My extravagance is my garden-it’s the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure. ~Ina Garten
Hard to believe July is just about half over. And as July unfolds, the weather has become summery. Temps in the low to high 80s and less rain. So time to check out the gardens. Every other month I join Lucy@Loose and Leafy for her Stuck Foot meme around the 21st of every other month.
What is a Stuck Foot post you ask? As Lucy explains:
A stuck foot post is where you plant your foot firmly in a roughly random place and see what you can see without moving.
I love taking a closer look at different gardens using this method. I gain a better perspective of the garden, what is growing there and what needs to be changed. This month I am focusing on the Arch Garden. I profiled this garden a few months ago showing how it looks in all seasons, but I thought I would get a closer look this month.
And for this post, as we are close to the 15th, I am also linking in with Carol@May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day the 15th of each month.
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Instead of entering the garden from the back of the house, I thought we would enter from the left, where we go along the side lawn, the wall garden and come up to the left gate. If we peek through the arch, we can see the gazebo at the back of the garden. I love this view. So let’s go in.
We are approaching the Arch Garden to the left of the arch. On the right of the arch is part of the patio garden, and that is where a grape-vine grows….although it has never produced grapes in the 5 years it has grown here. The front half of the Arch Garden is in almost full sun. The back half is in dry shade once the trees leaf out.
As I step into the Arch Garden, I am near the edge on the left and just about even with the arch. If I look just in front of me, I see the jumble of flowers growing here. I planted a pink fairy rose (top right), pink Echinacea and an Invincibelle® Spirit Hydrangea or Hydrangea arborescens which is about 4 or 5 years old now. It flowers beautifully as you can see in the second picture. And there is a pale pink climbing rose on this side of the arch as seen in the last picture.
But there are several things that have landed here as volunteers like this beautiful Rudbeckia. Of course there are weeds too as I have not weeded this bed yet.
Here’s a close-up of the orangey Echinacea. I believe it is from the Echinacea Big Sky™ series, specifically “Sundown” (also at the top of the post). The flat white flowers are the aggressive, Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’. I do love it, but need to tame it a bit here.
Isn’t this a stunning Echinacea, but I think it is not ‘Sundown’ as it is a bit floppy. I think it may be Echinacea ‘Orange Meadowbrite’. And the white daisy flower is wild daisy fleabane.
If I swivel a bit on my foot and square myself with the arch you can see more Echinacea along with Lychnis (bottom left). I didn’t swivel the camera down or you would see the pink lilies and Campanula punctata ‘Cherry Bells’ (bottom right), which can be quite invasive. The yellow flowers near the arch are Hypericum perforatum which is an non-native St. John’s Wort considered invasive here.
Swiveling right, you can see my foot is close to the edge of the bed with the gray foliage of the Lychnis and one of the peonies that blooms here. And that is the lawn, or should I say clover as that is what grows in the lawn now instead of grass which fine with me as the rabbits and pollinators prefer it.
Let’s swivel a bit more to the right and we are facing the back of the bed. Most of it is covered in weeds, and some seeded Northern Sea Oats. At the far end is a boxwood and another peony. I know there is a daylily, other lilies, columbines, and a few very small bushes that I have to uncover once I weed the bed. The large gray foliage is that of Rudbeckia maxima, or Giant Coneflower, a native to parts of the southern US.
If I look up from here, I can barely see the flowers forming against the trees from the Center Garden.
And another flower that grows wild in the Arch Garden is Knautia macedonica. I adore this flower as do the bees.
So what am I doing with this garden? Frankly I am unsure at this point. I had wanted this to be a garden with flowering shrubs and beautiful flowers poking out here and there. And I suppose it could still be, although I need to find shrubs that do well in the dry shade of summer.
But first I need to weed and inventory this garden. Then this coming winter, I hope to work on a design for this garden.
Have you ever stuck your foot in your garden or any space and looked closely to see what is there? Give it a try.
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In A Vase On Monday
I thought I would pick flowers and foliage for vases from the Arch Garden this week…..
I am using my lovely Irish vase covered in clover. Perfect as the Arch Garden is surrounded by clover. The vase is from Wade Porcelain, and placed on the mantel in front of my black hand-painted fan.
This vase has the orangey-pink Echinacea, pink fairy roses and pink lilies along with the pink ‘Invincibelle Spirit’ hydrangea. Added to these main blooms are Knautia macedonica, Fleabane daisy, and Northern Sea Oats foliage. I left the arrangement loose, and liked how it opened more than if I had added more foliage and blooms.
I had some left over fairy roses so I made two smaller vases. Added to the roses was Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’ in both vases. In the top vase I also added a pink lily, Campanula ‘Cherry Bells’ and Fleabane daisy. I really love all the colors that the Arch Garden provides, and with a bit of work, it will have even more blooms in the future.
I am joining in with a few memes this week as I prepare these vases: Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful meme, In a Vase on Monday, Today’s Flowers hosted by Denise@An English Girl Rambles and Judith@Lavender Cottage who hosts Mosaic Monday.
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Next up on the blog:
Next Monday, I will have another combined post for Wildflower Wednesday, and In A Vase On Monday.
I am linking in with Michelle for her Nature Notes meme at her new blog just for Nature Notes. It is a great way to see what is happening in nature around the world every Tuesday.
I am also joining in I Heart Macro with Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Saturday.
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