Garden Tour

As promised, I'm posting some garden pictures. If you want to see more detail, just click on the individual photos:


Let's start in the front garden, where this walk meanders to the front door. Except for one large urn planted with annuals, everything here is perennial, and has been planned for four-season interest. Here in the late-spring garden, "Zing" pinks at the foot of this peony add a nice little jolt of color. On the other side of the walk is my favorite rose, David Austin's "Evelyn," which was developed for Crabtree & Evelyn to use in their rose perfumes. Below it are bunches of lavender that have just begun to grow and will soon line the walk with beautiful cobalt blooms. To the right of the lavender is some dying daffodil foilage which is giving way to the lush ferns that will crowd around the whiskey-barrel fountain to make a nice little oasis.

At the top of the photo is a hedge of David Austin's "Heritage" roses, which are just beginning to bloom. The five bushes are more distant than they appear in this picture--they're on the far side of the front yard. Not pictured (maybe later) is the powerfully fragrant climber, "Zepherine Drouhin," that greeted me with a heavenly old-rose scent when I walked out the front door to take these photos.

The red roses you see on the right are "Knockout." Although not fragrant, the bushes are good performers.


Now we've moved to the back garden. My blue chair (built for me years ago by my hunk o' burnin' love) and its yellow-topped table sit out all year, even in the snow, because we use the patio in all but the very worst weather. That means the furniture needs painted every other year; and as you can see, this is the year. My husband, an architect, also designed and built the arbor you see in the background.


I'm crazy in love with roses. They're everywhere in the front and back gardens. And in this small bed, I'm allowing English ivy to grow underneath them. Yes, the ivy hogs water and nutrients, and the roses would probably do better without the competition. But I like the look, and whenever I stick a rose into a bud vase, I can grab a handful of ivy to go with it. (I cut the ivy back when it tries to climb up the bushes.)


The birdbath you see in the background is very popular with our feathered friends. They like that it's nestled close to a hedge, which gives them not only privacy, but a convenient place to perch while they flutter themselves dry. What they don't realize is that I have a clear view of their ablutions from my kitchen window.

Surrounding the birdbath are the potted herbs we use for cooking. My favorites are the basil, rosemary, chives, and spearmint.

The roses I had on the arbor last year weren't doing well, so we yanked them out and put in some new ones. These are "Blaze," not a favorite of mine because of their ordinary form and lack of scent. But they'll quickly cover the arbor and they'll bloom all summer, making a nice focal point for the patio and tempting us to enter the back yard.

I don't want to put up any more photos because lots of you use dial-up connections, so this concludes our garden tour. Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend. Be sure to hug a veteran!