August Dreams Garden in mid-June One of the best decisions I made three years ago when I worked with a garden designer to lay out the garden borders was to plant one border with plants that bloom only in late summer and early fall. I call it August Dreams Garden and right now it is just green plants. The only color comes from a garden sculpture in the middle of it. The lack of blooms in this garden calls attention across the way to Ploppers' Field which in a few days will be filled with … [Read more...] about Garden Design: A Border for One Season
garden design
Garden Design – Best thing I ever did
The best thing I ever did for my garden was to hire a garden designer to plan out the overall design. The worst thing I did was wait 13 years from the time I moved to this property until I hired the garden designer. It wasn't easy to give up that control I thought I had in my garden, to admit that I needed help on design. After all, I'm a gardener. I know the basics. Big plants go behind little plants. Vegetable garden goes in the back third of the yard. Plants that need … [Read more...] about Garden Design – Best thing I ever did
I named another garden
When the garden designer laid out the gardens a few springs ago, she described the bed around the locust tree as a "groundcover quilt". What I recall from her description is that it should be a calm sea of greens and because it was by the patio, it would be filled with low growing plants that would not obstruct the view of the rest of the garden. As with the other gardens laid out by the garden designer, I have kept mostly true to her design. In this bed, she specified Epimedium … [Read more...] about I named another garden
Garden Sculpture: Catch a Tiger by the Tail
I accomplished another goal for the garden redesign project today when I purchased some seven colorful tiger tails and three long leaves from Girly Steel to set up in the high summer garden called August Dreams Garden. The garden designer originally suggested and chose plants that will bloom primarily in late summer and fall for this garden area, which means that for the rest of the year, there's not much going on in it. Now there will be colorful tiger tails bobbing and dancing in the breeze … [Read more...] about Garden Sculpture: Catch a Tiger by the Tail
Ridgewood Avenue
Come walk with me down Ridgewood Avenue. Enter in the shade and exit in the sun by the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. Walk slowly now. On the left is August Dreams Garden which will be in peak bloom in... August. On the right is Woodland Follies, which will quickly become a sunny spot if that old redbud tree falls over. Oh yes, there is still a lot of room to plant more, and that's the plan. More plants. And soon there will be a place to sit and reflect on a garden where each section has its … [Read more...] about Ridgewood Avenue
Verdant Views
Verdant, adjective: (of countryside) Green with grass or other rich vegetation. Of the bright green color of lush grass. A few pictures of verdant views of the garden in spring, taken a few days ago when it was overcast and rainy. First, a view across Plopper's Field looking toward the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. Plopper's Field is called just that because it is a flower garden where you just plop in new perennials wherever you see bare ground, sort of making sure the new plant … [Read more...] about Verdant Views
