Favorite Combinations

Mine is a young garden, just coming into its fourth year. I have been busy, busy, busy planning, digging, building and planting new beds.

"You have extra Yarrow? Sure! I'll take some." ... "Black-eyed Susans? Sure!" ... "Oh, yes I'd love to try some Tarragon." ... "Isn't anyone going to take that last Purple Cone Flower?" ... "What did you say this was? I'm sure I can find a place for it." ... "It spreads? That's okay, I have a whole new bed I just dug up."

It seems I tossed plants here and there and everywhere however careful my plans. I just can't resist a give away plant. I can't resist stopping at the nursery. I can't resist purchasing mail order plants, either. Such as it is with a gardening addict. "Hmmm, I thought that Persicaria would look great there but that red is well, really bright. I know! Some Cardinal Flower over there for balance and some pinks and purples blending in between ..."

I continuously focus on what I need to do, or would like to do, in the garden. There's the whole new fence line. There's still the front yard, or what remains of it. There's that narrow south side with the undying Bishop's Weed and the see through kitchen window that needs a major overhaul and a view. There's ... STOP!

I decided to pause, to look through some of photos of the garden, acknowledge what I have done and pull out some combinations that I rather like. Yes, Forget-Me-Nots spread and may be common, but I love their complimentary sea of blue as a backdrop for spring bulbs and flowers, and they are native. Blue creeping phlox has the same effect. I think I would like to encourage more of this combination throughout the garden.

Daffodils and Forget-Me-Nots in the Bird & Butterfly Garden

Lady Jane Species Tulip, Blue Phlox and a surprise Forget-Me-Not in the "front yard"

Poppies float above Forget-Me-Nots along the Nice Driveway

I love what I have done in the "front yard." The many low spreading plants in different shades of green – blues, yellows, chartreuse – intertwining with one another and accented with purple and burgundy is so interesting to me. Even the textures of the leaves – soft and fuzzy, bristly, spiky, fleshy – add to the senses. I would like to encourage more of this combination in my backyard garden (which I tend to spend more time in), so that I can appreciate all of its little intricacies. Setting up a chair in the sidewalk and staring at my front garden is just asking to be the star of neighborhood gossip.

Chives, Thymes, Sedums and Lamb Ears in the "front yard"

A woven tapestry of plants with Black Lace as a back drop in the "front yard"

Sea Holly pokes through the leaves of Black Lace in the "front yard"

I don't have room for too many large trees but I do like the way the Blue Spruce commands attention right outside my new back door. I love how Lamium 'Orchid Frost' skirts its blue needles. In the fall and winter, the stems of Cardinal Dogwood somehow don't just turn red but cast a deeper shade of blue on the spruce.

I do like the way the grasses and flowers combine in my Bird & Butterfly garden. The Bee Balm and Purple Cones are hot in the summer and then the Susans, White Cones and Aster start to mellow. I am hoping this flow between blooms and grasses continues in the newly planted Woodland Edge as it starts to fill out.

I particularly like this combination of yarrow and sage. I would like to add more striking combinations like this throughout my garden.

Yarrow 'Coronation Gold' and Meadow Sage 'May Night' along the Nice Driveway

What about you? Are you focused on what needs to be done or changed in your garden? Maybe you can afford a moment to sit back and focus on what you do like about your garden. Is there a combination that you love?

Nice Driveway

Nostrovia or na zdrowie, misinterpreted by some ears as "nice driveway", is a polish cheer to your health. This is how I came to name the bed I created along my driveway. (This is also now, humorously, a toast we frequently use among friends and family.) The driveway area between us and our neighbor is the third area I focused on in creating my garden. This post is a time line of this area of my garden from the very beginning until now. The bird & butterfly garden being the first and the potager (kitchen garden), being the second. Our property actually goes right to the very edge of our neighbor's house, but we left a pathway to be, well, neighborly. From this "before" picture, you might guess as to why I created this bed. It is wide open – hello neighbor, what are we grilling this evening?

 

You can see our back deck railing in the very foreground of the above picture in the spring of 2009. This picture also shows the very beginning of the bed – dirt. Those boards are actually covering fence post holes for a trellis that my favorite contractor built (once again, amazing husband), to add some privacy between us and our neighbors. My instructions were simply to build a trellis as high as zoning laws would allow. Here's his design:

I'm glad I left it up to him. He did a beautiful job. Here is the bed planted by late summer of 2009.

The vine on the trellis is morning glory 'Heavenly Blue.' In this bed I've planted an arborvitae 'Emerald Green,' and a ninebark 'Coppertina.' Below is the bed in early spring of 2010.

I extended the bed further down the drive and planted a second arborvitae. In the space between the arborvitaes I planted rudbeckia maxima, indian grass and solidago 'fireworks.' They filled in quite nicely their first year. I cannot wait for the indian grass and rudbeckia to grow to their full heights.

I also have liatris, coreopsis varieties, achilia 'Coronation Gold, obedient plant and meadow sage 'May Night' planted in this space. The soil is well drained and I think of this area of my garden as my "mini prairie." The sunflowers are a temporary screen until the arborvitaes grow in. I also have a dutchman's pipe vine growing along the trellis. This will be its third year, and if it doesn't take off I think I will need to move it. The soil may be too dry here. I've been planting annual vines temporarily hoping the dutchman's pipe vine will begin to take over. This year I will plant purple hyacinth bean.

I did add a clematis, 'Comtesse de Bouchard' thinking it would be pretty weaving in and out of the dutchman's pipe. Last year moonflower also did well on the trellis. Helenium and indian grass were great fall focals. I was surprised the indian grass bloomed its first year.

Last summer 2010, above. The bed is filling in nicely. Now we have a nice privacy buffer instead of a barren strip of grass. But that's not all, this bed attracted many pollinators last summer and every day I was able to take time to look, I was rewarded.

This year I will extend the bed further down to the sidewalk and add a third arborvitae. I haven't planned the rest but hope to keep this post updated with my progress. Thank you for joining me in my garden in the making.