Garden Tour

I've been working in the yard lately in an attempt to reclaim the wilderness caused by the post-Sam years of neglect coupled with the destruction of the beds I'd already done when we put on the addition. The yard is only 50 feet wide but it's about 260 feet long and would make a lovely bowling alley if only it were level and not full of rocks. I have no intention of turning everything along the fence line into gardens because I'm just not that ambitious. Last year I removed trees along the fence line and did other general clearing and this year I can finally do a little planting. I'm also trying to solve a couple of problems we have in the yard. The lack of gutters on the addition means that lots of dirt splashed back up on the house and back porch so I'm placing some of the very plentiful rocks where the water hits the ground. Another problem is that the front yard gets baked by the sun and many things can't take that much sun. I suspect that at some point I'll pull out the grass that doesn't like it up there and replace it with drought-tolerant flowers but it sounds a bit more ambitious than I'd like to be. I've done some experimental planting to see if it's feasible but I know that in order to really have it look nice, I'll have to put in a retaining wall.

I'm generally somewhat ambitious with my gardening in the spring but as the summer moves forward, the weather gets hot, and Sam gets more demanding my energy gets redirected and my gardens get neglected. This year my neighbor and I are working on a vegetable garden together but it's located at a third neighbor's yard so I haven't taken any pictures. Another time perhaps.

And now, on to the tour!

At the very back of the property where I toss all my compost, some plants have self seeded over the years. Last year I pulled out lots of trees and bushes and this year I have this! They smell amazing!

Mixed in with the flowers is burdock, invasive weeds, and tree trucks sprouting undesirable branches but it's so nice that I can't see them at the moment.

I've been thinning out some of the shade gardens on the west side of the yard. I've got some beautiful stuff in there. My favorite bleeding heart, a lovely hosta, some ferns.

The problem is that as things have grown, that bed is unbalanced -- some areas are empty where I've pulled out the aggressive ferns while other plants are huge and need to be split. It needs more work.



Around the corner from this bed is a lovely bed of bugloss. An ugly name for some pretty flowers.

They self seed to a certain extent and I traded them for other plants. The tall plant in the back is a turtlehead. It blooms a bit later in the summer, beautiful pink flowers.

I've been working on the shady area on the east side of the house. There is a rock wall of sorts between our yard and our neighbor's driveway and that wall sets things off nicely. I've been splitting a lot of the plants I've got so there is a lot of repetition in the garden.

Hostas and bugloss. One of the trees here is a redbud tree that is beautiful when in bloom.

One of my favorite plants is this Japanese ginger. I love the shiny leaves and the way it grows in clumps. I've split these over and and so they're all over my shade gardens.

See the wall? This picture is overexposed but it does show the wall. I should see if I can grow things in the crevices.





Sweet woodruff and Solomon's Seal.


Solomon's Seal close up.


Near the house is where the water is splashing back. Here is one of my test solutions. The lanium seems very happy there.

I've also been planting some short sweet little plants that I'm hoping with turn into a ground cover between the rocks and the house. I've got lily of the valley, sweet woodruff, and moss in there.

The front and east side of the house has lots and lots of peonies that were here when we bought the house. They don't bloom very much and I attribute that to compacted soil and lack of light. At some point I could make a bed elsewhere in the yard and transplant them but that's so far in the future I can't even contemplate that right now.

Next to the driveway I've got several rugosa with dianthus boarders. Some of the rugosa are about to bloom.

I also made the mistake of planting this stuff along the driveway. I don't know what it's called but it spreads like mad.

Between the garage (the woodchuck lives under the garage and ate my tomatoes, zucchini blossoms, and cilantro last year) and the fence is an area with gravel but there are some determined plants that happily live there anyway. Lily of the valley, some sort of vine I cut back repeatedly and this columbine that self seeds in the gravel.


The front is a mess though. When my Mom was here we planted some geraniums my boss gave me that she claimed could survive anything between the sidewalk and the street. They've grown considerably and I have high hopes they'll be happy there, especially when they're so thick I won't have to weed. There is also a little snow in summer and something else I can't remember.

I planted a few sun and drought tolerant plants along the walk to the front steps.

They look better in real life than they look in this picture. Really! I like the alternating textures and colors and threw in the annuals to perk it up a bit until it fills in a bit. It would help if I swept the dirt back into the flowers.

As a reward for all my hard work my garden cart gave me a flat tire.