Backyard landscaping: Year two

My backyard landscaping isn’t doing great. Last year, I started from bare dirt and planted a whole lot of things. Some purchased, some given to me. But the only thing that came back from winter was a whole lot of failure. Well, that’s not totally true. The lamb’s ear went from a few of these sad-looking transplants:

to this:

This is my kind of plant. No water, no attention, and spreads like crazy. Well done, lamb’s ear, well done.

But other than that, everything I planted last year has been a disappointment.

Juniper: dead. (Likely my fault.)

Purple fountain grass: dead. (Turns out I didn’t know our zone number last year. Lesson learned. Don’t trust that a plant labeled “perennial” is truly a perennial unless it’s also labeled with your zone number.)

Ferns: came back, but still pretty small.

Iris: came back, but again, puny. It’s probably a slow grower.

Hostas: about half of them came back, but all still very small.

Bleh.

As a reminder, I have imposed a rule that everything I plant has to be drought tolerant and easy to care for. I am not interested in high maintenance plants. I’ve got a whole lot of bare dirt to cover, so let’s start round two.

I decided I needed some height, so I bought a bush from a local nursery. (Yes, one bush. Wouldn’t want to rush things.)

This one is called Little Henry sweetspire. Elise likes to hug it and say, “I love Little Henry!” It has these long white cone flowers, and when in full bloom, it looks like it’s covered in caterpillars. A weird looking plant, but we like weird around here.

I added in some decorative rocks that were tucked away in the corner of our property. Some are geodes, some are granite, others are some type of lava rock, I think. All kind of craggly and oddly shaped.

While I was at the nursery, I also grabbed a couple of fillers/ground covers.

First, to plant at the base of some large trees, I found this shade perennial Lamium “White Nancy.” (Yes, I brought “Henry” and “Nancy” home from the nursery.) The label says it grows in part shade or full shade. Drought tolerant, animal resistant. Fast spreading. Basically indestructible, right? We will see. It’s doing OK for now.

Then, for a sunnier area, I got some catmint “Walker’s Low.” Also drought tolerant, animal resistant. “Weed choking.” It’s saying all of the right buzz words. It’s supposed to get about 18-24″ tall/wide. It’s right next to the lamb’s ear, so I hope they play well together.

I’m being hyper-vigilant about keeping everything well watered for a few weeks. I can’t deal with any more failures!