Looking west, we maintain a path that winds along next to the pond, so we can monitor what’s growing there. Alders are easily pruned and bacteria around their roots fix nitrogen in the soil, so they’re generally encouraged. Other fantastic plants that love this area are clethra, joe pye and sweetgale (also a nitrogen fixer). This area was formerly full of invasive phragmites, loosestrife, buckthorn and bittersweet.
Looking east, from the pond, is an area where we removed lots of big old buckthorns, some phragmites and purple loosestrife. There were already some ferns and dogwood there, so I planted more ferns, mostly ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris), as this is a very moist area. Just to the left in this shot is where the sweet woodruff has happily spread.
The vernal swamp area between our pond and the neighbor’s pond has formed.
What the west side of the pond looked like in February of 2012!
…actually, it’s more of a NW direction. At any rate, the view looking the other direction across the slope also affords some color.
Actually, it’s more of a SE direction. Looking over the slope, even at the end of February, still sports a number of different colors.
Sure have had a ton of rain this winter!!!
Only kidding…
Amazing view of Gullfoss, in SW Iceland:
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.
