carol1

Carol Wallace

Virtually Gardening in Northeast PA, zone 6

Chinchilla, PA may not sound like the best place on earth to live -- but we feel like our little patch of it is perfect. The house is over 100 years old, and a long time ago someone did a wonderful job of landscaping. It was all overgrown by the time we moved in, but the bones were still good. Walking through out garden is a constant stream of surprises, as large pines and dips in the earth hide parts of the garden. Round a corner and find a new surprise. On this property it wasn't even hard to "hide" a 24 ' x 20' pond!

To tour the yard, I usually begin by walking along the edge of the wooded part of our property. I am slowly but surely turning it into a woodland garden - meanwhile, these volunteer lychnis and the Hemerocallis fulva (known affectionately as ditch lilies) at least give some color to this area of the yard.

This is the start of the planned planting of the woodland garden (as opposed to the planting Mother Nature did in the photo above.) Our property is divided into thirds by levels and this is the edge of the first third - the woods.

This is an arch we have cut into a curly willow so that we can go from the woods to the so-called poppy field. It's called that because we originally planted thousands of poppies in this walled area and anticipated their glorious summer bloom - except that not one germinated. Now it holds lots of daylilies, roses and calla lilies, lots of columbine and stachys, several shrubs and the prolifically seeding lychnis that you saw in the first photo - all the way over on the other sideof the middle yard.
The nice thing about this garden - and the next, which is also walled,is that I can cheat and plant things that are not supposed to be hardy from me, as the walls protect them and also reflect light and warmth.

Through the poppy field we come to an arbor draped in New Dawn roses and Duchess of Edinburgh clematis - the back entrance to my walled garden. As you can see, it also has a "front door" - with a gate. When the hemlock hedge that backs the right side grows a bit more, this will be my own version of the secret garden. With the tall ornamental grasses I grow it's already fairly secluded.

A sculpture, "The Four Seasons" guards the back entrance. The sculpture has four faces, from the lovely young girl of spring to the grizzled old man of winter. If you squint you can see some of the plants that I have growing in the cracks in the wall.

Coneflowers, rudbeckia and miscanthus planted in front of the stone walls of the garden. The garden was created within the stone foundation of an old sheep barn that we had to have razed. I didn't mind - it gave me a set of "ruins" to work with - and I love having a walled garden with a gate.

The small pond at the center of the walled garden. It took my husband almost an entire summer to build thepong, and another to lay the brick pavers. When we were done I found an old sketch we had made of a New Orleans courtyard we had been visiting - and we were both amazed to discover that we had recreated it here without even realizing it.

Leaving the secret garden you can take one of two paths around the huge island that separates the middle third of our property from the last area - the gazebo portion of the lot.
This is a partial view of the sunny side of the island, heading back to the house. It is edged in lavender and filled with dwarf conifers, ornamental grasses, daylilies and heaths and heathers.

And this is the shady side, with sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) carpeting the ground and masses of white azaleas and hellebores adding height and texture. The mailbox is where I store my hand tools. Five years ago the woodruff came home from the nursery in a two inchpot. It's an effective and quick groundcover that doesn't seem to bother the other plants that grow in it.
This is probably as close as I'll ever come to the all white garden I keep saying I'm going to plant some day.

Across from the shade border is my silver border - which also leads to the gazebo if you are coming from the front yard. It was supposed to be all pale lavenders, pinks and silver - but I fell in love with that bright daylily (which is a lot more purple than it appears in this picture) - and had no room for it anywhere but here. This is how the best laid garden plans get waylaid.

You have to mount the steps up to the gazebo and start to walk through it to discover that there is a pond on the other side. A natural dip in the land made this a secret pond - and we didn't even have to plan it that way!

And if you walk around the pond, this is the view you have of the gazebo. That bare space you see was supposed to be a bog - but so far nothing has wanted to grow in it. I can't complain too much though - four years ago this whole area was totally bare except for the apple tree on the right.

The plantings near the waterfall have a tropical look - but that is an ornamental rhubarb plant - fully hardy here in zone 6 - along with three weeping Japanese maples, some clumping bamboo (Farghesia nitida) and variegated miscanthus.

My all foliage garden, made just to prove to myself that foliage can be as colorful as flowers, and last longer as a pretty picture. What you see here are hostas 'Halcyon', 'Gold Drop' and 'Albo-mediata', and heucheras 'Palace Purple' and 'Dale's Strain', with a tiny tuft of my favorite grass, hakonochloa to the right. This is the first garden you would see on entering the backyard. - and the last one you see as you walk away from the gazebo and back toward the house. In fact, it is the tip of the giant island with sunny and shady sides.

Hellebores are probably my favorite flowers - they come so early, when we are all so tired of winter that even weeds start to look good. Instead we get something beautiful - like this Helleborus atrorubens!

And at last we come to the side yard, with our quick tour almost ended. This area began with an idiotic attempt to naturalize daffodils in the lawn. Since it was in plain view of the street, I spent a lot of time on my knees with the grass clippers until the bulb foliage died down. In desparation we threw down a lot of mulch and planted a few azaleas and a ton of woodruff and hellebore. And actually, I like it this way.

Back to Tourguide

	To tour the yard, I usually begin by walking along the edge of the wooded part of our property. I am slowly but surely turning it into a woodland garden - meanwhile, these volunteer lychnis and the Hemerocallis fulva (known affectionately as ditch lilies) at least give some color to this area of the yard.
This is the start of the planned planting of the woodland garden (as opposed to the planting Mother Nature did in the photo above.) Our property is divided into thirds by levels and this is the edge of the first third - the woods.
	This is an arch we have cut into a curly willow so that we can go from the woods to the so-called poppy field. It's called that because we originally planted thousands of poppies in this walled area and anticipated their glorious summer bloom - except that not one germinated. Now it holds lots of daylilies, roses and calla lilies, lots of columbine and stachys, several shrubs and the prolifically seeding lychnis that you saw in the first photo - all the way over on the other sideof the middle yard. The nice thing about this garden - and the next, which is also walled,is that I can cheat and plant things that are not supposed to be hardy from me, as the walls protect them and also reflect light and warmth.
Through the poppy field we come to an arbor draped in New Dawn roses and Duchess of Edinburgh clematis - the back entrance to my walled garden. As you can see, it also has a "front door" - with a gate. When the hemlock hedge that backs the right side grows a bit more, this will be my own version of the secret garden. With the tall ornamental grasses I grow it's already fairly secluded.
	A sculpture, "The Four Seasons" guards the back entrance. The sculpture has four faces, from the lovely young girl of spring to the grizzled old man of winter. If you squint you can see some of the plants that I have growing in the cracks in the wall.
Coneflowers, rudbeckia and miscanthus planted in front of the stone walls of the garden. The garden was created within the stone foundation of an old sheep barn that we had to have razed. I didn't mind - it gave me a set of "ruins" to work with - and I love having a walled garden with a gate.
	The small pond at the center of the walled garden. It took my husband almost an entire summer to build thepong, and another to lay the brick pavers. When we were done I found an old sketch we had made of a New Orleans courtyard we had been visiting - and we were both amazed to discover that we had recreated it here without even realizing it.
Leaving the secret garden you can take one of two paths around the huge island that separates the middle third of our property from the last area - the gazebo portion of the lot. This is a partial view of the sunny side of the island, heading back to the house. It is edged in lavender and filled with dwarf conifers, ornamental grasses, daylilies and heaths and heathers.
	And this is the shady side, with sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) carpeting the ground and masses of white azaleas and hellebores adding height and texture. The mailbox is where I store my hand tools. Five years ago the woodruff came home from the nursery in a two inchpot. It's an effective and quick groundcover that doesn't seem to bother the other plants that grow in it. This is probably as close as I'll ever come to the all white garden I keep saying I'm going to plant some day.
Across from the shade border is my silver border - which also leads to the gazebo if you are coming from the front yard. It was supposed to be all pale lavenders, pinks and silver - but I fell in love with that bright daylily (which is a lot more purple than it appears in this picture) - and had no room for it anywhere but here. This is how the best laid garden plans get waylaid.
	You have to mount the steps up to the gazebo and start to walk through it to discover that there is a pond on the other side. A natural dip in the land made this a secret pond - and we didn't even have to plan it that way!
And if you walk around the pond, this is the view you have of the gazebo. That bare space you see was supposed to be a bog - but so far nothing has wanted to grow in it. I can't complain too much though - four years ago this whole area was totally bare except for the apple tree on the right.
	The plantings near the waterfall have a tropical look - but that is an ornamental rhubarb plant - fully hardy here in zone 6 - along with three weeping Japanese maples, some clumping bamboo (Farghesia nitida) and variegated miscanthus.

My all foliage garden, made just to prove to myself that foliage can be as colorful as flowers, and last longer as a pretty picture. What you see here are hostas 'Halcyon', 'Gold Drop' and 'Albo-mediata', and heucheras 'Palace Purple' and 'Dale's Strain', with a tiny tuft of my favorite grass, hakonochloa to the right. This is the first garden you would see on entering the backyard. - and the last one you see as you walk away from the gazebo and back toward the house. In fact, it is the tip of the giant island with sunny and shady sides.
	Hellebores are probably my favorite flowers - they come so early, when we are all so tired of winter that even weeds start to look good. Instead we get something beautiful - like this Helleborus atrorubens!
And at last we come to the side yard, with our quick tour almost ended. This area began with an idiotic attempt to naturalize daffodils in the lawn. Since it was in plain view of the street, I spent a lot of time on my knees with the grass clippers until the bulb foliage died down. In desparation we threw down a lot of mulch and planted a few azaleas and a ton of woodruff and hellebore. And actually, I like it this way.