Our Garden Beds

Originally we had an unruly cinquefoil that needed a new home; one of us suggested this spot. In it went; we added a few annuals and moved an astilbe to keep it company. Everything died except the cinquefoil. We tried a different set of plants the next year, with similar results. Over the years we've concluded that this plot's fatal to nearly everything (including, in the end, the cinquefoil). This isn't really a garden; it's a torture chamber for plants. The current inmates: Peony, Poppies, a Red Hot Poker, two Lilies (one quite strange), and a pair of Yuccas. And a Sedum we hope gets bigger; it's front and center in this picture.

One spring we noticed we didn't really have any color in the back yard, so we built a garden in the corner. Conceptually this one's a garden for tall annuals--usually Cleome, sometimes Verbena, occasionally Glads. The annuals are anchored by Lilies, Daylilies, and Butterfly Weed--and a (new last summer) Sedum at dead center. And we fill things in with some smaller annuals; since last summer's Dianthus survived the winter, we're repeating. Just planted the Cleome, so we'll have some color soon. We've also some holdover Verbena and perhaps some Glads. Final note: From a maintenance perspective, this garden's frustrating. We're perpetually fighting crab grass.

When we built the trellis we tore out a couple bushes the previous owners had planted. Then when we moved the sidewalk it opened this space. We don't really plan our gardens. We knew this one--highly visible to us , and distantly visible to everyone--needed to be both pretty and easily maintained, so we hied off to the Meijer Gardens plant sale and purchased plants whose tags fit that pretty/maintainable pattern. While things have evolved a bit over the years, this is pretty much the garden we originally planted. It currently needs a little rework (there's too much Gayfeather/Liatris), which may or may not occur this spring. We'll likely plant a few annuals around the edge in a day or two. The bush--a Flowering Quince-- has a story . It's pretty much surrounded by Snow on the Mountain. Between the Quince and the porch it's dark and sandy; there are Hostas, Columbine, and a surprisingly hardy Astilbe. By summer's end the roses will likely cover the trellis. At least it often works that way.

A true, but preposterous, tale: A neighbor family kept a pet Armadillo in a shed behind their house. One day it escaped, which set their kids aflutter. They knocked on the neighborhood's doors and looked high and low for the slipped-off critter. I hadn't seen the beasty, but he'd destroyed the Japanese Iris surrounding my wellhead--evidently the rootstock was acceptable food. But he'd then left the yard, and was nowhere to be found. The next day another neighbor reported that the pet was asleep in his gas-fired grill. 'Twas a bit of a shock.... I tried to recover the Iris bed with the scraps he'd left, but it didn't work out. So I ripped everything up and planted these Daylilies.

This is our show garden, out front by the sidewalk where anyone can see. It begins flowering in March and has color far into fall. One spring Joan suggested building a garden beside the driveway. Since we already had a couple driveway gardens, I needed that clarified. Out we went, looked over this corner of the lawn, and agreed to a 4 by 8 foot rectangle with Burning Bushes at both ends. Digging out that rectangle was painful. Evidently the contractors who built our lawn put a six-inch layer of clay just below the turf line. But we eventually planted our bushes, and filled the intervening space with tall Verbena and Cranesbills and Bellflowers and Foxgloves and a Columbine. And a couple Blanket Flowers. Blanket Flowers, we've since learned, will take over your garden. So will Cranesbill, but they're more patient; they send out colonies. This bed changes constantly. We doubled its size one spring, and then expanded it again. One year I ripped out one of the Burning Bushes. We add perennials every year. Once we removed almost everything on the front half, and planted new stuff. This year we've Coneflowers and Sedum (yep, we plant Sedum everywhere) and Yarrow and Black-Eyed Susan and Beard Tongue--and still the Blanket Flowers and Cranesbill and even a bit of Verbena, all descended from the originals. And a Columbine. We really like Columbine. This garden's a bit of a mess, just now; next spring we'll likely rebuild it. And that bush really needs a trim. That's coming in a day or two. My brother calls this The Square Garden, which is accurate but implies we've no imagination. Perhaps he's right, but we're fairly proud of this effort.

Our long-time neighbor, Mike, built his garage close to the property line. Then his wife planted these roses beside it. They, of course, overflow into our yard. The bed's location is otherwise peculiar. From next door the view's almost entirely obstructed by the garage. The pines in our yard hide the flowers from our view. Our current neighbors find the location a mystery, and have discussed moving the roses. I've encouraged them to do so. In the meantime, this flower bed's not being maintained. If anyone lived in The House Behind Our House, they'd have the best view of Theresa's garden. I took this photo from that backyard. (Footnotes, just for completeness sake: Mike warned us about the garage before he built it; I presume he'd have let us veto the location. The county fined him for the zoning violation. And Theresa asked permission before planting these in our yard.)

While I was working over the flower beds last week, Joan was whipping this garden into shape. Obviously this isn't a flower garden, despite the best efforts of the Sage and the Chives. But for a time this was a flower plot. About a year after I moved in I planted a hundred or so Lilies and a similar number of Tulips in a rectangular space behind the garage. The result was very colorful, but the tall plants and high-density bulbs proved difficult to maintain. After Joan moved in she planted a very small vegetable garden directly behind the Lilies. This was obviously a temporary measure, and we considered a number of alternate locations. All had significant drawbacks. Eventually the difficult flower garden became an unholy mess. So we ripped it out, transplanted some of the flowers, and gave a few away. And Joan's veggie garden doubled in size. It's not without problems. The clay seems impervious to improvement, and the Forsythias guarantee that the southern edge is in permanent shade. It remains a small garden. But from time to time we've fresh broccoli, lettuce, green beans, peppers, onions, and tomatoes. It's a good thing.

Joan's little garden, as of yesterday. Most everything's about where we'd expect, given the early-June planting date. Joan says the beans will be a disaster. But that's normal for this garden.