The Garden in July

Summer seems to be positively flying by. 

But what a lovely summer it has been so far! Hot, but not unbearably so, with cool breezy evenings that have often made me want to reach for a sweater. 

Our rainfall seems to have been perfectly timed; arriving on more weekdays than weekends, and always when the garden seems to need it most.  

The month of June somehow vanished with barely a picture taken.

The peonies bloomed a few weeks later than usual, and put on a beautiful though fleeting display.

Sunny yellow Evening Primroses and little purple geraniums always provide a nice backdrop 

for the big showy magenta peonies in the front garden.

Evening Primrose, Oenothera tetragona: Height: 30-50 cm, Spread: 30-40 cm. Not everyone is a fan of this plant because it spreads. It does well in sun or part shade, and it has happy yellow flowers, so I like it. 

Evening Primrose's unruly spread is best kept in check now when the plant is in flower. I edit my flowering clumps to a manageable size by yanking out unwanted plants and find the plant stems give easily. 

Roses filled in where the peonies left off.

Explorer Rose 'John Cabot' : This rose has glossy foliage and arching stems that can reach 3 meters in height (Note: can be used as a climber). This rose is only lightly fragrant. John Cabot's main drawbacks: the stems are quite thorny and Japanese Beetles love, love its blooms. Lucky for me its first flush of flowers appear a few weeks before the beetles make their now annual appearance.

Explorer Rose 'John Cabot'

A mix of roses from the front garden.

Other standouts in late June/early July were these mauve Veronica (on the right) and the light cream and magenta flowers of Penstemon 'Black Towers' (seen on the left).

Penstemon 'Dark Towers': Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 45-60 cm. Full sun. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to dry conditions. Zones: USDA 3-9

Veronica 'Eveline': Height: 45-50 cm, Spread: 30-40 cm. Will tolerate part shade, but blooms much better in full sun. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Moist soil is preferred, but mine seems fine in average conditions. Deadhead to encourage repeat flowering. Zones: USDA 4-9

Veronica 'Hocus Pocus' has been blooming now for weeks.

Veronica 'Hocus Pocus' : Height: 40-50 cm, Spread: 25-30 cm. Full sun. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Moist or average conditions. Again deadhead to encourage repeat flowering. Zones: USDA 4-9

Along the white picket fence at the front of the house.

These Sidalcea 'Party Girl' continue to one of my favourite flowers in early July.

Prairie Mallow, Sidalcea 'Party Girl': Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm. Full sun or light shade. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to moist conditions. Attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. A good self seeder. Zones: USDA 4-9

Recently, I added a lighter pink Sidalcea, as well as blue flowering Nepetia 'Walker's Low' to fill in a few gaps along the white picket fence.

Prairie Mallow, Sidalcea 'Elsie Heugh': Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 30-45 cm. Full sun or light shade. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to moist conditions. Zones: USDA 4-9

Blue Catmint, Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low': A long blooming perennial (if regularly deadheaded) that has a mounded, bushy habit. Height: 30 cm, Spread: 45 cm. Full sun. Hardy zones 3-9.

In the back garden, I have been delighted with these Campanula. The white, bell-shaped flowers seemed to go on blooming for ages.

Campanula persicifolia alba: Height: 60-90 cm, Spread: 30-50 cm. Full sun or light shade. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average to moist conditions. These easy-to-grow plants form a low mound of green leaves and have bell-shaped flowers that are born on tall stems. Zones: USDA 2-9

I also have the blue variety, but I have to say that the white form is by far the best of the two.

Last summer I grew foxglove from seed and this spring I transplanted them throughout the back garden.

This is a new perennial for me. It is a native plant that has the most delicate, starry white flowers.

Gillenia trifoliata: A tough, long-lived native plant with reddish stems, narrow leaves and white star-shaped flowers. Height: 60-120 cm, Spread: 60-75 cm. Full sun or light shade. Prefers rich, moist, well drained soil. Good fall color. Zones: USDA 4-9

My Agastache "Blue Fortune' is just starting to flower.

Agastache 'Blue Fortune': Height: 60-75 cm, Spread: 45- 60 cm. Full sun or part shade. Normal, sandy or clay soil are fine. Average, dry or moist growing conditions. Bees love this flower! Zones: USDA 2-9

My raised beds are barely visible in the jungle of plants. In the four raised beds I have a crazy mix of herbs, tomatoes, berries, roses and perennials.

The flower border that frames the part of the garden with the four raised beds.

I have a number of unusual perennials, but I also have very common plants as well. 

Throughout my garden there are hosta in bloom this month. 

I love the way this common Spirea seems to glow in the light of early evening.

I hope July has been wonderful in your garden as well.

Ideas for Small Outdoor Spaces that can be used in any Garden

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Horticultural Society's annual garden tour was the perfect excuse to take a weekend off. Not that we really needed much of an excuse to visit Niagara-on-the-Lake! It has to be one of the prettiest towns in all of southern Ontario. No wonder tourist's flock to its quaint, but pricy shops, restaurants and hotels.

Grandiflora rose 'Gold Metal'

The weather on the weekend was absolutely perfect: not a cloud in the bluest of skies, sunny and hot, but not humid, with the most refreshing of breezes blowing off Lake Ontario. 

The first of the tour gardens were all tiny courtyard style spaces in the same townhouse complex. 

These were a group of gardeners, who offered by way of example, an abundance of great ideas for making the most of every square inch of outdoor space. 

Technically this first garden wasn't on the tour, but I got permission to photograph it anyway.

The "Bay Street" sign clearly demonstrates these homeowners, leading a quiet life in Niagara-on-the-Lake, have a sense of humour. (Bay Street is the Canadian equivalent of  "Wall Street" and is the location of the stock exchange in downtown Toronto.)

This version of "Bay Street" has comfortable seating and a cozy cabin atmosphere. 

Tip: Hanging baskets don't eat up precious space at ground level in a small garden. 

And there are lots of great ways to hang flowers:

A metal bracket holds a standard wrought iron hook in place on this fence.

This next townhouse garden was the tiniest one we saw, but managed to be just marvellous. Creating a dramatic entrance to the garden was this red Rosa 'Amadeus'.

Rosa 'Amadeus': a good modern climber with trusses of deep red flowers that have a light, spicy scent. Height 8' to 10'. Disease resistant and a repeat bloomer.

Design Tip: Think about how you want to use your outdoor space. 

Most of the townhouse gardens in Niagara-on-the-Lake had a table with chairs for outdoor meals as well as a separate seating area for entertaining and unwinding.

Idea: Create a pleasant ambience using sound. 

The gentle sound of water and the sing-song of a set of chimes is not only relaxing, it helps to mask street noises and the chatter of your neighbours just a fence away.

Idea: When you run out of space at ground level, grow upwards with vines like clematis, ivy or climbing roses. 

Not only do vines offer a nice backdrop of greenery and flowers, they hide fencing and blur the boundaries of a garden making it feel larger.

Idea: Installing a light by the garage door means there is less fumbling with keys in the dark.

In the next townhouse garden, there were muted shades of mauve, pink and grey in a large seating area.

Plantings along the shady side of the garage.

In a small place where you will see the same plants everyday and at close quarters, choose perennials and shrubs that will look neat and attractive through as many seasons as possible. 

This euonymus shrub (on the right) will look great 365 days a year.

Tip: Annuals provide the best continuous color in the least amount of space.

 It is nice to know that any type of garden can be scaled down and adapted to a small outdoor space. The final garden for today is a rose garden.

There was a beautiful wrought iron gate at the entrance to this garden. 

Rosa 'Lady of Shallot': A coral colored David Austin rose that reaches a height of 3' to 6'. This is a repeat bloomer that is disease resistant.

Rosa 'Jasmina': A climbing rose with long-lasting pastel pink roses that deepen to mauve in the centre.  This rose has disease resistant foliage and can reach a height of around 8'.

Idea: Again, climbing roses make use of vertical space.

Just off the back door was a small table set for tea.

More small space ideas coming up soon!

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The Healing Garden Series: Guest Post by Nancy Stordahl

Today I want to launch a summer long series of posts on the subject of healing gardens. Gardens can play an important role in both our mental and physical health and in this series I hope to look at the special healing power of plants.

To begin the series I invited Nancy Stordahl, a cancer survivor who can speak personally to the healing nature of gardens, to write a guest post. Nancy is a freelance writer, former educator and author of the blog Nancy's Point where she shares candidly about her breast cancer experience. 

While the calendar year begins in wintery month of January, the commencement of each gardening season begins in spring. Its seems therefore appropriate to open this series with the arrival of spring.

Why Are Gardens Such Healing Spaces?

I am pleased to have been invited to share a few of my thoughts on nature and gardens and why they are both so healing for Three Dogs in a Garden; thank you Jennifer.

Have you ever thought about why nature is so calming and so healing?

Have you ever wondered why gardens inspire and are such healing spaces?

Now that a long winter is well behind us, this is the perfect time to think about these things.

Spring is not my favourite season. There are too many "muddy paw" days for my liking and then there is that reminder in spring. Spring is when my breast cancer was diagnosed in 2010. That was not a good spring.

But of course I do enjoy spring and relish all the signs of rebirth and regrowth that every spring brings. As I write this post, the snow is finally melting away, the birds are chirping, a certain pair of majestic eagles has returned for yet another year of nesting in my backyard, my crocuses are at last peeking above the ground, the tulips will soon be emerging as well, daylight is lengthening and thankfully the days are also getting warmer.

Sunlight after all, is the great encourager.

All these things are gentle reminders of how life renews and restores.

Cancer or no cancer, these reminders are healing.

Nature seems extra busy in spring, but at the same time it also reminds me to slow down, to breathe, to get outside, to take in the beauty in front of me and to think about gardening.

Spring is something to be counted on, as are all the seasons. Even cancer cannot interrupt nature's rhythm of the seasons. I find comfort in that. I find comfort in nature period; most of us do.

Cancer or no cancer, nature is healing.

Have I gained a greater appreciation for spring and countless other things since cancer?

Maybe so, but I will not give cancer the credit. That kind of thinking does not suit me well.

When I was undergoing chemotherapy, hubby and I often found ourselves sitting in the hospital's newly added healing garden. It's actually called that, The Healing Garden.

We often found ourselves sitting in that lovely (well, lovely for a hospital) space surrounded by greenery and gorgeous blooming flowers. There was also a wonderful pond with an ever-so-soothing gently trickling waterfall, a fireplace, patio furniture arranged in intimate settings and even a player piano. The healing garden was a little oasis for us; a place to retreat, reflect and mostly regroup from the frenzy that is cancer treatment. For moments we could sometimes forget we were in a hospital.

For us it was a healing garden indeed.

But perhaps one of the biggest reasons I find gardens of any kind to be so healing is that they require so little and yet give back so much.

During that cancer spring and summer, I had little time to tend to, or even think about my gardens. But yet, the shrubs and perennials budded and bloomed; the display of color was uninterrupted. Despite my neglect, things grew; I wouldn't say flourish mind you, but they grew.

Of course the weeds did too. But the weeds could not over-power the beauty. When you looked at my gardens, you still saw beauty, or at least I did. And I loved looking at them, despite the imperfections that grew within.

Cancer or no cancer, gardens are healing spaces.

Since that cancer spring and summer, I think about all these things when I admire a garden, mine, or anyone else's. I think about how gardens don't ask for much and never perfection, just a bit of tending will do. Whatever one can give is enough.

Perfection is not what brings the beauty to a garden. Something else does.

Perhaps this "something else" is the reason why gardens are such healing spaces for us all.

Do you have a garden? 

Why do you think gardens are such healing places?

Thanks Nancy for this wonderful post! Jennifer

About Nancy Stordahl:

Nancy is a freelance writer, former educator and author of the blog Nancy's Point where she shares candidly about her breast cancer experience. She writes extensively about her diagnosis and treatment, hereditary cancer, survivorship, grief and loss. She also shares concerns about some of the current forms of breast cancer awareness and advocacy and is a staunch advocate for those living with metastatic disease. Nancy is the author of Getting past the Fear: A guide to help you mentally prepare for chemotherapy. To read more visit www. nancyspoint.com.