As you know, click on any image to expand it.
From the deck
White turtlehead
Black swallowtail on coneflower
Standing under the arbor
Looking from the patio
Still looking from the patio
Looking down one of the two paths from up on the "hill"
Morning glories can frame anything well.
Monarch on swamp milkweed
Looking in from the lawn I'd love to not have, but that does present a certain kind of je ne sais quoi counter balance to the garden. I think it's like yin and yang. A needed place to rest your eye. A place where negative space can exist. A place for a swimming pool (100 next two days).
Fence path after the arbor
Grey-headed coneflowers
'Blue Fortune' Agastache
Looking at the arbor from the main garden
Arbor from in the side garden
14 comments:
Benjamin the garden looks restful in spite of the heat...even the heat from the previous post! I am taking up biking soon. Stay cool.
What a huge difference, Benjamin! Well done! It looks mature and overflowing now, with excellent plant combinations and wildlife galore. Just as it should be. Sometimes we need a little green negative space. There are some interesting mowing techniques I have been thinking about after seeing them on blogs and in Gardens Illustrated ( a BBC mag well worth the money). They mow only the paths in a grid, letting the grass and added wildflowers grow without cutting. It looks fantastic. :-)
Frances
I love to wander down stepping stone paths.
Donna
The pool sounds good.
The garden has come a long way since last year when mulch was the focal point :)
Layanee--Wish I had a biking partener
Frances--I something similar, lawns, on Nan Ondra's bloga while back and thought it looked very cool. I may try that once the grass starts greenign up again.
MNG--Even if you bump in to flowers too closely placed to the path?
Les--Then come to NE and build me one!
WA--The mulch has it's own certain je ne sais quoi though, don't you think?
Your garden looks spectacular, Benjamin. Turtlehead (Chelone) is native here, though I have the pink flowered one in my garden. Here's something funny--mine are still probably several weeks to flowering where my neighbour's just down the road are in bloom and have been for over a week.
Somehow I am jealous of the blank slate a suburban yard presents. Such organized exhuberant wildness you have.
Jodi--my pink turtlehead is still a few weeks from blooming, so strange about you and your neighbor. Is someone using super fertilizer?
Christopher--And if I had t to over again, I'd do some things VERY differently! I'm trying not to rip up the rest of the backyard for resale value.
Looking great. Interesting to see how your plants are about three weeks ahead on the clock than mine, with variations. It's an amazing change in one year.
James--The longer I work at this gardening thing, the more I realize just how much I'm experimenting. There's so much I would do differently in this garden. To me, it feels too much like a garden--maybe that is the suburban backyard it finds itself in, or the lawn next to it, or the arrangement of plants, or all three. I think I'll move to NJ so my liatris can still be blooming full tilt (at night I loved to look out and see a landscape light highlighting the purple liatris, a beacon in the dark night).
Hi Benjamin
Your planting looks top drawer. It all really works.
I agree with Frances, a bit of lawn topiary might add something.
Rob--You're too kind, really. Next year, year three, will be the big test on how things look (this year I trying to plant stuff, for example, that will support taller stuff behind them because I'm running out of stakes).
Yeah.... I'm still jealous! Gorgeous, Benjamin. :)
(And btw, I love paths that brush up against plants. Particularly if they're things like lavender and agastache that smell wonderful when you brush up against them.)
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