Well, it's time for another Time Travel Friday trip. I'm nearly out of corny time-related old songs, and nearly out of gardens to share as well. I thought for today I'd share a peaceful, serene, green, shady garden that I visited last summer.
But first we have to hear from The Muppets.
Time in a Bottle -- The Muppet Show
The Garden of Patti and John McFerran
I met Patti McFerran last spring when she came to the class that Peter The Outlaw Gardener and I taught for the NPA on starting a blog. She was one of the students. I felt a connection with her when she described herself as a journalist, because I used to be a journalist too, and I remember more than once during the class when I talked about some of the challenges of writing blog posts and dealing with vendors who just want to use the blog as an opportunity to advertise, I met her eyes across the room and she understood. I was really looking forward to seeing her garden and it didn't disappoint.
You can read here about Patti's gardening background and find a list of articles she has written for WestSound Home & Garden, a magazine covering the West Puget Sound area (i.e., the Kitsap Peninsula) of Washington state.
Beside the driveway as you enter the garden is this small sunny area with sedums on top of a rock wall.
Behind the sunny area is a more shady sloping area with a little white kitty statue peaking out on the left
A little further along on top of the rock wall are concrete or perhaps hypertufa containers with choice succulents.
Aloe aristata getting ready to bloom
A very tidy garden shed for seed starting and puttering
Just outside the door, fluffy Clematis seedheads
Rodochiton atrosanguineum aka purple bell vine, which I have never successfully grown, was thriving on a trellis just outside the shed as well
A great potting area against a wall of the house opposite the shed
What I wouldn't give to have that collection of terra cotta pots!
Another shelving unit against a wall of the shed holds an intriguing collection of plants in terra cotta
This mossy path and gate leads into the shady back garden
I loved how this Clematis bloom seemed to hang by the gate, reaching out to hug guests
All around the garden are seating areas, separated by islands of plants and mulch paths
Absolutely gorgeous thriving Fatsia
I'm a sucker for a big pot high up on a column -- so monolithic
Ferns and a Podophyllum
Begonia grandis (possibly ssp. evansiana?) with striking dark red veins
A beautiful lily
Another calming, green seating area with touches of blue -- they say blue is a calming color
A closer look at the cluster of blue pots
From there, I headed up to the deck of the house, which overlooks the back garden and found this cool table with pots of sedums.
The view from the deck
There's always an Agave
I saw Patti and her husband that day and they were talking excitedly about moving to a new house, giving up this garden and planning a new one. I would have had a hard time leaving such a peaceful place. I saw her again a month ago and she told me they had decided not to move -- in fact, they're opening this garden again this year for the NPA!
Once again, my blogging friend Linda visited this garden a few years ago and shared it on her blog, which you can read about here.
I hope you enjoyed this visit. Come back again next Friday, I have only a few more gardens to share.
My 'Forest Pansy' Redbud tree has started blooming. Like all redbuds, it blooms right on the trunk, and of course because it's growing in the PNW, it's also covered in moss. Because the tree is about 30 feet tall, I often miss seeing when it flowers. I'm usually so busy in the spring and most of the flowers are high up in the branches. But I noticed the pink flowers the other day and decided to take a picture to capture the interesting differences in texture -- the moss, the bark, and the delicate flowers.
'Forest Pansy' Redbud
Anna at Flutter & Hum hosts Wednesday Vignette. Check out her post here.
Hey, it's already mid-April, which means it's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day again. I neglected to do a GBBD post for March, because I was away and there wasn't much to show anyway. But things are starting to ramp up a bit now.
Here for your perusal are some quickly taken, badly focused pictures of what's blooming in my garden, along with a bit of rambling discourse about them. I didn't bother trying to do extreme closeups in the attempt to make sure you didn't see any of the weeds and winter debris still strewn about the garden that I haven't gotten around to cleaning up yet. I've been focused on redoing a couple of beds in the front garden at the expense of tidying.
'Princess Irene' Tulip with the early foliage of Gerald Darby Iris - a nice vignette when not overcome with weeds, dead leaves and stems and last year's old, dead iris foliage
Not 100% sure but I think this is Aubretia
Fritillaria meleagris
Primula 'Sunset Shades' has sown itself throughout one of my shade beds as well as into the gravel
It makes a nice companion for the orange Epimedium, which for the second year in a row I have neglected to cut back the old foliage
Perhaps not such a great companion to this Trillium, which I think is Trillium Kurabayashii
Another Trillium in the same bed, possibly Trillium luteum
Camellia 'April Kiss'
Dicentra 'Valentine'
Arctostaphylos, whose branches look a bit cockamamie because the entire shrub toppled over sideways in our February snow and I haven't gotten around to righting it yet
Grevillea 'Canberra Gem' flowering sparsely because it looks like many of its buds were damaged by our February snow
Ribes speciosum
Brunnera macrophylla
Yellow Epimedium whose name is lost
Another Primula (P. marginata, I think)
Honesty/Lunaria annua
Camellia 'Black Magic'
Camellia 'Black Magic'
Erysimum 'Blood Red' which has a sweet scent that's hard to describe, sort of like fruity candy
Pieris japonica
Ribes sanguineum
Pulsatilla vulgaris
Pulsatilla vulgaris
Erythronium
Erythronium 'Pagoda'
Dodecatheon and Anemones
Yellow Corydalis
Arisaema sikokianum starting to unfold
Only a few days ago it looked very much like a scary, clawed hand pushing up out of the soil
Trillium whose name I've lost
In the greenhouse are a couple of plants with buds that are close to opening. It's not Garden Bloggers Bud Almost Open Day, but I'm showing them anyway.
Golden rat-tail cactus
Adenium obesum
That's about it for my garden! I hope you have something blooming in April to show for GBBD. I know some parts of the country are suffering from bad weather and have even been hit by mid-April snow.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, check out her post here.
