End Of Month View: July 2013
Helen at The Patient Gardener’s Weblog hosts End of Month View, which is an opportunity to focus on long views of our beds, borders, and gardens. A very useful idea, I must say. And I must also say that the views in the garden are pretty good right now.
Here’s a view of the front garden and house from the sidewalk. Those two clumps of ‘Northwind’ Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) are in the center of the sidewalk border.
Here’s another view of the grass path between the driveway border and island bed.
I am just loving the Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) this year. I can’t remember it ever looking so good before.
The Crabapple bed from viewed from the sidewalk. The spring and early summer blooms are mostly gone. In a month or so the Anise Scented Goldenrod (Solidago odora) and Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolius) will fill this space with blue and yellow. The tomatoes and herbs are semi-hidden on the south side of the crab.
A view of the house over a mass of Bee Balm ‘Raspberry Wine’ (Monarda didyma).
The Driveway Border seen from the other side of the driveway. You can see I’ve cut back the Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum). The Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) in the rear is growing in the Island Bed.
Here’s the front garden seen from the street. The Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida) planted along the curb is getting ready to bloom. The rounded shrubby plant in the center is the Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana), which has responded very nicely to being cut back after the blooming.
The front walk, lined with flowering containers.
There isn’t too much going on in the back garden right now, so there aren’t too many pictures from there. ‘Darlow’s Enigma’ is blooming sporadically on the arbor.
Here’s a view of the back garden Island Bed from the roof of the back porch. That’s the lower trunk of our silver maple at the center there. And notice the handsome concrete chicken.
Another part of the back garden. We’re thinking of putting down pavers in the area around the table so as to make a little patio.
How are the views in your garden?
gardeninacity 
everything looks beautiful, that would be a really nice spot for a patio!
Yes, I have to decide if I will do it myself or pay someone. Ten years ago I would have definitely done it myself but now … my back is not what it used to be.
My mouth is on the floor!!! Seriously!!! Do you do tours every year????
This was the first year. Not sure if I will do it again.
Oh, I love the idea of putting pavers down in the table area, that will look great. Your garden is looking quite good, so nice and green. Mine is a bit parched right now, we’ve had no rain for a little over a month, and even though I water every week, it still isn’t enough.
We have gotten a little dry, but the weather has turned so cool the plants are doing well. Today there is some rain, not sure how much.
It is great to see the ‘long’ views of your garden, it all works really well together. Why am I not growing Monarda when yours is great? I was wondering why you have a grass path, it must be so much work and require irrigation?
The soil in the front garden is naturally moist because of the way the water drains from the house. The grass path is just what is left after I finished digging out all the beds. It tends to get a little narrower every year! It really doesn’t get any watering or special treatment except that I mow it. If you could see it up close you would see that it is a mix of clover and grass. As to Monarda, it can be a genus of easy plants but most will want moisture.
I’d like to comment on Nicole (above’s post about GM) her comments won’t let me comment could you post this comment on her blog for me. It is something I feel so strongly about. “Great, great post! You understand why we in Europe get angry when the US government say they won’t even accept that GM products are labeled. Most British supermarket chains don’t have any GM in their own products. US consumers need to start voting with their wallet (pocket book?) DON’T BUY GM, if there is no market they will stop growing these plant” Thank you
I’ll try.
Done.
Thank you so much
Everything looks very green and healthy in your garden. I can really get a feeling of how you have designed your garden. I love your bee balm, and would like more of those in my own garden. It would be a great idea to put pavers around your garden table.
I bet bee balm would grow well in your garden.
‘pretty good!’ your front garden is stunning, if my garden looked half as good I’d be over-the-moon, I love seeing long views so you can see how plants go together and as in some of your photos how borders mix when you look across one and can see a futher border behind it,
I imagine it can get a bit hot where you are in summer and your back garden looks cool and inviting, the defining of the patio seating area with a bit of hard landscaping would look nice,
thanks for sharing, Frances
Yes it does get very hot here in the summers. At first I was disappointed that our whole back garden was shady but now I am grateful that we have both sun and shade.
Absolutely gorgeous! I love the range of plants you grow, bergamot looks ace. Do you get people walking by and taking photos? If I walked by your house and garden I know I would!! I remember your posts about the birders peering in with their cameras!!
More often people just make nice comments or ask questions. Then there are the middle schoolers who make snide comments, but middle schoolers are snide about everything.
Haha! One day they might learn to appreciate such a wonderful garden and return with their cameras!
It’s nice to see the garden from above too – puts things into perspective. It all looks lovely right now. Hope you have time to just sit and enjoy it!
I have to force myself to sit more. I do enjoy walking around and inspecting everything.
I like the way your plantings look so natural, as if they just grew there. That isn’t easy to pull off, so I can appreciate your efforts.
Thanks. It is partly by design, partly just letting the plants do what they want to do.
Your garden looks so much larger than I know it must be!!!
I know what you mean. We have a slightly larger than average plot. Maybe because it is so densely planted it looks bigger?
I totally did notice the concrete chicken!! My eye was drawn to him after I looked at the bird feeders. Lovely garden!!
Thanks. It’s really the concrete chicken that pulls it all together.
Thumbs up on the concrete chicken, and on your garden in general. How did you manage to get everything to bloom all at once? That trick has eluded me.
Bloom times from year to year are a deep mystery, manipulated by the garden gods to drive us mortals to madness.
You garden does look wonderful, it’s lovely to see so many plants packed in.xxxx
Thanks! I’m all about packing in the plants!
i like that you gave a birds eye view too. The front yard looks wonderful. Do the neighbors love it too? Did any visit on the open garden?
Many of the neighbors are very appreciative, others not so much. A handful did come to the open garden.
I do like your front garden borders, that is what I am aspiring too. I think from looking at yours I need more variety of height but bigger clumps
Thanks for joining in the End of Month view again
Massing generally looks nice but it is frustrating to our inner plant fanatic who wants lots and lots of different species.
Glorious massed plantings of all those lovely perennials, so dramatic. I love the monardas, I never have much luck with them, they always tend to get mildewy.
Breathtaking!
Thank you, Cheryl!
I second Cheryl: Breathtaking! You’ve created a stunning garden that sets off your house beautifully. I wish I could take the long view (or really any view) of my gardens. You must have a mountain of self-control to keep your “inner plant fanatic” from adding too many oners to your beds. Your massing gives that wonderful sense of waves of flowers. Mine looks more like someone (we don’t like to say who) has skipped through the gardens dropping a Sneezeweed here and a Monarda there and Spireas and Barberrys everywhere like a manic Flower Girl at Nature’s wedding.
What you don’t see are all the plants I’ve killed over the years. The high mortality rate makes for beds filled with fewer types of plants!
Jason, the front walk is beautiful! I love monarda as well and grow it in a pot. Do you use its leaves in teapot? I love the tea with bergamot.
Nice garden and house!
Thank you, Nadezda! I know that Bergamot is used to make Earl Gray but we have never used either Monarda to brew our own tea.
Your front garden is absolutely gorgeous and balanced beautifully, can you tell me what soil you have there, we live on a high water table, so some years I can grow Monarda and this year its hopeless and has not done well at all as we have had a very dry summer so far.
We are lucky in that we have a loamy soil with some clay. It is naturally pretty moist and has a lot of organic matter.
Beautiful flowers everywhere you look!
But I must say my favorite is the Bee Balm ‘Raspberry Wine’
Happy Gardening!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
Raspberry Wine is a beauty, and very mildew resistant.
That’s an amazing garden, just gorgeous. Quite a difference from our hot, dry gardens here.
True, but then you don’t have our frigid winters.
Absolutely beautiful! I echo many others in praise of the bee balm, it’s stunning!
Thanks, I’ve really come to love both Monardas.
The long views of your front garden really show off its cottage garden aesthetic in a way that isn’t obvious when you focus on individual plants. Beautiful.
Very glad you like it.
My views will be revealed tomorrow…but many are overcrowded and need cleaning and weeding…soon I hope…love that view from the front walk
I look forward to seeing your garden!
Hi Jason, you have an incredible garden, the front is lush, busy and full of flowers and the back is calm, contemplative and serene, very classy – apart from the concrete chicken, perhaps.
Hey, nobody trash talks my concrete chicken.