The New Non-Pool Garden One Year Later

You may remember that last summer we decided to get rid of our above ground swimming pool. The new large area left many possibilities for me to garden in and wow, has it ever come a long way. I thought I'd update you all today with some pictures from the new space and tell you of some successes and failures in this garden. The above picture shows a ground level view of the two gardens and path down the center to the storage shed. It also shows my beloved BJ who passed away the day after this picture was taken. I love this picture of him and it is how I remember him-happy days.



This is how the same area looked two years ago when we still had the pool (I for some reason can't find a picture of it from last year). Now look at the shed and you can compare the two photos as to how I had to shape the new areas. The garden on the right was seriously extended and evened out to form a long sloping line down to the shed. The garden on the left-well, there was no garden on the left when we had the pool. There was a garden actually but it only contained a red cedar and two oak trees.

From In the Garden

The left side of the pathway now contains an extended garden with lots of hostas, Solomon's seal, smilacina, wildflowers like dog tooth violets and bloodroot, a few Annabelle hydrangeas, three 'Limelight' hydrangeas, 3 Mount St. Helens azaleas, a variegated deutzia, daylilies, spireas, a Japanese kerria and the crown jewel-a sourwood tree. Other than the 'Limelight' hydrangeas most of the plants are small and are kind of hard to see but they are coming along fine. Soon the daylilies and hydrangeas will be blooming and they will stand out nicely.

The right side of the garden area needs no blooms to look great-but we do have a few. The Tango 4 U lilies are just going by but now the 'Annabelle' and oak leaf hydrangeas are taking center stage-right behind some orange daylilies and deep purple hollyhocks.



Here is a close up of the hollyhocks. These are some old fashioned hollyhocks and I've waited not less than three years for the blooms. The deep purple looks fantastic with the orange of the daylilies and purple leaves of the 'Burgundy Flame' Japanese maple.





Back to the garden. Here is a close up of some of the plants. I garden mainly with shrubs and trees and use perennials for tapestries and blooms-fleeting though they may be we must have blooms right? The 'Golden Jubiliee' (yellow leaved perennial in the center front of this garden) is a perennial that you really don't need to have blooms to enjoy. This perennial was newly planted last fall and wow. It shines in the garden. This is even before it has bloomed! I can't wait to see what they look like.



Here we are looking down the right side of the garden area. I call this garden my 'Greenhouse Garden' since the greenhouse forms the eastern boundary of this long garden. These gardens are viewed from the deck so I like to keep color going all year long. Here I show you my border of annuals. Here in Tennessee we can plant pansies in late September and expect them to still be blooming in June and sometimes in July. The hot weather does tend to fade them away though so in April I interplant impatiens in and among the pansies. By the time the pansies fade away the impatiens will have taken over.

One last picture of the textures. I chose to go big with this garden and planted in mass. Some of the plants I planted last fall did not return this year but most of them did, or at least one or two of the masses I planted returned. This is good. They include: little blue stem (one of three returned and I'll be moving it soon) and most of the 'Red Riding Hood' penstemons (one of five returned). Most likely this garden does not have enough sun or I planted the plants too late. Some people have the challenge of having too much sun whereas I have too little. Fortunately enough for me there are many perennials and shrubs that tolerate part sun and I think I have discovered them all.





One last long shot from the south looking north at the new Non Pool Garden....
 
in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden