Garden Photo of the Day

Lizzi’s Walla Walla Garden

plants with bright green foliage and purple flowers

I’m Lizzi, and I live in Walla Walla, Washington. We moved here 2½ years ago from Portland, Oregon, where I had been gardening for 20 years. While my planting zone didn’t change too much, from 8b to 7a, it’s enough colder and drier here that many of my favorites wouldn’t make it. I made lots of mistakes in my first garden, and while it was lush, it was chaotic. This time around I was going to plan better, focusing on a limited palette of drought-tolerant plants, foliage over flowers, but still enough flowers to attract pollinators. The backyard was pretty much a blank slate, with the exception of mature cedars in the back corner and a couple crabapples and a maple along the back fence. Our first summer we removed quite a bit of the yard to expand the garden beds and planted two trees—a quince and a weeping white pine—but that was about it. I wanted to learn what thrived here by paying attention to other people’s gardens on my morning runs. Last spring I implemented the plan I had imagined over the winter, and over the course of the summer I saw what worked and what didn’t. (Only one thing didn’t survive the heat dome!). This year I did some rearranging, added a few more plants, and am enjoying the early season show. I can’t wait to see it in the height of summer.

long view of the gardenEarly summer beauty in the backyard

plants with bright green foliage and purple flowersBright foliage brings a huge amount of color to this space in the backyard.

garden bed with different varieties of hotasThe shade garden, with beautiful hostas

rusty metal garden art next to a hostaSculptural metal accents look perfect with the hosta next to them.

small shade gardenBeautiful rockwork complements the plants in the shade garden.

foliage plants with different colorsAn intensely blue hosta takes center stage. Behind it, a blue glazed pot adds color to the design and gives height to the hosta growing in it.

 

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Comments

  1. garden1953 06/17/2022

    Lovely gardens. Great job in your design!

    1. user-6840613 06/17/2022

      Thanks!

  2. User avater
    treasuresmom 06/17/2022

    So pretty. Can you tell me what you have planted in the bed that is your backyard in the summer?

    1. user-6840613 06/17/2022

      The geraniums and the cat mint will keep going. My main summer flowers are echinacea, veronica, liatrus, penstemon, sea holly, drumstick alliums and hyssop.

  3. user-7392754 06/17/2022

    Beautiful gardens!!! Your accent pieces are really unique and add so much!!!

    1. user-6840613 06/17/2022

      Thanks!

  4. User avater
    simplesue 06/17/2022

    Ohhhhh I love your garden style! Oh your plant choices and arrangements are perfect! The metal sculptures are so cool, love 'em!

    1. user-6840613 06/17/2022

      Thanks!

  5. pplat 06/17/2022

    I love everything about your gardens! I especially love your blue hosta. Do you weed a bit every day to keep things looking so lovely? I would appreciate any tip you can give me as I deal with my own garden. Thanks so very much and keep up the great work!

    1. user-6840613 06/17/2022

      Thanks! I have a fairly thick layer of mulch right now which keeps the weeds suppressed and am cultivating dense groundcovers to fill in. I'm definitely a "benign neglect" style gardener. My plant choices are pretty low maintenance.

  6. btucker9675 06/17/2022

    Love, love, love your gardens... the choice of plants, the ornaments, the rocks - perfection. We are having a heat "event" here in the Charlotte area and I am working hard to keep things from turning into crisps. Thank you for cooling me off with your beautiful space!

    1. user-6840613 06/17/2022

      Thanks! I rely on my drip irrigation under a thick layer of mulch to keep everything happy here.

  7. User avater
    vanhatalosuomi 06/18/2022

    Thanks for sharing your lovely garden.

    1. user-6840613 06/18/2022

      My pleasure! It's my first time sharing

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