Monday, July 04, 2011

Virtual Garden Tour - Marnie

In the July/August issue of The Essential Herbal, I asked subscribers to send in pictures of their gardens to post here, so that we could all do a virtual garden tour of each others' gardens. Between the magazine and our Yahoo! discussion group, there is a feeling of community and friendship, so this seemed like a great way to visit around the country. I hope we hear from lots of you! My garden is starting to get a swelled head from all the
pictures...
Our first pictures came from Marnie Plunkett of Herbal-Renewal, zone 5 near Indianapolis.
In this case, I wish we had much more area so the pictures could be larger! We'll start with a border that includes daylilies, lavender, echinacea, and lamb's ear among others.
In the middle of those flowers is a colorful bottle tree. I've been seeing a lot of metal bottle tree frames, but this one is wooden with dowels. I like the wood better since the wind here on my hill is so harsh. Just seems safer! These add a nice tall, colorful point of interest to a garden when the blooms might be fading.
In the shade we have hostas, white impatiens and a nice patch of yellow flowered jewelweed (a different type of impatiens). I can't think of what the white spires are at the moment, but under tree gardens are so relaxing and pleasant! A good place for Marnie's son Ben to sit on a branch and daydream....
Another border harboring lilac bushes, roses, and some others...
The herb and vegetable raised beds...
These look like they would be so nice to work with! Not too big, so one wouldn't have to stretch too far to weed, nice pathways, and broad beams lining the beds to sit upon while weeding. The lattice panels would supply some light shade to fragile plants.
Thanks to Marnie for sharing her gardens.
Next stop will be San Francisco. I wonder where our subscribers will take us this summer!