Garden Follies

Hello from steamy Dallas,

While the temperatures here are relatively mild for June, the humidity has been a bit unseasonal for us.  However, I am not going to whine about it, as all my new flowers are loving the moisture.  Planting season here in Dallas is very tricky.  By the time the nurseries have the plants that Daniel- my landscape designer- and I wanted, it was already getting quite warm.  Not ideal conditions for planting.  However, we really needed to make some upgrades.

When we first installed the perennial gardens three years ago, we had to put in what we could scrounge from Daniel’s growers and local sources.  It was September, we were behind schedule due to the virtual monsoons that we endured all summer long, and we had to jettison our original planting scheme and put in what we could find.  The alternative was to look at bare beds for several months until we could plant in the spring.  I opted for instant gratification and the gardens were truly beautiful.  However, we have had some hobgoblins in our watering system and those nasty spirits ultimately claimed several clumps of perennials.  So, Daniel and I seized upon the opportunity to plant in the perennials that we had originally hoped to use.

This is one of the pair of front beds after we cleaned it out.  The rosemary had totally taken over this space and had gotten woody and sparse, to boot.  The salvias were getting choked out, and the Brazilian Verbena that I adore so much was no more.  The upside is how much space we had to put in purple loosestrife – and gardeners, do not yell at me as here in Dallas it is not rapacious as it is elsewhere- alcea zebrina, which is a hollyhock relative, and agapanthus.  We also were able to source ladies mantle and lovely hostas.  Now in New Jersey and London these flowers are a dime a dozen, but here in Dallas they are not commonly used so we had to order most of these flowers and they were delivered in bulk.

Doesn’t the purple loosestrife look lovely?

Here is the crew that was charged with getting things back in shape.

This is a nice view of our gravel driveway.  This may be one of our favorite things that we did with the house.  We had a gravel driveway in London and it was so lovely, but also great for the environment and security.  How?  The gravel allows stormwater to drain directly into the ground without running over paved surfaces and picking up oil and chemicals.  The gravel also helps to filter the water before it goes into the groundwater.  From a security standpoint, the crunch of the gravel as cars and people approach the house is unmistakeable and we found it to be a great boon when we lived in crime ridden London.  Here in Dallas, the crunch is merely a wonderful and satisfying sound.  The story of the gravel is a funny one as well.  This part of the project was one of the only aspects of the entire process that my husband was interested in.  We went to a local stoneyard together to look at the different types of gravel that they had.  After looking at all the various mounds of gravel, we were disappointed that none of them were what we had in mind.  John was convinced that they had better gravel somewhere and he said that he was going to ask them about it.  Surveying the dozens of mounds of stone, I was incredulous that he would think that they would have inventory elsewhere.  Undaunted, he strode to the counter of the stoneyard and flagged down a clerk.  He told them that we had looked at all the gravel and didn’t like any of it.  “Where,” he said, “is the good stuff?”  As though we were at a neighborhood bar and he was looking for single malt scotch!  My jaw dropped when the clerk reached under the counter and pulled out half a dozen displays of various colors, sizes and shapes of gravel.  Triumphantly, my husband looked at me, literally said, “I told you so” and we found our gravel.  Lesson learned.

Here is Daniel Houchard, landscape designer to the stars!  Actually, not.  But he should be!  He is wonderfully talented and incredibly fun to work with.  He is so imaginative and has moments of pure genius on a regular basis.  This is our curbside bed.  I do have another photo of Daniel’s backside, but out of deference to him I am reserving it. Although I could use it for future blackmail!  I wrote about Daniel before, here, and you should also visit his website here.

Here is a view of the front garden newly replanted.  I love how the agapanthus looks (it’s the round blue blossom nodding under the tree).  Daniel was not sure about putting it in the mix with such traditional perennials as roses and salvia, but both of us are so happy with how it looks now.

Here is another view of the other side.

This is the rill that falls into our pool.  We really took a chance on the river birch that we planted here.  They are very temperamental here in Dallas, and we had no idea how they would do.  They are so happy where they are that we are constantly trimming them back.  They had been underplanted with Chinese fringe flower, a lovely shrub with a soft purple leaf, as part of a fantastic perennial garden planting.   But the fringe flower was also wildy happy and consequently it took over all the perennials.  We transplanted all of the fringe flower shrubs and started from scratch.  The hanging lanterns were purchased from a stall in Leadenhall Market in London.  At our garden parties in London, we would light citronella candles in them and it was a magical effect.  Here in Dallas, I decided to have them electrified. They are just so charming and we enjoy their dancing light every night.

Here is Daniel again, on the rill bed, talking to his supervisor.  That enormous white blob in the corner is the pool basketball hoop.  The boys and John are constantly playing on it, and so I tolerate the blight that it is to the view.  Although to be honest, I love the view of all the guys wrestling with each other and their friends while they play.  And when we have a dressy party, the hoop goes to the garage.

Here are the freshly planted perennial gardens under the river birch.  We planted more purple loosestrife, Brazilian Verbena,  and Mexican feather grass ( I think ).  I love how this looks now.  Here is another view.

At the back of the bed, nearest the water spouts, Daniel suggested that we plant iris – Siberian, I think.  They are going to be so happy in the marshy conditions back there.  I can’t wait until they bloom next spring.  I think that I have mentioned more than once how much I love the work of British landscape architect Tom Stuart Smith.  It was this garden that provided the inspiration for the rill.

See the river birch, the iris, the grasses?  I don’t think that the plume

y purple flowers are loosestrife, but it has a similar feeling.  I love the alliums ( the small ball shaped purple flowers) and we are going to plant some in the fall, as they are a spring flowering bulb.  Here is another view:

Here is another view of this inspirational garden:

I have been so lucky in my life.  After years of dreaming of going to the Chelsea Flower Show, I actually got to go for the three years that we lived in London.  It was so wonderful.  As you can see, our plantings have not yet reached the beautiful maturity of these show gardens.  Also, and regretfully, so many of these flowers would shrivel in the first blast of Texas heat.  But I do so love what I have.  It gives me great pleasure every day as my favorite spot is the corner of the family room where I have my laptop and a fantastic view of the rill garden.

In my next post, I am going to show some photos of the wonderful container plantings that Daniel created for me.

See you soon!

Kristin

Tagged as: Chelsea Flower Show, From The Ground Up