The cutting garden in April

The Cut Garden is what used to be the vegetable garden.  For a few years I added a winter green crop that was dug in in the early Spring.  The vegetables I planted never seemed to amount to much.  In the more recent years I have been attempting to start a cutting garden.  The whole area is about 15 feet by 15 feet.  About 4 feet from the property line on the East side, I have planted an English oak, a French lilac, some tall bearded Irises, a wisteria, and some chives. Along the North property line the wisteria sits in the corner, next to it are a few herbs and the rest of the 15 feet is taken up with hedging cedars (cypress, I think)  The wisteria has been cut back severely but has developed a runner along the ground.  It now climbs up the western red cedars in the back border.  This border continues along that property line into the woodland area.  There is a climatis that grows by the herbs and climbs up into the hedging cedars.  In the Spring I try to keep the hedging cedars trimmed back to the cement paver path that runs from the entry into the strawberry patch, over to the paver path along in front of the oak and lilac and  in the corner where it meets the yew hedge there is a tiny entry way into the water garden by the waterfall.  The yews are the border between the cutting garden and the water garden on the south side.  There is another paver path than runs from north to south and divides the Cutting Garden from the other side of this 15 x 15 foot area.  In the this other side there are currently strawberries and very poorly preforming rhubarb (which will need to be replaced.  Because of all the trees surrounding this area the Cutting garden and strawberries  are probably not getting enough light.  The final side of the square is bordered by the little rockery.

 This is the back of the cutting garden with Maltese cross, the new verbascum, some columbines, and veronicas.  The chair sits in front of the oak tree with a small bin for  twigs and weeds from the area.  I empty this bin into the Saanich compost bin that is collected every 2 weeks.  At the moment the Saanich bin is full and I have bags of stuff and piles of woody material to be cut up and sent off with the Saanich compost pick up.  

 This is the rosemary with purple sage beneath it.  The rosemary has grown into quite a nice little shrub.  The clematis climbs over it.  The oregano is out of the picture to the left.  We can just see the irises on the right that fill in to the property line.

 I am not sure what this is.  It might be the blue veronica that is starting to bloom now.

 This lupine was added a few weeks ago and seems to be doing very well now.  Would be nice to have more of them in the cutting garden.

 The Saponaria  :   Soapwort, ground cover, full sun.  8 - 10 in tall spread 24 in.  drought tolerant once established.  pink.

 The Omphalodes which is a new plant to me : Omphalodes linifolia  -    Venus's Navelwort.   Beautiful hardy annual, self sows. Likes sun and good drainage.   White forget me not flowers in spring, blue-grey leaves.  My plant has blue flowers and is doing very well in its second year.

 The Cardamine, another new plant to me :  pentaphyllos (syn. Dentaria pentaphyllos), five-leaflet bitter-cress or showy toothwort, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae, native to Western and Central Europe in Slovenia and Croatia. It is an herbaceous perennial, growing to 30–50 cm (12–20 in), with palmate leaves and racemes of purple, pink or white flowers in late Spring and early Summer.  There are also hardy annuals of this plant too.  The Latin specific epithet pentaphyllos means "with five-lobed leaves".  Mine is pink and kind of floppy. 

 Lupine - Gallery Blue - just new to the garden a few weeks ago.

 Scaboisia also just new.   Is in flower now and looks like it has a healthy start

 Verbascum  phoeniceum 'violetta' Violetta Mullein  beautiful cut flower,  spikes of deep purple violet flowers self seeding perennial, blooms all summer if dead headed, 3 feet tall.  well drained soil, full sun 

 Not sure what plant this one is.  Will wait for the blooms.  I must make markers for all the plants  I can find names for in this garden.  There are more of them, including some milkweeds that I anxiously await their sprouts in the Spring.

The iberis is just at the entry way into the strawberry patch/cutting garden.  It is planted next to the Irish heather.  Both of these plants are growing vigorously in their competition.  They are under the bows of the cedars, which I must keep cut back.   There is also a nest spruce in this same area under the cedar bows.
Yesterday I moved the pavers of this entry way over about 6 inches into the little rockery area.  I took out a lot of pinks, and reworked the edging in this area.I am remaking this little rockery primarily to move the gentianas and the saxifragias to the front rockery renovation.  I have the red mossy saxifragia and the  More on this next time when it is finished.

A photo of the strawberry plant in bloom.  We have had a half dozen of the most deliciously flavorful strawberries with more to come.