Mystery Plant... more mystery...

Six yellow stamens, six petals...

I posted a photo of this mystery plant last week with the Trillium... and it has bloomed this week but I am still stumped!

Knot or Parterre?

So I am still trying to decide what design to go with for our Knot Garden... see my progress here.

I am planning on using green boxwood and variegated box for the central design, and then lavender or catmint around the edge. It is a longer, rectangular space, so many of the traditional knot designs will not work, as they are square. And I do not like the typical overlapping squares in a long row.

Flowering crabapple and Indigo Bunting at Havenwood

 Pretty photos of our old crabapple trees in the rain... and with a vibrant winged visitor...

Trillium grandiflorum

Native Trillium grandiflorum in our Woodland at Havenwood this week.

 I shared a few of these beauties for our first GBBD at our new garden. Here are some views of the larger patch that are in full glory this week... and also a mystery plant!

Beginning the Knot Garden

The first month of the Knot Garden at Havenwood

Now that we have finally reached spring, work has definitely picked up on the garden as we race to get as many plants in the ground as possible before summer brings its hotter, drier weather. The Knot Garden began as an empty slate in April....

Gardening at Havenwood ~ GBBD May 2014

Wood anemone, Anemone quinquefolia

After lamenting the lack of flowers around the woodland at Havenwood just a few weeks ago, we have been over run by woodland treasures in the past two weeks. These beauties are a testament that some plants were just made to endure, even in the midst of decades of neglect.

So... Welcome to a surprise Garden Blogger's Bloom Day at Havenwood Gardens!  May it be the first of many.

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...

Beginning the Potager

Layout the new vegetable garden at Havenwood.

We have been doing lots of digging here at Havenwood!

As we begin laying out the final design, some of the pieces will just not make sense without remembering the plan. For instance, there is going to be some regrading in this area when we cut in a new driveway, so we are making these beds by cutting them into the soil for now. Later on, they will be proper raised beds with gravel paths. For now though, they were placed so that we could get the exact location of our new arbor vitae hedge (see below) and plant our dwarf fruit trees for our little orchard (also below!).

Helleborus for the Spring Shade Garden

A pink Lenten Rose, Helleborus orientalis, at Gilmore Gardens this beautiful May week.

We stopped by Gilmore Gardens the other day to take a look around to see these shade garden beauties...

Before: Havenwood's Woodland

It is very stark this month in the Woodland at our new home.

Woodland beauty, here we come!

That is the mantra I am repeating to myself to shake away the the nagging doubts... "How are going to create a woodland wonder out of this stark seen?!?" Just work the plan.... work the plan.

One of the first areas to be addressed is the lack of any shrub plantings throughout this garden, particularly around the border of the property. I would like a bit more privacy to go with my digging!

A Few April Flowers at Havenwood

Trout lily, or Dog tooth Violet (Erythronium americanum)