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.

Spring front garden doesn’t look bad from afar.

The hollies on the other side of the front door.

The front garden in early April, 2013. It was a slow spring that year.

The other side of the front door.

Fall is truly a time for coming home and sitting by the hearth on those cool nights.

The front garden in 2010.

Front border of evergreens on March 21, 2010. Oklahoma sometimes gets snow for spring break. Fun, huh?

I had some help with the front borders in 2010.  I couldn’t move all those boulders, and I love, love, love the hollies. 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, a/k/a coral bark

Front garden with upright Japanese maple. I’m not sure if it is ‘Tamukeyama’ because the leaves are more lobed.

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.

The garden bed facing the street along with the greenhouse. This is early June.

This flowerbed is one I experiment with each year. In 2013, I used a lot of the seeds I’d started indoors in this bed.

It may be winter outside, but inside the greenhouse, tropicals flourish.

Pennisetum ‘Princess Caroline’

Cut back perennials after the first freeze.

Greenhouse, cold frame and covered up potager.

The tiered borders on the back of the house.

A portion of the tiered borders seen from the path.

The tiered garden from one side in June. The daylilies are blooming.

As you can see from the tiered border on the north side of the deck, the garden is still mostly green in May.

Tiered borders stuffed to the brim.

Rosa ‘Frontier Twirl’ with ‘Bright Eyes’ phlox and smooth ironweed

Back of the house with an unnamed climbing rose at right. I bought it on sale at a store, and it had no tag. The shrubs are ‘Ogon’ spirea, one of my favorite shrubs.

Back garden late spring. ‘Little Zebra’ miscanthus is on the right side. It was young and small then.

Back View of the rose border in 2008. Sadly, many of my roses have succumbed to Rose Rosette Disease.

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.

Back garden in mid-spring with ‘Amethyst Falls’ wisteria on the arbor which once had ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ roses.

Light snow falls on the back garden in April 2014.

This photo is from September of 2013. The large plant is variegated tapioca. I should grow it every year.

Back garden in April 2013. Skies are cloudy. Rain and cold were expected. The weather in Oklahoma can be very changeable in March and April.

The back garden in August 2011, which was the worst year for hot weather in all the years I’ve gardened.

Back garden with another empty arbor. It used to be covered with ‘Cl. Pinkie.’

The back garden in May 2011 before the heat hit in earnest.

Back garden in June 2010, filled with all the bright colors nature can imagine from blooming daylilies.

Another view of the back garden in February 2009.

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

The lower garden last fall in October.

A view of the back of the house from the right side of the lower garden.

The back garden from below shows early spring prettiness. Everything is preparing to break forth in bloom.

One of my favorite views of the house and the back garden looking up the hill.

One side of the back garden and the back of our log cabin.

One of my favorite angles to shoot. I am in the middle of the back garden and looking toward the house. How do you like the arbor now painted green?

The back garden in mid-June 2012.

A view of one side of the back garden from the bottom of the hill.

There is also a rose border on the other side of the deck, which I showed in one of the galleries, above.