Today we’re visiting with Yvonne Tsikata.
My old garden was previously featured in GPOD. In 2017, we moved from that house to a new one. While sad to leave my old garden, I was excited at tripling my garden space and receiving the opportunity to start a new garden from scratch. Retiring a couple of years ago gave me even more time to garden. I had spent a lot of time thinking about what I liked from many visits to gardens in the UK, Ireland, and France. I realized that I actually like a little bit of everything: formality and symmetry, woodland shade gardens, meadows, and Japanese gardens! So the garden has lots of “rooms,” with a different feel in each one. It’s still a work in progress and will be five years old in March. After doing some of the hardscaping in the old house, I got professional help with the stonework and walkways in this one, as it was beyond my capabilities. This set of pictures shows some early summer and winter scenes to contrast three of the “subgardens.” I love structure and stone and have used lots of evergreens. Roses are a huge passion. In the growing season, I spend a minimum of four hours in the garden every day. It’s truly my happy place.
The new garden in the early days—truly a blank slate
Formality in the rose garden: Buxus ‘Green Velvet’ and ‘Green Mountain’ (Zones 5–8), climbing roses (‘Eden’ on left and ‘Zepherine Drouhin’ on right), assorted David Austin roses (‘Geoff Hamilton’, ‘Darcy Bussell’, ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’, ‘Charlotte’, and ‘Golden Celebration’), Nepeta ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ (Zones 3–8) and phenomenal lavender (Lavandula ‘Phenomenal’, Zones 5–9) under the fountain.
A wider view of the formal rose garden
The rose garden dressed in white for the winter
The green-and-white garden: Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ (Zones 3–9) and Salix integra ‘Hakuro-Nishiki’ (Zones 5–8) standards, underplanted with Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ (Zones 5–9), Mazus reptans ‘Alba’ (Zones 5–9), Dicentra spectablis ‘Alba’ (Zones 2–8), Agapanthus africanus ‘Alba’ (Zones 7–10), Hosta ‘June’ (Zones 3–9) and‘Mount Hood’ daffodils (Narcissus ‘Mount Hood’, Zones 3–8) and Galanthus elwesii (Zones 4–7) in the spring.
In winter, it becomes the white-and-white garden.
Japanese-inspired garden: Hollywood juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘Torulosa’, Zones 5–9), Spirea ‘Candy Corn’ (Zones 4–8), Acer ‘Orangeola’ and ‘Red Dragon’ (Zones 5–9), Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’ (Zones 5–9), Nandina (Zones 6–9), and mystery hostas (gifts).
And the Japanese-inspired garden in winter
Comments
Lovely garden. Would love to see more photos, before and after, or anything really! thanks for sharing :)
Will do though I’m not the best photographer:)
Just amazing, loved every photo and the story behind the grand gardens. Thank you.
What an amazing and beautiful job. I particularly enjoy the Japanese inspired area.
WOW! Splendid! Like seeing the seasonal contrasts. Would definitely like to see more.
Hello, Yvonne.
Thank you for sharing!
I really like the roses and the the Japanese inspired stream (and the lighting).
I can imagine taking a chair out to various areas and enjoying the different scenes on my own, and also having family and friends over - and maybe with children - seeing what creatures are around the stream.
beautiful rose garden and love how you used focal points. Amazing vision to create this all from scratch. You can see how much you love your gardens and taking care of them. Thanks for sharing.
Wow what an amazing garden! It's so big and perfect that I at first thought it was a public garden!
Just gorgeous what you did with all of your land!
Such a place of interest and beauty!
Love seeing the evolution of a garden. Please share more.
How truly fabulous! You created such beauty from a flat field of weeds and grass!!! Hope you'll treat us to more!
I love everything about it! I love structure, paths, boxwood, well done! Enjoy your beautiful space!
Gorgeous! I love the use of garden objects. They create so much winter interest. Keep posting progress!
Thank you all so much! I have a newish instagram account (@rosemama20) ) that has a few more garden pictures. I hope to do a better job this year documenting progress in the different sections of the garden, especially the native plants meadow and woodland area.
So beautiful! Love the different garden rooms!
Thank you!
Stunning garden, Yvonne! I was sad when I got to the end of the article :-( As others have requested, please show more of your garden spaces seasonally. Love the contrasts! My garden is going on 12 years old - and I've been steadily adding plants and metalwork (mostly trellises and obelisks for my clematis) made by a local metal artist (she also made my two garden gates that open to the backyard on both sides of the house). But now I'm inspired to do something with gravel and pavers :-)
I love using metal and handcrafted sounds wonderful. Good to have a small blower for the gravel in the Fall:)
Wonderful - everything is wonderful!
Thank you!
This is my kind of garden! Love it! Love all of the hardscape also! Magazine worthy!
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