NW Corner Garden

 This garden area had a major edit about three years ago. For a long time there was a large area of dark pink New England asters in the back, and every year they would flop all over the place. And they were slowly expanding, taking over the bed. 

I removed the asters and a lot of Siberian iris. I moved some large dark blue bearded iris to the corner of the woodshed. That opened up a lot of space, and my first choice was a dwarf butterfly bush. It arrived barely rooted in to its pot, and even though I babied it through the summer (shading it and watering it well), it didn't return the next spring. It was probably for the best, because I think it was going to be too short for that back right space. 

That fall I added in a clematis (Hudson Blue), and lots of Asian lilies and daffodils. I also divided the orange/red daylily that I love because it had gotten too big. Unfortunately, one group of lilies are really too tall to be in the front area of the bed, so they'll need editing as well.

I'm really loving the thyme in front --there's creeping thyme and wooly thyme. The creeping thyme blooms purple in the spring. 

I moved some Stargazer lilies and another shorter oriental lily to the back. That summer was incredibly dry, and then the next summer (last summer) I was non-weight bearing for six weeks after my peroneal tendon ruptured, and the drought was even worse. That has slowed things down a bit.

I'm most disappointed with the clematis. I don't know if it gets enough sun. It came back well it's second year, but was eaten up by earwigs. The same thing happened this summer. The foliage doesn't look good, and there's at least one brown branch. I've given it quite a bit of organic fertilizer, although it has been a balanced one, so maybe I need something different. Weirdly, the nepeta (Cat's Pajamas) that I planted under it isn't really thriving either. I don't really get why. 

Things to do in this bed:

• Move the tall Asian lilies, either to the back of the bed, or to another bed.
• Add something shorter --perhaps dwarf Asian lilies to that spot.