Garden Tour at Chatham Hill on the Lake

Welcome to my garden!

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Let’s start at the front porch. Just a week ago the Hostas were barely stalks peaking through the earth. One of my favorite things about my garden are the many perennials that I have. So with little effort other than cleaning the beds and resulting, we have a fresh, new beautiful garden each Spring.

The Dogwood Blooms were washed off in the severe rains we have recently had otherwise there would be five blooming bushes or trees that we can enjoy in our view out the Living Room windows.

Boxwood, Norwegian Spruce, and Cherry Trees were recently added to the garden to replace trees damaged from ice storms and wind damage. We have lived in this home for 25 years and our first Christmas we bought a Balled Christmas Tree and put it in the house in a tub. Once the ground was thawed out we planted it. That tree grew to be taller than our home and was a wonderful memory.  Unfortunately we had an ice storm that broke branches from many of our older trees and they were damaged to the point of needing to be removed. The beauty of gardening is that you can always plant again!

Also in bloom this week are the fragrant Lilacs, one of my favorites. It used to take 7 years to get lilacs to bloom and I had that kind of bush a few years back but it had gotten too large for the space and very straggly looking so we removed it and replaced it with this one. It had blooms on it when we purchased it.

I don’t know the name of this perennial. It’s grass-like leaves remain as a fluffy bush and each day the very tops have these delicate little purple flowers. As evening rolls around the flowers close up and disappear. They add a softness to the hardscape of our home.

I love color and what you see at this moment in our garden is all effortless from flowers and bushes that bring that pretty Spring color a little before annuals can safely be planted. While our landscape looks a little underwhelming when these plants go dormant, it is worth the wait each year to have our garden awake with Joy! I have been inspired by cottage gardens mostly. Informal with the dry rock beds that I hand laid myself. To the right you can see our Colorado Blue Stone path. Delivery men love this straight jaunt from the curb to the porch.

We live in zone 5 and so plants like Azaleas and Rhododendrons sometimes do not survive our winters. I can just imagine what the squares of Savannah look like at this time. Their Azaleas grow large and full and are covered with blooms. So again, replacing some bushes that had not survived a storm, I meant to get the longstanding traditional and fairly dependable boxwood so when winter came my beds were not so bare looking. But I just can’t say no to a blossom! Rhododendron at the Dining Room window…gorgeous!

This is the first year for these Climbing Hydrangea. I had never seen these before. For years I planted a large blossomed Mandevillas and by fall they would have climbed over the trellis. However they are an annual here and at about $60 each I decided last year to look for something that would come back each year. I chose a climbing rose but it did not survive. These Hydrangea were this large and full when I purchased them and were only $42. The blooms on Hydrangea are one of my favorites. They can be cut and dried and used in floral arrangements inside for season after season.

My dream for the rock path shown briefly above was to have a rock loving ground cover growing around the stones. What I found out unfortunately is that in the summer the stones become so hot that nothing can grow near them. So with this Blooming Thyme not thriving, I replanted it a couple of years ago around my bird bath fountain and as you can see it has taken hold. As with most ground covers, control and containment is needed.

 

These Elephant Ear Hostas have a very large and sturdy leaf. They are the one variety of Hosta that is deer resistant. We have deer in our side yard sleeping each evening. Small herds of them are in the fields behind our home every evening. So it can be difficult to grow blossoming plants and hostas in areas that are not fenced in. If we are not vigilant in spraying our plants with a deer repellent, we will open the front door and see they enjoyed a salad the evening or early morning and our beautiful garden loses some of its charm. We do look for deer resistant plants. However, if the deer are hungry enough they will eat anything.

I should know the names of all of my plants and I don’t. These silvery leaf plants used as a border in this little flower bed never even died down over the winter. I thought they were an annual but I must have been mistaken. Pink Dianthas are perennials and popped up again about a week ago and I am sure by mid summer this bed will be overflowing in blooms!

By this coming Saturday the Rose Bushes lining our drive should be in full bloom for the Run for the Roses on Kentucky Derby Day. These roses are everblooming. I had just trimmed them about 3 or 4 weeks ago and was a little concerned that I would be late getting blooms but somehow they are just budding everywhere!

These are some of my perennials that are later blooming just now getting their bases growing. I can’t recall what they are but when they bloom I will be able to name them. There are some small hostas that surround this bed. In the center is our Hawthorn Tree. It is the State Tree of Missouri which is why I chose it and my husband for some reason was naming his offices after being in business for years so we thought it was a stately sounding name and liked its significance to the state so that is what he chose.

We hope our curb appeal says Welcome! I would have loved to have had a gate and real fence but it would not have been permitted under the rules of our subdivision, so these accent fences give a similar effect. One area I did not cover was the aluminum bench that is off to the side of the rock path behind the Lambs Ear in the pot. The Bench and the Fountain were Mother’s Day gifts from my husband on different years. He knows how much I love our garden and likes to help me make it prettier each year.

Peaking through the gate to the back we have three ground covers merging. The stones take us down the slope into the pool area and you can see the grasses in the background.

I did put out a couple of baskets already. The plant in the forefront emerging from the ground covers is our Hydrangea. My blooms will be a pale blue. I will cut some this year for drying. You need to be careful not to cut them back too much. What appears totally dead will have new growth each year. We do cut ours back to keep them at a manageable size since they are bordering a walking path.

While I knew there was a nest here. I can’t hardly see inside. So I just held my camera above and snapped. I was surprised to see the little ones were hatching! This Holly bush is just inside our gate above and everytime we walk through the gate the momma Robin flies out of the bush. So we finally realized there had to be a nest. Celebrating Birth!

This is a throwback to an old fashioned garden…the peony. If you look closely you will see that it is covered in buds and should be blooming within the week.

These were supposed to be Dwarf Lilac, but as you can see our 5 ft fence is lower than these little beauties. When this was planted I was supposed to have a perennial garden here and I suppose the landscape architect selected these as a border. It’s funny because I believe I have Cone Flowers that bloom behind them each year but we obviously cannot see them. I mentioned a Landscape architect. While I totally selected and planned my front garden, when we put in the pool we needed terracing and steps and that was where the landscape architect came in. Dwarf or not, the scent that this large batch of lilacs puts out is a sweet presence when you walk into the garden this time of year.

Sometimes if you don’t stay on top of weeds and wild things you may end up with a tree! I remember asking my husband to cut this down time and time again. After a while we were no longer certain if it was wild or something we planted. But now that it is in bloom it is evident. This is a Honey Suckle which is really a bush but if you walk around and look at the trunk it looks more like a branched out tree similar to the Hawthorn. I know that you can buy Honeysuckle but they are hard to get rid of and can be intrusive so I don’t see them very often anymore in modern gardens. Again, they are reminiscent of another time. When we were children I used to know how to take the blooms apart and drink the nectar. It was so good and sweet. So I guess we are going to embrace it at this point since it has made it presence fairly prominent in our garden.

While we are not in the tropics, we love adding the feel to our poolside. We discovered that you can plant Banana Plants and at the end of the year you cut them back and cover them with mulch and a pot and not only do they come back, they multiply each year. I think we need to move a few out of here this year. These plants were given to me by my Dad, who has since passed away. It is just kind of nice to have something like this that returns year after year as a wonderful memory.

My Clematis are also blooming now. This used to be my Herb Garden but with the help of the birds and the wind, we have ground covers taking over this bed as well! I can still grow my Herbs in containers so its okay.

Commonly known as Flags in bloom now. These are Spring blooming only but the grassy leaf will add a whispy texture and color all season.

This variegated leaf hosta is protected within the fenced area of the back. It amazes me at the size when a week ago there was hardly anything peaking through the ground. It is a reminder of Hope to me that we don’t know how quickly something can change.

That’s it! Thanks for touring with me. I hope you enjoyed it. If you happen to know the name of any of the plants I didn’t, please share! If you like my garden share it with your friends!

 

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