It was my pleasure to visit Town Mouse last weekend and see her garden in its post-garden-tour splendor, and then go on to visit her friend Lisa, whose garden we had visited a year or so ago when it was still in the thinking through stages, and now it is looking really splendid. It's interesting to see these two lovely gardens at different stages of development. Town Mouse's garden of course has more mature shrubs and layers of height to add interest.
I wrote about dividing iris in my garden to share with Lisa about in the fall of '14. And I got to see those iris doing really well! Why didn't I take a photo? Darn! But I did get some lovely garden views, though - and we all enjoyed a cup of tea and some chocolate dipped strawberries that Mr. and Mrs. Town Mouse had made at home - yum!
Lisa's Garden
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| In the foreground, I think Penstemon heterophylla 'Margarita BOP' and mounding in the upper left, Verbena lilacina 'De La Mina' which is from Baja Mexico, though it's considered the California floristic province. |
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| Gorgeous mounds of buckwheat: Eriogonum umbellatum var. polyanthum 'Shasta Sulfur' |
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| That lovely low spreading border, from a different angle. |
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| Lisa and Town Mouse on the grand tour! |
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| Hard to get a good picture of grasses (Unless you're Saxon Holt of course!). Here Festuca califonica I believe. And one of Lisa's husband's wonderful sculptures in the background. |
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| Under the spreading oak, hummingbird sage, Salvia spathacea, and hard to see in a photo but stunning in actual real life - western columbine, Aquilegia formosa, about five feet tall! |
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| This little ground cover is modesty, Whipplea modesta I would like to try this in my garden. It grows wild all over our county - I may have seen it and not recognized it. It's good to have a nice tidy little ground cover like this for filling in spaces between rocks and so on. |
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| Some Heuchera - now I forget which species. Maxima? Lovely in this shaded courtyard area. |
Town Mouse Garden
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| In the back garden, a wonderful display of the showy annual Chinese houses, Collinsia heterophylla, with red monkey flower - maybe Mimulus aurantiacus var. punicius? |
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| Cobweb thistle, Cirsium occidentale. I am jealous! I kill this whenever I try to grow it. |
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| In the front garden, Layers: two different Penstemons in front, and wooly blue curls, Trichostema lanatum behind. What is it with Penstemons this year - they are doing fabulously. I even had some pop up in my garden, where I'd last seen them about five years ago or more!! |
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| Pretty face, a native bulb, Triteleia ixioides. It comes back every year! |
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| Dudleya caespitosa in front, I think, and Mimulus aurantiacus and that show-stopper wooly blue curls again! |
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| Last but not least - let's insert the gardener into the scene - Town Mouse herself, doing a bit of spot-weeding I think. |
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