Welcome everyone to my Garden Party.  It is really quite easy to show off your garden to friends and family on a pleasant afternoon.  All you have to do is put some chairs on the deck or in view of the garden and provide some lemonade and cookies.  Guests are usually more than willing to bring something, so ask for easy finger food and light drinks, put out some flower pattern napkins and maybe even a bouquet on the patio table.  All of a sudden its a party!

Of course, the center of attention is the garden so here is a tour of my garden now that it is in full swing.  If anyone wants to the know the full Latin name for any plants leave a comment and I will respond.

You can park right on the street in my neighborhood.  I’m the green house with the lovely wrap-around porch…

You walk up the carriage walk and both of the trees in the parkway are surrounded by groups of plants that do well in the this mix of sun and dappled shade.  Tulips burst out in the spring, along with a nice patch of irises.  There are two types of hostas, astilbe, sedum, lamb’s ear, and new barberry shrubs and vinca.

As you walk up the front path you have gardens on both sides…

On the left there is a full garden of chameleon plant, creeping jenny, and angelonia, with begonia and million bells tucked in.  The taller group in the center is zinnias clustered around a mum.  The larger shrubs in the background are lilacs,  and there are also incredible hydrangeas, the flowers shown in the second picture.

On the right of the path is another garden offering sedum, spirea, and mums with asters, alyssum, and spotted dead nettle in the foreground and lamb’s ear, irises and peonies in the background.  Oh, and the edgers surrounding the gardens are my custom work.  I designed them, built a mold to mass produce, mixing, dying, and pouring the concrete, and shaping before final curing.  We made about 400 of them to line the entire front gardens.

Closer to the front of the house are more gardens…

To the left of the front steps is a rose arbor.  We put in two decorative trellises and used the rose itself to created the top arch of the arbor.  The morning glories on the railing are so vigorous they have made their way over to the arbor and are intertwining with the roses to give us color for the rest of the summer.

On the right you find the mixed border planted in front of the lilac, dogwood, and butterfly bush. This shorter group is plumeria, irises, campanula, boxwoods, and peonies with a rogue zinnia sprouting right up in the middle of it all!  The oval is two types of lavender with annual additions-ageratum and “black and blue” salvia in view.

The arbor in the picture is the passageway to the back yard which holds more exciting gardens to show you.  In the next post we will visit those gardens. Can’t wait to show you my rose garden!

As always, any questions or suggestions please comment.

GG