The first picture is of my perennial garden by the side of the house leading to the front door. We have lots of shade, so what grows best here are bleeding hearts in the front, I think you can still see some of the blooms in the picture -- they were very nice this year. Among other plants in the back there are astilbes and thalactrum, which will start blooming next month.
By the front door I have pots planted with coleus. A few years back I planted pretty impatiens in these pots, which thrived in the shade, but unfortunately the deer ate them all down to the roots. So for the last couple years I've looked for the various colorful coleus.
Down the side of the driveway the ferns are doing very well.
On the other side of the house, the lily-of-the-valley have completely taken over; my late mother-in-law planted these probably 60 years ago. They bloom late up here in northwest CT, we had them up until last week. If the windows on that side of the house are open when they are in flower, their smell fills the house. In the foreground of this picture I think you can see a wild buttercup -- they are very pretty so I let them be.
Across the little run-off stream, which is the edge of our property, our neighbors let their large meadow grow unchecked through the spring and early summer. I think nature is the best gardener of us all.
P.S. I was thinking how wonderful it would be to be remembered for a field of lillies of the valley. So much better than being remembered for the good china, or the crystal platter.
3 comments:
Barbara, I love your garden. I'd love to wander through it and then sit and soak it in. I especially love the lilies of the valley - my dad had a whole swath of them beside our house under the wild cherry trees and it always made me happy to see them. Mine are doing better this year than in the past, so I'm hoping they'll continue to spread the way yours have.
Thank you Mary - and I think you will have luck, because lily of the valley are easy spreaders. It's interesting that they remind you of your dad - I think Pat will appreciate this too: plants can be like (better than?) Proust's Madeleines.
Wow.. That is beautiful! Even though I am not a fan of winter weather, the drastic (at least to me) change in seasons in the north is special.... At least it seems that way.
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