Tamarisk

Weigela and Euphorbia cyparissias

Self sown Campanula portenschlagiana

Self sown Centranthus ruber

Self sown Erigeron karvinskianus

Self sown Corydalis lutea

Ceanothus

Choisya ternata 'Aztec Pearl' and red horse chestnut

The grand finale: Rosa, lilac and weigela

kay

I, too, loved the campanula. Amazing beauty from all the pictures. Those are some mature plants!

Ianna

The lilac and ceanothus are marvelous, too.

Thanks for posting.

It grows here. Has escaped into the wilds and grows along the river banks. Is listed as an invasive plant now in the Southwestern part of the U.S. It's a shame really. When we lived in the desert, that was about the only trees we had for shade! But it is replacing and crowing out the native plants and trees there and that isn't good.

Very lovely. Your photos demonstrate a wonderful definition of the beauty and form of Garden Walls.

Thank you for sharing them with us.

So...what's on the inside of those alluring garden walls?

~Annie

Linda

The campanula p is exceptionally beautiful.

Thank you for doing this for all of us.

glenda

Now a few words of explanation. Ianna asks for more photos of my village - well, I have to tell you I live in a city of over 80,000 people but we are incredibly lucky that it is a very beautiful and historic city.

Sweetannie4u wants to know what is behind the walls? People's gardens! The street runs along a steep hillside so the houses on one side are up above the road and need high retaining walls to stop them ending up in the valley bottom. The road itself is a bit of a rat run, but I try to ignore the traffic and concentrate on the scenery.

newyorkrita - we don't do it! The wall growers do it themselves! They are all ones which spread by windborn seed and they literally plant themselves. I have actually tried to sow C portenschlagiana in my garden and have failed. Earlier in the year Aubretia is also a common sight in these old walls. Because of their age the mortar is crumbly and allows seeds to settle and germinate.

So thanks again for your enthusiasm. I'll have to think of another theme in a while.

Flora

Not sure what part of the UK you're from, but I've always wondered why Americans don't design with flowers the way England does.

Darn those Pilgrims for not doing the same thing here! LOL

Green garden on a wet May morning.

I believe what they mean by invasive here is that nonnative plants choke out the native plants in the area. Even though it does look pretty it harms other plant species and the bugs and animals that did them to live.
~Meghan

My favorite image is by far the last one - the GREEN GREEN GREEN! Most of my garden is filled with greens of various shades and hues and different textures. I love it. It is so cooling and offers the best backdrop for my flowers.

My mother's roots are mainly in Devonshire and other southwestern shires, but some were in Yorkshire, as well. Mother's family continued their love for those gardening traditions, handing it down daughter to daughter. It is that heritage which I cherish the most. Hence, I love the lost art of Cottage Gardening. It is difficult to recreate here in Oklahoma due to the climate. I cannot grow the gardens they grew in the cool, foggy shelter of their canyon homes in Southern California, but I do try, nevertheless.

Thank you for the tour.

~Annie

Not the lush gardens of the UK, but pretty lush for Prairie country in Oklahoma, USA.

I can't show what is behind all the walls I'm afraid, simply because they ARE behind walls. I have no idea what they look like. The last pic is my own tiny garden so that's the only one I can photograph for you.

I didn't mean to sound cheeky with you about not having posted in WoodyOak's topic. I just hoped you would and was disappointed to see that you hadn't...yet.

Thank you for your response to my little cottage garden. Right now it is over 90 degrees out there and cloudy, like it is along our Gulf Coast, so the humidity level is high as well. Sultry, steamy. The weather here is always one kind of extreme or another. Few days that are perfectly lovely and enjoyable. I had to re-learn how to garden when I moved here to Oklahoma. However, I can grow the hot climate plants here that I couldn't back home as long as they are hardy or I keep them in the greenhouse in winter, so it is a trade off for what I can grow here.

I like the greens of a garden too. In the spring, there is little to be found in the region that is green after the winter kill back, so the abundance of colorful flowers is so welcome after a cold, dreary winter. When the weather begins to really warm and the greens appear, and I enjoy the coolness in the various hues of green. The colorful flowers are just dotted throughout my gardens and not the dominant features as they were in Spring.
We have two kinds of soil here - red clay and reddish sandy loam. The red is caused by the iron in the soil that rusted, basically. It was the Iron Oxide in everything here that gave Oklahoma its name - The Red Earth.

Most of our rivers run that same terra cotta color too. Only the little farm creeks out in the countryside run clear, the exception being our white water rivers in the eastern part of the state. They are cold clear water rivers and even have trout.

I am very happy to have the sandy loam here on our place, but it dries out too fast in our heat, so it is a constant battle to keep things alive and flourishing.

~Annie

Love, Love, Love your garden!! Beautiful!!