Garden Scenes 2010
by Diane Linsley
Some people have complained that their computer browsers cause an overlap of the photos onto the text in the 2009 garden tour article. So I'm trying a new technique -- the slideshow. To avoid brower problems, I'll print the text first with numbers corresponding to the pictures at the bottom of the page. Or you can click on the underlined words in the text to view the pictures.
2. Campanula glomerata 'Superba' -- This scene is located in the front garden that I featured last year. The violet-blue flowers bloom in late June and are shown with Rose 'Ora Kingsley', California poppies, and Pinus nigra 'Hornibrookiana', a dwarf Austrian pine. I'm just crazy about dwarf conifers. Unfortunately, this one got singed when I burned an ornamental grass nearby. I've learned my lesson: If I want to grow conifers next to grasses, I have to cut the grasses, not burn them, in the spring.
4. 'Baby Blue Eyes' spruce -- Here's the island again from a different angle, as seen from the driveway. The compact spruce is the focal point. In addition to the plants listed above, you can see Geum 'Mrs. Bradshaw' on the left side and Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster', one of my all-time favorite ornamental grasses (sorry, it can't be grown from seed). Eventually, Baby Blue Eyes will grow to 20 feet tall, but that will take a couple of decades. I hope it doesn't interfere with the honeylocust, which you can see at the far end of the island.
6. The Woodland -- You may have caught a glimpse of my "woodland" in the background of picture #4. This is basically just a row of large blue spruces with a few other trees that were planted by the previous owners. When we moved here 6 years ago, there was no garden, only these old trees and lots of grass (and weeds). Not much will grow in the root zone of blue spruces. But I managed to make a small shade garden at the edge. You can see how well the Aquilegia formosa has self sown. It has nearly engulfed the other plants, which include hostas, thalictrum, and several other things you can't see. Another great self sower for this area is Corydalis lutea -- the short, yellow-flowered perennial in the background.
7. The Wheelbarrow -- This is an old wheelbarrow that my husband's grandfather built out of solid steel. He was a metal worker. I love the rust on this thing. When it rains or the sprinklers turn on, the wheelbarrow fills with water, making it a birdbath. It sits at the edge of the woodland, in front of the quaking aspens. To the right is a variegated red-twig dogwood. The brunnera and helleborus in front are done blooming. I love the hosta in the left corner.
8. Dwarf Sitka Spruce -- Also known as Picea sitchensis 'Papoose'. This is one of my favorite dwarf conifers. One reason I like it so much is because the deer don't eat it. And thank goodness -- because it only grows one inch per year. This is the ideal conifer for a small garden, or even a rock garden. If I live to be 80 years old, it might grow as tall as me. It is surrounded by well-mannered plants that stay in one place (usually) like Lavender 'Lady', dracocephalum, 'Moonbeam' coreopsis, Digitalis grandiflora, Erigeron 'Darkest of All', Siberian iris, violas (for groundcover), and rosemary in a pot. In the background, I have Peony 'Shirley Temple', switchgrass, and Salvia azurea. These larger plants hide the ugly cement foundation of the driveway. Yes, we live in a funny old house on a gently sloping hill. You have to walk down cement steps into the front garden. But I like how this makes it seem like a garden room with walls.
9. Echinacea pallida & Centranthus ruber -- Now we are in the back yard. This combination of perennials is found in one of the beds that I didn't show last year. I love how these two go together without crowding each other. It's a perfect marriage.
10. Roses & Poppies -- Last, but not least, is the entrance to my vegetable garden. It's a very large garden, so I decided to give it that room-like, enclosed feeling by planting tall hedges of hazelnut trees on either side. The front two beds of the vegetable garden are planted with roses, poppies and daylilies (instead of vegetables -- is there a law against that?). One of these years, my husband is going to build a rose arbor for the entrance. I can't capture my whole vegetable garden in a photo, so this is just a hint of what it looks like. The picture is taken at an angle facing slightly left, so you can see the hazelnut hedge in the background. On the right is Rose 'Jude the Obscure'. The rose on the left is 'Louise Clements'. You can glimpse a lavender-pink clematis in the distance. In real life it's far enough away from the orange rose that you never look at them together. That would clash. I grow a clematis at the end of each bean trellis in the vegetable garden. Hey, why not? The trellises are very long, made of metal hog panels wired onto T-posts. They need to be dressed up a bit.
Well, that's enough for now. On to the slideshow. Click on any picture to enlarge it or to watch the whole slideshow.
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