CDLV Garden Progress, Take Two

I know I said that I would be back sooner than this, but you have to understand the amount of work putting on a new roof puts on someone like me. You see, we live in a fairly decent size house, with a high-pitched roof, which makes the install of a completely new roof quite difficult and therefore much more expensive than I'm even willing to say. Thank goodness this is not a yearly repair. I, of course, asked how I could get a discount from the original price he quoted me, and he told me that if I picked up the shingles, it'd save me $1,000. I jumped on it, after all, don't you know what I could do with $1,000?! After long days of picking up two layers of shingles (those things are heavy) there was just not a shred of get-up-and-go left in my body.

Today, however, I'm back on top, and thought I'd give you a little tour of the garden, fresh after a heavy rain.

That's right. Rain! Thank goodness! I just planted a ton of pots last weekend and they needed some liquid attention! I also bought this awesome armillary built right here in Western New York while I was at the Lewiston Garden Fest. My friend and client Judy also bought some things from this guy - you'll see those when I get around to photographing my latest project with her, later.

For those of you who don't remember, or who are new to the CDLV garden; I live in an old neighborhood of homes built on fairly narrow lots. My backyard is about 90' long, and 14' wide. So, I thought that the best way to make it feel larger was to make it into separate spaces. Near the house we have the round garden, now filled with gravel, which includes a fountain and a shade garden built up with natural slate stones from the Niagara Gorge. Then there's the long garden, where all of my sun plants thrive, and then at the very back next to the garage; the pergola. This tiny little garden is off the garage and creates the entrance to the pergola, so I figured the armillary would fit here perfectly!

This garden is filled with perennials, and the annuals are planted in giant pots. Coneflower, Black Eyed Susan, Snake Root, Coral Bells, Day Lilies, Climbing Hydrangea,  Jacobs Ladder, and Azalea make up the bed, and in the pots: ivy, purple potato vine, dragon wing begonia, petunia, and "spider plant" or cleome. Love this stuff!

For whatever reason, maybe all the rain, my astilbe are all FINALLY blooming this year! This white one is beautiful against the green of the hydrangea leaf and those bright red Asiatic lilies.

I just had to show you this photo. My coneflower are coming up quite nicely, I love them at this point. It's like a little piece of art!

The dragon wing begonia are spread throughout the garden in pots and in hanging baskets. This pot, near the back porch, has English ivy, dragon wing begonia, and white fuchsia
.

In another pot, the dragon wing begonia is planted with your standard variety of begonia and English ivy, then set in a bed of creeping jenny. Love that stuff ... you see it in lots of places in the garden at CDLV. It's a fun shade of green and a such a light creeper that it doesn't choke anything else out.

Even Mr. Earl got a few dragon wing begonias in the chimney liner behind him. Those purple sweet potato vines are really starting to leaf out! It'll really be beautiful as it starts to "fall" down along side of those super white calla lilies you can see just the left.

From the pergola, you can see where the small garden where the new armillary went wraps around (the ginger ale coral bells and creeping jenny) and where the long garden wraps back along the fence. The peninsula where the birch trees are planted section off the round from the grass.

Does anyone know what this is? I don't think it's a weed. I planted so many things in my rock garden, and I didn't mark one of them! I'm assuming it's a variety of rock cress, but I just love the blooms ... such a pretty purple.

Right off the back porch, before you get into the round garden, is Scott's lily garden. Remember in Progress Post One, just below this one, I showed you these guys closed up but about to burst? Well, here they are! They smell so sweet! It's the perfect little perfume from the back porch in the morning on my way out the door.

The sun garden, where Mr. Earl resides. The flower immediately in your face here, lower left, is white phlox. I love it, but it blooms so late it just looks weedy now. That humongous grass to the right of Earl was a gift about two years ago from my friend Melisa. I love it ... but it probably needs to be thinned out. It gets to be about 9' tall!

The purple snake root, planted behind the ginger ale coral bells in the armillary garden are looking beautiful and standing tall!

And all of the stella doro lilies are blooming and looking beautiful and bright. I forgot how many of these guys I had planted at CDLV. They're such a wonderful garden staple in our zone (5), they are always blooming, and the color goes with anything.

And lastly, the rock garden, with that plant I had questions about. In the background you can see my beautiful wine barrel ring orb is still in the garden. And the pinks and light purples in the rock shade garden are starting to perk up and show off. And of course, my favorite ... begonias ... are planted here too. These do so well no matter where I plant them they're a must-have.

I know it was all wet, and it's not all blooming ... but it's coming along. I hope you enjoyed your little walk through the CDLV garden ... I'll have more progress, including the new roofs and porch paint, soon. Enjoy your weekend!