’s used for our summers that get 1/7th the rainfall of New York and 1/10th the summer rainfall of the Ozarks.
Please note: The sun never shines in Seattle. Here’s proof:
They say if animals like a location in your garden you’ve done well. Wobbles seems to like many nooks and crannies but the landing meets approval as an observation location.
Side note: I ascribe to the principle of designing the hardscape, structures, and paths in simple shapes like rectangles and circles especially if you want to grow plants in a profusion of shapes, textures, and colors. That way the eye is not overwhelmed with complexity.
Next to the upper terrace a Dutch Hybrid Alstroemeria*, ‘Princess Frederica’ is blooming with an early Daylily with a Lowe’s Hardware pedigree. The Dutch Hybrids bloom all summer if the spent flowers are removed, and the plants are not invasive.
*Lily of Peru, a common cut flower.
South of the toolshed – “Drizzle refuge” is a shady bed with gold foliaged plants that light up the gloom. This bed’s plants need lots of water that we pump from the big pond (not shown).
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
JPL
Amazing!
satby
A really beautiful oasis Dan B!
I think I’ll go look at my bedraggled wreck of a yard and whimper a bit now ?
WereBear
Gorgeous and tranquil and a cat… everything a garden should be :)
Benw
That’s a pretty cool yard
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
wow, so many different, bright colors (including the cat)
WhatsMyNym
Speaking of Seattle, the UW weather station showed 100° at 7pm Saturday. Hope your plants are holding up Dan B.
Baud
Very nice.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Wow, that’s beautiful. I’m exhausted just thinking of the work it took to reshape that yard.
Kristine
Lovely shrubs and flowers and a very cool yard. Adding my envy to that of other commenters. Thank you for the pics!
Geminid
Beautiful landscaping! Curious: what material are the stone steps?
debbie
Stunning! Love the observation deck.
OzarkHillbilly
Beautiful. Giving me ideas too. Thanx much, Dan B.
Lapassionara
Wow! Amazing. Thank you.
satby
I also love the sculptural elements you add with the pots, especially the two in the top photo with the cannas growing in them!
Edit: Oh, the upper one is a banana? Nice.
NotMax
FYI, starting at 10 p.m. Eastern time, 30th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Festival, June 27.
I *think* it can be viewed live here. Should also be showing up on their Youtube page choices at or near the same time.
SiubhanDuinne
How utterly gorgeous!
TomatoQueen
Beautiful serene garden, especially the orange specimen in the patio :). The view out my sliding glass door is of tall trees, including I think a flowering chestnut or possibly something else that is making me cough. Looking downward, we see a whole specimen field of knotweed. Sometimes in the early am we see a little herd of white-tailed deer, just at the edge of the woods. I look at the woods, a nature preserve of some size, and hope Merlin is in there having a good time and finding things to eat. Nobody has seen him, so it helps to think of him there, as opposed to somewhere much worse.Sorry.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
Pictures are beautiful ?
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Thanks, I passed it on to my Hawaiian-music fanatic friend.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Which reminds me of when as a young Slavist I was trying to translate a novel by the great Konstantin Vaguinov, and early on he mentioned “gavaiskaia muzyka.” I struggled and struggled to figure out that “gavaiskaia muzyka” meant “Hawaiian music.”
satby
@TomatoQueen: I’m so sorry. Was Merlin microchipped? Because maybe he got confused and headed back to where he was transported from. Keeping good thoughts.
Mary G
Wow! That’s amazing and quite an advertisement for your business, too! I love finding the occasional gem at Lowes too. I hope Wobbles and all your plants get through the nightmare heat as well as possible. Also you and your human family as well.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
OT but
eclare
Wobbles! Love the name.
MomSense
@TomatoQueen:
I’m so sorry. I too have a Merlin I imagine is having wonderful adventures. It’s been almost seven years.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The second thing doesn’t seem like it’s worth mentioning.
MomSense
Dan your garden is stunningly beautiful. I really should go deal with the tree stump graveyard (berm) behind my house.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
MazeDancer
What a splendid garden!
Good luck in the heat this week to you, your garden, and the entire Pacific NorthWest.
Anyway
Lol, I have quite a few of the Lowe hardware variety in my yard as well.
Lovely garden! So many beautiful details …
CaseyL
Starting from a hard sloped field and creating such a lovely oasis is a wonderful accomplishment. Sounds like it was a lot of work over a lot of years, too!
Gorgeous!
O. Felix Culpa
Beautiful garden! Our dry New Mexico climate doesn’t support such lushness — but it’s raining! I might be able to turn off the automatic drip irrigation for this afternoon. I love the fresh smell of rain, and it’s a rarity around here. Fingers crossed for a good monsoon season.
oldgold
What is going on in my garden this week? Well, July 1, my schizophrenic gardener, Le$ Mohr, is scheduled to till West of Eden. On the Fourth, in the rocket’s red glare, while bombs are bursting in the air, aled up, I will being spading spuds into my weedy slice of Paradise. Giving proof through the night that my procrastinating nature is still there.
schrodingers_cat
Dan B, your garden looks fabulous. I was wondering if you can suggest a good landscaping/landscape architecture book or a resource for homes.
Kelly
Tree guy was here Thursday to remove the trees burned in the Beachie Fire Labor Day 2020. He’s really more of a logger than an arborist. He had room to fall the trees and he’s doing the work for their value as logs. Ten marketable douglas firs and a few maples and alders. The doug firs will be sawn into prime lumber, the others will be firewood. Tree services are charginging $10k to $25k for jobs like this and they make it all into firewood. The logger is in his early 60’s and still amazingly strong. Two trees left to fall but the wind was blowing toward Mom’s house so he’ll knock them down next week. We have to do the clean up so I’ll rent a big chipper.
He’s good. Been logging since he graduated high school. A 12″ diameter alder got away from him and crushed some of our shrubs. When Mrs Kelly asked which tree would be the hardest that’s the one he pointed out. He said the scorched deciduous trees have started getting really brittle in the hot weather. He still had 4″ to cut on the alder when he suddenly pulled his saw out and hot footed away as it broke early.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rs9gX6QRoHfMDFePA
opiejeanne
Dan B, that is a truly beautiful garden, and the cat completes it.
We got up at 6 to pick cherries and water everything before breakfast, before it gets too hot. Got a nice little haul of sour cherries that I need to pit and freeze for later. Nothing is being cooked here for the next few days, except us. I’ll probably take a nap later, if I can. It’s 75 outside, 84 inside right now.
WaterGirl
@satby: Dan B is clearly an artist.
OT, I had a dream last night that you were coming to visit, and I looked around and noticed how much I needed to clean up inside the house before I could have company. I was still racing to get it all done when I woke up from my dream.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m sorry to hear that. I think of him as a patriot and a statesman.
Elizabelle
Love your garden, Dan B. Spectacular. Wobbles-approved, yet.
J R in WV
Sweet, and looks as if Wobbles approves totally, so all good.
Thanks for sharing.
We once had an orange tom named Harvey, after the invisible rabbit in the Jimmy Stewart movie that only Stewart could see, because our newly rescued cat was invisible for the first month or two down in the basement. Skinny little guy but was all heart.
Kristine
@Kelly:I am sorry about the loss of those trees, but wanted to add that I love your patio. It’s the kind I’ve always wanted–amid actual terrain, surrounded by woods.
satby
@WaterGirl: I have those kinds of dreams often. Given the Miss Haversham-ish state of the house currently, they might better be classified as nightmares ?
Denali
Very cool treatment of a difficult slope. We have a sunny dry slope- so far, cottoneaster and various weeds adorn it. I have been building a path on the shady side.
Dan B
@Geminid: Sorry, I slept in after a six course meal at friends. The steps are sawn Columnar Basalt from B.C. – The province as well as the era the basalt was created.