Some Fall Pictures from Tiger Gardens

From In the Garden

I thought I'd share a few fall pictures from Tiger Gardens with you today. I have cut back on posting a bit but that so doesn't mean I'm not still getting out and enjoying (and working) in my garden. Today we'll look at a few random scenes that caught my eye this very week. First but not least is an unknown Japanese maple seedling-just splendid! I have five unknown type Japanese maples out front and this one is the only one that is orange. Seedlings are quite variable I tell you. Three of the others are red, and one is a plain old green for fall. I think I'm liking the orange best.

From In the Garden

Here is a long shot of it. This J. maple seedling grows in my Walled Garden. The last time I posted on my Walled Garden was when I first planted it back in 2007! This vantage point shows both the Crabapple Garden (in the foreground with the Crabapple Tree) and the Roadside Shrub Border (in the background just in front of the green split rail fence-the other side of the split rail is a state highway). The orange just glows!

From In the Garden

Here is another vantage point looking north toward the Northside Shrub Border. You can also see a 'Nova Zembla' rhododendron in the foreground. This rhododendron is part of the walled garden as well as several PG hydrangeas, azaleas, mums, Solomon's seal and other plants including a 'Forest Pansy' redbud. This garden gets pretty much full shade. The seedling was planted in 20o7 when I planted the entire garden. The seedling is finally getting a bit of height on it-if I can just watch out for those voles I'll be golden with this small tree.

From In the Garden

Here is Christine's Japanese maple (really 'Sango Kaku' but I call it her tree). It colors up completely different from the red leaved Japanese maple. This tree turns a pure golden yellow in my garden. It is magnificent backlit! See the red veining? A nice feature. You can just make out one of the fall blooming camellias in the background.

From In the Garden

And here it is! It is an unknown camellia along the northern side of the deck. It is slowly gaining more girth than height-kind of like me I guess; which is not good for me but great for the plant. Eventually it will grow to above the deck rail so that we can enjoy the blooms at eye level when we are on the deck.

From In the Garden

'Jean May' has no problem gaining height as this shrub is more of a tree than shrub. It has one main trunk and has grown phenomenally in the 8 or 9 years it has been growing in Tiger Gardens. I have posted on how I grow camellias here if you are interested in learning how I do it (besides good luck:). Be sure to click on 'camellias' on my sidebar label section for more informative posts on growing camellias from all of here at In the Garden. I'll tell you regular readers and bloggers, if you do not have a label link on your sidebar you are missing a ton of traffic. The labels are used quite often on this blog and I'm glad I have kept them up-many that there are though. I know when I visit blogs it is one feature I sure appreciate-more than any other feature on a blog.

From In the Garden

Here we are looking west along the Northside Shrub Border. The blueberries in the foreground have colored up beautifully and my yellow button mums are blooming in mass quantities. The color combo is nice and I sure appreciate these late blooming mums.

From In the Garden

More of the yellow button mums in the corner of the Northside Shrub Garden. I mainly show you this picture of the Amsonia hubrectii a favorite perennial for my garden. It is very drought and shade tolerant. The blooms come in the spring and are not so much to look at but the foliage is great! It has taken several years for it to reach this size but I think that is good since the root system has plenty of time to develop nicely. This plant is extremely drought tolerant. I have several smaller seedlings scattered around and I am so enamoured of this plant that I've begun spreading it around the rest of Tiger Gardens.

From In the Garden

Another shot of my 'Jean May' camellia. As I was peeking around the shrub looking for a good vantage point a few song sparrows were most worried about my presence so I decided to investigate further. I'm sure this nest is not used for eggs but more for roosting. The evergreen leaves of the camellias and other multiple shrubs in my garden provide a fantastic hiding and warming place for birds to roost during the long winter nights-and even during the day. I can usually find the birds in this tree since it is so close to my house and I can tell you all types of songbirds including cardinals have nested and lived in this tree. It is a wonderful habitat tree for a wildlife garden. If you do not have a lot of evergreens like camellias, arborvitae, viburnums, eleangnus, hollies, boxwoods, yews, and multiple other types-plant some now to provide shelter for birds....

From In the Garden

One last shot (fittingly it is an orange one like the opener) of one of the three crabapples in my garden. This tree was planted as a twig seven years ago and it has really taken off. The 'apples' are a light orange and provide some great color in the garden-not to mention the birds love these little apples. Crabapples-any kind of fruit tree actually-are also excellent habitat trees for wildlife....

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

The Northside Shrub Border Walk Around

Today I thought I'd talk of my long Northside Shrub Border. I am the kind of person who likes my boundaries in all facets of my life. My home is my paradise and I want to enjoy every bit of it-in privacy. I find it odd I blog about it all though. Anyhow, all borders of my one acre lot have gardens. This particular border is along the northern property line in the front yard. The length of this garden is 97 feet long by 11 feet wide, except in the corners where it curves around and can be as wide as 20+ feet. We will start our walk coming out of the back gate on the north side of my home. I designed this border more as a shrub border but I can't deny any perennials so they are tucked in here in each vacant and almost vacant spot. Upon exiting the gate you are bordered on the right by the house and its north foundation bed, on the left begins the Northside Shrub border. You are first met by a gigantic 'Mt. Airy' viburnum. I have posted on this viburnum a few times in the past. It is a keeper. In fact, I like it so much and it has done so well I've decided to make this corner of the Northside Shrub Border into a viburnum corner. I am hoping for good cross pollination in order to grow more berries on my viburnums. So far cross pollination has escaped me and very few berries grow:(
Next to the viburnum is a 'Tardiva' hydrangea paniculata that is just beginning to bloom. I love the paniculata hydrangeas as they do so well and bloom during a low time in the summer garden. I then placed a doublefile viburnum next to the hydrangea and finally the deep dark corner is anchored by a red twig dogwood. Now we turn the corner and get a bit closer to the curve. You cannot see all of the shrubs I talk about but they are on your left behind the grass. I could not get the entire corner of this border in one photo.

Walking a bit further out into the yard we come closer to the corner and see the privacy fence that marks the northern boundary. We see that fence very clearly because all shrubs I've tried to grow here have been dismal failures. This corner of the garden is fairly shady and the evergreens I've desired to grow here are not liking the shade. I recently replaced them with more viburnums; which are too small to be seen. The first one to the left of the red ladder and along the fence is a 'Shasta' doublefile viburnum, next to this is a golden 'Vicary' privet (you can see part of it under the blue star) and then the silverberry is next in the row. One word of warning on silverberries; while they are listed as non-toxic I was stabbed with a few thorns while pruning this shrub. The thorns were about 3/4" of an inch long and fairly small, but the wound caused by them is at least a quarter of inch wide and is slow to heal. It is not pretty so watch out for those thorns if you grow these (Skeeter).

Do you see all those perennials close to the grass? That corner is very deep and has been reconfigured to make the exactly perfect curve for my lawnmower no less than two times. The perennials are in there for fillers for now. A second layer of shrubs fronts the back layer that runs along the fence. In this layer are: mophead hydrangeas, a paniculata hydrangea, 'Emerald Triumph' viburnum, and an arrowood viburnum (Thanks Dave!). This particular area is a primary view from my home office. I anticipate that in a few years it will positively glow and smell strongly once the viburnums grow in. As an added bonus to the white flowers, the viburnums have awesome fall color, and let's not forget those berries (with good cross pollination hopefully). For now though the primary focus of this area is perennials. There are about seven peonies, several 'Blue star' amsonias, daylilies, coneflowers, 'Joe Pye' weed, river oats, catmint, verbena, lilies, yarrow and shasta daisies growing with free abandon in this corner. I find these plants do okay with mostly shade and only a few hours of sun. The whole character of this bed will slowly change as the shrubs mature and the little bit of sun and room the perennials get now disappears. Tree roots and dryness are not big issues for this corner because run off from the lawn goes into this corner helping with moisture, and the trees growing nearby are lovely oaks; which I find to be hospitable to perennials growing under them. I love the soil in this corner but there is just not enough sun so the area is challenging for me.
Here is the same corner looking west. To give you a frame of reference the silverberry is the gray/silver shrub that sticks out the farthest on the right hand side of this picture. The privacy fence is behind these shrubs. Right next to the silverberry is a tall red tip photina. You can see where all the shade comes from. We have a lot of shade trees in the form of oaks, a hickory, cedars, and a maple and black tupelo. We love the trees but boy do they present challenges for gardening for me. I think all gardens need a tree-or do all trees need a garden? Anyhow, that is my philosophy here at Tiger Gardens. The round garden to the left in this picture is the Crabapple Garden. I have not done a long post on it but have posted pictures from it before. It is undergoing a change in that hostas are slowly replacing the irises and other sun loving perennials here.
A longer view of the northside shrub border looking west again. Once we leave the red tip photinia we find a mock orange shrub. I am not a big fan of these shrubs. They are very pretty in bloom in the spring but mine does not smell and it looks nondescript for the rest of the year. I am thinking its days are numbered. You can barely see it but there is an American flag painted on a window and mounted to the fence. That is the division between two different phases of this garden. It is also a fairly sunny area. I have a small holly planted below the flag that will slowly grow in. Next to it there is a row of Chinese variegated privet. These guys were planted for privacy prior to the fence being built. I tried to give them all away this spring but had no takers. This particular privet does not seem to be invasive, though once it is in place it is set to stay there for awhile. I have decided to leave them in place because the white lightens up this dark area and the privet actually do well in the difficult dry soil in this area. Even of the area was not shady the soil is bone dry and root congested due to two tulip poplars growing in my neighbor's yard. Have you ever seen the roots on tulip poplars? They are fibrous and quite invasive and not at all like the roots on an oak tree. I love the trees but hate those roots. I think tulip poplars are trees that need to be grown in big big yards. Our yards here in my neighborhood are not that big. That being said my neighbors have the right to grow whatever they desire so I have to work around the trees. The garden to the left by the concrete wall is my 'Walled Garden'. It is under a cedar tree and is filled with paniculata hydrangeas that I propagated. Those hydrangeas are doing well and I am hoping for a bloom this year (after nearly five years!) Also in the walled garden is an oak tree. This area provides heavy shade to the Northside Shrub border where the privet grow. The only saving grace is the fact that during high summer the sun passes directly overhead of the border so, as of today, there is still a gap between my cedar and oak and the neighbor's tulip poplars so that the border gets a bit of sun. As the sun sinks in the south though that bit of sun disappears. I had started this border with mums and daylilies but just gave up and switched to mostly hostas.


Here we are again looking west along the border. There is a lot of texture and color in this border but it is such a challenge that sometimes I just throw up my hands in despair. The rest of the gardens except one, are not standard borders such as this one. I prefer the informal shapes and contours to the long straight borders but this particular area called for a straight border because of the slope of the yard and the placement of the trees we left in place. We did cut down about ten mature trees from the frontyard including one in this very garden we are looking at now. Once that tree and the others were cut down it made the remaining trees so much happier that they decided to grow at triple rate and fill in the slots vacated by their lost fellow trees. There goes the sun....

Now we are backing up toward the road to the east but still looking west-north-west. My neighbor's house is barely visible behind the fence. It was a completely different looking yard when we first moved here nine years ago. There was no division and no privacy. Boy, did those shrubs grow fast and the garden sure changed the look of the yard.


Now this is the eastern corner of the Northside Shrub Border. One might think its conditions would be similar to the first corner we started with but not so. They couldn't be more different. This corner borders the state highway my home sits on. You can just barely see the road behind the plants and split rail fence behind my bowling ball tree. This corner also gets a bit more sun than the western corner because the sun is not blocked by the house or other tall trees, though there is a border of silverberries running along the road. I theorized sedum would do well here. It hasn't done as well as I'd like but it holds its own. I also have lilac bushes, five small cleyera, a dwarf Alberta spruce, a chaste tree, and a beach vitex, as well as a red tip photinia growing here. The blueberries are also here. The main challenge with this area is the extreme dryness of the soil due to the tulip poplars coupled with sun. Coneflowers, daylilies, beebalm, 'Goldsturm' and a few other perennials do okay. None really thrive but I am trying to let the shrubs grow in to see how we progress with them.

Here is a longer shot of the corner showing the perennials. I think I need more structure here and less maintenance but I've really struggled to make it right. I understand gardens are a work in progress. This one bed is shown as it looked in mid June. It has changed even more since then but I promise you all no one wants to see the sad and dry plants residing there now. My whole garden is pretty sad because we are bone dry here.

I know this post does not fully show the depth and probably does not give the feel of this border but it helps me to remember what is planted where and how this garden looks at this particular time....and if you are still with me-thanks!

in the garden....

On the recent poll it appears as though everyone who voted is fairly evenly split on reading garden blogs for both the photos and the information provided. That's why I read blogs too so that makes sense and thanks for voting. Everyone have a great weekend.


Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,

In the Garden

Your Garden Style

Rear Center Garden
What is your gardening style? Do you have one? Do you even want one? Aspire to a style? What is it?Heuchera Garden
Oftentimes we speak of and hear about gardening styles. What exactly is a style and how do you choose a style of gardening?
Front Sidewalk Garden
Well for me I think my style of gardening is considered cottage, eclectic, and maybe a bit crowded. Can that be considered a style?

Front Foundation Bed-Right Side
I find I garden in this manner because I am a bit of a plant collector. I not only want every plant I see, I also want A LOT of those plants.

Sunny Perennial Border
I like lots of color and I want color all year long. As such, I must pack in a lot of plants in order to have something blooming all year. These plants must be planted in big enough drifts to make an impact when their neighbors are out of bloom.

Greenhouse Garden-Sunny Side
At the same time they must be close enough together so that they can carry the color when their neighboring perennials are out of bloom. A hard mission for any garden let alone the numerous ones I have here at Tiger Gardens.

Northside Shrub Border and Walled Garden
I want lots of textures, foliage, and blooms too. The whole garden should work together but how do you get the look you want? I really crave a succession of blooms and can anticipate when the next plant will bloom but putting it all together is a challenge. I do not want to see any ground in between the plants and the less grass I have to cut the better.

Crabapple Garden
So I keep packing in the plants wherever they seem to fit and wherever I think they'll do well. Some things work and some things don't. Then of course I have to adjust my style. I dig plants, I throw out plants, I move plants, I simply abuse my plants in my quest to get the perfect garden according to me.

Greenhouse Garden-Shade Side
Did I mention my garden is sun challenged? No where on this one little acre of dirt does the sun shine for more than 6 hours at a time. That one little spot is in my driveway. Ha! What fun!

Spa Garden
So I garden with shade and shade plants. I enjoy the shade yet I yearn for sun loving plants. I adapt. As do the plants and that is a great thing.

Front Center Garden and Part of Forest Pansy Garden
I try to garden to please me and to find my exact specific gardening style. Gardening is an art that is never really complete. It must always be worked on and oh yes, let's throw in the fact that the gardener will change. We are not static. Just because I garden in a cottage type style now does not mean I will always garden this way. So I adapt and still I strive to find my garden style, but really the whole thing with gardening styles is misleading. The type of gardening you do should be called the "Piece of Me" gardening style. Because no matter what your style is it is uniquely yours and you leave a piece of you in your garden each time you tend it, plant it, edit it, prune it, weed it, well you get the idea.Northside Shrub Border
Don't get wrapped up in garden styles, just enjoy your garden for the reasons you do. And don't ever let anyone tell you what type of style you should have in your garden. Strive to be you and leave a piece of you in your garden. This is what makes all gardeners have a special connection to their gardens. A garden is uniquely the gardener's. You can have ten thousand gardeners gardening in a formal style and I guarantee you not one single garden will be the same. Forget about styles and garden the way you wish to garden. Find your own style...

in the garden....whatever it may be.

Northside Shrub Border

This is my 'Northside Shrub Border' beginning when you come out of our back gate and heading east into the bend to the long part. It is a truly mixed border and is one of the longest gardens in my yard. It is about 100' long and 11' feet wide, not including the bent parts at either end of it. It borders the northside of my property and is somewhat shady because of neighboring trees both to the north and south of it. It is extremely dry to a tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). If anyone reading this grows these trees, be prepared for a battle in the garden. I do not grow this tree, it is my neighbors, but I might as well as much as it loves my yard. The roots are fibrous and suck ALL moisture from the ground. Then it drops leaves prematurely and is basically an all around problem tree for me, though I do admit it is beautiful in the right spot.

Here is another view of the border looking toward the east. I generally don't like pictures with shadows and light patterns, but this one looks so awesome with the sun coming through and hitting a bit of the mist. This border is about four years old. I hand dug every bit of it. Its original intent was to form a backdrop and privacy screen on this side of the yard. Of course, like all gardeners and their gardens, it evolved into much more. In addition to the numerous shrubs (Variegated Privet, Silverberry, Viburnums, Photinia, Mock Orange, Hydrangea Tardiva, Red Twig Dogwood, Chaste trees, Burning Bush, Blueberries, and a Foster Holly), there are multiple bulbs and perennials, both herbaceous and woody.

I thought the border would never fill in. Here it is above looking toward the west and my backyard. My theory when building this garden was to plant perennials repetitively. I did not have a ton of plants to start with, so I would plant maybe one daylily every ten feet, right next to it would be a small group of coneflowers, shasta daisies and so on. I intended to divide the groups every year until I had a huge display of each perennial at regular intervals. Well, that has happened, but along the way something else has happened. There is no distinct plan and cohesiveness for this garden. It is very full and fairly colorful and the colors even match well, but not in a manner I am happy with.

The last view of the northside shrub border is at the beginning of the bend from the roadside shrub border on the east end of the garden. This part of the garden is most dry and gets some pretty good sun. Yarrow, shasta daises, and daylillies comingle happily. I am trying to fit some more hardy souls in here; which will require much thought and digging.

I can see a garden renovation in the very near future (once we get rain). Almost everything will come out. I will leave the 'Powis Castle' Artemisia as it is a good blender and fairly uniformly placed. The shrubs will stay only because they are too big for me to successfully move, but all perennials are coming out. I intend to have the same plants, though in larger and fewer groups. Control is the word. Ha, this should be fun for me-the perennial collector of all things that grow. Where will I fit it all?

That is the crux of the matter. Reworking this garden is fairly simple, it is finding homes for the outcasts and odd plants that I just can't seem to part with. I can see a long week or two of work here in this garden. Sigh.

My whole point to this post is to try to practice some control in the garden. While I had a general idea of how to fill this bed, it did not work well for me. If I can help one person to keep from making the same mistake of not planning properly, and of not using control and restraint in the garden, it has been worth it all. I am sure next year's garden will be so much better....with maybe a bit more uniformity and control?

in the garden....