The Gardens

Drive By

This is the garden that we drive by as we come up to the garage. It's evolving, but in autumn 2014 it looked awesome.
10/27/14

While its best season is fall, in May there is a line of globe alliums that march up the middle, with their declining foliage well hidden by the emerging 'Gro-Low' sumacs, seen here in 2015:
5/20/15
5/25/15
6/22/15
10/10/15

Here is the history of the development of this garden:

Mann Designs cut the strip that parallels the driveway in 2011.  I had planted some witch hazels, a corneliancherry dogwood, a magnolia 'Elizabeth', and a hydrangea 'Bluebird' along the drive in 2010.  The Manns then connected those isolated plantings into one long strip.

2011
October 5, 2011, isolated plantings before we connected it all, parallel to the curve of the drive.

September 16, 2011, all one garden border now, but waiting for plants to fill in.

I added a row of three hydrangea 'Tardivas' and in back of those put a tiny cutting of a doublefile viburnum.  The bare ground under all these plants will be covered with spreading groundcover sumac, Rhus aromatica.


2012
August 2, 2012

August 2, 2012

2013
What a disappointment. The beautiful, big, leafy, yellow-flowered Magnolia 'Elizabeth' did not come back in spring 2013. There had been antler rub over the winter, but it did not look fatal. However, the tree did not leaf out.

I moved the new little variegated sweetgum 'Silver King' to the spot where the magnolia had been and it has done well there.

In addition to those changes, the rest of this garden was in constant flux all year. I added the bubblegum pink penstemons 'Elfin Pink' to the back edge and they were awful. Floppy, too bright, just awful. Those came right out.

The rosa glauca seemed lost in this garden and it was moved to the dry creek bed area.  I moved the Swiss Stone Pine from Meadow's Edge to here, but then took it out as the narrow strip will never accommodate such a big evergreen, even one that is narrower than the norm.

Fragrant sumacs were moved about, the witch hazels were trimmed, I moved the small blue juniper over a few feet, I added a beautiful narrow Parrotia persica 'Vanessa' -- the changes went on and on. Still not finished!
June 2, 2013

The 'Tardiva' hydrangeas are filling in nicely and creating a small hedge effect.
August 24, 2013

September 29, 2013

October 23, 2013

2014
This strip of a garden is coming along nicely. In spring there are purple and white globe alliums in the center -- I actually had to move a few and buy more to get the effect of these tall stalks marching up the center, but I'm getting there. The idea is to have the emerging groundcover Rhus aromatica hide the onion foliage, and the sumacs need to spread a little more for that to happen.
May 26, 2014

I fretted all summer with how bunchy the middle looked -- the idea of three big panicle hydrangeas in a row wasn't working at all. The slender variegated sweetgum is filling out, but the doublefile viburnum and new parrotia tree to its right can't even be seen with the hydrangeas all messy and hiding everything.
June 14, 2014

In late September I took the hydrangeas out. They were blooming nicely and were getting big, but were too much. In the picture below there is still one under the dark Norway maple, but that came out before October.
September 26. 2014
I can finally see the viburnum, and that little spire in the middle is the parrotia growing taller

By late October, with the hydrangeas all out, it was looking so much better. The growing doublefile viburnum is now visible and the whole line up the driveway is nicer. It's a fall garden.
October 21, 2014

And what a fall garden it is! This is the back side, which is actually more interesting now than the side we pass as we drive up the driveway.  In addition to the big witch hazels on the left, and the brilliant red sumacs at ground level, there is a stand of silvery mountain mint, a wonderful deep red ninebark ('Summer Wine') and that little tiny blob next to the ninebark is a silvery Korean fir that will some day echo the silver of the mountain mint. Purple asters, even red roses are in there too. Crazy. I like it.
October 21, 2014

Really, fall is definitely its season.
October 30, 2014

October 30, 2014
Now, with the design finally settling in, I just need to wait for the sweetgum to get big enough to screen the neighbors, and for the doublefile viburnum to bulk up. And the little 'Vanessa' parrotia needs to get some height to be seen!