Roadside border

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Jan 07, 2007 2:28 pm

Okay, Lisa...here's a new post!!!
This is a view of the front border of my yard. It runs along a gravel road. Most of the things in this border are very durable, many native plants, along with hemerocallis and liliums of various types. Hundreds of King Alfred daffodils start out in the spring and it carries through the summer and ends with asters and a very late mum.
In this shot, the filipendula rubra venusta "Magnifica" is blooming nicely. Cotton candy on a plant! This one seems to seed around just a bit, but I wouldn't mind if it did more.
The heliposis, a pass-along plant from my late mother, can be a weed, but doesn't seem to be a problem here. There are also some phlox that have grown wild on the place I grew up since the mid-1800's when they were planted by a flower-loving spinster lady who lived there with her mother. There are also Virginia bluebells in here, from the same place. The small tree in the background is a native chokecherry that I tried to kill off for years, and finally decided that it should just stay there. There's also a cranberry viburnum in this pic, off to the right. The cimicifuga finally decided to make something of itself this year, and you can see it in bloom in the center. This border continues at a right angle up into the center of the yard, and carries back to the south side of the house. The corner is anchored by a Diablo ninebark.
Anyone have a pic of their road or street view to share?
Linda P

putnamgardens · Post by **putnamgardens** » Jan 07, 2007 7:43 pm

Hear no, see no and speak no evil, frogs is along the sideway at Putnamgardens and the Angel fence and frog impatient planter. The Coleus border was a tour garden. Later, Love, Lisa

Post by **Chris_W** » Jan 07, 2007 8:32 pm

Linda I love those daylilies with the ninebark! Amazing how foliage colors can blend so well with flower colors. I think gardeners forget about that sometimes.

And Lisa, I love your hear-speak-see no evil frogs. Too cute

Thanks for sharing!

Chris

tsneal · Post by **tsneal** » Jan 07, 2007 11:07 pm

Love the Ninebark Linda! I have a bed along the road too...hard stuff that can take the conditions. I'm waiting for my Highbush Cranberries to grow...and they don't because the dang deer keep them trimmed down...ugh!

Cute frogs Lisa!

JaneG · Post by **JaneG** » Jan 08, 2007 12:34 am

That's beautiful, Linda. Just the kind of picture-perfect country homestead I love to drive by in the summertime!

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Jan 08, 2007 8:42 am

Thanks for the comments.
Love the frogs, Lisa! That got me to thinking about the differences between a city garden and a country garden. Out here, I have to go for big borders wtih big plants in order for anyone to notice. There's nearly 2 acres surrounding the house (that doesn't include the farm buildings). The drive comes up through the middle of that lot.
Chris, I can stand and stare at that Diablo/Heron combination for long periods of time. At the foot of the daylily is a stand of lamb's ear (seeded itself there from another part of the border). There's also a self-sown clematis tanguitica growing up through the ninebark, and when the seedheads develop, they make another interesting color play with the lamb's ear.
There's another thing this post has got me thinking. I need to take more pics of the 'rest' of my garden. I'm so obsessed with my hostas that I tend to take pics of them whenever I'm out with a camera in hand.
Linda P

LucyGoose · Post by **LucyGoose** » Jan 08, 2007 9:31 am

Love these pictures girls!! Linda, I will have to someday make it to your place....how cool to have so much room and I bet it is really neat!! Yes, please show us more pictures this summer.....and OMG, those frogs.....I LOVE them Lisa!!! I want them!!

Hopefully I will see something like that here....How cute!!!

Thanks!!

putnamgardens · Post by **putnamgardens** » Jan 09, 2007 9:07 am

Regarding those frogs: I first spotted the series in a garden in Barabou WI. I asked the gardener "where did ya get'm?" and she replied "Shopko" Because we do NOT have Shopko in MN, I went to the store in La Cross WI and found'm on sale. I bought two sets. I gave one to Kim. This was probably 5 years ago or better. Thanks for all the "too cute" comments. Later, Love, Lisa

Nathalie23 · Post by **Nathalie23** » Jan 09, 2007 9:23 am

Wow Linda!
Your first picture make me think of heaven!!!

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Jan 10, 2007 12:23 pm

Thanks, Nathalie.
Linda P

vintagedude · Post by **vintagedude** » Feb 03, 2007 6:04 am

Linda that is just incredible! You guys can grow so many more things than we can down here. And I love how you desined it to look very natural and yet not overly wild.

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Feb 08, 2007 10:25 am

Thanks, Tim. There are some people who disagree with the assessment that it's not 'overly wild'...(my mother-in-law? "Why, you can barely see the house. You need to take some of that out"). As things grow and mature, it changes from year to year. I had to plant almost all the trees that are here, with the exception of a very large Siberian elm, an grossly over-grown heirloom white lilac, and a row of spruce trees. I'm hoping I can maintain enough physical strength to keep the garden up for another 10 years, but if I can't then the wild stuff will take over, and Voila...a true wild garden!
See, I have a plan too!
Linda P

vintagedude · Post by **vintagedude** » Feb 08, 2007 8:54 pm

I meant to say 'designed', by the way.
Tell your mother-in-law that next time she comments on your yard you're going to take her to Trembling Hills nursing home, and that she would probably appreciate the 'understated' landscaping there. (it could be kind of like The Golden Girls, when Dorothy threatens her mother by simply saying "Shady Pines, ma!")

With an area as large as yours you can get away with a lot. I've always had moderate sized suburban yards and I always make the same mistake: I go planting crazy at first, trying to fill in all the areas properly, but a few years down the line when everything is maturing, it gets out of hand and I have to start removing things or re-landscaping. As good as yours looks, I certainly understand that some areas become overgrown and have to be dealt with.
Those of us that have a love of plants and gardening seem to keep the strength for it somehow. My neighbor is 96 years old this year and during the season she is out there early every morning tending to her gardens... on her cane!

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Feb 10, 2007 1:22 pm

That'll be me, Tim! Out there with a cane and a 5-gallon pail to sit on.
BTW, the 'I have a plan' comment was more in reference to your post about your hard-to-plant area...wasn't thinking that you would EVER get the idea that I just throw things in the ground....

Not me, never! I make at least 3 or 4 trips around the garden with every new plant trying to find just the right spot for it, right before I give up and stuff it in anywhere I see a bare spot. I hate bare spots!

Linda P

thy · Post by **thy** » Feb 11, 2007 4:03 pm

That cottage border is stunning.. one of the hardest thing to do beautiful and to mantain.. you can be very proud of it

Ed_B · Post by **Ed_B** » Feb 11, 2007 5:38 pm

Hi Linda

What a wonderful bunch of picture's.

I bet cars slow down when they go by your place, really great look.

Ed

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Feb 16, 2007 9:10 am

Thanks, Pia and Ed. There are a few cars that slow down, and a few people who come out this way on their Sunday afternoon rides to see what's new. A couple of years ago, there was a car sitting in my driveway when I was out weeding. I went over to say hello, and there was an older couple in the car. The gentleman said that his wife was an avid gardener in her day, and they had discovered my place on a drive, so they came by every so often. I invited them to come around and look, but she was not able to walk. She didn't speak at all, just smiled and looked around. They did take me up on my offer to drive farther in to the yard, but I haven't seen them again. I thought about them a lot that summer, and was so glad to give her a few moments of joy. It's worth it to me to maintain the garden, even if no one but myself ever sees it, but it's even more satisfying when others find something to appreciate.
A couple of years ago I was out early in the year, and a car came flying up the hill, and suddenly there was a spray of gravel, the car backed up and stopped in the middle of the road. The woman driving was someone I haven't seen in the area before, and she was just lost in gazing at the star magnolia. She hit it on the day it was at peak bloom. I looked her way and caught her eye, and she pointed at it, smiled and waved, and off she went. Another time, I happened to look up as a pickup went by rather slowly, farmer at the wheel, with his better half craning her neck to see the garden....all the while apparantly chewing him out for going too fast. He stopped and backed up, but when they saw me, he took off. I guess he thought maybe there was a penalty for looking?
One of my now-dear friends lives not too far from me. Turns out that I had been driving past her yard and gawking from the road, and she was doing the same to mine.
I'm on a gravel road here, and most of the people who go by on a daily basis are completely oblivious. I've had a couple of 'open garden' days, and I'm thinking of making a sign to put out now and then, to invite people in.
BTW, I'm looking at trying to find a day for a Hallson's get-together this summer. Will be posting some possible days on the Garden Bench sometime in the next month or so. (Nothing like the prospect of company coming to get the pending projects done!)
Linda P

newtohosta-no more · Post by **newtohosta-no more** » Feb 17, 2007 9:00 am

Wonderful pics! I have slow dial up so it takes forever and a day for pics to all get loaded on my screen, but these were well worth the wait.

I need to work on my "designing" abilities......which I have none, btw...

....and start thinking about different things to plant that will add color and interest all through the growing season. You've done an excellent job of that ,Linda. So much color and texture in all your pics.! Thanks for sharing them.
And Lisa....I love your frogs (and other garden art) too!!

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Feb 18, 2007 12:36 pm

Thanks, Joan! I'm not kidding at all about the way I plant things. I really do walk around 'auditioning' new plants until I find the right spot for them. I dig things up and move them now and then if something isn't right. I have a lot of things that people look at and say "I never would have thought of planting those together, but it works..."
My best friend and I are always teasing each other about that. She 'plans' her garden the same way I do. Of course, I've made many, many dreadful mistakes, and some of them will never go away (although I finally got rid of the not-so-well-named obedient plant!!!).

Well, more or less, anyway.
I found these pics today of the west end of the border I showed in the previous pic. This is a case of pass-along plants run amok. The poppy was a gift from a friend. It was at her house when she bought it, and she hates-hates-hates orange. She happens to live in a house that was near my grandma's, and I walked by it a lot, and always admired the poppies in the spring. She was digging it all out, and I asked her to please save a piece of it for me. She was so sure that she was cursing me with a weed, but I made her dig one up. She brought the tiniest little piece of it about 4 years ago. Weed? Yeah, probably. But I love it here, duking it out with the dames rocket (another weed) and the ladybells that are growing all through this area. The dame's rocket came from a wild clump. My mom was always digging things up along the road, and she had tried several times to get this going. I found a particulary strong population of them and dug some for her, and decided to keep some myself. Hers are long gone, but mine are thriving and turning up in unlikely places every year. The ladybells (a passalong from Ironbelly over at garden web) take over when the poppies die back, and then there is a huge clump of Dallas Blues panicum that obscures the whole mess when it gets ratty later in the year. There's also an old iris in there that came from my friend's neighbor.
One of the advantages of having a lot of room is that you can give a corner over to this sort of rampant growth.
Color and texture are two things that really count. Once you learn to watch for that, you've got half the battle won.
Just around the corner from me is a nursery that began to carry a lot of perennials maybe 12 or 15 years ago. They would order things that I asked for, and since I kept sending all my friends, they expanded their perennial selection every year. I could stop in there often and see what was blooming, and avoid the pitfall of just planting things that only bloom in the spring or early summer. Asters and grasses are a mainstay of the autumn border, along with any shrub or small tree that has berries or unusual bark or anything of winter interest. The winters are toooooo long here in the Midwest to get through them without something to look at!
Linda P

newtohosta-no more · Post by **newtohosta-no more** » Feb 19, 2007 11:18 am

How pretty! You're very fortunate to have that space to grow the more invasive plants. They certainly are beautiful.