Under The Apple Tree

We all may like to fantasize, just a little, that one day our gardens might become a mecca, such a stunning display of horticulture and design that it is a must see for those in the know. I have a long way to go to reach mecca. I may never actually get there, but I can fantasize, and plant my way towards such a lofty goal.
















Right now my "garden" is home to the pits, the $500 holes dug for my septic perk test. The pits need to be filled back in and the drain lines installed before I can really begin to claim this large space as my garden. I'm getting antsy though and have planted a few things in places out of the way of a big trench digging machine.













In the center of this picture are two small apple trees and to their right, the Serviceberry, Amelanchier arborea, that has just finished blooming. Bulbarella and the Faire Garden have joined forces under the apple trees in the start of the first planted bed in the roadside shade garden. This one section is at least a quarter acre of ground. It could be years or never, that this garden is "finished".













This is gardening in the wilderness folks, so don't be scared or appalled if it seems like I am doing things backwards. I had plants that needed to go in the ground. An actual "bed" will be made around the plants when I get to it.

Bulbarella often has overflow Hosta and some were given to me. Frances at Faire Garden, my close neighbor in Tennessee, very generously sent me a care package filled with Hellebores. The two largest Hellebores were planted behind five divisions made from half a Hosta clump. A little weeding, a thick layer of woodchip mulch and one flower bed will appear. It can expand from there. About twenty seedling Hellebores were potted up to grow them out to a larger size before planting them in the wilderness. Bulbarella was very excited to be inline for some more Hellebore.













Below the Hellebores and Hosta is a large group of native fern, at least six that I have counted. They are big ferns. I might ID them at some point. These will be left to grow and become part of this new bed.













One nice pink Dianthus was included with the Hellebore care package. I planted this on the sunny south facing slope beneath my cabin with Iris starts from Bulbarella. The pink Dianthus will echo the pink Spirea and pink Mediterranean Heath that have already been planted on this slope to begin a hillside garden of low mounding color and texture beneath the utility lines. Every little plant counts.













One day they will grow up to be big plants.
















Some of them might even have blooms like this.