My Perennial Garden | A Seasonal Kaleidoscope

 Dear Garden Diary,

I'm so pleased that our little perennial garden, after much toil,  has come together so beautifully over the last few years. It's a pleasure to sit back and watch the plants put on a show for us, all through the year.

Let me take you for a walk down our garden path through the four seasons. This is just one view of our low maintenance perennial garden at different times of the year.

Early Spring

This cedar mulched path leads up from our detached garage, at the bottom of the garden, toward the back of the house. We curved the previously straight beds to allow the little garden to slowly reveal itself.

With all the spring rains, the lawn has sprung to life. Daffodil bulbs planted the previous Fall are blooming. Tulip and irises are coming up around the dwarf Alberta Spruce. Opposite them, the wild ginger is slowly unfolding. The garden path is flanked by a woody lilac on the left (quite overgrown, but I enjoy the arbor it creates) and a beautiful Kwanzaa cherry tree that is filled with profuse pink flowers a few weeks from now.

Late Spring

The lilac is in full bloom! I have more than enough blooms to fill vases for indoor arrangements where their heady perfume fills the house. The Kwanzaa cherry has just finished blooming. The bright green Fire Island Hostas bring a little contrast to an otherwise, very green garden.

Early Summer

Spiky blue catmint and blue Siberian Irises are in their element... and so are the bees that busily buzz around these fragrant flowers. I love the yellow-green foliage of the Fire Island Hostas that contrast with all the blue flowers in the garden at this time of the year. The wild-ginger has formed a lush green carpet that forms a tight, curved bed.

Mid-Summer

I love the shady arbor created by the lilac and the Kwanzaa cherry tree. Orange Trumpet Honeysuckle vine that spills off the lattice fence happily scrambles up through the Kwanzaa cherry tree creating a bit of a curtain to duck through as I come through the arbor and into a shady, green summer garden.

Late Summer

The stars of the show are now the yellow Black-Eyed Susans that form a profusion of color against the lattice fence backdrop. These Fragrant White Calamint (another bee-loving flowering plant) spills out of the curve of the bed and into the lawn. These low maintenance perennial flowers bloom all summer long.

Mid- Fall

Things are winding down. It's now time for the flowers to pass the baton on to the foliage who does the heavy lifting at this time of the year. The leaves of the Kwanzaa cherry tree turn a beautiful yellow along with the Fire Island Hostas. 

Late Fall

What can be more beautiful than this? The Pin Oak that shades most of our garden has dropped its shiny, golden-brown leaves. It's a carpet of crunchy leaves that eventually needs to be raked up (but not just yet). Now, it's time to light a fire in the fire pit, sit around the fire with a blanket on my knees, drink hot chocolate and enjoy a beautiful, crisp Fall evening. 

Winter

Ooh! The beauty of snow. A wet, sticky snow that clings to the trunks and branches of the trees, creating beautiful silhouettes on a white canvas. A few little evergreens (boxwood (LHS) and the Dwarf Alberta Spruces (RHS) lend a little winter interest. Perhaps, I should consider planting more evergreens in Spring.... A gardener's work is never done :)

If you're curious and want to see more of my garden, check out:

My Perennial Garden: In July

My Perennial Garden: Awesome August

My Perennial Garden: September Stars

Click on the "Garden" label right below to see my other garden related posts.