Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Janet Cooley
Today’s photos are from Janet Cooley in Burlington, Ontario. Janet says, “This is my back garden, which I started 20 years ago and have consistently upgraded. As I get older I have gradually moved to a totally perennial garden, for gardening ease and pleasure.
“If planned well, the perennials make a yearlong garden of interest, from bulbs in the spring, through colour and shape during the summer months, to appropriate greens and oranges in the fall. Winter is tough, but I have found that tall grasses catch the snow to provide an interesting garden picture during the cold months in Canada.”
Great job, Janet! Besides the beautiful garden, I am jealous of your flawless lawn.
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Janet Cooley
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Comments
Very cosy. Parabéns( congretulations in portuguese).
I got my usual attack of northern climate Hosta envy seeing how happily Janet's guys are growing basking in full sun. Here in TN mine would be experiencing death throes not protected in mostly shade.
The repetition of white along the fence in the first picture has a very pleasing rhythm. What are the two larger bushes that seem to float like puffy clouds and show off so nicely against that luscious green grass?
Janet's garden looks very lush. But even with just perennials I think there's still just as much work. I also refrain from annuals for lack of fenced space, critters love annuals. And in a way I think annuals are easier to deal with, they're inexpensive so very little money covers a large space. I plant some marigolds in my vegetable garden for color and supposedly they repel insects, however no one can prove that to me. Some years I plant mammoth sunflowers in my vegetable garden, I have some growing now. Birds love to pluck newly sprouted sunflowers and other large seeds, I've learned to protect those rows with a "quonset" of chicken wire until they well established. I think Janet needs some sunflowers against her fence. I too appreciate that deep green lawn. Thank you Janet.
Beautiful garden! So lush and green - here in Michigan, it's pretty much brown!
I too have been working for 20 years on my garden in Markham ON, which was just a steeply sloping lawn when we moved in in 1991. I also have a perennial garden, my only annuals being in pots or baskets. Mine is a kind of natural English garden and I have been working steadily to eliminate as much lawn as possible and will have none at all at the front when we finish landscaping it. Here in Markham we have been having a drought, so no lawn watering allowed.
Actually you should not be promoting lush lawns at all as they are environmentally unsound. We had the "Water for Tomorrow" people around to give us ideas and vet our garden. I highly recommend them and it was a free service with lot's of great advice. If you must have a lawn they recommend over seeding your lawn (usually Kentucky Blue Grass) with a mixture of Rye and Fescue which is pretty drought tolerant, even better is clover which is always green easy to mow as it doesn't grow high and the dandelions don't seem to grow through it a plus as here in Ontario pesticides are banned. We live on a ravine and have bunnies nibbling on the clover every morning. I am gradually over seeding with it. Garden centres carry the right kind of clover for lawns.
I will put together some pictures or my deck and garden and send them to you.
Actually except for the fuel consumed in mowing lawns they are no more environmentally unsound than any other plantings, and more environmentaly valuable than what the typical gardner plants (lawns support a lot of wildlife), and lawns are certainly better for the environment than pavement (trees, shrubs, and other plants grow much better in a lawn than in small openings in pavement), lawns are environmentally better than planter pots. I mow ten acres of lawn every week, I never planted any grass seed, I've never applied any chemicals, and I never water. Occasionally in a severe drought it browns and goes dormant, but with the first rain it's green again. I had no rain here for nearly a month yet I spent all day yesterday mowing nearly a foot of growth... it finally rained last night. My lawn is composed of more different kinds of plants than can be counted, so even in a drought certain plants thrive... my back "forty" (a four acre pasture) was still green but was a virtual forest of queen annes lace, black eyed susans, shasta daisies, and several other wildflowers. I mowed them but they'll be back. The problematic lawns are those folks try to keep like golf greens, but even those are better than pavement. Between the critters and my mulching blades I need no fertilizer. I can see by the deep green and its consistant texture that the lawn in today's contribution has had a heavy application of weed n' feed. But it appears to be a small lawn, so I see no problem with retaining that type of lawn in surburbia, and it offers contrast to the plantings... if all one wants is a forest of wall to wall shrubs I suggest visiting plant nurseries.
I particularly like the inside corner garden. I'll bet it is a lovely view from inside the house.
Loved the mounds of Hosta's that were getting a bit of sun! Beautiful yard!!
Actually, I agree with you tractor1 I was advocating natural lawns not the lush over cared for lawns many people like. I was absolutely not advocating paving anything over or having wall to wall shrubs. My choices are perennials, grasses, rocks and interesting ground cover and some shrubs, of course. I have a lovely, natural garden that we think of as our little bit of heaven.
While I do have a large garden backing on to a ravine I fortunately do not have acres to mow and can do mine with an electric mower in a short time.
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