It’s been a few years since I’ve touched what we call the Pride Strip. Working hard at two jobs while I was attending school, I only looked at it as I came and went and it often pained me that I couldn’t be at home more. Making the decision to return to school for horticulture was the right choice, but I knew that it would mean doing everything not-so-well in order to get through it.
This post is a bit of a transition between where the sidewalk metaphorically ended, and that moment when I step back into this garden space here at home as my online public stage.
I wasn’t the favorite student at school. I wasn’t the best employee. I wasn’t the greatest friend or daughter. And I absolutely developed the messiest garden on the block. This was the best kind of exposure therapy though to help reduce people pleasing and perfectionism but damn was it challenging and humbling.
I chose instead to try new things that I was terrible at, pushing myself to learn how to build self-trust and overcome obstacles. I literally have spent the last two years flailing around—but it’s become fun. Friends have presented me with ideas of things to try, gently pushing me over the edge, while expressing their support. I am grateful for this.
Yet, during the last four months since graduation I’ve set aside a lot of time to process how I feel about what I put myself through. I’ve grown beyond my expectations, and this has been a time both of self-discovery and extreme recalibration.
So, getting the garden back on track has been slow going as I finish tending to my grief. The garden has seemed very shallow and unimportant to me as I’ve been wrapping up my former life to bury. I’ve needed quiet and rest to begin the transition to what I hope will be a great new era. How do I want the garden to function best for me now?
I’ve decided that taking little steps is the way to go, and that I’ll post updates here about the edits—just like I used to do after I planted these areas starting in 2004. I don’t need to learn as much now as I did before, but I want to show how much I love the plants, and love the spaces I’m creating with them.
And I can’t believe this blog began in December of 2007. This year it will be turning 18. So stay tuned for a giveaway and make sure you’re either a subscriber or that you follow me on IG. I really want to celebrate this time around.
So now, let’s get back to Campiello Maurizio, the Garden of One-of-Each-ee… and to what I’ve been working on recently.
It’s difficult to see in this photo how much the Taxus x media ‘Hicks’ mini hedge had grown into the sidewalk. (This element is part of a project that I’ve not yet fully manifest as I’ve been waiting for the plants to mature.)
At the start of this clean up there were some old fried Lunaria annua at the base of this tiny hedge, but at least the fried tips of the Sarcococca confusa are finally growing out. Their matching golden hues really reflected for me the burnout I was feeling some days. What a pleasing feeling to have had time to have attended to all of us. We’re all fresh and growing well again.
The Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ on the far right had some dry leaves as well. It was nice to freshen it up. I love when it blooms and I can see it out the front door window. It was placed in that spot just for that view of its charms.
You can see the debris on the sidewalk, and all of the spent self-seeding Nigella damascena in the tiny strip. I love the feel of summer in the PNW, where we’re often more dry than people realize, but this whole scene out front was not giving me much pleasure.
Oh the embarrassment of being a horticulturist with an overgrown and neglected garden. Meanwhile at school there was jostling for attention, combined with healthy and non-healthy forms of completion in the workplace amongst other employees, and on the national level, discussions amongst my colleagues about who’s doing what, how well their message is being communicated, and which trends matter.
It’s no wonder I came home and crashed into my bed for the last few years, instead of into my garden beds.
After snipping back the hedge (only lightly since this is the wrong time to do so), I weeded and cleared the debris.
You can see the “stained” area left behind on the sidewalk. I’m pleased that when the Acer palmatum ‘Villa Taranto’ turns on its autumn hues soon it will glow in this new frame I’ve re-made for it. But there is still SO MUCH pruning to be done.
Once I got going on this project, I became excited to garden again. I was overcoming my second bout of COVID, and was on a forced vacation, so it gave me time to think before starting full-time at Little Prince of Oregon. In the future I won’t have a lot of time, but I committed myself to using what I do have more wisely.
I want a garden that I can enjoy more when I’m home, so this will mean simplifying things a bit more. That was another commitment I made to myself as I worked away. The more I moved, and weeded, the better I felt.
The middle section was a bit more complicated…
In addition to scraping and sweeping the gutter out along the street, I had to weed and clean from both sides of the plantings. This area receives next to NO water all summer and this year I was so light with it that many tough plants suffered more than they should have.
I pruned back the Buxus and the dead scrappy leaves at the bottom of the Yucca I wish I’d never planted. As I stood up and backed away to look, I was smiling seeing the textures again and the cleaner look. Even the little Iris florentina at the end of the row looked perkier. But I believe it had been very thirsty.
I love the glowing golden-green of the Phlomis ‘Sunningdale Gold’. Paired with the Salvia greggii ‘Rossetto’ it’s quite a 70s combo in my head for some reason. Mixed into that same planting area you’ll also find Aurinia saxatilis, Erigeron karvinskianus, a sad Opuntia humifusa, Salvia officinalis ‘Berggarten’, Rosmarinus officialis ‘Spice Island’, and Santolina chamaecyparissus.
In the spring, Iris × hollandica emerge in white with yellow centers.
On the second day I finally moved to the third area. This area took some time but I was happy with the results. There is a lot of terrible awful horrible Campanula rapunculoides in several sections over here. An invasive weed, it is extremely difficult to remove.
This last area still had Santolina chamaecyparissus, Erigeron glaucous x ‘Wayne Roderick’, Nepeta fasssenii ‘Walker’s Low’, and Glaucium flavum ssp. aurantiacum. I’ve added a few more plants to this sidewalk planting, but will share them once they settle in a bit more.
There’s more on the other side of the sidewalk, but I’ll skip that area for now and include it in another post.
So what would you use for sidewalk plants here in this tiny hot as hell low-water sidewalk garden? (I’ve tried so many plants over the years already, I’d love to hear about some other successes.)
Am not sure I have space to add more, but I’d love to discuss options.
Ann Loves Plants 
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