The Front Sidewalk Garden

The Front Sidewalk Garden in my garden is uniquely positioned to be a showcase garden where I can grow everything and anything-with some restrictions. Anything I plant in this garden has to be: less than three feet tall, has to bloom a long time, and has to look good most of the year. One restriction I place on the garden is that it must have interest all year long. This garden gets enough sun that I can grow both sun and shade plants and I try to maximize them all for the interest this garden provides me and my guests. As such it can be a busy garden. I thought I would try to capture the garden through the year to kind of showcase the monthly interest. Unfortunately I have done a terrible job of keeping up with the pictures and this post. Nonetheless I have a few pictures that might help to show the way this garden changes over the year. We all know gardens should change but really looking at the changes can be eye opening. 

We start with a spring picture in March. This is about when the gardens here in Middle Tennessee really get going. Yes, we have many plants that will bloom in January and February but March is when you can really notice the color. The red quince in this garden takes center stage. I simply adore the quince but I must confess it is not right for this garden. Quince will grow to be big hefty shrubs over eight feet tall. Quince are also thorny. This garden is quite small and since I have the restriction that my plants in this garden cannot be over three feet tall that means I have to do a lot of pruning on the quince. But for this one plant and this fabulous splash or red color I choose to prune away for as long as I can in order to have this brilliant red in the garden. Daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, muscari, and pansies (planted yearly) round out the color in March for this garden.

 March 22, 2011

By the time May rolls around we can see the ground is now covered by foliage. This time of the year is probably when we have the most color in this garden. Peonies (three herbaceous and one tree peony), lilies, verbena, 'The Fairy' rose, tulips, and irises now provide the color for this garden. The foliage of the lavender cotton (gray leaved foliage) is a great color combiner in this garden.

July 16, 2011

Things have really slowed down come July. There are dayliies, Russian Sage, cosmos, and some pink coneflowers in this garden but they aren't doing as well as I'd like them to do, hence there is not so much color in this garden during the summer. That is something I'll have to work on next year. You can just see the 'Autumn Joy' sedum heads forming now and soon the asters will come into play for the fall. 'Miss Huff' lantana also graces this garden but it is not in full bloom as of yet.

October 12, 2011

It is not October and wow on all the 'Miss Huff' lantana. Lantana in my garden does not really get going until late August. This is due in part to not receiving full sun and also due to the fact lantana likes prolonged hot weather. Well this year it sure has had its share and grew to over five feet tall. The lantana is finally slowing down a bit but here you can see it in all its glory. I have been lucky in that three of the lantana in this area of Tiger Gardens have wintered over for several years now. Asters and lambs ear also provide some color for this fall view of the Front Sidewalk Garden.

May 22, 2011

 Shifting gears a bit here we now see side views of the same Front Sidewalk Garden. This is the view we receive when we park our cars and walk to the front door. You can see why it must be a show garden since it is in such a prominent spot.

In May we have lots of lilies, 'The Fairy' rose, 'Homestead' verbena, pansies, a few peonies and some of the Hippeastrum x Johsonii bulbs (the red color). The textures weave together in a manner that is pleasing to me and there is something going on all the time in this garden in May. The Japanese maple that is the centerpoint of this garden is virtually invisible from this side view but it will show up a bit more in the fall. Almost all of my gardens have trees as their centerpoints. It is the way I design and garden but it was never a conscious thing. 

October 12, 2011

I guess I just kind of skipped over the summer view of this garden-I told you I was very bad with keeping up with it didn't I? Well here we are in October where the lantana, asters, santolina, and sedum all take center stage.  The Asiatic lilies that were so wonderful in the previous picture are now going dormant and look a bit unsightly in the above picture. I do not cut them off until they are completely dormant so I live with the yellowing.

 November 8, 2011

This last picture shows the garden as it is now. There are only dried flower heads and slight memories of wonderful plants that have come and gone over this year although 'The Fairy' is bravely putting out some nice pink blooms even this late in the year. The Japanese maple is now also showing up nicely due to the red fall color of this maple. 

Due to the types of plants I have planted in this garden I do very little clean up of this garden. I mainly only remove all of the peony foliage (it's the first thing to go in my garden in the fall-don't trim tree peonies though). I'll do a final clean up in early February so that when the bulbs start bursting forward we'll be all set to start another year in the Front Sidewalk Garden....

in the garden.... 

  

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Reworking and Editing a Garden

It seems that as my gardens mature the number one chore I wind up doing is reworking and editing gardens. I think reworking gardens is sometimes harder than making new gardens. At least with new gardens you don't have to struggle with removing perennials and deciding where to put the excess ones. I have such a hard time editing because I hate to get rid of plants. It is like they are old buddies so I keep them around for sentimental reasons. Not too smart. I am getting better at editing with practice and I've been getting a lot of practice lately.

The above garden is my Front Sidewalk garden and is in a prominent spot right out front. As such, it is generally one of the first gardens visitors will see when they visit Tiger Gardens. I want it to be a showstopper and to always be in bloom and dress right dress as we used to say in the Army. There really wasn't much wrong with this garden but it did need some attention-editing and cleaning up. I had some 'Homestead' verbena that had literally taken over. That is normally a good thing except that the verbena had died in some sections and rooted in others and was everywhere and smothering other plants. I also had some red hot pokers in this garden that never earned their keep. Out they came! I solved the dilemma of what to do with the verbena and red hots by potting them up for the Montgomery County Master Gardener sale, scheduled for May 15th. I will also take some some to the Middle Tennessee Plant Swap in May providing everything goes as planned.
After the red hots and verbena were removed I consolidated some daylilies, phlox, sedum, and veronica then dressed the whole bed with a good layer of compost. And you know what? Editing this bed by reworking it and removing plants was a really good thing for me. I don't miss the plants at all and think the whole bed is improved. Time to move on to other beds and perhaps even editing the house....

in the garden....

Any editing and reworking in your garden?

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

Your Garden Style

Rear Center Garden
What is your gardening style? Do you have one? Do you even want one? Aspire to a style? What is it?Heuchera Garden
Oftentimes we speak of and hear about gardening styles. What exactly is a style and how do you choose a style of gardening?
Front Sidewalk Garden
Well for me I think my style of gardening is considered cottage, eclectic, and maybe a bit crowded. Can that be considered a style?

Front Foundation Bed-Right Side
I find I garden in this manner because I am a bit of a plant collector. I not only want every plant I see, I also want A LOT of those plants.

Sunny Perennial Border
I like lots of color and I want color all year long. As such, I must pack in a lot of plants in order to have something blooming all year. These plants must be planted in big enough drifts to make an impact when their neighbors are out of bloom.

Greenhouse Garden-Sunny Side
At the same time they must be close enough together so that they can carry the color when their neighboring perennials are out of bloom. A hard mission for any garden let alone the numerous ones I have here at Tiger Gardens.

Northside Shrub Border and Walled Garden
I want lots of textures, foliage, and blooms too. The whole garden should work together but how do you get the look you want? I really crave a succession of blooms and can anticipate when the next plant will bloom but putting it all together is a challenge. I do not want to see any ground in between the plants and the less grass I have to cut the better.

Crabapple Garden
So I keep packing in the plants wherever they seem to fit and wherever I think they'll do well. Some things work and some things don't. Then of course I have to adjust my style. I dig plants, I throw out plants, I move plants, I simply abuse my plants in my quest to get the perfect garden according to me.

Greenhouse Garden-Shade Side
Did I mention my garden is sun challenged? No where on this one little acre of dirt does the sun shine for more than 6 hours at a time. That one little spot is in my driveway. Ha! What fun!

Spa Garden
So I garden with shade and shade plants. I enjoy the shade yet I yearn for sun loving plants. I adapt. As do the plants and that is a great thing.

Front Center Garden and Part of Forest Pansy Garden
I try to garden to please me and to find my exact specific gardening style. Gardening is an art that is never really complete. It must always be worked on and oh yes, let's throw in the fact that the gardener will change. We are not static. Just because I garden in a cottage type style now does not mean I will always garden this way. So I adapt and still I strive to find my garden style, but really the whole thing with gardening styles is misleading. The type of gardening you do should be called the "Piece of Me" gardening style. Because no matter what your style is it is uniquely yours and you leave a piece of you in your garden each time you tend it, plant it, edit it, prune it, weed it, well you get the idea.Northside Shrub Border
Don't get wrapped up in garden styles, just enjoy your garden for the reasons you do. And don't ever let anyone tell you what type of style you should have in your garden. Strive to be you and leave a piece of you in your garden. This is what makes all gardeners have a special connection to their gardens. A garden is uniquely the gardener's. You can have ten thousand gardeners gardening in a formal style and I guarantee you not one single garden will be the same. Forget about styles and garden the way you wish to garden. Find your own style...

in the garden....whatever it may be.