For our third local tour of the season, we were able to peruse a charming garden in a newer suburb of the city. Unlike the previous two tours, this gardener was working with a plot of land closely bordered by neighbors. Creating the illusion of a quiet, tucked-away garden is even more challenging for an urban gardener because of these closely situated lots. After years of cultivating her garden, I feel this gardener did a great job of achieving a beautiful backyard sanctuary.

Growing Walls

Whether lounging on the back patio or strolling through the garden, I barely noticed any neighboring homes, walls, or structures. One could say this is because I am a nutty-about-plants gardener and was distracted by all the green pretties. However, a layered collection of mature trees, flowering shrubs, and ornamental grasses created a living wall encircling the backyard.

Nooks and Crannies

I enjoy exploring gardens with little “rooms,” or tucked away places not very noticeable upon first glance. This garden utilized a mature pine to create a hidden path and cubby linking the front and back garden. Loved the addition of the whimsical mushroom statues.

The backyard garden had multiple paths winding through a diverse collection. I enjoy specimen gardens like this, allowing you to view and marvel at many types of plants.

How great is this guy? There were many treasures to discover throughout the garden.

Low Maintenance, Fab Foliage

I briefly chatted with the gardener about this collection of succulents on the back patio. All plants in these containers are tender to our zone 6a, meaning they would not survive the winter. However, they do not require much water unlike many other blooming, annual alternatives. And look at all those colors! Lovely.

Some Favorite Picks

There were many great plants living in this garden, but here are a couple of my favorites. This cranesbill is blooming in September! Cranesbill on the Lot is only a spring-blooming plant. There were so many happy bees dancing around this one.

As a gardener I am constantly learning. I had no idea what the fruit of a flowering dogwood looked like. Here they are.

I’m a sucker for colorful foliage, like Japanese blood grass. It is noted as an aggressive weed in warmer climates, but the temperature in our growing climate keeps those lovely fronds well in check. Now, combine the color with fuzzy seed heads found on bunny grass all within a dwarf-grass. Squee!

Overall I feel the Open Gardens this season were a success. Not only can gardeners be inspired by different arrangements and applications of plants, we also are able to visit with another and swap ideas. Even better are the shared stories of how you all made mistakes, feel ridiculous afterward, learn (most times), and forge ahead.

The Master Gardener Association for our area of the state recently brought back “Open Garden” visits. Members of the chapter are invited to attend a social evening of touring a peer’s garden. This garden was the second in a series of 3 for this season. It contained a shade/woodland garden and a perennial garden.

Here is some lungwort (Pulmonaria) greeting us in a bed at the front of the house.

The property is surrounded by woodlands, with a large clearing holding both the house and the sunken perennial garden. This photo was taken from the shade garden at the edge of the woods looking across the bit of lawn to the back of the home.

The woodland garden was full of textures not only from the plants, but also from sun puddles created by the tree canopy. Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) was the main ground cover, combined with an assortment of hosta, coral bell (Heuchara), ferns, brunnera, periwinkle (Vinca), japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra), bugleweed (Ajuga), and impatiens. Placed fieldstone covered in moss and metal sculpture served as hardscape elements.

The path winding through the woodland garden was mulched with pine needles. I liked how the red of the needles echoed the rusting, metal sculpture. When I asked the gardener about the longevity of the needle color, she said the color will fade to a gray after a season or two.

The main perennial garden at the back of the house was built into an incline created by large stones.

I like when all the little details in the garden are considered. Here I thought the gardener did a great job blending something as utilitarian as a water drain into the rest of the garden.

Containers of annuals were tucked away here and there throughout the perennial garden to add pops of color to areas which may not provide blooms all season.

This rue was stopping every gardener as we all wondered at first what it was. I’ve never seen a meadow rue so large. I think it may be (Thalictrum rochebruneanum) which is native to Japan.

There was also an eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) cultivar in the garden whose leaves I thought were quite lovely.

A garden bed I really enjoyed was this one.

And the reason I enjoyed it was because of this sign posted at its front.

I am guilty of doing the same thing, though have yet to come up with a clever title. At times a gardener brings home a plant when there isn’t really any plan on where to put it. In our host’s own words, this bed is “a holding garden for those plants that haven’t found their forever home in the main gardens.”

Oh, and it happened to be National S’mores Day. Bonus.

Finally, a feature that made this garden even more special is that it is a certified wildlife habitat. Along with beautiful plantings, this gardener made choices with wildlife in mind. Food sources (pollen, nectar, seeds), water sources, shelter, and places to tuck away for cover were all present in the design. Many birds and pollinators were darting around the garden during our visit.

To find out more about the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program visit http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.aspx.