Red Dirt Ramblings®

Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil

My Gardens

Below are my gardens. This is a quick tour around our property from the camera eye’s point of view. Click on the photos in the galleries to enlarge them. Oh, and the potager has its own page if you want to look at it. Probably the two seasons I love best in the front border are spring and fall, but late summer is good too.

‘Jane’ magnolia is the star of the front garden. I fertilized the grass this week with Milorganite, but it will take a few days before it turns a brighter green.
The fall front door decor once it was finally finished.
Fall is truly a time for coming home and sitting by the hearth on those cool nights.
Front border between the front door and the pond.
Front border from the side with caladiums and a yellow mum. I find I plant yellow mums in pots out there each year.
Pink tulips and white daffodils in the front border.
Raised border between the garage and the front door.
Another view of the raised border next to the garage.

I had some help with the front borders in 2010.  I couldn’t move all those boulders, and while I loved my hollies, I lost them in the ice storm in 2020. I replaced them with yews and a beautiful double-flowering Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake.’ Also, in the front garden are three Japanese maples, an Acer palmatum ‘Viridis’, A. palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’, and one that I’m not sure the name of. It was put in by the man who helped me with the front borders. Yes, you can grow Japanese maples in Oklahoma. It’s all about location, location, location, along with which varieties you choose.

Acer palmatum 'Tsuma gaki' Japanese maple
Acer palmatum 'Sango kaku' Japanese maple
Acer palmatum 'Crimson Queen' in the front border.

The first garden I grew faced the front street. Part of it is now the potager. Between the potager and the street bed is my greenhouse we put up in 2012. We built it from a kit. It wasn’t easy to get everything lined up so that the vents would open and close.

Greenhouse and garden beds facing the street.
Passalong Phlox paniculata grows all over my garden. This stand of it is in one of the beds that faces the street.
African blue basil is very happy in the cutting gardens. I planted it for my honeybees, but they’ve shown no interest this year. Last summer, they were all over it.
Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’ with pink muhly grass.
Garage border with Japanese maples bowed down by ice. In the background is the Eastern redcedar that Little Cedar Garden is named after.
Greenhouse with potager after I pulled out all of the plants.

The tiered borders on the back of the house.

A portion of tiered borders seen from below.
The tiered garden from the side.
As you can see from the tiered border on the north side of the deck, the garden is still mostly green. Not very many blooms for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
Tiered borders stuffed to the brim.
Rosa 'Frontier Twirl' with 'Bright Eyes' phlox and ironweed
‘Ogon’ spireas in the tiered borders.
The beginning of the tiered borders that lead into the back garden.
Two of the three 'Royal Purple' smokebushes planting along a retaining wall in my garden.
Two of the three ‘Royal Purple’ smokebushes planting along a retaining wall in my garden.

The back garden over the years. I started this blog in 2007. Most of these photos are from 2011-2014. Rose Rosette Disease claimed many of my roses, so where a rose is marked as lost, that is probably the cause. However, in recent years I’ve started growing roses yet again, and I haven’t see RRD in my garden for many years.

Back garden on a bright sunny day. Garden questions
Back garden on a bright sunny day.
One of the places I often go is down the main walk of the garden where I sit for a while in the purple chairs.
One of the places I often go is down the main walk of the garden where I sit for a while in the purple chairs.
A different view of the arbors in the back garden after a snow.
Back garden overview in summer. This is only a small portion of the garden.
Viewing the back garden from the mid-point on the south side and looking up at the house.
Green arbor in Dee Nash's Little Cedar Garden
American wisteria ‘Amethyst Falls’ and ‘Tamukeyama’ Japanese maple (1 of

Sometimes I stand in the back garden and look up toward the house.

Viewing the back garden from the mid-point on the south side and looking up at the house.
Shade garden looking west and up toward the house.
I’m standing and the bottom of the back garden looking back at the house.
I’m standing and the bottom of the back garden looking back at the house.
Echinacea 'Cheyenne Spirit' and many daylilies brighten my back garden.
Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ and many daylilies brighten my back garden.
Looking at the house from down in the back garden.