Oh Janna, I love EVERYTHING. Your gardens look so lush and well-established. I particularly love the very last photo. That is so creative and evokes such feeling. What a wonderful vignette. Thanks for posting these. You did a great job. Please post more!!
-Sprout

Oops!! Sorry, I meant Ianna.
-Sprout

Oh, lovely! More details, please?

What are the pink flowers around the purple spires? Is that salvia 'May Night'? Is that gomphrena mixed in? Is that chives in bloom in several clumps along the path?

I can't quite see clearly this early in the morning!

Thanks,
Cameron

Looks great! I like how your planting bed has curved edges. And I love all the purple! Your gardens look very lush and vibrant.

Beautiful. I loved the curved stone walk as well.
Tammy

very very pretty please post more during the summer - TFS ....

Lynne

thanks ladies. I apologize for not putting in details so here it is.

I practise a form of gardening called meadow gardening. So I put large spikey flowers (evoking grasss and other spikey plants) against daisy or umbrell form planting. And since I dug my bed deep and broke the soil deep, I am able to cram as many plants as possible in such tight spaces. I've hardly any weeds as they are crowded out. However I do have to thin out the plants later in the season.

The spikey blue purple plants are cardona sages. The pink blooms are astrantias - a favorite of mine. I also have pink yarrows there but it's not readily seen in these photos. The tall pink cushion types are knautia macedonia.

The beds are bordered by lavenders - a huge number of them. I've grosso, french and munstead lavenders.

Expected to bloom soon are my russian sages, veronicastrum ,filipendula, phloxes, more yarrows, california poppies, false sunflowers,rudbeckia hirta, rudbeckia goldsturm, coreopsis moonbeam, echinacea, butterfly bushes, and also for the first time ever for me.. verbena bonariensis (can't wait) -- there are more plants but I forget now. I got delphiniums there as well but over the years they've been crowded out and got smaller blooms so I may have to do something about that.

In the backyard -- the house on a log is surrounded by a dwarf joe pye weed, angelica hydrangea and filipendula. Earlier in the year I had primroses and the bugbane blooming there. Later in the season, my rudbeckia goldturm will be blooming in this corner.

lovely photos! :) what's the darker pink flower in the 2nd picture?

Those are knautia macedonia. I have 2 kinds. The light pink/lavender types which are taller and more whispy and the shorter fushia coloured ones.

Cameron - sorry this got left out. Yes those are chives. I've tons of them - all started from one clump. Hated to get rid of them so I started to use them as edging materials.

Very pretty! Thanks so much for posting. I have been curious to see pictures ever since you posted about your black/brown fence. It really does make the foliage pop.

Is the clematis General Sikorski? I love the use of chives. I'm excited for you with the verbena bonariensis! I could only find the dwarf form here. Going to need to winter sow some, I guess.

Lisa

The black/brown fence actually came out very well. I decided on this early on when I noticed we hadn't had much room in the back and I wanted to hide the ugly fence and to create a perception of depth. So borrowing the idea from inner city gardens here in Toronto, I used it to 'expand' my space. I will post more photos later in the season. My limelight hydrangeas, astilbes, phloxes, lunaria, veronica candelabra are not in bloom yet. The rhododendron and lilac are done though.

I use a trio of clematis sharing the same trellis and the one you are seeing in bloom at this moment I think is a simple Jackmanii. I'm afraid I don't take notice to what kinds I have. The pink clematis is just beginning to bloom. An earlier light pink/white clematis is past bloom.

I started my verbena from seed indoors. that's because I've failed each time I sow them out directly. I think that's because I have a tendency to weed the soil early in the season and may have killed off the seedlings by accident.

Fabulous, Ianna!! I love those purple spikes, and thought they were like my veronica 'Crater Blue Lake' (I think!!) - I'll post a pic later. I love the combos!!
I'd love to see your lavenders when they bloom, and hear how you compare them!! I need some advice as to which would do best for me!! TFS.

Nancy.

Nancy, thanks. The lavenders are in bloom but they didn't show up well in the photos. I'll try to get a better shot of them today.

Love your astrantia in there, great placement of plants!

Looks terific. May I ask how old your garden is? I am always curious as to how long the plants take to grow in. :)
Thanks.

Love both the variety of plants and how they play off each other. I can't wait to see more pictures as new things bloom.

Here are more photos of the backyard

hostas at the base of a serviceberry tree

dropsmore honeysuckle

the pond. It's just a shallow stone pond with a fountain (water spilling out of the pot). This will change dramatically at the end of the season. I'm planning to put in a rectangular modern pond. Keeping my fingers crossed I do it right.

merindah- the garden is now 4 years old. Perennials will mature fast so you would have great results in the following year.