Tag Archives: Heatherwood Meadow

After Spring Cleaning

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Lower Yard and Meadow
Heatherwood Spring

The meadow looks bare after the spring clean-up. We were able to get the grasses and perennials cut back to make room for the new growth as the first week of spring greeted us. Our irrigation water will be turned on the first week of April. As soon as we check it out, we will start transplanting several of our existing shrubs and perennials to create the right space for this year’s new additions. Our new plants and trees will arrive the middle of April. Then the real work begins as we plant all of our new garden additions. April will be a busy month!

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Early Fall Color

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‘Early Fall Color in the Meadow’
Heatherwood Meadow

As summer ends, fall colors start to take over our Heatherwood meadow. The flowing grasses introduce various shades of pink, white, green, yellow, and red. The asters pop out in their different hues of purple while the yarrow hang on to their yellow flower heads. The spirea are just starting to change into their multi-color yellow, green, orange, and red fall display. And this is just one small section of the meadow.

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Purple and Gold

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‘Sea Holly, Rudbeckia, & Russian Sage’
Heatherwood Meadow

Heatherwood is peppered with Purple and Gold. No one would guess that I am a died in wool University of Washington Husky!

This image is all about contrast. It represents contrast in color (yellow & purple), shape (globes, stars, and spikes), as well as texture (smooth, prickly, and soft).

This combination of plants also remind me of their spreading capability. When we planted the meadow three years ago, we had a couple of groupings of individual rudbeckia, sea holly and Russian sage. Today they are spread throughout our lower garden. By the end of the season we will have enough seedlings to share with our neighbors!

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Don’t Forget to Turn Around

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“The Emerging Meadow”
Heatherwood Spring

I was walking among our crabapples admiring the blossoms, turned around and saw this scene of our emerging meadow. Just two months ago, this area was covered with tall winter grasses and dried up perennials. The trees and shrubs looked like winter sticks. We even had a quick dash of late winter snow. What a change in just 8 weeks! This will be the fourth year for our meadow area. Each year the plantings get thicker and thicker. Some perennials die off, others take their place.

This year the heavy snows and late winter freeze took their toll on the ground covers. We are waiting for a few more weeks to monitor how they recover before we take to the shears to clean them up.

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Catching Up …

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“Daffodils and Meadow”
Heatherwood Spring

Where have I been? It has been over two weeks since my last post. A lot of things have been happening here at Heatherwood. I will try to catch up in my next several posts.

Our sea of daffodils have peaked and are starting to fade. They are still attractive at a distance but are starting to get a little tired and hanging their heads. The perennials in the meadow area are poking their new foliage above ground. Some of the grasses are starting to grow, while others are waiting for warmer weather. The red twig dogwoods in the background of the above image are just now starting to get their first leaves. Overall, it seems like we are 2-3 weeks behind a normal year.

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More Snow !

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“New Blanked of Snow”
Heatherwood Meadow

I woke up this morning to a new blanket of snow. It was beautiful, but … my spring clean-up crew was scheduled to start cutting back the grasses and perennials. I guess I will have to wait for a few more days.

The beauty of the new snow blanketing Heatherwood was worth the delay. I enjoyed a two hour walk around the garden with my camera. Each day is a gift. My challenge/opportunity is to make the best of each day. Yesterday was a great day!

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Still Holding Its Head Up High

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“Fountain Grass”
Heatherwood Meadow

Even though we have had a lot of snow and strong wind through the winter, this stately fountain grass still stands tall with its head held high. We have started pruning and cleaning our Heatherwood garden. By the end of the week, most of the grasses should be cut back ready for their spring growth surge. We have only a little over two weeks before the first day of spring.

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Warning!!!

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“Late Winter Snow”
Heatherwood Meadow

Mother Nature gave us a little warning on this last day of February, “Don’t get too excited about spring, we still have three weeks of winter left.” I have been getting ready to start cutting back Heatherwood’s grasses and perennials. The temperatures have increased from the 20’s last week to the 40’s this week. Yesterday, I was out in the yard with my pruners. Luckily this is the last snow predicted for our 10 day forecast. And, the temperatures are predicted to rise back up into the 40’s. Hopefully we will be able to start our clean-up later this week.

In the meantime, I took the opportunity to walk through Heatherwood for a couple of hours this morning with my camera. There were plenty of opportunities to create images from a late winter snow. The light snow was a heavenly gift.

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Winter Meadow Textures

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“Textures in Winter”
Heatherwood Meadow

A key element of our Heatherwood garden design is to provide various textures and shapes throughout the four seasons. The stiff vertical liatris stalks contrast with the soft flowing grasses. These are framed in the bottom by spent seed heads of rudbeckia and the top by spent asters. The straw and gold colors of the grasses contrast with the dark browns of the other perennials. All together they provide an eye-catching vignette to enjoy on a winter stroll through the garden.

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