A New Season

Despite the blizzardy snow we had this week and more forecast next week, I am plant shopping. It's mid March. I have to.

I want to complete the circle around the birdbath. Last year was a start, with blanketflowers and creeping thyme and a few other small flowering plants in a tight circle at the base of the turquoise birdbath.

There were some things in the background too, like shaggy fescue grasses lined up in three red pots and some very tiny new perennials in a nearby half-arc mimicking the circle under the birdbath. 

It all has to fill out and spread and get bigger. Later in the season the blanketflowers did get full and tall, but even so, I need a few more things surrounding the birdbath.

But there is more needed to complete this garden beyond a circle right around the birdbath base. I want to complete the outer arc. There will still be a narrow path of mulch between each ring of plants so you can walk around the whole birdbath. Not much room, but some. 

That open mulch to the right in the photo below needs some plants, completing the outer circle ring. 

Right now, before snow covered the area, it looked like a lot of open space to fill. So bare. So brown. So in need of new plants.

The danger is trying to fill it up too closely, too densely. I drew up a plan to see what I needed but it's still hard to tell.

In an arc on the left, already planted but still teeny tiny, and promising to stay small when mature:

Red flowered Pineleaf penstemon

Salvia Midnight Purple

Aronia Low Scape Mound

Kannah Creek buckwheat

Then the three red pots with three fescue grasses in a semi circle. 

Then to the right by the line of mossy rocks I'll add a second yellow flowered buckwheat plant - a sunny, low mounding plant with yellow pom pom flowers and gorgeous tiny foliage that turns burgundy in winter. 

And a low rounded caryopteris at the far end behind the birdbath.

A plant I need more of around the base of the birdbath is a lovely clear white obedient plant called Crystal Peak. The couple I had bloomed forever and were eye catching for a small, low plant. A fun fact: it's called obedient plant because its square stems can be rotated and will stay locked in whatever direction you put them in.

I'll never have the impact and presence of the beautiful circle gardens I ogle on the internet -- I posted about them here. But my puny attempt at creating an arc around the inner birdbath circle is what you, my readers, get.