Meet TS and Come See the Rest of the Garden...

Sunday, April 26, 2015

A Garden Ramble


Come on in! I'm covered in soil but I don't think you'll mind. 


The garden is bursting with growth. I've just started cleaning all the grass out of the trenches between the beds and the lawn and have a long way to go. Someday I'll rip out a massive chunk of that lawn and put in a pond but not today.


These common primroses are one of my favorite spring flowers. I love how simple and straight forward they are.


I've been trying to add more plants with interesting foliage to the garden and love this golden passalong hosta next to the ajuga I've forgotten the name of.


I have loads of dry shade but epimediums thrive in these conditions.  


I think the flowers look like little UFO's.


I found one of our turtles! I'd love to know where they spent the winter. We have three eastern box turtles in the garden that were rescued from the middle of the road.


This corner used to be one of the worst spots in the garden. After redesigning it several times, it's my dry shade success story. The diervilla rivularis by the birdhouse is now six feet tall and the glorious little golden thing in the front is a symphoricarpos 'Blades of Sun'.  It turns green in the summer and has little purple berries. 


The iron cattails are part of the failed frog pond turned successful bog garden. Tall white turtle head ( Chelone glabra 'Alba') fill this spot in the summer.


Our native red columbine and 'Corbett's Gold'. These also do well in dry shade.




Silene 'Rolly's Favorite' is much tougher than it looks. It can tolerate drought but is much happier with moister soil so I moved it closer to the rain garden.


I mixed in some variegated 'Valley High' silene to give this area some zing.


I found fabulous new pots to replace the ones that were broken or cracked. These are from Home Goods, which is exponentially cheaper than our local nursery.


Both of these will be filled with gomphrena.


Fred, the bleeding heart, is huge and getting huger. What do you mean you don't name your plants? I've interplanted Fred with 10 oriental lily bulbs. As the grow taller, I'll tie them to the black metal stakes to guide them out of his foliage. When he's gone dormant for the summer, I'll have lilies to fill the spot.


I extended the front beds by another foot to keep my plants from being decapitated by the mower when they flop onto the grass. But of course, I then had room for more plants.... I just finished mulching this. This is a big butterfly garden full of salvia, coreopsis, and orange milkweed.


The new plants are tiny and hard to see but will grow quickly. The squirrels have already been over to investigate. I have deciduous shrubs in front of my house instead of evergreens. I know this gives me winter disinterest, but who cares.


Fothergilla 'Blue Shadow' loves this spot


and I love my fothergilla.

33 comments:

  1. Holy doodle, your garden is erupting with growth and beauty. I always learn so much from your posts, it's interesting how you've identified your micro climate areas in your garden. I will be busy looking up the plants you have. I have an epimedium and it is tough as nails. It is extremely drought tolerant! Milkweed? I wonder how well it would grow here. Your news pots are very purty! New pots are like getting a pair of new shoes! It sure is funny how every year a bit more grass disappears and more plants reappear, just like that! Have a great week!

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  2. Man I wish I could walk around your garden! I'm in need of some dry shade ideas ...yours are amazing! And that columbine is too pretty!! And your new pots are awesome!!! Home goods?? I might have to swing over there!! What a treat to have turtles in the garden! I wish I could fill my garden with turtles and frogs for my beans. And yes Fred is magnificent!!! I like that you have deciduous shrubs up front as they are cooler if you ask me! And yay for a bigger bed up front! Beautiful!!! Happy gardening to you!!! Nicole xo

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  3. What an inviting garden gate you have! And your gardens are so full of fresh leafy foliage just bursting with promise -- isn't this time of year just grand? I especially love (and envy) your primroses, which I have trouble growing here in heat blasted/ice covered Iowa -- very pretty. Thanks so much for your lovely garden tour! -Beth

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  4. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! You must have worked hard during your spring break. I love Epimedium and wish I could grow it here in SoCal (I've tried). Ditto the Fothergilla. I'm glad you found the turtle - it started me thinking about how nice it would be to have a turtle in my garden (I had one as a kid) but I guess I'd have to settle for a desert tortoise...

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  5. Very impressive! You are a better gardener than I am.

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  6. I love long range plans: 'But not today." I also love that failed projects like the frog pond can turn into something successful like a rain garden.

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  7. Wow, your garden is so gorgeous! Love the tour and the new pots, I'm a Home Goods fan too.

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  8. A beautiful garden and that you have a turtle or three makes me envious.
    Happy gardening

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  9. How nice to see flowering things! We are slow-going this time of year. Every year I say that I will focus more on flowers and end up putting all my energy into vegetables. Maybe this year???

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  10. Your garden looks fab and some wonderful colour already. Cute turtle too.

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  11. Oh my! The Fothergilla is lovely and in the perfect spot! I'm with you on the Epimediums: I keep adding more as time goes on. I'm trying to add mostly native plants in most of my garden plots, but I have a section near the house that's filled with mostly favorite non-natives (Epimediums, Lily-of-the-Valley, Hostas, Roses, and Hellebores. What a great idea to interplant Lilies with Bleeding Heart! I might have to "borrow" that idea! ;-)

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  12. It is interesting reading your posts because you see how somethings are supposed to look. Fothergilla 'Blue Shadow' for instance might survive here if you were lucky but it would never look like yours do.
    When ever I hear of your turtles, I have a fit of envy. I would dearly love to have a turtle. I brought in a couple of painted turtles and a map turtle over the year but (like yours - found in the middle of the road) they always leave in short order. The pond is not big enough for them. I had great hopes two years ago because before she left, one painted turtle laid eggs in the garden. However the eggs we found by racoons.
    As for the your box turtle's hibernaculum (isn't that a big word) might be the compost pile if it is accessible.

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  13. UFOs, turtles and that incredible red Columbine--what a garden tour, thanks! I've never tried Fothergilla, but the name sounds like it should belong to the Butler-:) Who knows what everybody does at night while you are sleeping...

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  14. Wow your garden is beautiful...and you have resident turtles! Do they spend all summer in the garden? Just wonderful!!!!!
    I've recently purchased a fothergilla (I was getting tired of azaleas always stealing the show in spring) and hopefully in the next few days it will start to turn a brilliant autumn shade. I love seeing grass vanish for additional plantings: it's such a rewarding experience :-), Matt

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  15. Very interesting fothergilla! I have never seen before. So beautiful. I like your new pots, so unique.

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  16. thank you for the tour:-) Your garden is lovely- LOVE your fothergilla! Does it bloom in spring? I wish I had a larger garden to squeeze some more plants into this year- I am doing a "make-over' in our garden. I moved a few dwarf fruit trees and bushes yesterday- so it will work a bit a bit better together. I have to put in my cranberries today. I am finally finished with the edible parts and getting my beds seeded. I am way behind you in work to be done! Refreshing post + inspiring to read this morning!

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  17. thank you for the tour:-) Your garden is lovely- LOVE your fothergilla! Does it bloom in spring? I wish I had a larger garden to squeeze some more plants into this year- I am doing a "make-over' in our garden. I moved a few dwarf fruit trees and bushes yesterday- so it will work a bit a bit better together. I have to put in my cranberries today. I am finally finished with the edible parts and getting my beds seeded. I am way behind you in work to be done! Refreshing post + inspiring to read this morning!

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  18. I've just discovered epimedeums, and when I saw the first one blooming in my garden last week, I was smitten. Glad to know they like dry shade, because that is what they have here. Your fothergilla is gorgeous! I finally had to pull mine out last fall; it wasn't happy here and died a slow death:( Your garden is beautiful--thanks for the tour!

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  19. Hi Tammy, I loved the tour; our garden has virtually every kind of environment apart from "dry shade" (perhaps under the pines at the back). While your borders are bursting with growth, mine are still under black polythene from last year. I have begun to make a start on digging them so planting out for me isn't far away!

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  20. I laughed to hear you are going to fill the new gap with more plants, I'm exactly the same!!! How quickly everything has come along, so many beauties here, I especially liked the golden hosta, your little U.F.O's, the columbine and our old friend Fred, what a good idea to plant the lilies through him.
    Your new pots are lovely and the dry shade area is looking brill, I do love that birdhouse!
    Good to hear one of your turtles has materialized.....lol....now where are the other two???xxx

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  21. Many beauties--enjoyed them all--most completely exotic to me, not least the thick, vividly green lawn. Thanks for sharing your Ramble!

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  22. You have lots going on in your garden! The dry shade garden looks great. Love the turtle and the fothergilla.

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  23. Love Fred. I had a Fred at the old house, nearly as large. The new owners murdered Fred. I should have dug him up. Now I have Freddie. Smaller, burt growing and bloomed for the first titme this year. He is immortalized in my new blog banner. Your yard is looking green and colorful. It will fun to follow you around this summer.

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    Replies
    1. I love your dry shade spot. I have a Diervilla lonicera I planted last fall. It's much smaller than your Diervilla. I also have some Symphoricarpos album but they get massacred by rabbits every winter. Your turtle reminds me of the pet box turtle I had as a kid. Unfortunately, it ran away from home.

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  24. You have turtles?!? Lucky girl.

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  25. Excellent tour of your domain - it is all looking good and very neat and tidy too - I can see you have been busy.

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  26. You have so many lovely colourful pots and containers, I loved the two new additions. Epimediums are new to me but I would love to have a few.

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  27. Your Fothergilla is fabulous, does it need an acid soil? You have been working hard, everything looks wonderful. I love Epimediums too, such delicate flowers and pretty foliage.

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    1. Thanks! Fothergilla is an acid-loving plant native to the southeastern US. It likes partial shade and moist soil. But it's planted close to the concrete foundation of my house, which leaches lime into the soil so I add a soil acidifier.

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  28. I always enjoy wandering around your garden Tammy.... epimediums are one of my favorites like floating spiders. I have loads of projects and one is to remove grass along the edges and about a foot out.

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  29. Your garden is coming along so nicely this year Tammy. I wish my front garden looked as nice as your newly mulched one does. Every year the sidewalk snow plow does a number on the outside edge of the garden near the picket fence. This year he scrapped away almost a foot of soil along with the snow. I also have to paint the fence which looks very ratty. At least the weather has warmed, so I won't complain about the work.

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  30. Love your new pots...do you think the brown one will fit in my suitcase this year?

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