Sunday, May 22, 2016

A Pretty Little Church Garden and Snippets of My Own Garden


 If you read my fashion posts on Monday's and Friday's you would have seen snippets of this lovely church garden.  My husband and I went to Chicago for the weekend and discovered this sweet little garden behind an old church.

It is a peaceful little garden with stone paths and lots of benches.  Every church should have a garden like this.  What a wonderful place to mediate and pray.  Except, if I went to a church with a garden as lovely as this,  it would be difficult to drag myself inside for the service.

 I love how the blossoms from the flowering crabs littered the path, don't you?



The garden is a low-maintenance mix of flowering trees and shrubs with hardy perennials.


I adore Japanese Maples and wish they were hardy in my zone.


The author of this garden really worked hard to combine interest with flower, texture, and color.


I would love my own yard to look like this someday.  It's mostly a shade garden, as my yard is becoming since the trees are getting so mature.  I will look to this garden for inspiration as I renew and renovate my own garden.


I love this Solomon's Seal.  I think I tried it in my own garden once, but it didn't do well.


This path leads to the back of the garden, where there is a stone patio and benches.


These bright purple/pink azaleas look great with the chartreuse ground cover, the purple foliage of the Coral Bells,  and the Solomon's Seal in the background.


This beautiful white flowering crab apple was right behind the church building.  The contrast of the brick wall with the white blooms in front was breath-taking!


And now for Snippets of my own garden.  I don't have much in bloom right now.  The spring bulbs have all finished, but the ornamental onions are looking gorgeous.  My last crap apple tree is finishing showing off for the year, and the lilacs are in bloom.


These are my Ornamental Onions.  Are they gorgeous or what?  I LOVE this bulb/plant!  Because it's from the onion family, the critters won't go near it.  They get bigger and stronger every year.  I am thinking it's time to dig them up and divide them this year, because I have so many blooms!


The bumble bees love them too!  This little guy barely even noticed me taking his picture he was enjoying the flowers so much!


I have two Snowball Bushes in my yard.  I love this bush.  It's so hardy;  I can't believe how fast and big they grow.  And look at all these blooms!  My goodness, that's a lot of blossoms!



Here is a far away shot to give you an idea of the scale of this bush.  It's practically the size of a small tree!


This bush I have no idea what it is, but every single person that comes into my yard asks me.  It was only suppose to grow four feet tall and wide, but I think it's double that.  Other than the fact that it has thorny branches, it's a great bush that provides four seasons of interest.  In the spring it has yellow blossoms, in the summer it has gorgeous green foliage that turn red in the fall, and in the winter it is covered in berries.  It couldn't be a more perfect bush.


Here are the yellow flowers.  Right now, there are so many bees interested in this bush, I can't even get near it.  You can hear the buzzing many feet away.  The birds also love this bush for both protection and food.  They build nests deep inside, and they eat the berries in the winter.  Like I said...a perfect bush!  If you ever see this bush in a nursery, buy it, you won't regret it!


A lot of gardeners detest catmint because they think it's invasive.  It will reseed wherever it wants, but I don't find it invasive compared to other nuisance plants like Golden Rod or Tall Phlox.   I have it edges the steps that go down from my house and into my garden.


 This beautiful butterfly was loving my catmint too!  I'm so happy to see all the critters return in the spring.  I love to see my yard filled with Orioles, Hummingbirds, and Butterflies.



As I said earlier, my lilacs are in bloom.  I've got several bushes, but the common purple lilac is the one I have been able to photograph so far.  I fear I won't even get to the see the rest of my lilac in bloom, as I will be traveling when they open.

Me and my lilacs!


Of course, I had to bring a bouquet of these into my house to fill the air with their heavenly scent!


And here is the last crab apple tree to bloom for the year.  Oh, how I wish these beautiful trees would stay in bloom all summer long!






Have a Great Day!  Amy

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2 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous garden!!

    Erica
    www.pumpsandpushups.com

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  2. You're right, that church garden is so serene. What a beautiful place to meditate.

    Those are truly some "bloomin' onions"! Gorgeous. Your garden is so full of color and texture. Just lovely.

    Thank you for stopping in to visit on The Maple Hill Hop!

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