Seasonal Page: Late September 1999

Marianne's Romantic Garden Retreat...

I had the privilege of meeting Marianne while I was working at a local nursery (Furney's... now closed). I think she came on the second year I worked there part time. She LOVES anything that has charm, history, color and style... and her garden is a very soft and romantic one, with an eclectic mix of planting material. This is really the "off" season for most of our gardens (compared to the spring), but I finally got myself over to her home for a visit and took a few pictures. Hers certainly still looked much nicer than mine! :-) Sorry I didn't take another roll of film along. I thought you'd enjoy a few views of her garden and the chickens. They really add atmosphere... wasn't able to capture the cute little chicks though. There was a small fuzzy brood and another adolescent sized one that was ready for sale to a new owner. I'm sure they think they own the place!

Enjoy!

-Kathy Miller-

When they are out during the day, the chickens have the run of the garden. Once in awhile they get into mischief, but do pretty well with established perennials. The large pale pink clump toward the back of the greenhouse is a fall blooming Anemone japonica cultivar (not sure which one). The deer took a fancy to many of these in other parts of the garden... leaving a glorious mass of headless stems on top of the plant. They can be SO irritating! The purplish clump to the left is a low growing aster and the red-orange on the right is a snapdragon (pictured again below).	Since I'm a new person in the garden, I was getting the wary eye from this fellow! The back of the greenhouse you just saw is peeking out from the right side of the photo and this is the "rear" portion of part of the garden. Marianne thought her hydrangea was past its prime, but I love them when they develop all those muted jewel tones... eventually becoming a mix of jade and veridris green. The white to the left foreground is more lamb's ear.
This grouping in front of the toolshed (I think that's what it is) is a purple aster (left), pink phlox (right) and lamb's ear in the foreground. I think there are a few apples on that tree. :-) Too high for the deer, I guess.	This was taken near where Marianne posed for the picture at top. One of these daylily clumps had a nice juicy proliferation or two on it and I took a couple home to get a start of this cultivar. It looks like a nice old fashioned, well behaved variety and the color is red, but a nice hot one (this picture looks a little more orange than I remember these being). The pink clump in the foreground is Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and is had a most wonderful sweet fragrance.
A nice pairing of a hot snapdragon and what I think is probably dill (or could be fennel), growing near the greenhouse.	Near the house (which I never photographed... you should see the INSIDE! Looks like a spread from House Beautiful), are some roses. This small one is partnered with an Aster frikartii 'Monch'. (One of my favorite perennials.)
Another shot from the driveway, looking down into the back garden where the greenhouse is located. This would be a butterfly heaven with Rudbeckia, Purple Coneflower, Sedum, Lavenders, etc. There is much more to this garden and you only saw a tiny bit. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks to Marianne for letting me post the pictures for you!

This page last updated on October 3, 1999.

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