With limited spaces available in this thirty-three year old garden, finding appropriate locations for new plantings is often a challenge. A Seven Son tree (Heptacodium miconioides) was lost in a storm several years ago with no identical replacement available at the time. A red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea, a marvelous tree) was planted instead,…

My wife and I visited our youngest son’s garden a few days ago, and in contrast to mine, his is filled with sunlight and a succession of perennial blooms rather than my emphasis on woody trees and shrubs with flowers jammed into the gaps. I noticed that rising above his splendid blooms in one area…

While mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum, below) is a marvelous native for pollinators, the gardener must be prepared to occasionally tame its relentless advance into open ground. The mint doesn’t spread overnight, but steadily, and a watchful eye is necessary by midsummer to protect shorter neighbors as tall, outermost stems flop after rain showers. This taming…

While many gardens dominated by flowers reach a peak in midsummer, this garden is mostly woodies, trees and shrubs, a combination of foliage texture and floral color, so there is seasonal color but fewer blooms that persist through the heat of the season. Yes, there are hydrangeas and other scattered flowers through the early summer,…

Yes, there are a few rough spots in the garden, certainly more than in May and June, but that’s not a fair comparison. The August garden will never match the lushness of late spring, but today it’s looking pretty good, I think, and soon there will be lots of late summer flowers coming on. I…

Today, in this first week of August I’ve just planted a handful of hostas, several red hot pokers (Kniphofia, below), and a few ferns. Thunder rumbles in the distance, with the promise that a soaking storm might get the new plantings off to a splendid start. I’ll water this evening if the rain doesn’t amount…

I returned from two weeks of plant shopping inspired and ready to plant. Within days a redbud was planted to replace a failing hydrangea, and a section of lawn bordering the forest was cut out, then widened to accommodate a wall of granite boulders backfilled with excavation and added soil. Then the heat hit, and…

Returning from two weeks away, I found the garden in superb condition, though several tall weeds that had been hiding before I left now towered above their neighbors. Today, I see the first signs of creeping weeds on bare soil that must be removed before they cover more ground, and this reminds me that now…

Here, the case of summertime blues is a minor annoyance, not nearly as disappointing as thunderstorms that tantalize then regularly bypass the garden. The shade in much of the garden is a splendid benefit, not only in the heat of summer, and despite the inherent difficulty in growing flowers, I would not give up the…