The redbud front and center has evolved on the windy slope as a large shrub. To the right is an ash I’ve kept small by pruning. To the left is a burgundy-colored ninebark. Behind that, staghorn sumac and willow. In front is a row of globemaster alliums that I scored at Costco one year. Rocks and lambs’ ears serve as edging.
A large willow branch blew down and I’m leaving it there for now, because it might look interesting to have the red hot poker flowers grow up in between its branches. Behind it is a red maple kept smallish via pruning; it grows up from the rocky rip rap and helps stabilize everything.
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).
The blue-flowered amsonia in the foreground is actually in a pot. Rose campion foliage provides the silver color here, while there is no mistaking the brilliant purple flowers of salvia (May night). On the left is a tree lilac. Center is one of our pre-existing willows that I think might be a “Bebb” willow, because its new foliage has a reddish tint (though please don’t quote me because willows are notoriously difficult to identify).
Blue spruce, red Japanese maple and dappled willow provide plenty of contrast and interest in the front yard. Hopefully, the young bottlebrush buckeye will eventually fill in that entire empty area.
Out pruning one day, I turned around, and here was this giant wasp nest, about three times as big around as my head! Evidently, it had been concealed in this willow shrub. Fortunately, it’s no longer inhabited…but think I’ll wait to prune this shrub, just the same.
This may not look like much, but it’s important. The plants immediately bordering the pond (dogwoods, pussy willows, elm) remain unmowed for the winter. A strip that contained some wildflowers (milkweeds, asters, daisies, goldenrods, etc.) yet also some invasives (mainly field bindweed, or mile-a-minute) benefits from being mowed.
It was just a large field before, full of invasives. We needed quick cover, so in 2012 we planted Salix babylonica (weeping willow). This area is very wet in the spring. Now, some of the shrubs have had a chance to grow up, including the native Salix nigra (black willow).
This part of the slope seemed to need more airflow. Clearing leaves and exposing the branch structure of this Salix purpurea ‘Nana’ seemed to help. On the left is Juniperus virginiana, on the right is dappled Willow (Salix integra ‘Hakuro Nishiki’) and in front of it is Juniperus horizontalis.
Low-growing junipers, highbush blueberries, ajugas and willows help prevent erosion on this steep slope. We let last year’s seed heads remain on the little bluestem grasses. In the center, a highly-pruned red maple starts to leaf out along with red-twig dogwood, right. Between them, closer to the pond are alders and viburnums.
