Wide shots

It's been quite some time since I shared wide views of the garden, or much of anything, really, so I thought I'd finally rectify that. Before I get into recent photos, here's a link to a post I did in 2017, comparing how the garden had grown at that point to older photos. A better blogger might try to take photos from the same angles as those for a better comparison, but I'm doing this on the spur of the moment. 

Without further ado, here is the garden in late spring of 2021

On June 3rd, the evening light was particularly nice and I took quite a few photos. This first one is a view looking southwest from the southeastern corner of the house. The plants on the right and along the dry creek bed get little to no supplemental water. The area on the other side of the creek bed typically stays damp well into summer, until you get under the trees in the background and then it can be bone dry before May. The evening sun highlights the bright green foliage of Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire', the yellow flowers of Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, and the purples of Siberian iris and an unidentified Rhododendron. Silvery Epilobium 'Wayne's Silver' contrasts with spiky dark blue Juncus patens.

A different day, a different view. Pulled back a bit, standing at the lower edge of the dry garden, next to the creek bed, looking southwest toward the more mesic zones. Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' ties the long stretch of the creek bed together. It's surprisingly drought tolerant, though this edge of the dry garden isn't nearly as dry as the parts further from the creek bed and closer to the trees. Another Cornus, C. alternifolia 'W. Stackman' rises in the background. Can you pick out the young blooming Embothrium? I planted it in 2014 as a small seedling and this is its third year blooming.

Hopping over the creek again to look out across a corner of the dry garden out into "The Park", which still has many many years before the trees grow enough to deserve such a title in my opinion, but that's what it's been called by people. I love the combination of the bright green dogwood foliage with the lighter blue Festuca rubra 'Patrick's Point' and darker blue Juncus inflexus. It's honestly one of my favorite combinations in the whole garden. I find it calming. 

On a day with a bit of rain (which has been disturbingly scarce this spring) showing a bit more of the dry garden. 

Again on a different day, a view into the dry garden from the southern edge. I wanted to capture the blues of the Ceanothus in the background along with the blue Eucalyptus foliage on the right. Unfortunately, the lens view and light compensation of my phone camera can't quite match the view in person.

Back on the day of that beautiful evening light. Still looking at the dry garden from across the creek bed. Not that you can see much of it past the dogwoods. 

On the southern edge of the dry garden (it's off to the right, out of frame), looking west along the dry creek bed and into the mesic shade garden. It's the shade garden because it gets open shade by about noon, but it still gets a substantial amount of morning sun and quite a bit of filtered evening sun. I honestly would love to have actual full shade.

Looking out to The Park

Pulled back a bit from an earlier photo.

The Acer griseum in its raised bed, with surrounding beds.

Zoomed in. I was enjoying the bright red of the azalea with the copper Acer griseum bark and burgundy foliage of the Red Dragon Corylus.

Standing off the southwest corner of the house looking southeast, now, toward The Park.

This area was so beautiful this year with the daylilies and irises in bloom, especially now that the background has grown up more. 

I had to take another photo of it in that evening light. 

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