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Our front deck was set on top of what was once a garden. Virginia Creeper pokes through and I am always pulling it up and out. Every year, a single columbine pops up from under the deck at the top corner. The first year, I left it so I could discover that it bloomed a clear yellow that went perfectly with the yellow and purple that I already had. Each year since, I have moved the yellow columbine out into the bird sanctuary when it pops up. Last year, I was convinced I had gotten all of the root, despite the fact that digging under a deck that is ground level is not easy!

So I was surprised to see it pop up again this year. I was also slow to deal with it. Which meant it bloomed. Bigger surprise was that it isn't yellow! It is a columbine I have not seen before, blooming white with a very faint hint of purple. I love it and it makes me want to lift up the deck to see if anything else is surviving under there.

The Bird Sanctuary

The Bird Sanctuary is the area of my garden that is the sideyard we view out our dining room and kitchen windows. The sideyard is divided in half by a fence which separates the front sideyard from the back sideyard. Only the part of the sideyard that is in the front is the Bird Sanctuary.

It is full of trees that block all the sun. It is impossible to grow anything but woodland plants here and even some of them struggle. Every year, we talk about pruning to open up the sunlight just a little. Every year we cut some, nature breaks some and we pick up branches on a daily basis. None of it makes a difference to the lack of light.

There are two Spirea 'Snowmound' in here, a Ninebark and a sad, sad, lilac. The old light purple, highly scented variety of lilac which was, at one time, a very healthy shrub. This year it had about 20 flowers and 6 leaves. It struggles the most and if it is to be saved, we will need to help it this year. I am almost certain it will not make another.

The birds give me an excuse to let the whole place go a little wild and it always does. Plants find it difficult, weeds seem to love it. I still fight the good fight. Trying to find the plants that will live here. So far there are hosta and columbine. Siberian Iris 'Moonsilk' was here until this year. It never blooms. I moved it this year.

Despite all of this, I will never move the feeders and baths from this area. The birds love the tree cover. They all come in huge numbers providing hours of free entertainment and very occasionally, something rare will stop. Plants are here... but the birds are the focus.

Limelight!

 

I love lime leafed plants. Actually, blue leaves and variegated leaves are just as welcome in my garden but don't tell the lime plants that. They think they are special. And this year, they are.

When I had my late summer iris exchange, I picked up a couple of lime leafed beauties from a friend and these plants come with added benefits! The lime leafed Lamium is hopefully going to join the variegated leaf variety in my garden to become everything I ever wanted in a Lamium. I love Lamium. It has so many uses. However, the traditional dark green varieties that flower dark pink, light pink or white, multiply like weeds and are almost impossible to control. Definitely impossible to showcase! If this lime leafed variety can match its traditional cousin in duration and repeat flowering but manage to contain itself at the same time, it will be one of my new favourite groundcovers.

Then comes Columbine. How pretty are Columbine flowers? I am constantly on the hunt for Columbine in colours I do not yet have, always examining the flowers. Now I have a reason to examine the leaves! This little pretty inspired me to dig up and rearrange half of my lower boardwalk garden bed. With luck, it will all come back in the right place next year.

 

It only had to snow once and I am already thinking about spring :)

Columbine

I even love the way it sounds... Alpine Columbine. Columbine are one of my favourite plants which is a real feat considering almost all of my other favourites are bulbs or rhisomes. I think Columbine sits alone as the only perennial on that list. I kind of collect Columbine. From the double red that I shared with Linda and then promptly lost in my garden to my first, and still stunning yellow and purple. My second addition was a pretty yellow that I immediately planted right beside the first. They remain side-by-side today. When we first moved here, I found this pretty, little pink and last year I added a black that has come up but not yet bloomed this year. The Alpine came from Linda's garden and they are similar in height to the pink but have a larger flower. So far, I have two of them and Linda tells me I should expect a lot more. She made it sound ominous but I think that's all good news!

 

 

Spring Pink and Blue

I have a little garden on the west side of my front yard. It doesn't get much sun but at this time of year it's in bloom and at its best.

The pink bleeding heart mixed with the delicate cornflower blue brunnera flowers is so pretty. The alpine columbine just started blooming to add some purple to the mix.

bleeding heart

alpine columbine

Garden Map - Bird Sanctuary, Fence side of path...

All areas of my garden have gone through big changes this year. Normally, I update my old maps of each area, marking what winter-killed and what was moved in or out. This year I had to draw new maps because marking the old would have made them unreadable and I like to keep the old maps legible so if anything comes up down the road that I don't expect, I can usually figure out what it is by checking what has been planted in that spot over the years. A good example of that is my new poppy in the Sun Garden. It is either 'Chocolate Ruffle' or 'Miss Piggy' because those were the only poppy planted there. However, both were planted there in 2009 and this is the first I am seeing of either. Just waiting for it to bloom now. Today I finshed moving and planting everything I had that was to go in the Bird Sanctuary on the fence side of the path. Once that was done, I turned the sprinkler on it and made a new map (above). This is a shade garden and includes my hosta garden. Although I have hosta strewn throughout the garden, this spot contains the largest part of my collection. I love hosta. Also here are wood violets, spirea 'Snowmound', solomon's seal, columbine in three varieties, phlox, lily-of-the-valley and lamium 'Herman's Pride' that I brought back from Linda's last year. The columbine patch was added today and the ostrich fern patch was moved from Judy's backyard this year as well. I have moved a few hosta around in this area this year and added hosta 'Carol' but the rest of the plants are all returning from last year. I will have to do an overlay for tulips and daffodils if I put any here but there are only one or two spots that get enough sun for them. I may not plant any here. I dug hosta 'Carol', 'Wolverine', bonus dark, 'Dream Weaver', 'Christmas Candy' and purple/yellow columbine to send to Linda today as well. It was a great day for gardening even if it was a little hot at +32!

Columbine

I love Columbine. I have not seen one I did not like be it single, double or nodding granny varieties like 'Nora Barlow'. Yet, I still have my favourite and this purple and yellow is it. I can't remember where it came from or what it is called. I have tried to divide and share it several times but divisions have had no success. I have also shared seed and so far no success. (Although I do wonder if three years from now Linda will have a garden overrun with them!) So eventhough it is my largest Columbine, I have decided not to risk another division. I have dug and potted up the entire plant. It barely fit in a pot and eventhough blooming when dug, it did not miss a beat, still full of flowers and standing tall.

Every year since we moved here, there has been a small Columbine baby that grows peeking out from under our front deck. Each year, I carefully dig it out and put it in the garden. The result is 4 small Columbine that have finally matured to flowering size. So this year it was a happy accident to find that this new Columbine is yellow with a very slight pink edge and looks fantastic together with my purple and yellow. Obviously, I had to pot up one of these to take as well. Seems like deciding to take just a few special things has not reduced the number of plants I have to haul!

Blast from the Past

What fun looking through old garden photographs turned out to be! This is the Nursery Entry in 2005 which would have been the second year for the Nursery. If you stand in this spot today, all you would see is Lamium and Phlox. There is Golden Creeping Jenny there still but unless the Lamium has been recently pulled, you wouldn't see it. It has been a couple of weeks since I pulled Lamium here, opting instead to spend my garden time planting. I know the Creeping Jenny will survive and plan to move more of it in the next couple of weeks so will unearth it again then. The Allium above is the same patch that I took to Linda this year so it made it through the aggressive progression of the Lamium as well. The Nursery is an overgrown mass of plants today and is not recognizable in any of the 2005 photographs. Although I miss having it so neat and orderly, I would not trade that for all the plants I have harvested from the overgrowth and I will spend a good part of this Fall moving more. As an added bonus, my trip down memory lane produced white Columbine and pink Honeysuckle that I had completely forgotten. I am not sure where the white Columbine went but the photo prompted me to go and pull Lamium all around the spot it was originally growing. I was rewarded with three seedlings, one of which is large enough to possibly bloom next year. The white Columbine has a fringed leaf unlike any of my others so I am certain the seedlings are white. It was nice to have garden surprises this late in the season when I had thought the only surprises left were discovering what the new dahlia look like when they open. I wonder what I will find when I open the 2006 folder.