Now that many of my plants such as the lilies, black eyed susans, crosocmia and salal are thriving and starting to spread, I need to make some hard decisions about what gets to stay and what gets pulled up. Some of the more invasive plants are starting to grow under and around the shrubby evergreens, rhododendrons or the viburnum. As a result, these plants are suffering from the lack of light and/or nutrients.

Today I pulled out the crocosmia and black eyed susans that had started to spread away from the main plants. The growth of the woody pink thing in the front (I think it might be related to a hydrangea) caused a HUGE bald spot on the back of my viburnum, and I was so annoyed that I cut the plant back to the base. I also pulled up all the oregano that was starting to spread across the front yard and need to keep an eye on that again next year.

On the positive side, this is the first year that the salal, which was planted in the fall of 2007,  has started to thrive and spread. We are trying to create a low maintenance native garden in the front, and the salal and the evergreen blueberries (also thriving) are a big part of the plan.

Right now the Japanese Maple in the front is SPECTACULAR but we can’t see it from the house or from the street because it is hidden by the rest of the trees, so are planning to move it closer to the house, in the place previously occupied by the Italian Plum. (I will take a picture of that soon). That whole front corner is getting very crowded and I think that some of the smaller trees need to be removed – they can’t all thrive there.

In response to my last post about the slugs, Pat from Grow So Easy Organic suggested that I try diamaceous earth to discourage slugs. Diamaceous earth is organic, and because it is like very fine glass, slugs are cut to death when they travel across it.  Pat suggested applying it when I first seed or transplant, but said that I can apply it around the perimeter of my beds if I am careful. She also suggested buying it from a feed store, and not a pool store. Thank you Pat, much appreciated! I will try that next week….

Next: Heirloom tomatoes.