Havenwood ~ GBBD October 2014

Native asters, Doellingeria umbellata, flowering away at our new garden this autumn.

Welcome to my new garden in Pennsylvania, zone 5 for the autumn!

I have been hard at work this year to put in many new garden area according to my garden master plan (see it here). Before getting to bulb planting yesterday, I took a walk around to capture some of the little fall flowers that are already blooming away here at Havenwood...

Gilmore Gardens in September 2014 ~ Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

The Hill Garden is still full of color this month: Allium tuberosum & Sedum 'Autumn Joy'.

Welcome to Gilmore Gardens in Pennsylvania, zone 5!

There are still quite a few blooms over at Gilmore, even though we have not been living near it or caring make for it at all. About once a month to month-and-a-half, I do a big cleanup of weeds and deadheading the flowers.... That is it! That is all it takes to keep this garden going right now. It really has confirmed to me, though many people just do not believe it, that a garden on this scale can be plannned to pretty much take care of itself by having well designed planting schemes.

(Note to newcomers: This is our previous garden, which is a small town lot about a half mile from our new garden at Havenwood. Read my 'about my gardens' for more info!)

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...

Shade Path Garden in September

Begonias, northern sea oats, Japanese forest grass and Sedum 'Frosty Morn' front our Shade Path this week... and native flat-topped asters are a white haze down its length.

See more of our Shade Path garden on our map.
Have a great weekend!
~Julie

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ September 2013 GBBD

Blooms and foliage in my zone 5 garden for September.

Welcome to Pennsylvania in September!

We have had quite a variety of weather in the past weeks. One day it is unbearably hot and dry with the temperature over 86 degrees F (30 C). The next day we are all in winter coats at the damp morning soccer game in 40 degrees F (4 C). Despite all of that drama, the garden is still blooming on...

Curb Strip Plantings for August

 Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) in our front curb for August.

Summer is moving right along, but there are still perennial flowers bloom in our garden. The Hill Garden is full of coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), the Shade Path full of hosta flowers, and the curb plantings are in full bloom again this week. In the Front Woodland (the name of our large front curb strip), the Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) are beginning to flower. They had a July pruning to about half their height, so the plants are looking fuller, not floppy, and have many branching stems of flowers. They rebound for flowering surprisingly quickly.

Front Curb Planting (aka The Front Woodland)

Our daylilies are all in bloom this week in our curb strip

July has brought the daylilies (Hemerocallis). The catmint, Nepeta 'Walker's Low' is just finishing up around our corner, but still has twinges of blue and lots of attraction for pollinators.

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...

Yellow foxgloves in the Shade Path Garden

Digitalis grandiflora and Clematis 'William Kennett' in our garden this week.

Along the Shade Path garden this week, the perennial yellow foxgloves (Digitalis grandiflora) are in bloom. They are a favorite every year, and seed themselves happily around our dry shade garden.  After they have bloomed for about a month, I trim back their spent blooms to the first set of leaves. This deadheading helps them to re-bloom again in September, which is a real treat!

The Shade Path succession planting started out in January with snowdrops and a few Hellebores in February. It was a really cold spring, so things did not really get going until the Iris reticulata 'Katherine Hodgkin' covered the path in April, followed by many more Hellebores orientalis. Then, the shade garden was covered in blue and white for May. Oh, and there was quite a display of pink columbine in there too.

Color for the Weekend: Pink

Pink flower of Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety' scattered in the Shade Path Garden. White variegated Sedum 'Frosty Morn' stands out among the blue Hosta and palmated Geranium foliage.

 A few combinations from around our garden this weekend, all with a little pink...

Curb Strip Plantings with Nepeta, Sedum and Iris

Catmint (Nepeta 'Walker's Low') grows low mounds in our curb strip over ground cover Sedum 'Acre'.

The garden is pulling into summer, which make it time for many of my favorite perennials. In our curb strips (known also as parkways, hell strips, etc), we have removed all of our turf and planted beautiful, low-maintenance plants instead. These areas have required some weeding in spring, but with that little time investment (as compared to spending 20 minutes mowing them every week!) we get something that is even nicer to look at, draws pollinators and help make this outlining area part of our garden. Now, we can walk down the sidewalk and enjoy the changing scene every day.

Muscari 'Ocean Magic' and Anemone blanda 'White Splendour'

Muscari aucheri 'Ocean Magic', Anemone blanda 'White Splendour' and Sedum 'Acre' in our curb strip this weekend.

 I just had to share this pretty combination from our curb strip this week! The spring woodland windflower, Anemone blanda 'White Splendour', is a beautiful flower to plant to add with daffodils or under tulips for your spring displays. (See A. 'White Spendour' with Tulipa 'Prinses Irene' last year in our garden.) 

Or it really draws out the white tips in the grape hyacinth, Muscari aucheri 'Ocean Magic'. Add a covering of Sedum 'Acre' underneath these tiny beauties for best effect!

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD November 2012

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

Welcome to November in Pennsylvania!

The Shade Path Garden in Early October

The Shade Path Garden in the first week of October.

October is here and has brought some chilly temperatures in Pennsylvania. It seemed to come on us all at once this year. It was quite warm and rainy, but not truly cold until this week which makes it feel a bit shocking, though we all knew it was coming. We have missed a true frost twice in the last couple evenings. Some tender leaves are browned around their edges, but most of the plants are still standing tall. Very soon the annuals will greet the morning as a puddle of mush and will need to be removed post-haste.

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.

Garden Bloggers' Foliage Day - July 2012

Potted red Japanese maple (Acer) on our back steps, which are becoming nicely clothed in ivy. This was one of the first turf areas to be planted with ground cover.

I am joining in very late with a foliage post this July. Here are a few green scenes from Gilmore Gardens, which are truly carrying the garden until the fall flowers begin.

Sunny Plant Combination: Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' and Sedum 'Red Carpet'

Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' and Sedum 'Red Carpet'

Two great plants that seem to live together in harmony... the North American native Yellow Tickseed, Coreopsis 'Moonbeam', and the low spreading Stone Crop, Sedum 'Red Carpet'.  

 I caught sight of these two playing nicely at a family stop on our summer trip to Virginia. We also stopped at two great gardens along the way. More photos coming soon!

Coreopsis 'Moonbeam' and Sedum 'Red Carpet' are thriving in this extremely low maintenance garden by a walkway.

Curb Strip planting in June

The curb strip planting in its first year without grass

I did a post last year on how we took the plunge and killed the turf in our curb strip to establish a more sustainable planting - meaning one that we did not have to go over every week with a mower! We extended our planting last September to include the entire curb length of 113 feet.

Our Driveway Garden this Week at Gilmore Gardens

The Driveway Garden at Gilmore Gardens

Everything is blooming like crazy this week at our house. The Driveway Garden sits between our pavement and the back yard. Its flowers make our daily coming and going much more pleasant!

I am really happy with the white Allium multibulbosum that I added this year (see more below). It really gives a focal point to the blue froth of Geranium 'Orion' on the left and adds to the charm of the rose pairing on the right. And the classic rose and clematis pairing is just as stunning this year as it has been the past three years.