Spring Update & Tour for Hillside Boulder Garden
In a previous year in a previous house, in the springtime, we had boulders delivered and created an “enclosure” of sorts for a hillside boulder garden at the side of our house. That has really been a successful journey to get the area populated with succulents and get a lot of growth around and against all the boulders. I wanted to let you know how that hillside garden is doing.
It seems that the hillside boulder garden is really off to a good start for only being in its second spring. I have had tremendous growth of the succulents planted in that area and they are still spreading this spring. Even the touch of Coral Carpet in the retaining wall portion has gone very well. It is spreading more and more as I write! See the image at the top of the post.
Now the area we wanted to allow grass to take over has been the worst challenge. For whatever reason, grass just won’t grow there. The weeds have no problem, but I thought that the grass would gradually creep over into that bare area. Seed just didn’t do anything.
We considered placing sod in that area, but didn’t want to go ahead with that expense since we were considering some work in the back yard, and knew that the machinery having to drive in and out would tear it up anyway, so that area is still awaiting a fix-up. We have to make a decision about what we are doing with the rear deck.
Meanwhile, as you can see, the weeds are thriving on the hillside and I had let them go as long as I could stand it. I know these purple dead nettle flowers are early and available for the bees, but once the cherry blossoms started blooming in my yard( and I think the forsythia was out too), I had to pull it.
See how large the patches of purple dead nettle were? That stuff is pretty in its own way and I can give it some room so that the bees have some flowers at first, but I have to draw the line and yank it out.
The only good thing I can say about it is that it grows in big patches so I can just get it by yanking one big cluster. Plus digging around and trying to make sure I got its base stem and roots.
So check out my video and see closeups of how everything has anchored itself in and spread even more widely this spring. I have pulled out some of my “spillage” from my hypertufa pots in the front and spread that in this hillside boulder garden also.
That Coral Carpet really spreads tightly and neatly and I am loving it. Coral carpet is so great inside my hypertufa pots but makes a great ground-spreader also. Flowers are the extra bonus!
Sedum Angelina is a real bonus too in this bed. It has that bright yellow color and in colder temperatures will go orange. It is so pretty against the greens of the Coral Carpet. Sedum Coral Carpet changes colors also and can be tight beads of reds, oranges, greens, yellows. Gotta love it!
An Anchor Bush for the Hillside Boulder Garden
At the top of this hill, there is a bush blooming currently. I think it might be a Dwarf Korean Lilac.” Not sure it is because I can’t find any info on when it blooms. Does that bush bloom as early as April? That bloom below is the bloom status as of April 28th. It is pretty large and here is a photo of the bush. Can you help me be sure of which one it is? ( It is hard to move into a house and not know the plantings.)
Several people on one of my Facebook groups have agreed that it is the Dwarf Korean Lilac and one of the ladies is in Indiana and hers is at this same blooming stage with no scent until the buds actually open. I think I have an ID!
On above this planting is another set of bushes, four of them, which we know are Viburnum lantana “Mohican.” These are currently in bloom if that helps in a time frame for the bloom time of the other “Lilac-like” bush. I have found some tags for the bushes here when I spade around the base of the plantings. But this one is hard since it grows so wide and is on this hill! It’s a little hard to spade around there and keep my balance. Maybe I will try again sometime soon. It will need trimming after it blooms and that might be a good time to try.
Well thanks for reading and thanks for your visit. Please watch the video and give me any info you can on the name of this Lilac-like bush. Come back again for another garden or houseplant update!