Blue, green and yellow spreading junipers on the slope put all worries about erosion in the past. Any area they haven’t filled in yet, lambs’ ears are temporarily doing the job. Behind them, highbush blueberries are also loving the sunny slope. On the right is the red maple, on the left, a willow (perhaps a Bebb willow, not sure). In the back are dappled willow and Juniperus virginiana (eastern redcedar).
A heart woven from willow and dogwood branches braves a winter snowstorm.
Beautiful little bluestem and Indian grasses wave in the wind, while junipers also prevent runoff. The darker color is normal for junipers this time of year. The lambs ears are simply doing a great job filling in any blank spots, fewer each year.
The December landscape has a stark, bare-bones beauty about it.
Three Viburnum lentago shrubs were recently transplanted here from other sites nearby that seemed a bit dry for them. Here they’ll have plenty of room to spread out and plenty of water. Because this is a new planting area, we threw on a ton of wood chips to help keep weeds at bay. You can’t see them, but I also planted a few purple asters here.
Planted among these existing birches, giant blue and sum-and-substance hostas have miraculously escaped the hungry and merciless whitetail deer.
Irish moss and sedums grow in between stones, in this area where water drains down the slope, before it eventually encounters willows, sweetgale, alders, clethra, cattails and other water-loving plants.
These asters volunteered to spring up in between the branches of alder. Glad they made the cut when I brought the weed whacker through this area. When they’re little they can be difficult to pick out and identify, along with everything else that grows next to the pond.
