• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
  • Books
    • Shop
    • Creatures and Critters
    • Potted & Pruned
    • Homegrown & Handpicked
    • Seeded & Sodded
    • The Christmas Cottontail
  • Speaking
    • Upcoming Speaking Engagements
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Social
    • YouTube
  • Gardening Humor
  • Children’s
  • All Books

May Dreams Gardens

The Sound of Water and A Secret Garden

September 16, 2006 By Carol Michel 5 Comments


“They”, whoever they are, say that no garden is complete without a water feature or the sound of water.

On my front porch, I have the sound of water coming from this little fountain, which I purchased and installed earlier this spring. I have indeed enjoyed the bubbling sound of the water as I sit on the front porch in the evenings.

From the front porch I look out into this little planted area, which right now looks like a bit of a mess. It is a little triangular garden space with a brick wall on the east side, the front porch on the north side, and then a curved sidewalk leading from the driveway up to the front steps on the south/west sides. So, it gets primarily afternoon sun, though it is more shady now because of the large crabapple tree in the center of it.

I made one design flaw (just one?) when I planted this, and that is that I lined the sidewalk leading from the drive way up to the front porch with Spirea bumalda ‘Lime Mound’. I like the lighter color of the foliage, which looks nice with the dark brick of my house. However, all lined up like that along the sidewalk, they look kind of dumb. However, they do hide what is inside this little planting bed when you are just walking by on the sidewalk, making it somewhat of a ‘secret garden’ best viewed from the porch.

I need to make a decision on the spirea to either take some of them out, cut them back by half to rejuvenate them a bit and control the size, or live with them ‘as is’ a while longer. They are 9 years old and “as advertised” do get to 2 – 3′, more like 3′. I do trim them up a bit after their first big bloom of the season, and then they look like little balls of hacked up shrub for awhile, and then they come out of it and look pretty nice and rebloom, as they are doing now. Hmmm, I’m sure talking a lot about a plant that you can’t really see in this picture. I’ll have to take a picture later and show you ‘the big design flaw’ and maybe get some suggestions on what to do about it.

(Remember, I never claimed to be good at garden design, I am in it for the plants. However, I do want my gardens to look nice, and well-designed, regardless!)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: gardening, shrubs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tea says

    September 16, 2006 at 2:12 pm

    Lovely little fountain! And I sure can`t see any flaw in your other pretty picture!

    tea
    xo

    Reply
  2. Sigruns German Garden says

    September 16, 2006 at 3:52 pm

    I have not water in the garden. A lot of friends always means, I must have a pont. But I don’t like. Your garden looks nice.

    Sigrun

    Reply
  3. LostRoses says

    September 17, 2006 at 6:35 am

    Thanks for posting the picture of your bubbler fountain. Very nice, and very unusual. I don’t think I’ve seen one like it before. I’m also intrigued that it’s on your front porch! I never thought of doing that.

    I love your view, and as for your spirea, please do post a photo. I’ve just “discovered” this year that there are other spireas besides the old “Bridal Veil” variety that used to be seen everywhere, even ones with colorful fall foliage! Where have I been?

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    September 17, 2006 at 6:58 am

    The water fountain is great.
    So serene.

    Reply
  5. Annie in Austin says

    September 17, 2006 at 6:08 pm

    I really like your fountain, Carole. I haven’t seen anything like this before. The base has such a great shape to it. A water feature will come into my garden someday, I hope.

    As to the “Secret Garden”, that seems to be part of most women’s Garden Dreaming, doesn’t it? Mine’s been in progress for nearly a year, and several friends are working on theirs, too. The secret part means you can take your time!

    Annie

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Categories

  • Blog (3,012)
  • Internal (2)

Blog Tags

annuals Blogging books bulbs dr. hortfreud embrace fairies fall family flowers fruits garden bloggers bloom day garden bloggers book club garden design gardeners gardening gardening geek gardens hoes holidays hortense hoelove houseplants humor indoor gardening insects lawn letters to gardening friends perennials rabbits reviews Secrets seeds shrubs spring tools trees vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables weather weeding weeds when a gardener wildflower wednesday winter

The Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Footer

Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Connect

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • maydreams icon

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Books
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Podcast

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2022 · CarolJMichel.com · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

Book purchase links are affiliate links and Carol earns a small commission if you make a purchase.