Garden Tour

Now that I have rambled on and on about plants that I love in my Garden Series, I thought it would be fun to show you my actual garden.  I have categorized it into three sections:  the Backyard Garden, the Cutting Garden, and the Frontyard Garden.

The Backyard Garden:

We have a very large fenced in backyard.  Over the course of the past five summers I've slowly encircled the outer edges of the yard with flower beds leaving a large area in the middle for the kids and dog to run around in.  To edge the beds I've used interlocking brick pavers.  They are about foot long and six inches tall.  One side is rounded and one side is notched which make them great for adding a curvy edging.  Plus they are very manageable if you'd like to move them around in order to increase your planting space.  They  make a great edge to run your lawnmower along.  Every couple of weeks I do have to use a weed-wacker to keep things looking tidy.  I've added a path behind the garden along the fence about a foot wide to allow the dog to run up and down the fence line - which he loves to do, and to give me access to the garden for weeding and watering.  I've used more edging pavers to separate the garden and path, then laid down a weed barrier topped with pea gravel.

Below you can see the basic structure of the garden.  This is the view from our deck in May, looking straight out from the house towards the back fence.  On the left is the cutting garden, the middle is my main sun garden and to the right is the playhouse and the beginning of the shade garden.

This is the view from the back of the house looking down towards the cutting garden.  The row of pine trees where already established when we purchased the house.  I've added the edging, Snow on the Mountain, planters filled with Inpatients, Hosta's and the mulch.  This is an older photo from a couple years back, the Snow on the Mountain has filled in much more now.

This is the view from the playhouse looking back towards the house.  You can see I've been increasing the size of the beds.  This area gets mostly shade up to the house because of the large tree.  It's filled with Hosta's, Snow on the Mountain and Lady's Mantel.  This summer I'll be filling in the new area's with more of the same.  Beyond the shady section on the side of the house is a spot that gets full sun.  This is where I grow plants like pumpkins that take up lots of space.  I just let it fill in the whole area back there and it's perfect for this awkward, sloped space.

By mid to late June the sunny part of the garden starts looking more like this.

And by July it's looks like this . . .

the right side . . .

the middle section . . .

(the gap in the middle is a path for the dog to run through so he doesn't trample my plants)

and the left side . . .

Here's a photo taken while standing on the dog path looking towards the playhouse . . .

And another looking towards the Cutting Garden . . .

Cutting Garden / Veggie Garden

The Cutting / Veggie Garden is enclosed with a simple fence hubby built for me to help protect the veggies from all the rabbits like seem to like my yard.  Here is the view from the deck taken in May of it's third year.

I had just added six four foot by eight foot raised beds.  And one four foot by twelve foot raised bed in the back corner.

The paths between the beds are three feet wide and covered with pea gravel.

I rotate veggies around the four back-most beds.  Growing things like corn, cucumber, onion, basil, tomato, mini pumpkins and snap peas.  The remainder of the beds are reserved for flowers both annual and perennials.  I have a few roses in the back corner bed along with phlox, meadow sage and whatever annuals I squeeze in.

The past few years more and more of the garden is becoming overtaken with annuals I like to cut for arrangement. 

Here's the left side in July.  The first two beds are annuals and basil.  The last one looks like cucumbers.

The view from the gate.

The right side has corn and mini pumpkins in the center bed.  The first bed had onions and annuals. The the remaining bed (behind the corn) had more annuals and a peony.

Front Garden

The Front Yard Garden is my pride and joy.  It's the space that only receives my favorite plants and one which I am constantly editing.  The shrubs and trees were established when we purchased the house.  I have since cut down the large shrubs you see leading up to the front door.  They were very overgrown and after trying to work with them for the past five year I finally made the decision to remove them.  I'm so glad I did, it looks so much better know.

The fence and garden surrounding it are new additions in the past two years.  The first year hubby made the fence for me, I dug up the beds and edged them in brick. 

During the fall I added a bricked path between the two fences and I think it finished off the space nicely.

Here's a look at the edging I used throughout the yard.  I love that I can run the lawnmowers wheels right on top of the bricks so I don't have any edge trimming to do.

In front of the fence, next to the sidewalk, I've planted four yellow Potentilla (small yellow flowering shrubs) to frame the edges of the fences.  Between them I fill in with annuals.  This year is was Wave Petunia(dark purple), small Dahlia's (multi-colored flowers next to yellow Potentilla), Annual Saliva (tall purple plant in the middle) and Profusion Zinnia's(pink flowers next to Petunia's).  Last summer it was a mix of Annual Saliva, Dahlia and Zinnia's, I liked it so much I think I'll repeat it this year.

Last fall I removed two of the Potentilla's and plan to remove the other two.  I'll be replanting them in another part of my garden.  This spot just didn't seem to work too well for them.  I'm hoping for better luck in another location.

(you can see in this photo the beginnings of the brick walkway)

Behind the fence it looks a little like this . . .

A mix of perennials (shrub rose, phlox, lambs ears) and annuals.  I plan to add a couple carpet roses to each side and a few more phlox in a smaller variety since they seem to like this spot.

Under the tree I've planted a mix of shade friendly plants.  On the left is a row of Dianthus (pink), Lady's Mantel (in bloom here with small bright lime green flowers), a clump of Creeping Phlox, and Catnip (purple plants in middle).  Truth be told this has been a problem area for me.  I've tried many combo's for this space.  About the only thing that does really well is the Lady's Mantel and Creeping Phlox.  I have big plans for the space this year.  I'll be removing everything but the Lady's Mantel and Creeping Phlox and planting a bunch of Snow on the Mountain.  Once it has a chance to fill in I think it will look amazing.  All the green will be a nice contrast between the color from the fence garden and the window garden behind the tree. 

I call this space the window garden.  I've filled it with Saliva, Lambs Ears, Coreposis, small Daisy's and a white Potentilla shrub.

This year I plan to transplant the Saliva and replace it with Shrub roses.  Also I'll remove the Lambs Ears since I'm not crazy about them.

Whew! 

That was a long post, sorry about that.  Sure hope you enjoyed the Garden Tour.  I know I can barely contain my excitement for spring to come so I can get out in the garden and start putting some of my plans to work.

Thanks for stopping by,

Robin