Tour My Garden Part Two

Here we go down the west side into the back garden where again, there is a mix of sun and shade courtesy of a large black walnut, austrian pine and another so far unidentified tree. A young king crimson maple will provide even more shade as time goes on.

Surviving under the Black Walnut are hostas, orange lillies, sweet woodruff, virginia creeper, viburnum lantana (wayfaring tree), pyamidal cedar, sedge and sedum.

You won't see them all in the following pictures but jammed into this part of the garden are lamium, blue spruce, monkshood, berginia, dogwoods, lobelia, persicaria 'painter's palette, meadow rue, shasta daisies, sweet pea, foxglove, rudbekia 'prairie sun' lilac, bugbane, sedum, snow-in-summer, weeping nootka, blue oat grass, sambucas black beauty and a magnolia.

Looking back at where we just came from.

Now we'll go around the corner of this garden...

and see what's in behind. The planting area here decreases each year as the trees and shrubs mature. A gardener's work is never done and the garden is ever evolving.

In Part Three we'll have a look at the raised boxes and east side garden.

Tour My Garden Part One

Tour My Garden Part One

Well here we are in the latter part of September... already. Much planning and effort goes into our gardens starting with the clean up in Spring. We watch the new sprouts and breathe in the fresh air. We can't wait to get digging in the dirt and find ourselves looking around to find something(s) to transplant whether it (they) needs it or not.

And we watch some more and we weed. We prepare containers and plant seeds. We water. And we watch some more and then one day, we realize we are not waiting any more, everything is coming into itself. And we weed and water, do a little more transplanting and planning. And then September comes.

I found I had a whack of photos so decided to put them in some kind of order in a post. I have shown you many closeups but not many wide shots of my garden... so here I will try to give you a view of what is in my yard.

Welcome to my garden. Let's start at the front.

Ranging from deep shade to full sun, the front garden hosts a variety of plants. Sedum, blue fescue and daylillies enjoy the hot sun while hostas, ligularia and ferns are happy in the cool shade. Pyamidal cedars, a huge spruce, and giant maples (not shown) and a Corkscrew Hazel provide the bones.

It has taken a number of years to design and get the right plant situated in the right spot and it isn't over yet... this garden will continue to be 'tweaked'. Once a plant is doing well where it's planted, I generally leave it there - but then there are always exceptions to this rule.

Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate', Sedum telephium ‘Matrona', hostas 'Patriot' and 'Blue Angel'

Now we'll head on to the back via the west side of the house where ornamental grasses grow up alongside the neighbour's shed. Virginia creeper grows up the trunk of the black walnut.

Sambucas 'Black Beauty', daylillies, creeping sedum and an austrian pine.

This I named the rock garden (it's bordered by rocks). Blooms of shasta daisies, sedum 'autumn joy', liatris, monarda 'jacob cline', 'happy returns' daylillies and globe thistle surround japanese silver grass.

In Part Two we'll continue down the west side into the back garden.

Lack of Comments Is Puzzling

I'm confused. When I started my first and only blog, (this one) in March, I received comments on a regular basis. Since June 22 I have received only 3 comments.

Am I doing something wrong? I know that I am not the best at commenting on your blogs, but I have commented to other bloggers on several occasions.

I guess I just feel kind of 'left out' - should I be commenting on your blogs more often? Is there a blogging etiquette that I am missing? Or is everyone else like me, too busy to post a lot of comments lately?

I post pictures of my garden (maybe too many?) but maybe not enough other interesting tidbits?

Your comments (seriously) are welcome to help me understand the world of blogging and I promise not to cry like a baby any more.

Shirley

Little Boxes

Flashback to Spring. The raised boxes in the former vegetable garden needed refurbishing. The wood, although cedar planks, was starting to fall apart. The question was do we keep the boxes? Maybe we could level it, seed grass and have our own lawn bowling and lawn games area? Put in a pool? Putting green? Another garden border? Too many options... Craig removed the old wood (all but one box replaced last year), measured and headed off to purchase the lumber.

The new and improved boxes are a little bigger than before still leaving ample room between for walkways. Another decision was what material to use for the walkways. Having always used wood chips, I wanted something different. Maybe crushed stone? Or stone dust? I lost the debate and Craig got on the phone to order the wood chips. The load arrived that afternoon. Don't ask what kind of tree as we have no idea, all we know is it must have been taken down that day and the what got dumped in the driveway was steaming hot by evening. It was still green! Five hundred and fifty wheelbarrow loads later...

Dexter helped too.

So with new wood for the boxes and a ten inch layer of wood chips in between them, the soil amended with compost and peat moss, we started another growing season. The boxes are sturdy again and there hasn't been a single weed make it through the chips although we had random seedlings that sprouted from fallen bird seed.

Raised boxes are easy to maintain and add another element to the gardens. We've had many compliments on them. It's like adding a signature to the yard and garden.

This year the boxes were home to zinnias, glads, rudbekia, dahlias, purple coneflowers, lavender and cosmos. There is also an area for 'holding' plants.

Skip ahead to the future... these boxes will be home to my cutting beds. That's right... Craig doesn't want to grow veggies anymore so I will have flowers to cut and arrange. Hope there is enough space for them! Maybe our next house will include acreage! I can post whatever I want... Craig doesn't read my blog.

Lady Of The Garden

While scouring local stores for a couple of items I came across this garden ornament. As I searched the merchandise for what I had really came into the store for, my interest was with the lady - she belonged in my garden! As quite often happens in the grocery store when you don't think you need a basket, my arms were loaded as I checked out angel in hand.

Setting her down temporarily while unloading my other purchases, I realized how nicely she blended in with the garden where she stood and decided that was where she would stay.

Shortly after Craig wandered by and noticed the new addition to the garden. With a surprised look on his face he proceeded to tell me how earlier that same day he had been in the same store and saw her sitting on the shelf and almost brought her home to me!

So there she stands watching over the garden, this winged lady, all decked out in hat, necklace and bracelet toting her trowel and watering can. Some things are just meant to be.