July end of the month view - can you help my tree?

I actually didn't forget the end of month view that I've been joining in with Helen from The Patient Gardener, but just couldn't take pictures of this area in the state is was in.  It needed some serious cleanup and I finally had a chance to do some today.  The Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' in this bed isn't looking so great right now and I'm hoping someone may have some advice on what I can do about it.  Everything else in this area looks great and is blooming on time.

I had to cut many flowers from the lower parts of the Hydrangeas.  They were laying completely on the ground.  Because this bed faces northwest it gets very little to no sunlight from the tree back towards the house.  The soil never really dries out especially after the very wet spring and early summer we had and having a gutter downspout draining into this bed I think that could be contributing to the trees problems.

Aside from the tree looking like the middle of September everything else is very happy here.

Fuchsia 'Queen Esther' just started to bloom and the Spiderwort (Tradescantia) is beginning to bloom again.  I probably cut off 20 Hydrangea blooms and it still is full of flowers.

The Hosta behind the little girl has been doing well.  Most of my Hostas are full of holes from the slugs that still are wreaking havoc in the garden.

If you look at the base of the tree you can see it's black in the back.  I remember noticing it in the same place last year, but never thought about it.  Hydrangea flowers were laying right over that place and when I pulled back the flowers to cut them, I found ants and aphids in the black area.

Up close you can see the black looks like oil.  It feels "wet" to touch.

Normally the leaves would still be mostly green and white (it's a variegated variety), but they are turning reddish and then falling off as they do every fall.

So, other than my tree not looking as good as it should I'm still happy with this area.  I think I need to work on drainage in this bed.  My husband suggested we divert the downspout completely out of the bed and then I think I may need to remove some of the heavy clay soil and try and amend with more compost.  The tree has been here for about 6 years and replaced a Vine Maple that literally tipped over one day.  Now that I look back I have a feeling it was because of the poor drainage in this soil that caused it's death.  If anyone has any ideas on what the problem could be I'd love to hear.  The large Japanese Maple on the other side of the house is losing a few leaves, but otherwise looks good.

June end of the month view.

It's hard to believe June is already over and we're moving into July tomorrow.  It's starting to feel closer to summer, but still we're below in temperatures with many days still just in the 60's and overcast skies.  After reading many blogs from all  over it sounds as if many of us are having either very hot and dry conditions or cooler and wetter than usual.  Many people jokingly say that Summer does not begin in the Pacific Northwest until July 5th, and this year I think many of us are hoping that's true.
The sun broke through the clouds for awhile yesterday so I went out to take some pictures of the entry bed that has been my end of the month view since last September.  Doing this has really helped me look at this bed in a different way and trying to keep year (or most of the year) round interest.

 It's hard for this area not to look good with those huge Hydrangeas blooming!  I haven't done much in here recently, aside for pull some dirt away from the brick along the side of the garage wall.  I did remove some Bleeding Hearts that had started taking over, but I'm sure they'll be back in the Spring since I did leave most of the roots.  There seem to always be some volunteer Bleeding Hearts coming up in this bed.

 Every year I mean to move the one pink Asiatic lily here, and then I forget.  Hostas and Astillbes are beginning to bloom.  Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) is still blooming and the scent seems to have gotten stronger.

Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue' blooming behind my little girl.  She used to be a fountain, but doesn't work anymore, too cute to just get rid of.  My Mom gave me a division of a big Hosta that I've just planted behind her.  I think it should fill in really nicely here.  The plant to the left is a hardy Fuchsia that should be blooming in the next couple of weeks, although they all seem behind right now.

The end of the month view was started by Helen of the The Patient Gardener's Weblog.  Visit her to see her beautiful garden and who else is joining in.

May end of month view.

May is finished and I hope the weather it brought is finished as well. Our highs over the weekend were in the low 50's and it was either raining or at least drizzling the whole time. I finally gave up on waiting for the sun to appear and spent a couple of hours under trees in the path garden cleaning up and doing a little weeding. Most of the garden is doing fine, but the seedlings and vegetables seem to be on hold waiting for a little sun. It looks as if it will be later in the week before sun and some warmer weather will be here.
Today I remembered that it was time for the end of month view with The Patient Gardener. This part of the garden sure has gone crazy and looks like a jungle now.

I never imagined the Hydrangeas would actually ever get this huge. After they finish blooming this year I plan to cut them way back. Hydrangeas seem to thrive in my yard, must be the acidic soil that we have. The Columbines are finishing blooming and then they will be cut back too.

A new plant from last year is Trollius 'Cheddar'. So far I've only found this one lone flower. The scent reminds me of jasmine.

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) against Heuchera 'Caramel'.

The Jacob's Ladder have really multiplied and have no signs of mildew. The Bleeding Hearts are still blooming, I usually cut them back a bit after they are done. Spiderwort is getting ready to bloom in this area too. Heucheras are blooming as well.

On this Memorial Day I also am thinking about all the men and women who have and still are serving our country. Thank you for your service and for helping to protect our country.

April End of the Month View.

The months are flying by so fast I forgot again about joining in with Helen at The Patient Gardener's Weblog for the end of month view. I joined in taking pictures of my entry garden last September. When looking back at September's post I saw that it really didn't look that much different as it does now. Things were just finishing up for the season and the Japanese Maple's leaves had just barely begun changing, where as now the plants are just getting ready to start blooming. But if you want to see how this same place looked in December click here. Now that's a big difference!

Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' was worth every penny we paid for it. It seemed like an overpriced stick when we planted it about 6 years ago, now it looks like a real tree. The Hydrangeas have grown much larger than I ever expected them to. They are both loaded with buds.

Blooming under the tree are two different types of Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) neither of which I know the names of. I have a variegated type in other parts of the yard but they seem to bloom much later. This taller purple one reseeds and smells like grapes.

Heuchera 'Crimson Curls' and Astillbe.

Heuchera 'Caramel' on the right and 'Dolce Key Lime Pie' on the left. There are several other Heucheras in this bed as well, and some have just begun blooming. The leaves coming up between them are from Trollius 'Cheddar'. I'm really happy to see it coming up, the yellow flowers smelled like jasmine.

Helen is getting her garden ready for the Malvern meetup which is coming up soon. Many garden bloggers will be meeting for the Malvern Spring gardening show in the UK in May. I wish I was going to be one of them, maybe another year.

March end of month view.

March has just flown by this year. Often March feels like one of those never ending months to me. I think because I've been able to get a head start on a few garden projects it hasn't felt as long as usual. But now the April showers, which will hopefully bring May flowers, have begun a bit early. Our 10 day forecast shows rain for all, but one day. So getting back to finish the projects may not happen as soon as I had hoped.
The end of the month also means it's time to join in with The Patient Gardener's Weblog for the end of month view

Things are really beginning to fill in here now. Something is missing from here, although I doubt anyone besides me would notice. I mentioned last week that our pipe that led to the outside faucet must have frozen during the winter, leading to pouring water inside the garage (no damage luckily). The upside to this was that we moved the faucet to a new place. It used to be on the wall behind the plants, leading to many broken plants and bad words as I would unroll the hose to water. Now it is located in a much better place on the front of the garage making watering the whole front yard much easier.

This is the Sedge (Carex hachijoensis) 'Evergold' which I decided to plant under the maple tree. It supposed to get 1 foot by 1 foot and is a clump forming grass. I'm waiting for the rest of the Hostas to reappear before I plant the three of them.

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) already has buds on some of the plants.

The beautiful variegated leaves of Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' are so nice against the red twigs that the new growth appears on. Oh, I love this tree! I recently read that it is a slow grower, but in our garden it has grown quite fast.

By the end of next month hopefully I'll have those Sedges planted along with rearranging Hostas and Astillbes. There's a possibility there may even be some small buds on the Hydrangeas. I have a Hydrangea in my backyard with tiny buds already. Hopefully the Columbines in this bed will be blooming by then too.

February end of the month view.

February flew by so fast for me I hadn't even paid attention to what the date was. It wasn't until the evening of the 28th that I saw The Patient Gardener's Weblog end of month view and realized I had forgotten to take my pictures.
Here are how things are looking now:

I've been working on cleaning this bed up. I recently removed the dead flowers on the Hydrangeas and they've leafed out quite a bit more. I've been on the look out for just the right grass for in front of the tree. I'm still deciding between a Carex or Acorus and if I want variegated or gold foliage.

While looking for any surprises here I found the first Crocus has begun to bloom. These are the first I've ever planted in my yard. I'm not sure what took me so long, but I have them coming up all over now and just love them. I think I'll add some white ones this fall.

And these are some very big surprises. There had been a large Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectablilis) years ago that I transplanted to the backyard because it was in a bad spot. These are just two of the most recent babies that have come up here.

These are two others that came from the original plant a couple of years ago. Is this unusual? I can't figure out if they came up from pieces of root left behind or how they got here. I'm going to transplant the two newest to my backyard when they get a little bigger.

And the Camellia japonica 'Kumasaka' is already blooming. It does have a light fragrance but not until the blooms are fully opened. Right now the scent of the Winter Daphne (Daphne odora) is so strong I wouldn't be able to smell it anyway.

By the end of April I'm hoping to have made a few changes here. I know there are a couple of perennials that will be moved out. The Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium) will probably be blooming as will some of the Heucheras and the Bleeding Hearts.

End of month view - January 2010

I started joining in with Helen of The Patient Gardener's Weblog several months ago to share an end of the month view of a part of my garden. It's been a great way to see what changes could be made or things I really like about this bed.
I've noticed a lack of interest going on in this area over the last couple of months. There are several Heucheras around the edges to provide some color and as much as I like them, they don't seem to provide enough for me. I definitely need to add some more evergreen type of plants here.

I'll be getting out soon to cut back the dried Hydrangea flowers since there is lots of new growth coming now. Pine needles have collected at the base of the shrub and even though it looks a little messy, it gives the birds some great shelter. There are always Juncos and Wrens hanging out in there. More and more bulbs are popping up, in another month there will probably be at least some new flowers blooming.

Winter Daphne (Daphne odora) has the most buds I've ever seen on it. My hope is that it will eventually block part of the hose reel behind it.

This Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) and another actually came up from roots of another one that I moved years ago. This is one of my favorite Spring flowers, I love the drooping pink and white heart shaped blooms.

This view is walking up from the driveway where lots of perennials are beginning to sprout. The Japanese Maple 'Orido Nishiki' has lots of new red leaf buds on the branches. It's difficult to see how red the ends of the branches are, so pretty right now. This tree is definitely something I love about this bed.

I spent time last night working on a plan for what I'd like to do with this bed. One thing I do know I'd like to add is some perennial type of gold or chartreuse colored grass that I think will look nice with the many Hostas that are already there. Maybe some evergreen ferns as well. As usual for me, the planning is almost as much fun as the planting.