Garden Tetris

Well, do you remember how earlier this year I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have any more areas to plant, that the era of "big projects" was over. Well, guess what, this spring has been as busy and fraught with anxiety as any spring in the past. This has been due, in part, to the fact that I've been moving practically every plant in my garden to a new location. It's part of the never-ending process of editing a garden...something which we all do, right?


You might remember a few posts ago that I talked about this one spot, which is always tricky. The Agastache 'Desert Sunrise' that were planted here were languishing in the heavy clay. Over the past few years, I've realized that trying to force plants to grow in conditions that don't suit them makes both me AND the plants unhappy. More than ever, I'm embracing the "Right Plant, Right Place," mantra.


For reference, this is what happy Agastache look like. They are growing in the front parking strip in (more-or-less) full sun and in the only soil on my property that could be considered (by a VERY lax interpretation) as free-draining soil.


By comparison, this is one of the 'Desert Sunrise' plants that were moved from the aforementioned "problem area". Kinda sad, right?


Unfortunately, my garden has NO free space anymore, so moving plants invariably means a complex game of musical chairs. Here you can see that moving these three Agastaches involved a series of additional moves.


Here, on the North Parking Strip, I moved a trio of Agastache 'Blue Boa'(C) out from in front of the Anemanthele, since they were too close and hid the grass during summer. Now the Anemanthele gets to strut its stuff and is underplanted with a few Sedum 'Oracle' (A). Two of the Agastache 'Desert Sunrise' (B) were placed in the spots vacated by a few Sedum 'Matrona' that I divided up for last weekends plant swap.

Where did the Agastache 'Blue Boa' go, you may ask? Over in the front parking strip, I had stupidly planted a trio of Sedum 'October Daphne' right in front of a clump of Panicum 'Northwind'. From the moment I planted them there, I knew I would move them. Having a 6' tall grass step down into a 6" tall Sedum looked way too silly. The Agastache 'Blue Boa' reaches are more sensible 16-18", so will transition the Panicum much more smoothly than the Sedum did.


OMG...but what about the front slope where the Agastaches were, you're asking? Well, I went round and round about what to put there...and, as you may remember, my first choice was Pennisetum 'Vertigo'. Well, I thought about it some more, but ultimately decided the area needed something different and more in keeping with the rest of the garden. So, in my grand tradition of being totally contradictory, I decided to move things around even MORE. I relocated a few Lobelia gerardii (C) and have now planted a scattered trio of Deschampsia cespitosa (B). The remaining space will be filled with a few Sanguisorbia 'Tanna'(A) and random seedlings of Verbena bonariensis. Do you think I'm crazy...yes, I probably am. The good news, ALL of these plants can tolerate heavy soils.


If things actually work out the way they should (hahahaha, funny, I know), I'm hoping that maybe by next year, I'll have something like this to enjoy! Believe it or not, this is only a tiny fraction of the plants I've been moving around...soon I'll share the backyard redo. Sadly, we've been woefully short on precipitation this spring, which is especially annoying since I've actually had to water these new plants a few times. Usually, I can count on a steady supply of rain until at least June.

How about all of you? Have any of you been playing Garden Tetris?