Tuesday, June 2, 2009

My Favorite Garden

Aspen Garden  27 May 2007

My "Aspen Garden" on 26 May 2007

In the autumn of 2006, I killed the front lawn so we could start over with better soil, less watering, a sprinkler system and a new fescue grass, called Rescue Fescue. Anyway, I didn't get the seed into the soil until October 2007, so this garden was the only pretty thing to look at in our front yard that year.

A few years after we moved to this house I started a garden journal in a plain little spiral notebook...the kind school kids use. I wanted something simple that I could tape pictures in and write about the failures and successes of each season. It's a great history of my front and back yards because I have added gardens, transplanted perennials and ripped out bushes and trees. It is also wonderful to look at during the winter when everything has died, or looks dead, in the case of perennials.

I still have the garden journal notebook, but have not kept up with the entries since I bought a digital camera in 2001. I rarely make prints of digital photos. I would like to get back to it, but in the meantime this blog will serve as my garden journal.


My yard is an ever changing palette for the art of gardening. Many times all these changes have frustrated me. I accepted that plants and trees die, but I wished I could just figure out a plan that worked and be done with it. Not make so much work for myself. And now I am trying to reduce the numbers of plants, etc because I have other interests and less energy than I did in my younger days. It's difficult for me to rip out a healthy baby 'volunteer' plant. It breaks my heart to do that, but I remind myself that the garden will be prettier if I keep it under control and it will mean less work in autumn when everything is going to seed.

In this garden that I call the "Aspen Garden" I planted a half dozen lupines or so many years ago. The originals have died, but 'volunteers' have taken their place. Three years ago I did not have many lupines, but last year I didn't have time to pull up the volunteers and I'm so happy to see the new colors this year...pinks and lavenders. Just gorgeous! I lost the blue columbines under one of the aspens and that was okay because the flowers quickly became covered in sticky sap dripping from the aphids that were feasting on the aspen leaves and then fluffy 'cotton' from the neighbors cottonwood trees stuck to the flower petals. Very ugly. This happened for several years. Ants 'farm' the aphids and it's difficult to get rid of the ants.


Aspen Garden  30 May 2008

My "Aspen Garden" on 30 May 2008

The grass has come in, along with a lot of volunteer Johnny Jump Ups, that came from ONE garden. I decided to let them grow along with the grass. It looked like a mountain meadow to me. I pulled them up when the seed began to mature. It was a one time experiment.

Cloudy Aspen Garden  26 May 2009

"Aspen Garden" under clouds 26 May 2009

I think this is my favorite year for this garden. It just keeps getting better and better. I have gotten the best ever close ups with my macro lens.

Sunny Aspen Garden   27 May 2009

"Aspen Garden" under the sun 27 May 2009

Sun dappled petals are so beautiful. I am easily transported to a fairy tale scene when I sit on the front patio overlooking this garden

Three Colors of Lupines  27 May 2009

Three colors of lupines 27 May 2009

Love this color combo.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lovely pictures of the garden!