To Do What It Will

There is freedom in being unbound from conventional garden maintenance chores when I come home. I stopped editing a month ago. Now it is just a random snatch and grab as I walk the garden. I wish the same could be said for the ridge top garden next door. It can still use some editing.

The main chore of summer is mowing the paths and Great Lawn. I have been adding some seed grown plants and others that have followed me home, but mostly the garden is on its own now to do what it will.

Now is not the time to be stomping through the gardens editing. Stompage at this point can leave a permanent imprint. I do the bulk of the editing in April to mid May when things are awake enough for me to identify to remove the annoying and unwanted and small enough to recover from being stepped on.

I can't really say I made this happen. I just know which ingredients to keep.

This had a lot more planted input. The filler gets edited.

Away from the scenic byway, the Tall Flower Meadow is still mostly green. It is sprinkled with blooms. The really big show, if all goes well, is late summer into fall.

There is enough going on to keep it interesting while I wait.

Next up: Bottlebrush Buckeye, Aesculus parviflora.

Dry Chicory

Lighting is everything. The camera can't always see what the eye does.

I could see it, cheery sky blue chicory in the fresh light of a cloudless morning.

It makes it hard to drive away. But chicory closes by noon. Morning pictures are the only option.

And before I go, the other half of the driveway bed has chicory seeding in.

The spikes of Yucca filamentosa are in bloom. I wait for the year when two dozen plants bloom in unison.

There were passing clouds when I got back home. A cloud covered sun makes for much better lighting. The Voodoo Lilies are rising.

Without the strong contrast of light and shadow, the garden is much more photogenic.

Flowers help.

Another look at the yucca.

Who knows why one blooms and the other doesn't. After blooming, that crown will die and new ones will grow from the bottom.

There are a few daylilies about. Sister #1 will be coming at just the right time.

It's going to be a busy weekend on the byway Uncle Ernie. Are you ready for your closeup?

Wet Chicory

Some much needed rain fell in the last two days. I wish more of it fell on the other side of the county. It's still way to dry over that side. I like rain. It also scares me a little as the Lush grows high. Floppage is a recurrent problem for tall things. It can be mild to damaging to season ending depending on the storm surge. So far so good.

Or so so depending. The tree does not fall far from the apples. Fortunately I don't care.

Average needed rain, plus a heavy set of apples and a rotten trunk equals one fallen tree.

First came the loppers to cut off all the smaller branches.

Then came the chainsaw to remove the trunk.

It was a wild apple tucked into the forest, so no great loss. However, I did not want it sitting in the bottom corner of the Great Lawn on top of my baby red twig dogwoods.

All cleaned up and tossed back into the forest where it can decompose and return to the earth.

It will all be dry and fluffed back up by morning. I will stop to gaze at the chicory before I start my day.

Freshly Mowed

Can you tell?

It gets harder as the Lush grows taller and obscures the paths.

I have to go down to the Great Lawn for the full mown effect.

One bench is in the cool shade of the forest, a very nice place to rest after a hot mowing.

I keep the mowing to a minimum for obvious reasons.

I can encourage the Lush to look like this.

Editing is easier than mowing and a whole lot more interesting, but that little bit of mowing has a dramatic effect. A strong element of order gives the wild coherence. My maintenance gardener self is able to relax.

A Place Filled With Chaotic Beauty

A freshly mowed thin line of order leads in. Sister #1 is coming next weekend.

The gardens will be tidied. I can't say the same for either house.

The sunny utility meadow is the scenic path between the two.

There is a lot blooming now.

It is part of the scenic along the byway.

And a repository for Bulbarella's ever expanding daylily collection.

Daylily Hill is behind the roadside vegetable garden.

It's finally growing now that we are hitting eighty degrees of hot.

My curb appeal.

But you see, I don't have a curb.

And the garden is...well. It is what it is.

A place filled with chaotic beauty.

And a nice wide freshly mowed path leads in.

Wild Texture

I garden for texture as much as for floral display. What that means for the Tall Flower Meadow is breaking up the simple leaf syndrome of the dominant aster family members.

The native and autonomous Flattened Oat Grass, Danthonia compressa, is a big help when the meadow is still short. At full height this grass gets lost. In places it forms its own brand of meadow.

Think texture as we stroll the wild cultivated gardens.

Grasses are a big help.

Linear leaves contrast with simple leaves.

A big splash of color doesn't hurt. But I cannot tell a lie. This is Bulbarella's doing. I just borrow it.

Simple leaf syndrome can still produce a bounty of color. This is about to pop.

I've been working on the wild flower end of the roadside vegetable garden. Not being a big priority, it is rather slow going. Last year I added dozens of liatris.

Think texture and blooms.