My back garden, 2024 tour

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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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

My front garden, 2024 tour

For ten years running I've shared a comprehensive photo tour of my garden each fall. These posts are a snapshot, a moment in time, one that allows me to look back and see how the garden has evolved. This year I was busy putting together a pair of garden talks and just didn't have time to edit down all the photos I'd taken. That was a blessing in disguise, because it turns out to be a lot more fun to work through the photos in the winter. Today we'll "walk" the front garden, Wednesday we tour the back garden, and Friday I'll share a quick planting project I did in October and post video tours of both the front and back gardens.

We start today's tour looking across our driveway, at the garden. It was a cloudy day in early September, but the photos in this post were taken on a few different days throughout the month, so the light conditions will vary...

Walking up the driveway we're now looking raised planting area up against the house. The many Aristaloe aristata are the stars here, but there are plenty of supporting characters (Androsace sempervivoides 'Susan Joan', Dryas drummondii, sempervivum, agaves...) that keep me from completely hating the fact I haven't yet replaced those stupid cement blocks with something more creative. 

The Grevillea x gaudichaudii (the sort of oak-shaped leaves) made an excellent come back from the winter ugly of January '24.

As did the Grevillea rivularis.

Looking up from where I stood taking those last two photos, and out across the garden towards the street. I love this photo, even with Austin's bald spots showing (Arctostaphylos x ‘Austin Griffiths').

Walking down the driveway to look up the sidewalk towards the front door—we'll take a look at the plants up there in a bit.

Here's a different angle on the corner of the garden that started this post. That hazy shrub on the far left is a Pittosporum anomalum, the larger agave is A. ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue', that's a Yucca rostrata with the short trunk and a different angle on Austin.

Austin has a lot of small dead branches I keep meaning to clean up, someday. He's still got super sexy legs though...

Arctostaphylos 'Monica' (in the middle) isn't nearly as showy as Austin and I keep threatening to remove her and open up the sightlines to the house. Maybe. The groundcover is Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific' and most of the agaves in this shot are A. parryi 'JC Raulston'.

The nice legs of Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Harmony’ are on the far right and that oppressive branch across the top of the photo belongs to one of the (inherited/hated) Styrax japonicus (Japanese snowbell) in the hellstrip.

In the far northeast corner of the front garden a small grove of Tetrapanax papyrifer fronts the Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Harmony’. The groundcover here is Podocarpus alpinus ‘Orangeade’.

Now we've walked up to see the north side of the house that borders the neighbor's driveway. That Fatsia japonica was hit hard last winter, but the little mahonia under it, M. fortunei 'Curlyque' (I grew it from cuttings!), didn't miss a beat. The airy shrub at the corner of the house is Rhamnus frangula 'Ron Williams'.

Now we've turned towards the front door again, but from the opposite side. The tetrapanax up against the window is a runner from the plants in the corner, that I showed earlier. Those two Agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' were planted from 1-gallon pots in 2013, I shared a look at this area freshly planted up in this post. I can't begin to express just how much I love those agaves, they make me so happy. I am also aware they are getting very close to blooming size/age. It will be a sad, but spectacular, sight.

Here's a shot I took when I was working on the garden talks I mentioned earlier. One was on containers and the other on ferns, if you're curious I'll be giving the fern talk at the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival on February 21st—info here, page down to the Plant Academy section.

I love love LOVE that fuzzy fern, Pleopeltis lepidopteris 'Morro dos Conventos'.

A close-up.

On the other side of the steps is this grouping...

The color is odd in this shot, but I wanted to share the Fuchsia procumbens in the pot with the agave, I love that thing.

Here I'm standing on the front porch and looking to our driveway.

Slightly different angle. The two blue-ish explosions are Dasylirion wheeleri.

Those two plants date back to the first front garden planting I did in 2006/07, crazy to think they've been here since the beginning, and just how much the garden has changed around them. You might be able to spot them in this blog post from 2009 (one of my first). In the second to last photo they are visible in front of the door/porch, but they're planted in terracotta pots with painted rims that I sunk into the ground. I have no idea why I thought that was a good idea! (I released them a few years later)

The tall V-shaped plant in the terracotta pot is an Edgeworthia chrysantha a friend gave me, I put it there for the summer to help fill the hole where a large Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' was killed back by the January cold. 

Here's the callistemon stump and the new growth. Obviously I need to do some thinning, but I thought I'd let them all go through the winter and see who looked the strongest come spring.

Those dasylirion are quite the photo-bombers! I liked the light in this shot, which was taken to show off the hypertufa containers and small agaves.

One last look at this area...

And then we trek up the driveway to the area just outside our backdoor. This is where I grow my (very limited) veggies and typically a tank of stems for cutting.

Basil is a must, and it loves the hot and sunny spot.

There are usually a couple kinds of tomatoes. I can't remember the name of these, they were oh so beautiful, but only so/so in the taste department.

Green Zebra, these were quite good.

A mandevilla hybrid I received in a shipment of trial plants from Dümmen Orange.

This smaller tank was filled with Gomphocarpus physocarpus (hairy balls plant, the stems I grew for cutting this year), as well as a Russelia x 'St. Elmo's Fire', aka firecracker plant and some newly purchased plants I stash in there for safe keeping. The firecracker plant is not reliably hardy here, but I haven't bothered to dig it up and protect it yet... and it still looks good. Maybe, just maybe, it will be okay? Who knows what February will bring.

That's a wrap on this first installment of the 2024 garden tour, more on Wednesday...

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.