Your Home, Garden and Travel

The gravel entry garden is the first thing a visitor sees when arriving. There is sufficient space for a car to park in front of the bench. In a few years, the dwarf Burford 'nana' hollies will create a hedge to separate the gravel garden from our concrete parking area for our garage. A large oakleaf holly and a crepe myrtle flank the bench area. A row of rosemary lines the opposite side of the gravel parking space. 

From the gravel parking area, a hedge of hollies line the garage wall. The arched bridge crosses the dry stream to the meadow grass. A crepe myrtle on the lower right is underplanted with dusty miller and sedum. A ground-level birdbath is not shown from this window shot. Crepe myrtle, nepeta, buddleia, monarda, amsonia and salvia greggii are planted in the gravel garden.

Perennial scutellaria suffrutescens 'Texas Rose' and thyme are planted as ground cover at the base of the right stone column at the garden gate. Just inside the gate, along the fence, I'm redoing this narrow strip. My project is on hold due to ground bee nests! I pulled out nigella and was fortunate not to be stung. On the outside front of the fence, three more crepe myrtles and carissa hollies are growing in the gravel and that is why the flagstone is pushed to the right in the deer resistant garden. We are leaving space for the trees and shrubs to mature.

In the cottage garden, the flagstone goes to the porch while rounded, small rock is used on the loop around the front and back of the running stream. 

I recently planted a new narrow strip (right of bench) of phlox 'David', asclepias incarnata 'Ice Ballet', hydrangea 'Little Lime', geranium 'Rosanne', sweet alyssum, hardy ageratum and annual polka-dot plant. I removed two shrub roses that were no longer receiving sufficient sun as the trees are maturing. 

I also removed a jasmine from the stone column behind the bench. It had begun to be nearly uncontrollable as the willow limbs provided a place to climb. I have plans to extend the narrow strip around the corner behind the bench to fill space where the jasmine was removed.

A few days ago, I spray painted the rusting bronze metal bench and a small iron table to a light green. There are false agave in the matching concrete urns (stained light green). I'd like to stain the bridge, but I'm having trouble finding a deck stain in light green and hesitate to use paint since we walk on this bridge so many times each day.

The waterfall patio garden is now totally secluded since we built it in 2005. With all of my sunny gardens of blooms, the focus of this garden is foliage. There are three containers of heuchera, heucherella and tiarella and a planter of trailing tiarella and a pulmonaria. A hanging basket includes another heuchera and purple heart. Gold creeping jenny softens the rocks along the stream bank. 

Variegated carex are still going on one side of the waterfall, while those planted on the other side are getting shaded out. This will require a re-do in the future. Calla lilies grow in the waterfall. The large green trees are cryptomeria and there are gold mops on the right side across the stream.

Not possible to photo from above is yet another patio, sunken lower to the left that has a large teak dining table. Just as well not to photo as we're redoing the gardens there as the curly willow and sweet bay magnolia are now mature. In other words, I'm not showing you the weeds! With a theme of fragrance from white blooms—other plants surrounding that patio include butterfly ginger, jasmine, gardenia and osmanthus fragrans.

The east deer resistant garden (couldn't be photographed from house) has been undergoing renovation this year with wider paths and a gravel section. Sun-loving plants have been moved from beneath the willow to open areas. There are two color scheme gardens here—a red/white garden and a yellow/orange garden. There is much yet to do beneath the willow and back to the dining patio. Those projects will be tackled in the fall or in spring 2013.