Happy At Home: Mom's Garden

Without a doubt my mother is an amazing woman and gardening is one of her talents in which she can knock your socks off. Growing up I remember helping her pick veggies and take care of the yard. Three kids to raise and limited garden space kept her confined to foundation planting and container gardening until about 10 years ago when my parents purchased a property a little outside of town. Finally she had room to spread her gardening wings. Mom has sprinkled gardens throughout the property but to me her main garden is bursting with beauty and inspiration. Ready for a tour?

Here's the view upon entering the garden area. The first part of the garden is her hosta garden which is still under construction (more on that in a bit) Beyond the hosta garden, along a brick path, is the main garden. This garden sits next to an amazing towering pine tree(see it on left - um, I mean the other left - - wish I would have remembered to get a picture of the whole trunk, but you get the idea. BIG. Real BIG). The garden is in the shape of one large circle. There are four planting area's inside the circle and one center bed with a bird bath. The paths are a mixture of brick and mulch; the edging material are field stones. On the far side of the garden is a row of lilac's to block the view from the road. On the right side of the garden is a new bed dedicated to purple and white(one of my favorite beds on the property)

Here is a closer view from the entrance on the house side of the property.

Here is the view from the driveway side of the garden.

Look at the wonderful arbor dad built for her. I keep telling her is might accidentally fall into my mini-van some day. In the background you can see a new addition in the form of an obelisk that dad finished just a few weeks ago(another item in danger of falling into my van!)

This is the purple and white bed she added last year (oh hey! Look! a good photo of the tree trunk. Big huh!) This is one of my favorite beds. It has filled in so quickly and is an amazing sight when in full bloom.

Mom seems to add a new bed almost every year and this year it will be in the area shown below. Her Hosta garden. You can see the new bed on the right with a few plants and a walkway between it and the existing garden on the left. In the background there is a small hill with two hosta, the plan is to eventually connect this bed with the new bed to make an arching semi-circle bed filled with shade loving hostas and such.

Now for a few of my favorite clever idea's from mom.

Below is a catmint plant that she has staked up with a few bamboo poles and some twine. It really makes the catmint's color pop against all the green surrounding it and gives it a little more substance. If you grow catmint you know how airy or light it seems to get, staking it up like this really shows it off much better. I really need to do this in my garden.