| This is Lithodora 'Grace Ward'. The spread is about 2-1/2 feet and one
tiny root system feeds the whole thing. The color of the flowers is electric
blue. |
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Here's another picture for comparison with the 1998 garden. As you can
see, the path has taken on a much more natural look, and I have some Kenilworth
Ivy spreading through the entire bed. Just to give you an idea of size,
the hosta shown at the bottom of the picture has leaves that are about
12" long. |
| Same garden as above, but looking back in the other direction. In this
shot, you can see the hosta (near the top of the picture) that I mentioned
previously, as well as bleeding hearts, lady fern, violets, primroses,
and forget-me-nots. The forget-me-nots are new this year, so I expect
that I'll have a lot more of them next year. |
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This lady fern was salvaged after a mudslide left a rather large fern
on the side of the road. I brought it home, divided it into three separate
plants and turned them loose. They are extremely happy and grow to a lovely
size each year. |
| At the end of the garden we've just seen pictures of, there is a rather
large cedar tree. This little garden sits behind that tree. Pink and white
bleeding hearts, hostas, hardy fuchsias, and forget-me-nots are the key
inhabitants here. |
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I just love the markings on this little hosta. This one is new this
year, and I look forward to watching it grow more and more each year. |
| I have three containers of tulips that I put out front as they begin
to bloom. After the blooms have faded, I snap off the heads to prevent
seeding and will move them out of sight to die back in peace. I found
that planting the tulips in the garden was a surefire way of killing them
as they really dislike getting too much water while in their dormant stage.
In the garden, the regular watering of the perennials just led to bulb
rot on my tulips. I have found that these containers have solved the problem
as I can control the water they get during the summer. |
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Well, the azalea you see here used to fill this whole bed. While pruning
it back after the blooms had faded the first year, I got a bit carried
away and turned it into a Japanese style bush. It is very graceful looking
and the reduction in girth has given me a lot of space to put a hosta
garden around it. Also, I have some Wood Hyacinths planted beneath the
azalea and find that they complement each other very well. As you can
see, the azalea doesn't seem to mind the drastic pruning a bit. |
| This little shade garden was my first. As such, it is probably most
in need of a total redesign. But, I add a few plants and move a few plants
each year, and it is coming along very nicely. |
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Finally I got lily-of-the-valley to bloom in my garden. For some reason,
I haven't had a lot of luck with it, but I've got around 10 of them this
year. They go very nicely with the forget-me-nots and I look forward to
having more of them in the future. |
