A Romantic Country Garden

Today I have a romantic country garden to share with you.

This is a very rough plan of the garden. There are two quite spectacular views and a little courtyard garden at the front of the house I that I want to highlight in this post. 

A few of the pictures you may have seen before. Today I place them back in the context of the overall garden.

The back of the house looks out past two large topiaries to an open field and the valley beyond (as you can see in the next image).

And to the left of the house a series of pathways and steps take you to a terrace that overlooks a wooded ravine.

This would be a nice spot for a summer meal don't you think?

At the front of the house there is a flagstone courtyard filled with romantic pink roses. A set of stone steps leads you down and into the little courtyard.

At the top of the stone staircase there is a large bunch of Spotted Bellflower, Campanula punctata (Be warned: Clumps can spread vigorously!) and soft, feathery wands of blue Catmint, Nepeta.

Campanula punctata shining in the late afternoon sun. (Be warned: Clumps can spread vigorously!)

This image of the garden is a personal favourite.

The courtyard looking in the direction of the ravine.

Looking back the other way toward the large shed.

A little path leads you past the shed to the little glade that you may remember as part of my post on object placement.

The Fairy Rose, Polyantha, 'The Fairy'. Height: 60-90 cm. Spread 60-120 cm.  

Sadly it has no fragrance.

White Asiatic Lilies

I am going to make an educated guess that these are two varieties of Campanula carpatica, a short lived perennial that forms low, cushion shaped mounds of lavender or white flowers. Full sun. Height: 20-25 cm, Spread 20-30 cm.  Zones 2-9.

Special pieces of artwork can be found throughout the garden.

And so ends our tour.

Roses & Roses that don't Look like Roses

Ironically, as we head towards the hottest part of summer, there was a definite chill in the air at dawn this morning. I hate to the 'f' word, but with the nip in the air, it felt like fall. I am sure when a cloud of humidity descends over the city in the middle of July and settles in for a few weeks stay, this cool early morning will seem like a distant oasis from the relentless heat. 

The light was wonderfully golden this morning. As we took our morning stroll, the dogs and I disturbed the big brown mosquitoes from their resting places. I swear these retched vampires are the size of small birds! At least you can see them coming and feel them landing.

In the garden, there is a general changing of the guard. The last of the peonies have finished and the soft pink spirea have faded to a deep tan color. Roses have stepped into fill the void. The hostas have hoisted their mid-summer flags and the deep pink spirea are filling in nicely for their pale pink cousins.

'Graham Thomas' here and in the opening shot.

The deep pink spirea

In the front garden, there is red Monarda with their crazy mop heads.

The evening primrose is still going strong.

 At the side of the house there are big white daisies...

and little white daisies (Feverfew).

There is also a tiny Moonbeam coreopsis in flower.

Along the front of the picket fence, the 'Fairy' is beginning her magic.

Keeping the 'Fairy' company, are a few roses that look more like apple blossoms than standard roses. This is the Musk rose 'Robin Hood'.

There is also the Polyantha shrub rose called "Marjorie Fair'.

A "clearance" clematis hangs down over the picket fence.

Just inside the picket fence is this little soldier 'Vigorosa Raspberry'.

My favourite is still got to be the 'Mary Rose'. 

And you can't beat this workhorse. Canadian Explorer series rose 'John Cabot'. 

The back garden is quieter. There is too much shade for it ever to be a riot of blooms.

Still, there are more subtle forms of beauty worth taking a moment to appreciate.

 The work of the new veggie beds is almost complete. This is a project that 

seems to have dragged on forever!

Hopefully soon, there will be more zucchini than I know what to do with. More about that later...

'Carefree Beauty'

For today, I end on a rosie note.

Today I am going to link to the Creative Exchange and later in the week to Cottage Floral Thursday at Fishtail Cottage. To see other great posts, simply click the links.