Welcome to the back garden! Come on in and let's start the tour. Today we'll see what the garden looked like at the end of the 2024 growing season—these photos were all taken last September. As you might have already guessed, it's gonna be a very long post!
The orange wall is the neighbor's garage and the north boundary of the upper garden. The brown wall is the back of our house.
My garden is small, our lot measures 45' wide and 111' deep, and of course a chunk of that is taken up with the house, driveway and garage. The house sits to the front of the property, so the back garden is larger than the front.
Looking west, down at the patio, which (in case you didn't already know) is a lower level than where I'm standing to take this shot. We'll work our way down there eventually, but first we've got more to see in the upper garden.
To help orient yourself, that's the same paver pathway as in the above photos, but now you're looking south, at the side of our garage. I use those branches of the Metapanax delavayi and Schefflera delavayi as structure to hang other plants from.
Like this planting of Pyrrosia lingua.
There's also a pair of rusted metal trellis that are installed perpendicular to the garage, which divide the planting area into front and back spaces. They were originally put in place for vines, but once the vines were shaded out they too became a place for hanging containers and mounted plants. I do lot let space set empty!
This year (last year? the 2024 gardening season) I changed things up with new pedestal plantings showcasing three different types of pyrrosia.
Clockwise from the top; Pyrrosia sheareri, then P. sp. SEH#1511 and sp. SEH#12547. The SEH refers to Steve E. Hootman, Executive Director of Horticulture and Curator at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden (where I got the pyrrosia).
Turning now to look at the other (south) end...
That's Passiflora lutea growing up the palm trunk.
There's better lighting in this photo to appreciate the bench I brought home from the Garden Fling last July and the containers that migrated to it.
Behind the bench there are a few new rhododendrons that were planted this spring, which will grow and make more of a statement.
A late addition (not in the above photo), Doodia media, a fern.
Turning again and looking to the southwest and the shade pavilion behind our garage.
And the bromeliad dish I added for height in this section of the garden after last winter took out so many things.
Hanging from Clifford, our big-leaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) is a planting of Pyrrosia lingua, a cryptanthus and Fascicularia pitcairnifolia I put together back in 2023. As with many of the container plantings it's in the basement now, since the cryptanthus is not winter-hardy here.
Okay, it's (finally) time to take the steps down to the patio, but not before stopping to look at last summer's fern planting that replaced a dead Nolina 'La Siberica'. I absolutely love this spot now, much more than I did before.
A glace to the left and the shade pavilion.
And to the right, and the first of many (MANY) containers on the patio.
Our original Yucca rostrata, Sammy, the steps I just walked down are on the far right.
The backside of the new fern planting, as well as a view of the paver pathway back to the entrance.
Stepping to the south and looking back at the same area.
A large Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' (it's in a container) and the table planting on top of what used to be the stock tank pond.
A close up of the container to the right above.
The Pyrrosia lingua has been growing on that rock since early summer 2023—an experiment that's performed very well.
I couldn't resist highlighting the whale's spiky fins (they call Agave ovatifolia the whale's tongue agave, I prefer to think of them as fins rather than tongues).
Another past project that's doing well (this one
copied from a friend).
The view across the patio, looking south, from where I took that last photo.
A container grouping in the northwest corner...
And then I skipped ahead to another shot of the shade pavilion and the plants on the south end of the patio. What you missed wasn't a lot, just a few more containers and the plantings on the west side of the patio.
A close-up of the container grouping to the right side, that aeonium (inherited from a gardener who was downsizing) has so much personality.
Ferns that don't look like ferns; Lepisorus rostratus MD 15-09 and Lemmaphyllum microphyllum.
A pulled-back look at the area behind the garage.
And the containers in the southeast corner of the patio.
Pyrrosia hastata 'Storm Watch' (and friends).
Pyrrosia lingua 'Kei Kan' and my only remaining Aloe dorotheae.
That's the step up to the shade pavilion area, I've used it and I'm now looking back down on it—and the funnel planters (remember though,
that step is NOT a funnel holder!). Those are Pyrrosia lingua planted between the step and the wall. Something else to remember, you can never have too many pyrrosia.
Looking up, and out across the patio towards the north end.
And now focused again on the area behind the garage.
Looking to the right.
Some of these photos showed up in the fence-focused post I did back in September (
here), but I'm including them again.
This creation (
my fern frame) has also been in the basement since sometime in October. It's holding up well.
Turning now to the bromeliad and rhipsalis pedestals in the far southwest corner.
This is where we end the tour! A reminder, on Friday I'll share some videos I took around the same time I snapped these photos. They'll give a different perspective on the space. Hope you'll return for that...
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