{"id":5255,"date":"2017-06-20T12:49:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T12:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=5255"},"modified":"2017-06-20T12:49:22","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T12:49:22","slug":"garden-envy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/garden-envy\/","title":{"rendered":"Garden Envy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming home from a tour of English gardens I felt a short, sharp shock. Everything in my garden looked inadequate, not up to the standard\u00a0I had come to expect. I moped. I complained. Why can’t I grow the hundreds of plants I saw and admired? \u00a0Some of them must surely suit my climate. So\u00a0why don’t the garden centres around Glen Villa stock them?<\/p>\n

Then I faced the facts. My garden will never match the perfection of an English estate that employs six or seven\u00a0full time gardeners. \u00a0The garden centres will never stock the rarities\u00a0— with such a small market, it’s not a paying proposition. Plants I grow will never match the size they reach in England, not as long as\u00a0I live where I do, where winter temperatures drop regularly to -25 or -30C.<\/p>\n

And since I have no desire to live anywhere else, I had to quit complaining. I gave myself a good talking to. Instead of accepting your limitations, I told myself,\u00a0embrace them. And I have. I do. My garden no longer looks inadequate, it looks splendid. I am enthusiastic about what I can grow, and even more enthusiastic about what grows here naturally.<\/p>\n

I mean, just look at it. Can any English country scene be more beautiful than our old farm field bursting with buttercups?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The Upper Field at Glen Villa is a what dieticians argue against, butter spread thick on the ground.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

And what about the lupins that are dancing\u00a0their way across\u00a0the meadow? I’m happy to see them, and to see this year for the first time a brighter-than-average pink that I hope will spread and become even brighter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This

One source says that lupins are meant to take nourishment from soil, to wolf it down, as it were, thus explaining their name.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

My heart sings when I\u00a0\u00a0see the lupins blooming amid\u00a0buttercups and ragged robin, especially when set off by the citrus green of Aralia ‘Sun King’ behind them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The white posts mark the entry to the China Terrace. To their right are white window frames and a cascade of spirea.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I take no credit for these wildflowers. \u00a0Each year they appear on their own, this year\u00a0more floriferous than last. The shrub border in the Upper Field is a different matter, and it gives me pleasure of a different sort. I chose the shrubs and thanks to the fence I designed to protect them from the deer, they are blooming like they’ve never bloomed before.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Viburnum

Viburnum sargemtii ‘Onondaga’ is standing tall. The citrus-coloured shrub is Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) ‘Golden Nugget.’<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0shrub border is doing all\u00a0I hoped it would, and more. I wanted some privacy in the Upper Field, and the shrubs are big enough now to shield our\u00a0view of cars driving past. I wanted the privacy screen to be truly appealing, so I’d\u00a0walk up the hill to see it. And that has worked. The vibrant blossoms and foliage add colour and excitement, and draw me like a magnet to see\u00a0how each plant changes, day to day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Another

Another view shows a different ninebark in the foreground, Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Coppertina.’ I like how the hint of green in its leaves picks up the citrus of the ‘Golden Nugget’ beside it.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The blossoms on the Ninebark ‘Coppertina’ for instance. They start as tight pin pricks, then open to resemble\u00a0tiny berries, then become as fluffy as dandelion heads, all in a matter of a week or two.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The blossoms here are at the berry stage. They are more open now than when I took this photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

All around the garden, blooms are bursting. At the Skating Pond the \u00a0yellow flag iris are shining in\u00a0the distance …<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This

The bare patch of ground to the left of the iris needs attention. Next week, perhaps.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

… elsewhere, single white peonies gleam …<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Blowsy

Blowsy peonies… I love them!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

… and camassias growing more abundant year by year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I'm

I’m not sure which variety of camassia these are. Can anyone identify them? According to my planting notes, they should be either Blue Melody or C. caerulea. I’d like to order\u00a0more and\u00a0want the same variety.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Seeds I gathered from an acquilegia in Australia are blooming quietly on a rocky outcrop, retaining their original colour and refusing, I’m glad to say, to affect the colour of the wild Canadian ones that grow\u00a0nearby.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Nostalgia

I feel nostalgic whenever these acquilegia bloom. They remind me of another place, and another time.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the wildflowers capture my heart most of all. The yellow flower that is blooming in a field next to a tall grass…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Is

II haven’t tried to identify this yellow wildflower. Can you?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

… the delicate pink daisy-like flowers that appear everywhere….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My

My granddaughter Vivienne took this photo. Thanks, Viv!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why should I be envious of an English garden when I am surrounded by such natural beauty? Even the grass is glorious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Can

Can any manicured garden hold a candle to this?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have garden envy? And are you doing anything about it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming home from a tour of English gardens I felt a short, sharp shock. Everything in my garden looked inadequate, not up to the standard\u00a0I had come to expect. I moped. I complained. Why can’t I grow the hundreds of plants I saw and admired? \u00a0Some of them must surely suit my climate. So\u00a0why don’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,21],"tags":[714,715,716,37,717,279,718,719,454,318],"class_list":["post-5255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glen-villa","category-plants","tag-acquilegia","tag-buttercups","tag-camassia","tag-glen-villa","tag-lupins","tag-peonies","tag-physocarpus","tag-shrub-border","tag-skating-pond-2","tag-wildflowers","category-38","category-21","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}