Making compromises

My husband wanted a dog. I wanted a garden. Wait. I already had the garden; I wanted the garden to remain undisturbed. No digging, trampling or munching, the things dogs do.

Plus there was the issue of containing the dog. Our back garden was already completely fenced but we needed a gate. I wanted a gate that I could see through. On hurried winter days sometimes the only glimpse I got of the garden as I jumped in my car to head off to work was through that slice of space where the gate would go. I had visions of a custom aluminum gate with cutouts of stylized agaves and the other spiky plants I love. Instead we got a chain link gate, and the dog, Lila.

That was almost two years ago. Now I can’t imagine our lives without her.

I’ve also made peace with the chain link gate. It does help that this year I’ve been growing 'Cardinal Climber' Ipomoea multifida on it. Sometimes I forget about the gate and only see the amazing leaves and tangled stems as they vine around and through the metal.

Lila loves to lie at the base of the gate and watch the driveway and street beyond. You never know when a cat, or the mailman, might walk by and need to be barked at.

Because of this I had left the area alone, no fancy plants, just grass and sempervivum. Fairly indestructible when little paws are jumping on them (because sometimes the cat or the mailman don’t go away when told politely too, and things need to be amped up a bit).

On a recent trip to Joy Creek Nursery I purchased a few new sedums (yes that is all I purchased….huge restraint don’t you think?). Not knowing where they would go but certain that I would find the perfect spot.

When I was ready to plant I realized I could essentially double my purchase by clipping off the tall stems of the Sedum palmeri and tucking them in around the existing sempervivum by the gate, and then plant the actual plant elsewhere. Sedum roots so quickly and the tall stems seemed out of proportion to the rest of the plant anyway.

Plus planted like this the single yellow clusters look a little like an aeonium, one of those plants I yearn to put in the ground but is just a little out of my zone. The Sedum palmeri is good to zone 7, so I’ve got a zone to spare!

The other new purchase is Sedum rupifragum, I’ve been unable to find any hardiness information on it. I guess it will be another of those winter tests I seem to be so fond of conducting.

As for the dog and the garden, I don’t know what I was worried about...