Before & After: Julie's Name Gardens

 Confession: I have always wanted to name my gardens, but courage has failed me in this. 

I fell in love with Gilmore Gardens over at Wife, Mother, Gardener. Julie has beautiful, cozy, fabulously put together gardens, but she also has....wait for it.....names for each garden. Swoon.

The Shade Path

1. I've always wanted to know, how did you name all your gardens? 

That would be a result of putting together my personality and my husbands... a marriage of sorts. I am rather a functional/efficient type, so I like a nice short name to write in my garden journal to refer to each section. I feel like the real inspiration though came from my husband, who was an English major in college (where we met). He is the artistic sort for sure and has always encouraged me in my garden "art". 

He also loves British literature and culture, which uses a cute name for nearly every location, large or small. That gave me the confidence to not feel silly about calling the garden at the corner of our lot, "Cherry Corner" (chosen for the weeping cherry tree in it). The Hill Garden is located on the once ugly hill at the front of our driveway. The Shade Path is shady, the Driveway Garden by the drive and the Back & Front Woodlands are dedicated to some of my woodland treasures and less structured planting schemes.

The Cherry Corner

2. How much time elapsed from your before photos to your after photos?

The general before photos were taken in the spring of 2007, literally the first time I looked at the house as we were thinking about placing a bid on it. I was photographing out my car window... while driving! Good thing it was slow. The photos of the specific areas were taken the first fall (2007) and spring (2008) we were there. Little Grace is just toddling around then! All the after photos were taken this spring, 2011. We finished painting our enormous old house last year (which is actually a triplex, that we own and live in). It was not so pretty before! I like it much better now. 

3. How did you go about planning your garden?

The Shade Path was my first love, it being the first garden I wanted to begin when we moved in during the fall of 2007. I wanted to be surrounded by the plants as I walked down the right side of our house, and it has not disappointed! I started that garden with mere bits and pieces donated from other gardens, mostly hostas and ferns, and one pot of perennial foxgloves from my nursery working days (Digitalis grandiflora). I sprinkled seeds for columbine (Aquilegia) and forget-me-nots (Mysotis). 

 That first fall, I also needed a place to put my daylilies, and so created a bed at the corner. The following spring I added the cherry tree that would be the garden's name sake, Cherry Corner. The Hill Garden began when we had to dig out for more parking and end up with a mountain of black top soil (see Driveway Garden -Spring 2008 before photo in the background). I needed a practical way to hid the old stump. 

After these small successes, I then got a vision for the entire front yard of our house to be a continuous garden walk, with varied plantings in each area. Even though it is a relatively small corner lot, I like the continuity that repetition gives to a garden. That has caused me to make my most visible plant choices more limited (the Front Walk is lined with Nepeta 'Walker's Low' for instance). But here, there and everywhere I have single plants hiding that I love. I do not feel limited in my plant palette because I have such a great combination of sun and shade... except where it comes to trees and shrubs. We have planted eight new trees and fifty-four new shrubs, but many are repeated varieties. There are many more I want to try! David Austin's roses are on the top of my list.

Driveway Garden

4. What are your future garden plans?

There is a rather interesting answer to that question since we are now living in our triplex (investment house) and plan on moving to a single-family home in a few years. Many people are incredulous that I have gardened this way "at a rental". I have one answer for that, "It is in me. And I love it!" The plan has always been to create a pleasing design of beds so that when we move, I can take my plants with me (at our own pace, thank goodness!) and cover the beds in suitable ground covers. I have already begun ground covers in some areas (ex. Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety' along the backyard fence, Sedum 'Acre' along the Driveway Garden,Pachysandra along the Front Walk). It will mean more gardening, but I like to garden. That is why I do it! Since my garden future depends on our eventual house and property, I am rather tantalized to see what happens next in the story!

Gardening is pretty meditative for me.
It is my creative response to the beauty that is in our world;
beauty that points to a Creator.

Thank you Julie for letting us tour your lovely, lovely gardens!!!

 And I am holding you personally responsible for the wild garden names that have been running through my head before I fall asleep at night.  Zinnia Zanzibar doesn't even make sense. :)

And remember, if YOU have a Before & After you'd like me to feature, I would be thrilled to show it off! Send me a quick note, easy peasy.