Hot sunny weather, followed by a little rain and the acquisition of new camera lenses sent Mark on a walking tour of our garden. Here's the long driveway border (about 60' long x 10' wide / 18.3m x 3.05m). Originally I called it the "Hendrix border" because my idea was to create a purple haze. There are still a number of plants from that plan like dark red 'Claude Shride' martagon lilies, red barberries, the 'Forest Pansy' redbud and dark Heucheras and Heucherellas. But the addition of a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Gold Rush') shifted the balance toward ochre, yellow and chartreuse. This spring we finally took out our 'Royal Purple' smoke bush to give the redwood the room it needs.
Epimedium rubrum (above) is filling in nicely along the front of the border along with a broad-leaved yellow sedge (Carex siderosta 'Lemon Zest'). This is the area with the Claude Shride martagons, also Heucherella 'Sweet Tea" and two ferns: Athyrium hybrida 'Ghost' and Dryopteris felix-mas 'Linearis Polydactyla'.
The large ceramic pot holds a dwarf waterlily. The bare space behind it is the home of the former smokebush. We will replace it with a 'Green Mountain' boxwood that is currently in a planter on the deck.
The standard tree in the angle of the zigzag stone wall is my "lollipop lilac."
This sloping stone path is the wheelbarrow route to the back garden. You can also see some of the peeled trunks from the Arbor Vitae that Mark removed 14 years ago when we began the garden. We are still using them in a number of projects, including as a support for a red clematis that is visible (the support, not the clematis) in the 4th image.
I have enjoyed the overall look at your driveway garden. It is so intresting with the zig zag wall. The greens are soothing and interesting with the vairiation of hues. I am green at all that Berginia that is growing so prettily.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Monday, July 18, 2011 at 04:59 PM
P.S. I was reading a poem by ee cummings the other evening and I thought of you two. The name of the poem is _may I feel said he_. There is a lot of he said/she said in this. A good poem you might like to read.
Posted by: Lisa at Greenbow | Monday, July 18, 2011 at 05:11 PM
Very impressive. Everything works together and nothing is overwhelmed. I take it Forest Pansy redbud is alive and well? I'm wondering it that is the tree in the last photo, but not sure I would actually recognize it.
Posted by: Barbara H. | Monday, July 18, 2011 at 07:04 PM
Wow stunning! What are the conifers you have in there? I see some kind of Tsuga canadensis, an Abies koreana?, and a Thuja occ.? Is the chartreuse tree a dogwood?
Posted by: Robin | Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:31 PM
I enjoyed seeing the border, but I really appreciate the broader shot showing the setting of your house and garden. Look at all the trees, it looks as if you live in a small clearing of a great forest.
Posted by: Les | Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 06:16 AM
This is a beautiful welcome to your home, with such a variety of greens and of textures.
Posted by: Altoon | Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 07:55 AM
Thanks for all the comments. And note that Mark corrected my dimensions for those of you who read this early on: the border is 60' long by 10' deep.
Lisa — Not only do we know the poem, I gave Mark a copy of it for Valentine's one year. There is a beautiful version of it illustrated with Chagall paintings. Your comments often have a poetic quality that has made me think you are a reader of poetry! Me too.
Barbara — That is Forest Pansy in the last shot. It has purple leaves. Lots of dieback but now we know that it keeps coming back and this is actually keeping it more in scale with the garden.
Robin — IN the 3rd pix there is a Jp. hemlock right behind the big rock. Further down is a New Gold hemlock, the really yellow tree is the redwood and I no longer know the bluish evergreen. It is not Abies koreana which we have in another location. There are yew and boxwood "balls" scattered throughout. They will become the focus eventually and we will cut back on the perennials.
Les — When we moved into our house in 1994, there was a 150+ Bur oak plus a number of 50 year old trees mostly at the margins of the property. So we decided to make a mini arboretum and add a lot of understory trees, shrubs and dwarf conifers. On days like today when the temp is in the 90s there is nothing nicer than living in the shade!
Posted by: LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD | Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Ahh, that's just too lovely. I think every house should have a garden, even a small one. I love the landscape. Did you do this yourself or did you hire a pro?
Posted by: Jeremy Beauregard | Friday, September 16, 2011 at 03:32 PM
Wow! If I ever come across your garden in real life, walking in would feel like a total nature trip! I love this driveway because of how the color green spreads throughout the area, giving it LIFE.
Posted by: Jamie Keifer | Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 11:55 AM