I was looking back at photographs of the past year in the garden and found these shots of the front sidewalk garden. When the weather is cold and rainy outside it's nice to look back sometimes and see how things were where they were in bloom.
The sidewalk skirts the garage portion of our house and takes you up to the front porch (beginning sidewalk garden layout). While walking along the front sidewalk in September you would have passed by the red mums and our endlessly blooming, no not hydrangea, 'Oranges & Lemons' gaillardia! I can't say enough good things about gaillardia, which is also known as a blanket flower. Our butterfly magnet bloomed until the end of the growing season. Even after the blooming was done the seedheads continued to provide us with fun little globes to look at. The gaillardia is still green, not all of it, but most of it.
You would also pass by the sedum garden on the right. You can barely see it in the picture but it's there. The 'Blue Spruce' sedum and a little 'Autumn Joy' are peaking out for their photos. Directly oppisite of the sedum garden is a garden with liriope and daylilies. None of the daylilies bloomed last year. It was probably becaus ethey came in a box and were very young plants. I'm expecting an awesome show next year. Let's just hope I'm not disappointed. I mentioned this little garden spot once before in a post of its own but blogger got hungry and ate my homework.
While on your trip down the sidewalk you might see the spikey silver green foliage of the irises. Or the grassy foliage of the daylilies. To the left you would see the Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). To say that Russian Sage is a power bloomer would be putting it mildly! These drought tolerant and sun loving perennials bloomed all summer and well into the fall. The pollinators loved them. I may stick a couple Russian sages in my self seeding garden. That may be cheating, but who cares, they look great and I can propagate them over and over again. (Actually it may not be cheating since they can provide seedlings.)
If you look close enough you can see the salvias (Salvia nemorosa) I propagated in spring blooming. These salvias began small but managed to display nice bloom stalks by late summer. On the far end of the sidewalk the rosemary was doing well as an edible ornamental while the butterfly bush was peaking out from beside the front porch.
The front sidewalk garden came a long way! Now what can I do with it next year? Hmm...
Pay no attention to the dandelion. He is just a figment of your imagination. Really. Nothing to see here. Yep no dandelions. Just pretty green grass.
Labels: garden photos, garden thoughts, gardening, perennial
While on your trip down the sidewalk you might see the spikey silver green foliage of the irises. Or the grassy foliage of the daylilies. To the left you would see the Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). To say that Russian Sage is a power bloomer would be putting it mildly! These drought tolerant and sun loving perennials bloomed all summer and well into the fall. The pollinators loved them. I may stick a couple Russian sages in my self seeding garden. That may be cheating, but who cares, they look great and I can propagate them over and over again. (Actually it may not be cheating since they can provide seedlings.)
