ellen This summer, I have had lots of surprise, cute combo moments. I want to share a few of them with you.
This is one of my favorites. While working on a garden this July, I noticed how this silver sage was growing up between the branches of an oak leaf hydrangea. It was just stunning with the silver peeking through the green and mauve/white blooms, like a growing bouquet.
In another garden I was working on this year, my clients were certain they had a dead spot that got too much sun and heat. I took these clues to grow lavender, cosmos, zinnia, sage, iris, blood grass, stonecrop, and gomphrena. Adding annuals will help keep the bed full as the perennials grow into their element over the years.
Chamomile and alliums. This was quite a lovely surprise to see the reseeded chamomile finding height with the alliums early summer. This one, I hope to see yearly.
Sweet William and campanula are both part shade biennials that I started from seed. The first year, there was green low growth and the second year, wow, what a show in scent and sight. Both should self seed. Looking forward to see what happens next year.
This native fleabane and daylily combo is very cute and has grown on its own accord. Both are prominent throughout our property, and here, they have made friends.
This garden is plentiful in the hosta arena. They are planted in circles around the trees with half circles one type and half circles another. I am slowly integrating and mixing them up. The addition of astilbe has really been a nice focal point in the sea of hosta. I like the subtleness of pink and plan on continuing to add more astilbe as I replant hosta.
One of the first things I planted was Casa Blanca lily bulbs. Partially because I thought it would look cool coming out of the hosta and partially because I love the scent. I wanted it as close to the house as possible. I love this and plan on repeating it throughout the lighter part shade areas of our property. It’s magical. At night in the summer, the scent wafts into the house through open windows. Perfumed air, nothing like it.
Gardens are a place to play. I try lots of things, some are cool and others are not so cool. It’s all part of “learning your land.” I find the most exciting things are completely out of the blue or are because I particularly enjoy this one thing and want to make it work in my garden. Everything is worth a “try.” With a little research, you can be successful with things that may not be the norm. I hope you find the joy of experimentation in your own garden.
