Field Trip – A South Minneapolis Garden

I like visiting gardens – both public and private.  I like to see what plants people use and what “objects” they use, if any.  I like seeing the colors and textures and variety.  I notice whether there’s symmetry or asymmetry in the garden and whether that “feels” right or not.

Sunday, I visited the garden of a friend who lives in South Minneapolis.  She’s a long-time gardener, too.  Her plant love is lilies – more specifically, Asiatic and Oriental lilies (not your regular day lily).  I have a few Asiatic lilies and one Martagon lily but am allergic to the Oriental lilies, so I avoid those in my own garden.  And,even though her garden contains a lot of them, it's such an inviting space, I always want to stay and enjoy it!

As all gardeners do, we’ve shared plants over the years.  I gave her a Martagon lily some years back, and Sunday, I put my name on a spiderwort in her garden! (I couldn’t take it with me because there’s just too much else going on here to get it planted in a reasonable amount of time.)  Lucky for me, my friend is patient!

Her garden has undergone some significant changes in the last year or so.  She’s ripped out an old and overpowering grape vine and installed a nice (care free) trellis.  She’s installed a new covering for her deck (which faces west and gets a TON of afternoon sun).  She had a new shed put in and decided the view from the deck was entirely “too white.” So, she added these gorgeous branches, which came down from her tree.  I LOVE this idea and would like to do something similar in my own garden for the new sitting area.

Have you been inspired by visiting a fellow gardener’s garden?  What idea(s) have you borrowed?

Lovely Lilies

In past years, the gardens seemed to bloom by plant -- first the tulips, then the peonies, then the roses, then other stuff. This year, the tulips still came first, but after that it's been like a free-for-all by color starting with the blues, then the pinks, and then the yellows. But, now we're back to plants.

And, the plant of the hour is the lily -- both lilium and hemerocalis! Maybe they bloomed together in past years and I just don't remember. The only lilies left to bloom are the Monte Negro in the front boulevard garden. The Martagons finally bloomed this week. (A friend's bloomed weeks ago.)

And, my beautiful pink lily bloomed this week, too. (The year I got it, it was 4 feet tall. The bunnies got it the following year and the squirrels nipped it off last year.) But this year, the creatures left it alone and it bloomed. It's shorter than it was the first year, but I'm grateful that it bloomed -- at any height!

The Stellas are popping out -- adding a burst of color to the corner garden. As we walked through the gardens this morning, the Riverman asked about the pretty yellow flowers and I told him their name. He was very excited that a flower had the same name as his mom. He looked at them again and said, "I think she would have liked these."

How is your garden growing this year? Flower by flower, or color by color?

Beautiful Bouquets

There’s nothing like a bouquet of fresh flowers to pick up your spirits.

One of the reasons I love the flower gardens here at Auntie K’s is they provide cut flowers throughout the growing season for bouquets. I enjoy taking a bouquet of fresh flowers to a dinner, or friend in the hospital, or to my office. I like having fresh flowers at home, too! People seem to like getting the bouquets as much as I like putting them together. I collect vases and jars at garage sales and save all my glass containers instead of recycling them so I can give the bouquets without having the recipient or me worry about the vase. I also pick up ribbon if it’s on sale to dress up the neck of the jars cum vases.

A few years ago, I received a bouquet that included a hosta leaf, which I thought was both beautiful and creative. Why include only the blossoms from the garden when beautiful greenery abounds as well?! I’ve been including them in bouquets ever since.

This year, the spring bouquets included tulips, trollius, iris, lilac, bleeding heart, anemone, chives, polemonium, and centaurea. Roses, poppies, peonies, lilies, and sprigs of salvia were featured in early summer bouquets. Now, I’m using the coneflowers – white and purple (I lost the golden ones to a mite), rudbeckia, roses, sprigs of Russian sage, and garden phlox. Later in the year, the asters get added to the mix.

The roses are in full bloom again and I think they’ll make a great foundation for a couple of bouquets.

p.s. I had a mishap with my computer earlier in the week and don’t have the ability right now to post photos. Hopefully, I’ll get things figured out in a couple of days and can post photos again.