This is a long post, you might want to grab yourself a cup of tea or a cold drink and take your time. Or maybe you'll just take a quick look at all the photos and ignore my rambling. Either way, enjoy yourself!
For the first 25 years here we had a chain-link fence along the east side of the house. It came with the house and I decided it had been here long enough! The entrance gate used to be flush with the front of the garage and it latched over the downspout which really wasn't a good idea at all! We installed the new gate at the back corner of the garage. This gives the front a more open appearance and allows the meter reader access without having to come through a gate. How thoughtful of me.
After walking along the east wall of the family room you will pass through the one chain-link gate that we left in place (for now.) You won't be able to miss the asparagus bed with the morning glory trellis on the north side. For some reason the vine isn't as full of its glorious blooms at the time I took the photo as it was the day before. My apologies for the photo quality. There has been so much smoke in the air lately and it just messes with everything. I also don't usually have hoses snaking all over the yard but we just returned from a five day trip during the hottest spell of the summer so I had to set up all sorts of automatic sprinklers and hire out the hand watering of all my potted plants!
Looking to the left of the asparagus bed you will see what I call Asparagus Alley. The asparagus (on the right) is probably 7-8 feet tall now. To the left is a beautiful Nelly Moser clematis that was absolutely covered in blooms most of the spring and now mostly has the fuzz balls that remind me of the Truffula trees from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. To the lower right is some sort of pink astilbe which was gifted to me by a dear gardening friend. Beyond that are the Incrediball hydrangeas with the huge greenish-white blooms. Too bad the bush has become so hidden by everything else. And beyond everything mentioned so far are my Porcupine (on the left) and Parkland Rave (right) dahlias reaching for the sky.
We are now walking between the asparagus bed (left) and my four 4x4 raised vegetable, herb and flower beds (right) that sit in the spot that has previously housed a sand pit with playhouse, a 15' swimming pool after the boys were too old for the playhouse and then a fire pit for one season as I worked out my next plan for the area. As the boys have grown up the yard has become more and more my territory to do with as I please.
The red grid (repurposed decor brought home from our store) and arbor (given to me by a neighbor when he had a new one built) lead into the chicken "compound" where my happy and beautiful hens spend most of their time.
We're just past the asparagus bed now and looking to where there once stood a huge evergreen tree that slowly got uglier and uglier until I decided that it no longer added anything of value to our backyard. I decided to trade in the shade for SUN so I would be able to grow more plants. Some of the plants that used to enjoy their shady spot remind me of their preference by wilting or displaying dry leaves but most of this garden is doing quite well. Someday I might find the complainers a shadier spot elsewhere. This bed is home to several hostas, a beautiful coral colored hardy fuchsia, astilbe, three different hydrangeas, some iris, bleeding heart, and a lot of others. There are two evergreen clematises working their way up two trellis that I hope will one day block the view of our neighbor's camper trailer.
This little "island" bed is home to an amazing Venosa Violacea clematis that bloomed non-stop for weeks on end. I built this bed in the fall of 2015 using the lasagna gardening method of covering up the existing grass with wet cardboard and newspaper and then layering on dry leaves, grass clippings and even past-its-prime produce from the grocery store. It all sat and composted throughout the winter and then I planted it up in the spring. Everything has grown like crazy in this bed. The leaves in front are rhubarb which came from one tiny crown purchased on clearance in late spring 2016. There is also a Cranesbill geranium at the lower left side with its pretty violet flowers. The volunteer sunflower is bowing at the top left of the photo. I got a lot of entertainment from the little squirrel who came to snack on it daily. He would balance up on the top and then lean over to get to the seeds. The pink just to the left of center are some of the 120+ lily blooms that I have had summer. I think there are 3 different varieties planted at the south end of this bed. I do regret that their peak bloom time was while we were traveling. I missed out on much of their heavenly scent.
I couldn't stand to not have you see how beautiful the clematis was in full bloom. These 3 photos of the clematis and the sunflower were taken on July 13, 2017.
Passing by the entrance to the chicken compound and heading west along the back of our yard. The bright spot just to the right of the top center is a dead branch on our vine maple. I need to get the ladder and pruner out and take that down. I wish the lawn wasn't looking so dry but I just can't afford to water everything, nor do I have the time.
A couple weeks ago I referred to this section as my "purple jungle" as there were quite a few purple flowers blooming. Salvia, bee balm, Dianthus, lavender, Cranesbill geranium and many others that I can't even remember right now.
We built this new fence on the east side of the dog kennel last summer. The idea was to make a more attractive fence than what we had previously and to provide a place for me to grow some grapes. We planted 4 vines last year; two have survived our curious dog and the winter storm we had in December. The vines are growing like crazy; I better read up on the proper pruning techniques so I can keep them going long enough to provide us with some table grapes someday. The "small" tree on the left side of the photo is a plum tree I bought for Tad a couple years ago. In order to allow it to develop its root system I let it grow only one plum this year; I think that next year it will be OK to let it just do its thing. I planted several dahlias along the front of the fence, with two varieties planted at each stake. Hollyhill Starburst, and Raeann's Peach (which didn't do well this year) are shown in this photo.
The dahlias in this photo are Parkland Rave (I shopped at two different tuber sales and forgot that I already had this), Sorbet, Wildwood Marie (the coral one on near the right) and Bride to Be. I'm really loving Wildwood Marie this year, just wish it would produce more blooms.
The "bedroom" garden, situated in front of the bedroom windows. This area used to be piled up with all sorts of things that I didn't know where else to store. While the stuff wasn't very visible from inside the house I eventually hated to see it when I was out in the yard so I did a major clean up and got this garden started Memorial Day weekend of 2015. I hauled in a bunch of compost and then started planting it up. Wow, things have really grown! The dark red is a cardinal lobelia. In front of it is some orange crocosmia of an unknown variety, the blooms of which are barely visible.
The same garden bed from a different angle. The little red and white dots belong to Hot Lips salvia. The daylily in the foreground is done blooming. There are two Helianthus (perrenial sunflowers) in this bed. It also contains a couple blueberry bushes, a forsythia and red twig dogwood bushes as well as some hardy verbena, grass, foxgloves, columbine, a mini rose and MORE.
I did a lasagna garden bed under the apple tree in the fall of 2015. Most of the plants love it there. They include several hostas, a hardy fuchsia (the pink blooms to the left of the tree), some Dianthus which is almost done blooming and two varieties of daisies, both of which are about done for the season. I'll deadhead them and see if I can encourage another round of blooms.
Are you still with me? This is a hazy view of the raised beds. The taller bed to the left contained my garlic crop until I harvested it a few weeks ago. I had a great yield and look forward to cooking with it in the coming months. I built a trellis from retired wooden rake and garden tool handles on the north side of the taller bed and this year it has morning glory climbing all over it. We see this when we look out the family room windows. The bed to the front right has a ginormous lupine plant, rhubarb, Pooh (a dahlia) and a few green bean plants. The bed to the back right of the photo has another dahlia I can't remember the name of, green beans and yellow beans, and a bit of dill and I think some basil. The fourth raised bed has some volunteer tomatoes, a huge variegated sage, and a few basil plants.
A view of the garlic-bed morning glory. There are some potted plants, Mexican Orange, horseradish, lilies, and some annuals between the sidewalk and the north side of the raised beds. The left third of this photo really shows the Mexican Orange with the tomato reaching for the sky at the left edge.
Looking back toward the chicken compound from the edge of the "island" garden bed. The little tree is an Asian pear tree I picked up on clearance for $5. Last year it looked like it had died after we had a heatwave but I just kept on watering it and I maybe even remembered to fertilize it so it looks healthy this year.
Close-ups of some of the lilies. The color is way too warm due to the smoky air.
Chocolate cosmos in a sea of variegated sage.
I'm so glad you could spend some time with me in the garden. I prefer to take close-up shots of the flowers but I know it's also important to take some wider range shots in order to have a good sense of the entire garden. I look forward to someday being able to look back at these photos and compare it to the garden I have at that time.
I'll show you out through that gate I built earlier this year. I think I forgot to mention that I built it of wood reclaimed from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's fence that they removed this year. The horizontal piece over the gate was reclaimed from a remodel job at a neighbor's home 2 summers ago and I finally found a use for it. The yellow frame has a little succulent garden growing in it.
See you again. Thanks for dropping by.
Sharon, this is fabulous! I haven't been in your gardens for quite some time. I would sure like to come see it in person!
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