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Well, well. Hello there! For all of you who WANT to hear about my gardening adventures, here’s the spot to do it! In this article, I will be taking you through, briefly, the construction of the new back garden, how I have saved and transplanted some of my own divisions and a few of my favourite garden photos. So let’s begin with the most dramatic. The before & after of our now lovely back garden!

As you can plainly see, this was a horrid mess of erosion, badly flooded clay mud and a nice dead Pine tree in the corner! You can’t even see the Willows at the cusp of the hill as they are hidden by dead grassy growth. YUCKY POO POO!! So, you understand why I complained the way I did! Yeah?

Now, the lovely, ever-expanding new back garden. Well on it’s way to being lovely We haven’t had any massive pooling, as we did before, and the plants growing here now are already growing in size. This took roughly two and a half days for a company to come in and do all the heavy Bobcat work, moving the boulders, and hauling in tons (literally) of good soil, peat moss and mulch. This isn’t the whole of the back garden, but it’s the main view.

The fine, green blades of the new grass (a dwarf fescue) is already growing by leaps and bounds. I am amazed any grass is growing now. I can hardly believe it!! I’m not normally a grass person, but this dwarf fescue seems as though it will be a dream to walk on. Isn’t it cute?? I love the tiny rain drops clinging to the tips of the blades.

War-N’s favourite view is of the new, lovely, sturdy stone steps! They are graced with three potted Rosemary plants (’Athens Blue Spires’ variety) and the top pot is my absolute favourite blue ever!!

I have started planting bit by bit and it already looks so much more lovely! The view from our living room chair frames the perfect view of the newly planted Fairy Roses, Phlox and the Hybrid Willows in front of Marge, my Tulip Poplar.

Some new plantings are a Coral Bell (’Purple Palace’), freshly rained on, and looking lovely.

Also, beside the Coral Bells, are some Columbines. These are ‘Winky Purple & White”. What makes them “Winky”, I have no idea?? If anyone else does, let me know!

I plan to add many more varieties of Columbines in whites and blush colours. The mood goal of this back garden is calm, inspiring and just a comfy, cozy place to contemplate music, art, food and life in general.

Then, here is one of my Rue babies that showed up in my front area. I have managed to get 6 new plants just from luck and a windy day. I had to really search in the messy bed, full of wild grasses and not much else, but I saw the distinctive leaves of the Rue and just dug them up…VERY gently! They are growing rapidly in good soil and I’m glad I took the time, and effort, to save them. They say to be very careful with Rue because it can cause a skin reaction in some people. It doesn’t affect me, so I’m happy to live happily with my non-reactive Rue. Did you know the Rue plant was the inspiration for the Club design on a deck of cards? Cool, huh?

Apparently, I’m making what is also knows as a “Mary Garden”. I want tons of blues & whites, as that is my fav colour and it calms me down the most. The blues & whites are also used for the colours of the Virgin Mary. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing, but hey! We can all enjoy the great garden in blue & white. Maybe I’ll put a Mary out there in statue form. Who knows? There are a lot of things I still have no idea what I’m doing out there. I’m letting the garden tell me what to do.

Now, here are some of my fav photos I shared some of these with a few family members and they really liked them. The first is a combination potted planting I did about a month ago. It is bigger and more full and lush now, but this was how it looked right from the start! Just imagine it now!!

These are Tuberous Begonias (the pinkish one is called ‘Henny’, the red one is called ‘Barkos’) and they are planted with a Silver Mound (Artemesia, ‘Nana’ variety) right in the middle. It has really expanded and fills in all the open spaces at the edges of the pot. I must show a more recent picture later. It’s my fav arrangement I’ve ever done, thus far It sits on my front porch, near my rocking chair, and I just sit and enjoy it’s lushness and gorgeous blooms. I often have a cuppa on the porch in the morning and just enjoy the fullness of my front garden.

Speaking of Silver Mound, I planted a rather large one under my Birch tree, Sally, in our front yard. It looks great with the rock wall that I built around the tree. I will definitely be putting more underneath the Birch next year, or even this Fall

This helps to shade Sally’s roots and keep her in a little bit of a better condition. I will be planting a tree to shade Sally further this Fall. She’s ok for now, but she’s really not very happy :/ I was unaware at the time we planted her of the proper conditions she should have had. So, I strongly suggest you do a little research on larger plantings before you dig and plant and then wonder why it’s not doing well. I am a research queen now!!

Then, here’s the Lavender from the front bed. I believe this is the ‘Hidcote’ variety.

I have ‘Munstead’ as well,but it is paler and was my own seedling from 3 years ago.

The Lavenders were purchased, as are a lot of my plants, from a place called Marvin’s. Actually, I shall give you my list of my most frequented nurseries. Here they are:

Marvin’s Organic Gardens, Lebanon, OH. A superb place for organic plants, seeds, soil amendments and a great abundance of knowledge!! Marvin will never steer you in the wrong direction! I will always go to them for advice.

Sharon Nursery, Maineville, OH. Located near Mason, OH, and my In-Laws, I often go here just for the ambiance. It tempts me to buy, but I can often restrain from purchasing and just enjoy the surroundings. The Begonias and Silver Mounds came from here. They always have healthy, gorgeous plants. Such a tempting place!!

Meyer’s Garden Center & Landscaping, Fairfied, OH. They don’t have a website, but boy do they have fabulous plants! They are mostly shrubs and trees and foundation plantings. I got my Fairy Roses from them, and will be getting more trees from them very soon! Always happy, willing and able to give advice, they have steered me away from bad choices for my soil type and weak tree choices. Who in the world would do that but a TRUE gardener! I love that they don’t want to always make a sale. They’d much rather their plants go to a good, knowledgeable home!

Lakeview Garden Center, Fairfield, OH. This is our main source for trees. We’ve gotten most of our trees from them, and they are the ones who did the work in the back garden. Wow! I go here when I need to be surrounded by mature trees. They are expanding their nursery section too, so I can get great, large specimen plants for the new areas closer to home. You should see their Hosta and Rose sections. Lovely!!

Well, I do believe that should do it for this first installation of my Gardening progress. Please send me a comment if you have anything you think I’d be interested in. Sharing, especially in the garden, is always great!!

Always Growing,

CB