GrnThum

What's the little woodland plant with the variegated leaves and yellow flowers? Adorable. Woodland plants have to be my very favorites. They never stick around long enough to get old and tired looking ;~)

Gorgeous gardens but I have one burning question. I see you have some deer fencing, so I assume you do have deer roaming in the area. How do you keep them from munching your hostas down to the ground in front of your lovely house? I've slowly been removing the hostas from my front garden just for this reason as they are extremely expensive gourmet deer food here in North Carolina. I spray stinky stuff every three weeks, but if hungry enough, the deer will eat them laced with repellant just as if it's not even there.

You've done a wonderful job with such a great concept. When my sister in Talent, Oregon bought her house, she had a postage-stamp front garden with a clump of grass and a few overgrown bushes. Instead of spending money on a mower, blower, edger, etc., we decided to tear it out and plant a no-grass front garden. It took about two years of planting, but today it's a masterpiece of gentle pathways and low-water perennials with a few annuals thrown in for good color. She told me the local TV station was filming in her front garden the other day. More folks just need to 'brave-up' and do the same. These gardens have so much more interest than a little patch of water-needy grass!

Wow! This garden is so beautiful it makes you want to slow Time down to a crawl just so you can look at it longer! So many rocks...such steep vistas...a placid lake. Can't think of a more divine space! I agree...cover of Fine Gardening, for sure!!

Absolutely LOVE these guys. Your garden is a tribute to melding the art of growing with the need to maintain healthy bird populations. I have a little flock of Cedar Waxwings who come visit my garden every afternoon, but they've never come down for a sip at my birdbath. They "announce" their presence with that wheezy little song of theirs, so I know when they arrive. Might be time to rethink getting a birdbath with running water!

I love the concept of a rainbow garden! Makes me want to tear out my existing hardscape and start again with one of these lovely spirals (a stroke of genius from that boy scout - could be a budding Master Gardener!) Excellent job.

Now we know where "Over the Rainbow" is!

If I was a pixie, I'd want to live here! Texture, subtle colors....everything is simply perfect!

So much lovely color and butterfly and hummingbird-friendly to boot! Great job. These water-wise choices are the wave of the future. When I was in England, the Jupiter's Beard was growing out of the castle walls - no water/no dirt - and it looked gorgeous!

The magnolia is sensational and Miss Kitty is perfect. How I wish I had room for one of those Shastas - what a beautiful plant. Thanks for sharing. I'll bet your neighbors love you.

Wow! Butterfly paradise! The Asclepias tuberosa looks fantastic. Like putting up a sign, 'Monarchs welcome here'.

Absolutely gorgeous! What an incredibly beautiful blending of color and texture. It's delicious!! And thanks for the individual tags. I've got to get some of those Razzmatazz echinaceass.

Nirvana for butterflies!

So glad to see another gardener who loves the deer! I, too am captivated by their beauty and have been methodically removing the yummiest plants in my accessible front garden so that it's less enticing to their munching as it's right on their walkway through the neighborhood. My rescue collies seem to keep them from jumping my short 4' fence in the back. Living in harmony with critters is the only way to go. Kudos, guys!

Happy, happy flowers! This is a tribute to right plant, right place. Here in North Carolina right now, you can almost hear the poor garden panting from exhaustion. Almost everything looks dreadful at this time of year and the mosquitoes are spoiling everybody's fun, so it was such a pleasure to look at the riot of color in your garden and just imagine those 70 degree sunny days that these flowers love. Like San Francisco, you can grow things up there in Vancouver that we can only dream about here. Great job!

Definite thumbs up for your efforts! I garden for birds, bees and butterflies within the confines of my garden fence (too small an area for big guys), but I've had visits from the "garden beast" (ground hog) on several occasions as well as bunnies and turkey chicks. This kind of gardening does leave room for occupational damage, but my motto is....every plant death - an opportunity! It's the wildlife that adds so much pleasure as it really does bring us closer to Mother Nature and there's always something out there to talk to as you're pulling weeds ;~)

Absolutely beautiful and so neat and tidy! I love the mulched areas between the plants - it's so restful and does such an excellent job of setting each off to best advantage. So many gardens are chock-a-block (mine included) with plant material and color that everything melds together. While that's a lovely look, it can sometimes be "too much of a good thing" and you wind up doing more unplanting than anything else at this time of year. During these oppressive dog days of summer, less is more, in my book. I'd gladly trade places for a few hours in the early mornings!

Complete perfection - that's all I can say. There is nothing you could do to make this any more beautiful. I could move in tomorrow and be completely happy.

Had to give this a big thumb's up because it's all my plants in a different place! Love the mid-spring garden when everything is relatively small and compact...before I need a machete to thin out the overabundance. Especially love seeing the perennial geranium. Great article in last month's Fine Gardening on these underused plants.

A beautiful prairie garden - something we simply do not have here in North Carolina. The butterflies must dive-bomb your garden on their fly-overs. It's perfect!!

Yow -- Seven acres. You must never sleep. I have trouble just keeping up with my little 1/2 acre. I give you great credit and your efforts are beautiful. Don't forget the milkweed for the Monarchs. You're right on their northern migration route.

Beautiful garden, Benjamin, and I'll bet the Monarchs get together in Mexico and talk about their visit to your lovely space all winter long! It's encouraging to see folks using more natives to help these orange travelers on their way north and south during the summer. Natives are usually so easy and trouble free - we need more people to grow and promote them! Our Master Gardening program is raising and selling native plants here in Forsyth County, NC to encourage their use. Monarchs here are not nearly as prevalent as up your way. I'm a registered "Monarch Waystation" just to give them a let up. Many thanks for your hard work!

Ruth Stout would be proud! No-dig gardening. My kind of place.

Excellent!! Wish more people would do less grass and more of this for front gardens. So much more interesting.

Down here in North Carolina, Creeping Jenny does beautifully and my front entrance doesn't look much different from this one. Yes, you do need to do a little "unplanting" two or three times a year, but it's an easy job to accomplish. If you find you have too much of a good thing, just tear it out and let it refresh itself on its own. In my garden, I can simply place it on the ground and get it to root, so if you're truly "done with it", be sure to dispose of it properly. I simply love the stuff.

As a little girl in San Francisco I spent many a cold and foggy afternoon in this exact spot sipping Jasmine tea and eating almond cookies with my mom and younger sister. Thanks for giving me some poignant memories. The Japanese Tea Garden is a treasure.