NATURAL BEAUTY

 These shots taken at the family cottage on Lake Winnipeg serve to remind me that while gardens can be beautiful, man-made creations certainly do not have a lock on beauty.

We only need look to nature where we can often see a different kind of beauty.

A less manicured and less 'designed' beauty.

One that nonetheless has something to teach us about design - after all, who put those tall grasses in back and that shorter, bright red accent plant in front?

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TUXEDO FRONT GARDEN - more plans

In my previous post about the plans I have for the front garden I talked about it being all blues and purples without the corresponding yellows and oranges one might expect.  I may be changing my mind. I am also thinking differently about how tightly I will space one particular plant and in a couple of cases am now planning on mixing 2 plants together in an area previously mapped for one.

The red area was earmarked for Delphinium. It still is in fact, but now it will be over a larger area and mixed together with grasses.

Picture this shot from my "Gardens That Inspire" Pinterest board but replace those spires in the background with Delphinium.


Then mix them up a bit more evenly vs. the foreground/background layout and you can imagine what I now have in mind for that corner.

With that in mind I came across this great blog post on Delphiniums, which has this to say about companion plants:
"Where tall delphiniums will not work is in your meadow garden, among the unruly tufts of sedges and grasses, or in some similarly naturalistic setting. In those kinds of gardens they make the surrounding plants look shabby, and they themselves look as though they’re waiting to hook up with some randy sailors on shore leave."


I do not think I will back away from my plans; how could they stand out too much? While I am pretty good at taking advice this is going to be a place where I have to learn first hand.

The newly added orange circle is a great spot for the combo below.

Liatris are often under rated but can be really impactful en masse, which is clearly illustrated above.  While once I thought a monochromatic garden was for me, I am now leaning toward throwing in some complementary colours.

Perhaps some Coreopsis would work well with the Liatris?   I should be able to directly sow Coreopsis seeds here; a 70/30 Liatrias/Coreopsis weighting will be attractive so the yellow does not overwhelm.

Let me know what you think about either combination in the comments section at the bottom. 

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS - grassy knoll

Not quite a glamour shot, eh?

When I looked at this space I thought that the line of grass starting between the South Fern Garden and Lily Garden drew the eye up toward the Septic Garden a little bit, but not too much.  

Not enough to serve a purpose.

The "grassy knoll" at the side of the Septic Garden wasn't grassy enough and once I got it in my head, I just had to pick up and move half the grass right away.  Better it be grouped more densely and make some impact with its colour (and prevent erosion on the slope) than connect the two gardens.

 There, isn't that better?

If you are like my husband, the difference escapes you (bless his heart), but I will always be glad I moved it.
The natural leaf mulch covered forest floor between the two gardens will do just fine until I figure out the best way to merge them, but it definitely wasn't with grass.

It only took 15 minutes...hardly a distraction from the planned gardening of the day.

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