Dreams of glory

I'm thinking more about the new garden planned in the front, where full sun makes many things possible. Scale and sustainability are important, leading me away from a crab apple (too big) and towards some shrubs and even an evergreen for four-season interest. Although this decision is based on looking at the lawn from the front of the house. When you look from across the street, it seems that the space is big enough for a small crab apple to work. (Of course, you also notice the shutter in need of repair - just squint and it will be less noticeable.)

 

But I'm also dreaming of planting lots of colorful perennials that won't thrive elsewhere in the garden. Inspiration comes from every mixed perennial border you've ever seen, and more recently from this display at the National Arboretum last June:

 

Tell me if you can spot a color scheme here:

Echinacea - Just bought three 'Tomato Soup' - bright enough for you?? (No, this is not my photo, but when I bought them they were indeed this color.)


Larkspur

Achillea

Japanese anemones

Really tall things, like eupatoriums, or perhaps vines on a trellis or stakes

Lilies - Adrian Higgins' recent column provides lots of inspiration

Poppies

Roses

Salvias

Rudbeckia - maybe this one touted by WFF



Etc.

The first step is to lay out the bed and start mulching this fall. Then annuals next summer and planting in the fall of 2011.

Oh, the possibilities

The white dogwood that came with the house has been slowly dying back the last few years, and I finally had it taken out. Of course, the first thing I realized was how nicely it had screened the neighbor's driveway from view - not entirely, but just enough to give us both some privacy. But it also revealed that side of the front lawn as ripe for development!

Here are views from the house looking down toward the street (the weird mess at the top is the Soil Moist), looking up from the street with the neighbor's driveway at left, and up toward the house, with just a few branches of the maple in view at right.

 
 
 

It certainly looks bleak, doesn't it? Apart from the scraggly state of the lawn, I am most aware of the full sun that this side of the lawn enjoys. Many possibilities have been floating through my mind: a set of shrubs, including a lilac just for the flowers; a perennial border of sun lovers to include scads of lilies; a wee little vegetable garden bordered with low shrubs... But of course, the most important consideration is what would actually look good there from a design sense. How to make whatever garden is there flow with the rest of the space? And what garden should be created that will not end up being burdensome to maintain?

And don't forget Mom's advice to keep it low.

What I did on my gardening vacation - Part II

After success at Merrifield, I headed the next day to Colesville, where indeed the prices are cheaper. (But let me say that the plants at Merrifield are unfailingly healthy and abundant, and the whole place is so well maintained that you do get your money's worth.)

There I bought two hydrangeas, "Little Lamb' and 'Annabelle,' a fothergilla, and clethra 'Ruby Spice.' I haven't yet planted any of them because I'm still debating about where to put them.

The clethra might go behind the trellis, where its fragrance will waft over the terrace. One of the hydrangeas will replace the white azaleas, although now that one is in bloom, I remember why I'm so fond of it. Here it is with its potential replacement breathing down its neck.
 

The fothergilla - who knows? It has a "low, densely mounded form; leaves blue-green to dark green, turning orange and red in fall, becoming more yellow in shadier sites," according to Pam Duthie. It's also fragrant, allegedly, when its bottlebrush blooms appear, though I didn't find it especially so. Probably this will go in the shrub border along the house.

"poised between the garden that was and the garden that could be"

This article in the New York Times so perfectly captures the delicious indecision some gardeners face - okay, I face, but so does the author. The Sweet Bay magnolia touted by Carroll Gardens? Or witch hazel instead? A mix of daffodils and day lilies along the pathway, or an elegant mass of cool hostas? A person can dither for months and years...