Gilmore Gardens ~ GBBD June 2014

Catmint, Nepeta 'Walker's Low', and Geranium 'Orion' beside the road in the Curb strip this month.

Welcome to my little garden in Pennsylvania!

June is here, and we are enjoying it both at our new garden, Havenwood, and at our old garden, Gilmore Gardens. Here are some pretty shots from Gilmore just after the rain last evening...

Tulips at Gilmore Gardens

Cherry Corner is full of Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' this May.

Welcome to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in Pennsylvania!
We are finally in full swing for spring around here and we are absolutely loving it!

While we have been working like crazy on our new gardens at Havenwood, our old garden is blooming away effortlessly this spring. It is amazing to stand back and watch it go... rather like seeing your beloved child run and win a race all by themselves. We did have two spring clean up times this spring, cutting back out sticks, etc. And another nice layer of mulch. But really, it was very little for such a beautiful show...

April showers bring March flowers...

Crocus tommasinianus at Gilmore Gardens April 1st

... at least that is how the song goes for us this year.

We are just now enjoying our crocuses and snowdrops during a few days of warm sun. I hope that those of you in more northern places in North America will feel encouraged to know that your flowers are coming soon as well!

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ October 2013 GBBD

The Hill Garden with Canna 'King Humbert', Echinacea purpurea, Berberis purpurea, and glorious yellow maples (Acer) leaves for autumn.

Welcome to my small town Pennsylvania garden in October!

I would be delighted to show you around our corner here in US zone 5. The foliage colors are intensifying this month, though they have not yet reached their climax. Our first frost is still on its way this year. Hurray for a few more weeks with tender plants in the garden! The begonias, cannas, dahlias and annuals are still adding their pretty bit to the mix. Come talk a walk around...

View of the Driveway Garden this morning...

October in the Driveway Garden at Gilmore Gardens.

While we were getting ready for homeschool this morning, I galnced out of the kitchen window. This pretty scene was perfectly lit by the morning sun. I thought I would share it with you today as well! :)

The Driveway Garden at the end of September

Pink Sedum 'Autumn Joy', white flowered flat-topped aster (Doellingeria umbellata), double purple Aster hybrida 'Peter III', purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and white striped grass Miscanthus sinensis 'Dixieland' in the Driveway Garden this week.

September is slipping away and October is arriving here in Pennsylvania.
Here is one pretty scene between our car and door in our Driveway garden this week...

Lilies by the Driveway

Dwarf Asiatic lilies blooming on the edge of our Driveway Garden this week.

Lilies are one of the fragrant joys of the garden in July! We have quite a few here and there this year. These dwarf, pink lilies are always a favorite by our walk from the back door to the car.

Clematis 'Henryetta'

Clematis 'Henryetta' on a trellis in the Driveway Garden this week.

Clematis 'Henryetta' is really blooming this week on a trellis in the Driveway Garden. And it only took a couple of years to get to this point. My experience with clematis is that they often take a few years to get settled and really start blooming.

This clematis is a not a great climber... in fact it is more of a mound-maker. I imagine it crawling slowly over old stumps in its native habitat. That meant that it took a a little more persistence to make sure that it was tied into the small trellis in this tightly planted bed, instead of flopped over somewhere underneath everything. But it was worth the effort! I love its pendulous flowers.

Climbing Rose and Clematis Combination

Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' blooming with our pink climbing rose.

It is rose season at our house!

The pink climbing rose is blooming this week and oh, so fragrant. Last year I added a clematis to it, and this is the first year they have bloomed together. Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' is a beautiful red climber that we also have on a trellis by our Circle Lawn (see it last week).

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD June 2013

Our Shade Path Garden full of yellow perennial foxgloves, Digitalis grandiflora.

Welcome to Pennsylvania for Garden Blogger Bloom Day!
There are lots of flowers to see this weekend around our small, town garden. Come take a walk around...

Pink Rose and Purple Clematis Combination for June

In our Driveway garden, an old pink rose bush makes a wonderful host for purple Clematis 'Etoile Violette'.

June is underway and the roses are blooming here in Pennsylvania. Our Driveway Garden is covered in pink and blue this week, with a bit of white thrown in to lighten the color palette.

When we bought our home, we inherited an old rose bush by the back corner of our house... and one to match it across the driveway. It blooms its socks off once and year, and then needs quite a bit of pruning to keep it in line. A newer rose would give more for repeat bloom, but the light fragrance and pink color make it worth keeping. And even better yet is the combination that happens when Clematis 'Etoile Violette' blooms along with it. The clematis it is planted at the roses feet and it appreciates the cool shade the rose provides. It easily grabs a hold on to the rose brambles and pulls itself to the sun.

Around the perimeter of this rose, which is 5 feet high and 6 feet wide (1.6 m x 2m), there is ground cover of variegated deadnettle (Lamium maculatum), evergreen moss phlox (Phlox subulata), and yellow-blooming Sedum 'Acre'.

Driveway Garden

Tulip 'Apricot Impression', Muscari armenicum, and pink blooming Lamium maculatum.

The morning sun made for a nice photo opprotunity!

Hyacinth and Daffodil Combination

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Aiolos' and Narcissus 'Jenny' combine here with some new blue foliage of ornamental grass Festuca 'Elijah Blue'.

Here is a pretty combination from our Driveway Garden this spring. Hyacinthus orientalis 'Aiolos' and Narcissus 'Jenny' combine to echo each others coloring, cream and yellow. This combo is even better with some blue foliage from Festuca 'Elijah Blue'.

See more of the Driveway Garden on our map.

Slow Spring, but still Happy Easter!

Narcissus 'Jenny', blue Muscari armenicum, purple Phlox subulata and pink lamium in our Driveway Garden last year at this same time: March 30th, 2012.

This year in our Driveway garden: March 30th, 2013. A bit slower this year!

Tulip 'Persian Pearl', Narcissus 'Tete-e-tete' and Echeveria in a bulb pot last year: March 30, 2012.

The same pot in our garden this week: March 2013.

Tulip 'Ice Stick' and Narcissus 'Tete-e-tete' on our Hill Garden last year: March 30, 2012.

No matter where you are this spring, or what your whether is like, I would like to say Happy Easter to you!

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." ~ Romans 5:6-8

Heavy Snow

Shoveled path to our front door.

We had quite the snowfall the day after Christmas, and it is still with us two weeks later. (See our still standing snow fort.) I took these photos of our garden covered in snow the first week. Hopefully, we are going to have a thawing out at the end of this week!

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD November 2012

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with its bright autumn foliage around our Circle Lawn.

Welcome to November in Pennsylvania!

Sorbaria sorbifolia, False Spirea

Red and gold leaved Sorbaria sorbifolia, False Spirea, with Aster hybrida 'Peter III'.

Sorbaria sorbifolia, False Spirea, is a new plant in our garden this fall. Its foliage resembles the Rhus family (sumacs) and it is native to Asia. Other common names for this plants are False Goat's Beard, Appleberry and Ural False Spirea (see Wikipedia).

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ October GBBD 2012

Perennial mum Dendranthema 'Sheffield Pink' and double purple Aster hybrida 'Peter III'.

Welcome to October at Gilmore Gardens in Pennsylvania! 

Everywhere in our area we are seeing the colors of autumn. The trees are in the middle of their foliage change - the earlier ones having dropped most of their leaves and the later ones still holding on to their green. The asters are out in full force, the milkweeds pods are just about ripe and the first nips of frost have just come this past weekend. Some of the annual flowers did not take kindly to the cold, but others have survived to bloom a bit longer. Hope you enjoy your look around our tiny town garden!

Asters and pumpkins add color to the sunny Driveway Garden this fall.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD Sept 2012

Pink Dahlia with Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost' in our Front Walk Garden.

Welcome to Pennsylvania in September! My garden has definitely perked up for fall. We finally had a normal amount of rain for the month, which is the first month since last year. The plants are putting on new growth, looking greener and flowering a bit more. Here are some highlights from around our two-tenths of an acre at Gilmore Gardens.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ August GBBD 2012

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and Mandevilla 'Pretty Pink' in PA zone 5 for August.

Welcome to August in my Pennsylvania, zone 5 garden! It is not what I had hoped that it would be, but the garden is perking up after having some much needed rain in the past two weeks. I took these photos last night after another rain came.

Large-flowered hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos 'Pink Elephant') in our Driveway Garden is blooming away this month.

More in the Driveway Garden: Hibiscus 'Pink Elephant',white Miscanthus 'Dixieland',  a tall blue Buddleia and Agastache foeniculum 'Golden Jubilee'. The ground cover in front here is Sedum 'Acre' which is a much used cover plant in our gardens.