Gardening Update
Ian laid these beautiful flagstones in April after a painstaking process of leveling the ground. This path leads from our backyard patio off the kitchen to our side yard, where we hide our garbage and recycling cans. The ground cover we planted between the stones is growing in beautifully. Here’s the before shot from April 26th, when it was about two-thirds planted.
Here it is on May 31st.
All three ground covers—chamomile lawn, pennyroyal, and ajuga (chocolate chip variety)—have really expanded. It remains to be seen how they cope with the Sacramento summertime heat. Two of the three types smell lovely and the pennyroyal is supposed to be an insect repellent, which sounded like a good thing to plant near our patio.
I still want to plant more summer veggies and herbs to the left of the path. We only have some chard, zucchini, mint, parsley, and a few beans growing now. Our soil is so heavy with clay that it really needs tons of amendment. To the right, we have a lovely patch of rosemary, oregano, and sage. All of these are thriving.
June 1, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Excellent! We have a similar stone path, and we tried planting some ground cover but it didn’t take. Now, a couple years later, it has some green moss filling in the cracks that may end up looking pretty decent.
Is that rosemary next to the path? I bet it smells great over there.
June 1, 2010 at 5:38 pm
It does smell very nice, which is a big plus near the trash. You might look into the pennyroyal—it repels mosquitos and fleas, which might be a nice thing for Sunny. I’ve read that you can rub the leaves on a dog’s bedding and fur. Not that I’m trying to imply that your dog has fleas. It’s just one of those home remedies that got stored in my memory.
June 1, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Yay Ian for a gorgeous green path!
P.S. iirc, pennyroyal while an excellent insect repellent (particularly good as a fleabane) – well, the oil is poisonous.
(hang on… turns out, duh, the leaves are too)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennyroyal
and http://www.annals.org/content/124/8/726.full
and http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/297/
June 1, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Right! Thanks for the links, Liz. No, I’m definitely not recommending it as something to eat, drink, or infuse with. I think if there’s minimal walking traffic around it, the plant will serve it’s insect repelling purpose nicely. I have the type that grows only a few inches high, not 18 inches high. I’m not a dog owner, so I don’t know how dogs behave around plants like this.
June 2, 2010 at 2:56 am
This is turning out beautifully! Perfect locations for these plants. I’m sure it all smells delicious.