Experimenting with agriculture

The bleeding hearts did well despite the cold winter.

Humphrey has been cultivating his green thumb. His garden is still new, and he's still learning what will thrive (or not!) in the acidic soil and heavy shade in most spots (among many peculiarities). He's happy to report that the escargot problem of 2013 appears to be fully resolved.

At the start of the year 2 quest for a green-and-white garden, Humphrey has been planting all sorts of things just to see what will survive. Hopefully, in 2015, he can work on some strategic landscaping based on this learning. This post summarizes some of his agricultural experiments of the past 12 months.

2013's most successful addition to the garden was this sonic bloom weigela - it ought flower until about October! To the right is a rue that's growing vertically, in front, a Goldilocks, and a silver euonymus on the left.

This year, Humphey added a fruiting weeping mulberry in place of the holly that didn't survive the winter.  The dogwood did well, but he lost a silver euonymus in this bed. In this photo, the lilies and phlox are still young, but hopefully it will fill in as the summer progresses.
Note for next year: Portulacas only in front of the house, and lots of white New Guinea impatiens in this bed will be necessary!

Humphrey was warned that the Eidelweiss he just planted (with its very own rock bed to mimic the Swiss Alps) won't flower in this climate, but he's hopeful. It's grown a lot since he planted it a few weeks ago. 

He's pretty sure the boxwood topiary will do just fine!
He also planted some beets in front it, as well as parsnips. Yum.