Our house was moved out of the floodplain two years ago, and so these beds around the
house are relatively new. I had saved a lot of the plants from the old beds around the
house to put in these new beds, along with seedlings, divisions, and of course, new
acquisitions! These pictures were taken over the last month.
In front of the house there is 'Pee Wee' Oak-Leaved Hydrangea with an underplanting of
White Wood Aster and Catmint and a 'Potter's Purple' Butterfly Bush on the northwest
corner. The hydrangea didn't do much at first, (I thought of replacing them with
Virginia Sweetspire) but they woke up and were full of flowers late this year. This bed
is very straightforward, but with a lot going on everywhere else, I wanted this bed to
be straightforward.
I have Buddleia all around the house. The south and west sides of the house are more
plain than the front and east side (with the chimney), so I wanted fast-growing shrubs,
and I love purple, so Buddleia seemed a natural choice.
There's a 'Petit Indigo' by the porch screen door; this and 'Potter's Purple' perfumes
the entire back porch.
Looking through a Potter's Purple on the west side of the house, down the path where we
lead the horses to pasture. In the center and right of the picture is the ditch that
runs behind the big perennial bed and by the old house site, under the grass road and by
one of the horse pastures... eventually it goes to Middle Creek over a quarter of a mile
away. I have planted some seedling Sweet Bay, swamp roses, American Silverbell seedlings
and Louisiana iris, as well as clearing around exisiting Aronia, Virginia Sweetspire,
and Sweet Pepperbush. In the foreground, where the ditch is broad, shallow and sunny,
it's currently full of Marsh Bulrush, also known as Teddy-Bear Paws.
A view from the front porch of the ditch and big perennial bed, as well as the
beginnings of new beds. I will start putting plants into the new beds in Sept./October.
Most of those plants will come from here, the plant nursery:
Standing in the parking area on the east side of the house, looking south -- here you
can see how tall these Commuter Daylilies (
H. citrina) are compared to Lion in Winter.
They have a wonderful fragrance, especially early in the evening. These were at their
peak about a month ago.
A seedling Hibicus. I think one of the parents is Moy Grande or Anne Arundel. At first I
didn't think I was going to see any blooms. The Japanese Beetles were eating all of the
buds before they could even open! Then the Hibiscus got ahead of the beetles and put on
a good show.
Looking north. These are the daylilies Bali Watercolor, Gentle Shepard, Buttered
Popcorn, a noid pink, and Lavender Deal.
Daylily 'Always Baroque' with Commuter daylilies, Purple Coneflower and 'Buttered Popcorn'.
'Buttered Popcorn' with Penstemon 'Midnight' and a
passalong
Achillea millefolium
Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue'
Trailing Heliotrope
Here is a shot taken while standing in the middle of the garden east of the house,
looking down the hill at the vegetable garden and big perennial bed. As you can see,
part of this bed still looks new, and is mulched with hay to keep down the bermudagrass
while everything else matures.
The garden east of the house is divided into several beds, to allow for water flow from
the house. One path goes from the front door to the paddock (where the horses spend the
night) and another one from the back door to the paddock. On the bottom of each of the 3
pictures below you can see small island beds that were created to increase planting area
but still allow water to run away from the house.
There is a young Crepuscule and an Alchymist rose planted on each side of the trellis. I
can't wait until those get some size. We had Alchymist growing over the backdoor of our
apartment when we lived in Chapel Hill. The flowers are full swirls of yellow, pink and
apricot and are just a thing of beauty.
There's an Archduke Charles and a shrub Old Blush in the little bed in front of the
trellis. I love those roses, but so does whatever is eating these along with the
Climbing Old Blush, so likely I will move the Old Blush to a more inconspicuous spot
and put a rugosa there in the fall.
Phlox paniculata 'Robert Poore'
Daylily 'Lavender Deal'
Daylily 'Beautiful Edgings'
