There was never a plan to work on this part of the garden during the 2023 growing season. We agreed that by keeping a laser-like focus on the Arrival Court and adjacent Entry Garden, we could avoid the half-assed crawling toward an undefined sense of semi-completion that is the the hallmark of my work (past examples include doors without handles, live wires protruding from outlets, and Mondrian-like paint swatches on walls that I try to fob off as “a look”). But when Philip, the excellent arborist-cum-landscaper who installed several large trees at the front of the property called last September to say he had a day free, I jumped at the chance to have the area now called the Croquet Lawn graded and seeded.
For a long time echinaceas seemed only to come in a kind of mauvey pink but, in the last few years, I've been able to pink up some wonderful corals and vivid oranges. I wonder if these would make good transition hues amongst your reds and purples? They are an excellent July and August flower, in addition to being indigenous. I think they'd be very friendly to your red hot pokers.
It's all sounding so good. It's always a learning process, innit? One of the great pleasures I've come to in my now mature garden, is the amending and enriching of the soil. I love how the plants respond, and how a richly manured (sheep, my preference) mulching makes the garden look so cared for. I didn't pay enough attention to the soil in my younger gardening days, just wanting to get things growing and blooming. As the Mennonites up here say: "We grow too soon old and too late smart".
Oh how I'd love to stroll through your gardens and into the woods! Sounds lovely. Your description of the sunset pattern made me think of chakra colors (with green and blue missing, though you'd get the green with foliage). I'm enjoying your processes.
For a long time echinaceas seemed only to come in a kind of mauvey pink but, in the last few years, I've been able to pink up some wonderful corals and vivid oranges. I wonder if these would make good transition hues amongst your reds and purples? They are an excellent July and August flower, in addition to being indigenous. I think they'd be very friendly to your red hot pokers.
It's all sounding so good. It's always a learning process, innit? One of the great pleasures I've come to in my now mature garden, is the amending and enriching of the soil. I love how the plants respond, and how a richly manured (sheep, my preference) mulching makes the garden look so cared for. I didn't pay enough attention to the soil in my younger gardening days, just wanting to get things growing and blooming. As the Mennonites up here say: "We grow too soon old and too late smart".
Oh how I'd love to stroll through your gardens and into the woods! Sounds lovely. Your description of the sunset pattern made me think of chakra colors (with green and blue missing, though you'd get the green with foliage). I'm enjoying your processes.
Bravi Chris and Laura! You will surely have a true paradise by mid summer. Thanks for sharing the wonders of gardening.
Carole M