Meet My Backyard (4)

The final garden bed in my backyard is Callistemon Curve, an island bed in the lawn.

The left half used to be the Apple Garden, dominated by a huge Granny Smith Apple Tree, but it was too huge and too near the driveway, so it is now gone. The right half used to be the Wattle Garden, but the very large Wattle (Acacia) split in half down the middle and died. So an area that was dominated by two large trees and so quite shady, is now in almost full sun. As it is a curve, and there are two Callistemons (Bottlebrushes) here, it is now called Callistemon Curve, until I think of a bettter name, if ever.

The left part, which is the eastern end, next to the driveway, is planted with some quite young perennials that so far, I am happy with.

You can just see the stump of the apple tree on the far left, and some suckers from it next to it. In front are Catmint and Anthemis 'Alice Glenn'. This is the first season I've grown Anthemis, and I am so impressed with how long-flowering it is. The Kniphofia 'Papaya Popsicle' in the back are doing really well too. You can't really tell from this picture, but the garden is 2 metres deep here! In between the Catmint and the Kniphofias is a lot of Veronica peduncularis 'Georgia Blue', that is just green at the moment, but was a mass of blue earlier in the season. I am always tempted to add more varieties of plants, but I think I like the simplicity of this combination and will TRY to stick to these 4 plants, just getting more of them to fill the space. Those big leaves, by the way, are Comfrey that was growing under the apple tree, and I'm still digging it out There is also some Lamium and Valerian here, which are also going to be moved. The colours now echo the Sunset Border, which is directly opposite across the lawn. Behind the driveway, you can see Correa glabra 'Yellow Bells' in flower in the Eastern Shrubbery.
To the right of this section is a big May Bush (Spiraea cantoniensis) and then the blue, yellow and orange theme continues.

This is also a relatively young combination, only the Golden Diosma has been here for more than a year. It's really old, one of the original plants in this garden 20 years ago, and it seems to be dying in parts. I'll have to replace it, I think. The rose is 'Gold Bunny' and behind it on the right is a young Euonymus japonicus 'Ovatus aureus' (hard to see in the photograph) that I'm hoping will grow as tall as the Cannas and help to hide some of the expanse of the garage door. The dwarf Agapanthus have finished flowering, but still look attractive. I'm going to add another Anthemis here in the front, and more of the Geranium 'Rozanne'. To the right of the Cannas is my beautiful Caryopteris clandonensis 'Summer Sorbet', which should fill the space between them and the pink Buddleia davidii 'Pink Delight' in a year or two. I thought I had dug out all the Amaryllis belladonna bulbs, but obviously not. 
The final section of the garden is dominated by pink and mauve at this time of year.

This section is 5 metres deep, so there's plenty of room here. The old Wattle was at the back, and I have planted a Smokebush, Cotinus coggygria 'Grace' and a Crepe Myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica 'Tuscarora' to replace it, but they aren't big enough to see over the Cosmos yet. They should grow as tall as the Bottlebrush on the far left, Callistemon citrinus 'Mauve Mist', and form a visual barrier to completely hide the utility area (see the previous post) in summer.

We are going to expand this garden forwards into the lawn, so there'll be lots more exciting planting opportunities. Until then, I'm not going to remove, move or add any plants, because I would only have to do it again in a few months. The edging is definitely going!

So that's the tour. Thank you all for your kind comments on each post. And now I'll have to think of something else to write about next time!