Barbara's Garden Tour

Let's all get off the bus, and we're at Barbara's country house in Connecticut and here's her garden tour.

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.

Pat again: Now I want to sit outside with a garden hose on my feet, drinking lemonade, and talking about nothing. The naturalization of the meadow reminds me of when I would buy all different colors of impatiens and then become obsessed with the order of the colors -- two pinks, one salmon, a red, two whites, repeat... until (again) I even annoyed myself. My solution was to take all the impatiens out of their containers, remove all color sticks and plant them randomly so I didn't even know which color was going where and I was always so pleased with the natural look of the result.

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.