You

It's always interesting to me to discover what fuels a persons passion. One small bed in my garden is a complete wreck and needs to be redesigned again, despite having been redesigned last fall. A dry miserable clematis clings to the fence under a giant laurel oak, while a slightly irritated 'Sun Queen' veronica, overly shaded and thirsty, reminds me daily of my penchant for misguided design. Dwarf lespedeza, if only they could walk, would scramble over the knautia to settle in deeply to the shade the veronica ache to leave. I stare at this bed constantly, mentally replacing the pathetic plants with sea oats, linaria, kalimeris, and amsonia, all champions of dry shade. I could throw in the towel, curse my mistakes, and head into nearby DC to lounge in the beauty of several  professionally designed public gardens but I don't.

Mystery bug on the 'Sun Queen' veronica. 'Sun Queen' is headed to a slightly moister, sunnier spot this fall.

Northern sea oats thrive in dry shade. Variegated Solomon's Seal grows at their base.

I have two types of kalimeris. 'Daisy Mae' has white flowers while 'Blue Star' has pale blue. Both thrive in dry shade and self-seed readily, giving me a steady supply of seedlings to use around the garden or give away to friends.

As beautiful as these properties are, I rarely find them inspiring. If you peel away the landscape architects, designers, professional gardeners, and big budgets, I wonder what you would have? While I have a great amount of respect for the individuals who have the talent to create such amazing spaces, when I sit on my patio and mentally redesign my garden, it's not big public gardens that inspire me, but rather the little pockets of flowers and shrubs that fall into my lap through garden blogs each week.

The dwarf heliposis 'Tuscan Sun' was pruned heavily by the bunnies but has rebounded beautifully.

Your photos flip through my mind like a visual Rolodex and I find myself going back to your blogs to study and analyze how you've created such beauty. It doesn't matter to me that your garden isn't perfect or that you've forgotten the Latin name of the plant in the photo. I don't care if the garden path pavers don't match or if the shrubs need pruning. I find inspiration simply in the fact that you have a garden, created in the small slips of time leftover from the rest of our daily lives. I'm not inspired by the National Arboretum or the Botanic Gardens. I'm inspired by you.

'Deam's' rudbeckia has much smaller flowers and leaves than 'Goldsturm' but is also much tougher. I like the darker gold shading close to the brown seed head.

I grow carrots for carrot cake and for the swallowtail caterpillars.

This dwarf agastache was just a tiny stump when I planted it this spring.

It's become one of my favorite plants.

Sceptre d'Isle rose (David Austin) grows in a bit of shade near the massive Rose of Sharon.

Hummingbirds love this feeder but disappear whenever I attempt to take a picture. I think they're on to me.