This seating area sits at the top of the driveway, to the west side of the house. It is somewhat enclosed by dense green inkberry hollies on one side and the bluestone walkway with plantings on the house side.
It's a sunny area in the afternoon, and the challenge has been to get some shade there either from the umbrella or from trees planted along the west side.
In 2015 I painted two Mayan chairs red, and like that effect a lot.
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| 5/2/15 |
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| 5/25/15 |
Here is the history of the development of this garden:
In 2011 Mann Designs took up all the sod in an S curved area between two borders at the top of the driveway, and I designed an irregularly shaped area filled with pea gravel, surrounded by low shrub borders. The red knockout roses that were at the top of the driveway pavers were removed and I put in a smokebush to screen the new sitting area from the driveway.
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August 7, 2009
Before the gravel garden was installed there was an area with roses, daylilies, a paperbark maple
and some thyme plugs holding the little bank |
Before the gravel was added, the curved area behind the garden at the top of the pavers was grass (mostly; there was a lot of creeping charlie in there) and looked like this:
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| May 12, 2011 Before |
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| June 20, 2011 Before |
After the gravel was added, the area became a place to relax, surrounded by low plants and some trees that will eventually shade this west side of the house.
2011
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| October 15. 2011 |
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| October 15, 2011 |
2012
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| June 18, 2012 |
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| June 18, 2012 |
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| July 22, 2012 |
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| September 16, 2012 |
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| October 21, 2012 |
2013
It's coming along nicely. This year we added a metal arch with gate. I planted a male kiwi vine (Actinidia kolomitka) to climb over it, but that will be a couple years before we see the pretty foliage draping this arch.
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| June 12, 2013 |
I added a styrax tree to the border just to the left of the new arch. It is Styrax japonicus var. fargesii, which will stay narrow and upright. The star magnolia in front of the arch is filling in well.
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| July 10, 2013 |
The 'Tardiva' hydrangea at the end of this garden is a beautiful shape and bloomed nicely. A little row of potted marigolds edged the back of the garden. Strawberries are planted all along the border and produced a wonderful crop this year.
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| August 15, 2013 |
I planted 5 'Tide Hill' boxwoods in a transecting line that crosses from the border into the gravel, and I like the effect. These will bulk up and fill in to touch each other, but will stay small and low.
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| September 24, 2013 |
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| September 29, 2013 |
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| October 17, 2013 Looking toward the border from the Birch Garden |
At the end of October we built ourselves a fire one night in the fire bowl and drank ice wine while sitting in the gravel garden. Nice.
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| October 28, 2013 |
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| November 2, 2013 We added a low stacked stone wall in late summer and it looks like it has always been there. |
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| December 10, 2013 |
2014
The gravel garden is an area that I feel I can change up all the time. Furniture, annuals, moving things around, garden ornaments -- I try out different things in this area.
I've been experimenting with daffodils at the top of the low wall, and added purple creeping phlox. Both need to spread out more. An experiment with aurinia (Basket of Gold) in this area petered out after one season. They didn't take.
The smokebush at the center of the wall gets cut back in spring and it seems slow to get going. By mid May there is no screening at all, but by late May it starts to open up and in June it leaps into leaf.
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| May 13. 2014 |
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| May 31, 2014 |
I experimented in 2014 with putting the patio set of table and chairs in the gravel garden. It didn't really work, although it looked nice enough.
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| July 19, 2014 |
But the chairs sank into the gravel, the area still is too hot and sunny late in the day when you'd most want to have a snack or glass of wine out there, and it was too far from the back door and kitchen.
So I put the table and chairs back on the patio nearer the kitchen, and turned this back into a sitting area. I got a glider from Moscarillo's that I like, and it's nice place to sit if you pick a shady time of day or get the umbrella positioned just so.
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| September 26, 2014 |
In fall this garden area colors up nicely and the pink 'Sheffield' mums are frothy.
One of the things I like is the diagonal row of little 'Tide Hill' boxwoods that angle out from the border into the gravel.
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| October 25, 2014 |
And I like them from the side too, with the doublefile viburnum drawing the eye in the distance.
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| October 25, 2014 |
When it is not so hot and sunny in summer, it is a nice place to sit and I do spend time on that glider.
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| October 28, 2014 |
I'm still experimenting with shrubs and annuals and perennials around the gravel garden. I like nasturtiums spilling over the rocks and want to try blue plumbago climbing the twig towers by the inkberry hollies again. I need to plan something for the empty spot after the daffodils go by at the top of the wall.
I put mukdenias at the edges, I got more butterfly weed for the end corner and I need to move one of the fotehrgillas out of the way of the fragrant asters, which get huge. A lot of tinkering goes on in this garden.
