Regular Gardens
My garden, as seen by a visiting garden writer/photographer
It’s far too cold and bleak out there to enjoy gardens outdoors, but hey, it’s a perfect time to admire photos of gardens, so I’ll share a few of my own garden taken this past September. Minnesota garden writer/photographer/speaker Evelyn Hadden visited me while she was researching her book about designing for less lawn (coming in 2011 from Timber Press) and just this week sent me these photos she snapped of my garden during her visit. Don’t know if any will make the grade (the book), but it’s fun to see my oh-so-familiar garden through fresh eyes.
Above, the entry garden features enough evergreens that it manages to stay reasonably attractive through the winter. Plants in this photo include Rhododendron, ‘Otto Luyken’ Cherry Laurels under the window, plus ‘Heleri’ Holly, Boxwoods and a dwarf Juniper in front of the porch.
Here’s a shot of the same garden taken from the front bedroom where Evelyn stayed. You know, in my 25 years here I’ve never taken a photo from this window.
Above, the dreaded under-deck area isn’t really so dreadful with the right plants. Liriope is the evergreen groundcover (on the left), and nonevergreen groundcovers Sweet Woodruff and Hardy Begonia add color when they’re blooming.
Above and below, you get glimpses of what used to be a large lawn surrounded by borders. Now the borders are larger, the lawn-type area is smaller, and it’s covered with a very short creeping Sedum (S. sarmentosum) that never, ever needs mowing or feeding. After it fills out it’ll need almost no weeding, either. It tolerates being walked on, but only occasionally, and definitely won’t tolerate sports or large dogs. (There’s lots more about my de-lawning project on my website.)
In the borders you see (clockwise from bottom) Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Lamb’s Ears, a Lespedeza ‘Gilbralter’ in bloom, and some perennials with fading fall flowers: Gaura, ‘Tutti Fruiti’ Agastache, and assorted Rudbeckias (black-eyed susans). In the background you see a large spirea, lots of Pieris Japonicas, and two large Doublefile Viburnums – none of them in bloom but all still helping to fill out the border.
Above you see my dry streambed lined with the evergreen variegated Carex ‘Ice Dance’ – my favorite evergreen groundcover of all.
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PDFChoosing Magical Hillside Garden over Courtroom Drama
Some people get bored in retirement; others put off retirement because they fear that fate. But for gardening fanatic Nell Strachan, retirement from the practice of law was totally liberating. More time for the garden! More time for public gardens, helping to make them better!
So how about that garden of hers? It’s so stunning, you have to ask how it got that way. I’m happy to report she has an answer – she learned everything she could from Master Gardener training, classes at Longwood Gardens, and years and years of gardening. And she’s lucky to work collaboratively in the garden with Michael Rosendale, a superb gardener, garden designer and teacher of horticulture at a nearby college. Nell and husband Peter Ward have lived here in their Baltimore garden since 2001. There’s more about them and their gardening travels here.
Below, this shot just makes me wish I had outdoor cats. Mr. Primrose here is so photogenic! He’s posing in the only sunny spot on the property, alongside the street. 
Imagine – this pond and shade garden are just outside your front door.
In the steep, wooded back garden, hardy begonias steal the show in September.
Next, the view of the house from the bottom of the back garden.
And from the top looking down from the deck? Kinda scary for the height-averse, and there are plenty of visitors who won’t stand in this spot.
Hard to disagree with the quote on this sign displayed in Nell’s garden. I bet no one’s ever accused her of being half-hearted about gardening.
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Art and Whimsy in the Garden
Welcome to the exuberant gardening-like-crazy city of Buffalo, NY. For 15 years now they’ve wowed everyone with their two-day Garden Walk in late July, where over 300 gardens are open to the public free of charge, with no judging. Their main goals are to encourage neighborhood beautification and to promote community pride, and they’ve succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. The Walk is now just part of 5 weeks of gardening events, and the national media is paying them lots of attention. You hear stories of people attending the Walk and deciding to move back to the city.
I’ve visited Buffalo for several of their Walks and big events, so I looked through my photos to find ones conveying something they’re really good at - art and whimsy.
What's Blooming in August
In honor of Gardenblogger Bloom Day, of course. Click here to see what’s blooming on August 15 in 100+ other gardens around North America and possibly farther afield.
First up, here one of my favorite combos in a border that frankly, doesn’t have enough good ones (you know how borders are works in progress? Well, this one could use some more progress, absolutely.) At the top you see the panicle-shaped white blooms of the Hydrangea paniculata ‘Tardiva’. Nice long blooms. In the middle there are some just-fading blooms of the Globle Thistle (Echinops) with a tiny bit of Salvia ‘May Knight’ bloom showing on the left. And covering the ground in front is some of a great-performing Lamb’s Ear - Stachys ‘Helene von Stein’. 
Above, a mighty fine rebloom on a Spirea ‘Anthony Waterer’. 
Above, a new acquisition, the Agastache ‘Tutti Frutti”, hardy to Zone 6. It’s attracting hummingbirds, the first ones I’ve seen in my garden in ages. 
Who doesn’t love Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’?
And moving to my front yard we see a mishmash of color here. One Knockout rose (which I should never have planted in front of perennials, so I’ll be moving it this fall), with some black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia ‘Goldstrum’) and the lovely Russian sage (Perovskia), which I should never have planted in this space, where it gets no notice. I’ll be moving it, also - to my curbside garden, where it’ll be noticed.
Finally, I love the Alyssum blooming in what used to be my front lawn. I planted this annual by seed in 2009, and this year it seeded itself. Looks mighty pretty with these creeping sedums.
Tough, Low-Maintenance Plants for Curb Gardens
Who SAYS the strip of land between your sidewalk and the street has to be covered with turfgrass? Okay, in some places the government actually says that but where I live and elsewhere, homeowners have the opportunity to do something a little more interesting - and less resource-intensive, too. Here you see the curb garden or “hell strip” in front of my house, where I’ve made sure the water-meter guy still has access, and also that this little garden doesn’t block the view of drivers. (Safety first!)
I goofed in not knowing (or inquiring about) permission I should have gotten first from my city before planting anything here, so I’m just lucky I was allowed to keep this garden. Which garden my neighbors, I might add, never seem to tire of admiring, and thanking me for. Public gardening sure has its rewards.
Now about the choice of plants, curb gardens need tough ones because sites don’t get much tougher than this one. They have to be able to handle the usual stresses of heat and drought PLUS cars, snow plows and salt trucks, kids on bikes, and the regular diggings and droppings of all the dogs on the street. I wasn’t about to spend money here, just to see everything destroyed. So everything here was a cast-off or division from other parts of my garden.
And it’s important to note that this spot can be garden-like, crammed full of plants of different heights, only because there’s no parking on my side of the street. I’ve seen some great curb gardens that DO allow for access to parked cars and I’ll be posting about them soon, right here.
The Plant List
Yoshino cherry tree, a beautyberry shrub, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’, purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, common garden phlox, lots of daylily cultivars in assorted colors, and creeping sedums as groundcover.
Four years in the ground, and what’s the result? Absolutely no damage from any of the feared sources, and a pretty garden that’s almost no work. These plants are drought-tolerant, and pretty good at crowding out the weeds. So, a bit of watering, a bit of weeding. Then in late winter I do clean-up - remove dead perennial flowers, hack the grasses back to the ground, and prune the beautybush.
Buffalo, NY
Next stop, a curb garden in Buffalo, New York, the city with the largest garden tour in America. (Every July over 300 gardens are open to the public over two days, all free. More about Garden Walk Buffalo here.)
Portland, Oregon
And from the West Coast, below you see a high-impact garden packed in between the street and the unseen sidewalk.
Inspired yet? One New York Times writer was inspired to do something creative in his Minneapolis hell strip, and recounts the transition here. I’ll be asking for an update next year, so hopefully more will be revealed.
My Ledge and Gardens - An introduction
Garden overview : Long Border
The gardens here at Ledge and Gardens have evolved over the past thirty plus years. I know I am dating myself but then there is no disputing the truth of time. My husband and I built our home on ten acres of wooded land which really is over the river and through the woods along a gravel road. We are located in Zone 5b and nature has imposed some restrictions on our planting efforts. The main obstacle, which may be viewed favorably by some, is rock. New Englanders are very familiar with the stone walls built from the necessity of clearing land and we are equally familiar with the boulders of New England. Much of the rock here is still attached to the ground in ridges and humps in the form of ledge. I have learned not to fight these rock outcroppings.
Ledge
The lesson was learned over time as many are.
The gardens began as the children (2) grew and as many gardeners know, there is always room for one more plant, one more garden, one more opportunity to create a new scene. My garden is far from perfect but my goal here is to share the experience of creating and enjoying working in the garden and also to share the information on plants and plant favorites.
There are several mixed perennial borders here at L & G, a fishpond, and a small vegetable garden.
Fishpond
My husband is in charge of all equipment related projects. He prefers a farm tractor for cultivating the earth while I am happy with my trusty broadfork.
Broadfork His largest crop and planting contribution is corn. We do maintain a small vegetable garden and have just added an asparagus bed which currently is in need of weeding. That never ends does it? I call him the EM for Equipment Manager.
I am often accompanied by the ‘Project Manager’, Tucker
and the newest family member, Assistant to the Project Manager, Cooper.
Mini-Cooper
Tucker is a 12 year old lab and he tolerates the gardens simply because he thrives on being outside with a frisbee or ball at the ready. Cooper, also a yellow lab, was born on 5-20-2010, is here to learn from Tucker. So far he has exhibited some digging tendencies which need to be curbed.
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