W4W - Harmony

In an article about pruning fellow blogger Lee May stated, "In some ways, all gardening is unnatural, including watering, fertilizing, mulching, weeding – any intervention that goes beyond what nature would do." This sentence resonated with me and got me thinking about some of the features in my garden that are contrivances and whether they are harmonious or discordant with the surrounding environment. And I realized the whole garden is contrived in some respects.  If something is contrived does it lack harmony with its environment? You be the judge.

I have a dry riverbed in my garden that is a spiral of river rocks and thyme. Spirals are a universal symbol that is echoed in nature. I think I'm drawn to spirals much like many other people. The river rocks anchor the spiral and the pink chintz thyme repeats the theme. 

The pink chintz thyme overwintered well and none died out. I don't recall that I watered. There must have been enough intermittent snow last winter to keep the plants alive.

This year, I tried dividing thyme to fill in some of the bare spots. Dividing was relatively easy. I found a resource that suggested dividing it in 2 x 2 inch squares and transplanting it. I wasn't that methodical and divided into about 4 inch pieces. The thyme I managed to keep watered stayed alive. Alas, I didn't always remember to water.

Almost all of the thyme has bloomed, which I didn't think would happen. It's like having my own pink spiral galaxy.

The spiral was a huge self indulgence. I'm not sure if the pink chintz thyme and river rock are "united in perfect harmony" or with their surroundings. (My apologies to Stevie Wonder and Sir Paul!) However, the pollinators love the thyme and that's good enough for me. To read more about the development of the spiral, check out Spiral Vision and Spiral Vision, Part Deux.

I'm joining Donna's Word 4 Wednesday meme on harmony at Garden Walk, Garden Talk. Please read her exploration of harmony in the garden and other bloggers interpretation of the harmony theme. Thanks Donna for hosting! 

Spiral Vision, Part Deux

My next project management class starts in about two weeks so I'm trying to get in as much blogging and blog viewing as possible while I can.

I haven't done an update on my dry riverbed rock and thyme spiral since the first post in April. So it might be about time or thyme as the case may be. I was uncertain how to water the thyme in the spiral. A consideration, I probably should have made prior to planting it or digging the dry river bed.

So after a long discussion with the owner (I think) at the drip irrigation store. I laid a drip line along the length of spiral and started hand digging a the tiniest trench of all time for the half inch line. I added drip emitters along the length of the line near the thyme plants. The recent rains have eroded where I dug the drip line in, but here's to hoping that the thyme will cover it eventually. 

It looks like the thyme is doing its job and covering the line in some places, but I'm reevaluating how I'm irrigating because I found some emitters that I like better. I need to clean up some of the rocks that have become dislodged, but I'm pleased with the growth of the thyme over the last year. 

Some photos of the thyme from this Spring in different light. I think I made the right choice with the pink chintz. The growth habit is low, tight and spreads widely. And who knows, I might have a pink thyme spiral next year.

I'm also joining the post of the month club for August. Stop by Happy Homemaker UK if you want to join. Thanks for hosting Laura! 

Friday Fave Five (F3)

This week was mercurial in terms of the weather. It snowed on Tuesday and was so cold and miserable that walking my dog Aster was the last thing on my mind, but I did it anyway. This week's Friday Fave Five is an ode to the plants I'm thankful for that didn't die in the garden this winter.

Aster

Friday Fave Five (F3)

1. Thymus "Pink Chintz"
2. Bearded Iris (cultivar unknown)
3. Papaver Antlanticum 'Flore Pleno'
4. Mirabilis Multiflora
5. Paeonia Lactiflora

Thymus "Pink Chintz"

This is some of the thyme that I planted in my spiral garden feature. It looks like cascades of tiny flowers close up. 

Bearded Iris

More irises from my friend Lori. I planted them in a flower bed that I can't seem to cultivate. I've tried amending the soil and nothing but the irises and a butterfly bush grow in it. 

Papaver Atlanticum 'Flore Pleno' (Moroccan/Spanish Poppy)

This Flore Pleno was the new poppy that I tried last year. I can't wait to see it flower. Two of the three I planted started coming up this spring, but one of the many intermittent spring frosts killed the second one. Alas, I only have one left. I've read that it's supposed to reseed profusely!

Mirabilis Multiflora (Desert Four O'clock)

I was glad to see the desert four o'clock leaf out. I had forgotten I'd planted it and couldn't figure out why there weren't any plants near some of the drippers. 

Paeonia Lactiflora

I planted three peonies last summer and all three of them came back! One of them looks a little haggard and not as sprightly as the others. Hope it makes it through the next few weeks. 

Spiral Vision

I’ve never drawn formal garden plans. But I have an old sketch scrawled on a yellow legal pad of a spiral that borders my garden. I wasn’t sure how it would materialize, but the inchoate thought was implanted in my mind. After many years, I had the epiphany that I wanted the spiral to be a dry riverbed. Inspired by how my friends Pilo and Patrice used thyme in two distinct ways. I concluded that the thyme could be juxtaposed with the river rocks to unify the spiral with the rest of the garden. 

However, the pursuit of finding the right thyme took longer than anticipated. Sometimes, my single-mindedness gets the better of my friends and me. Last year, my friend Susan drove me to five different nurseries to find pink chintz thyme. I didn’t want wooly thyme or Reiter or some of the other cultivars. It had to be pink chintz! It’s low to the ground and spreads widely. 

We drove to Newman’s Nursery at the outskirts of Santa Fe and all the thyme there was spoken for. The flats had big fluorescent orange tags with “SOLD” emblazoned on them. She then drove to Plants of the Southwest. To my dismay, there was no pink chintz. We drove down the street to Agua Fria Nursery, which has a large area dedicated to thyme, but the grail was elusive. We got back in the car. The air was dry and I could taste the dust in my mouth. I was on the verge of giving up. But Santa Fe is not a metropolis, so Susan schlepped me to Payne’s Nursery whose thyme selection was more limited. I was ready to cry uncle when she insisted that we go to Santa Fe Greenhouses. Not only did they have pink chintz thyme, it was 25% off! 

First, I dug the template for the dry river bed. The wisteria in the corner is just starting to leaf out.

Next, I laid down some landscaping cloth and placed the rocks over it. The wisteria has grown some more. 

Continuing with the rock placement. My dog, Aster thought the spiral was her own personal agility course and I'm still working on realigning the rocks she knocked out of place. Also planted thyme last summer that's wintered over and has started to spread out. It's still a work in progress, but onward I go.