Featured garden - a Berwyn backyard

    Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' is just one variety of groundcover in Dee's garden.

Dee’s yard has evolved significantly over the years. A long urban plot, it measures about 30’ wide by 100’ long. It was mostly a vast lawn when she bought the place over 25 years ago with a couple of mature trees and a meager 12” border along one fence. When she found a plant she loved, her tendency was simply to find a nice spot on the lawn and plunk it in. Flowers were identified largely by the people they came from (i.e., John’s flowers, Miss Dorothy’s flowers) or simply by made up names. Her yard is bordered

by a rickety wood fence on two sides and a chain link on the third. She battles Creeping Charlie, Clover and the regular nuisance of squirrels. She has a family of garter snakes, all of which have dubbed ‘Philip’ by one of the grandchildren. In addition, taking up most of her backyard space is the pool, which the grandchildren won’t let her give up. Nonetheless, her yard is a refuge for herself, family, friends, her pets and assortment of wildlife too.

 There is something blooming in Dee’s gardens from early April straight through the first frost. With sun, shade and a little of both, she has a vast array of plant to choose from. And her soil is perfectly loamy, rarely needing amending at all. So what does she grow? Besides the regular assortment of spring blooming tulips and hyacinths, a Viburnum ferrari ‘Nanum’ welcomes the season with a quick profusion of highly scented blooms. A Spiraea thunbergii also springs into bloom quite early, and this species sports a nice cascade of bright green foliage all summer long. Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Alice’ graces her front yard with an underplanting of Vinca ‘Ralph Shugert’, the variegated cultivar. Other shrubs include Kerria japonica, Buxus, Caryopteris, Buddleia, Syringa ‘Miss Kim’, and Viburnum ‘Autumn Jazz’. Corydalis lutea blooms pretty much constantly from April to October, popping up in her partly shaded garden in graceful bursts of bright yellow.

She likes to have fun with colored foliage. A Tiger Eyes™ Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac is a specimen plant and varieties of Heuchera are tucked in here and there. She plants the colorful Heuchera ‘Caramel’ with some Hemerocallis ‘Stella D’Oro’, H. ‘Palace Purple’ in a couple of pots mixed with annuals and the lime green H. ‘Lime Rickey’. She uses Berberis ‘Helmond’s Pillar’, a variety of Oenothera (Sundrops), which after its mid June bright yellow bloom, has foliage that turns amazing red shades. At present, her Hosta collection has ten cultivars, her favorite being Hosta ‘Sagae’. She truly has a little bit of everything – trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, annuals, groundcovers, vegetables and whatever else catches her fancy. A small bubbling pond and birdbath and an eclectic collection of garden art complete her garden. Be sure to check out the accompanying slide show for a collection of photos from Dee’s garden.