Happy Monday, GPODers!
Today we’re getting a springtime update from Deb Skup in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Deb has shared her garden a couple of times in the past (Deb & Paul’s Garden in the Wisconsin Woods and Wild but Wonderful), but it has been several years since the last update and her plantings have evolved quite a bit. As Deb highlights in this submission, alliums have self-seeded throughout her gardens and helped to create a luscious green and purple color palette throughout her beds and borders.
Hi,
I haven’t submitted any new pictures for quite a while so thought I would send some today of my self-seeded alliums. They seem to look good wherever they pop up (except for their ugly leaves!). I have been retired now since 2022 so have had time to get the gardens a bit more under control, most days spending at least four hours working on them.
In this picture: catmint, mountain cornflower (Centaurea montana, Zones 3–8), astilbe, Dutch iris (Iris × hollandica, Zones 6–9), Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra, Zones 5–9), purple heuchera, hosta, and some self-seeded blue columbine. My vegetable beds are in the background with a row cover over the peppers.
The burgundy maple tree was a seed in some mulch 30 years ago!
I braid all my thousands of daffodils and tuck them under each year so they don’t smother everything around them.
This is Jazz, our 9-month-old puppy who loves to trample and chew on things while I weed.
Here is my baby ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, Zones 5–8) among hostas, allium, and other things that are buried in unbraided dafs. In the background is the native forest.
One final photos shows the alliums adding more color to yet another bed, this time a wonderful contrast to a mass of bright yellow Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra, Zones 5–9).
Thank you so much for this fantastic update on your garden, Deb! The additional hours you are now able to spend in your garden have made an impact, and it’s so fun to see how your space has transformed over the years.
Do you let any plants self-seed freely in your garden? Maybe it’s a plant that just looks great in every setting, like Deb’s alliums, or maybe you’re a native plant connoisseur that lets beneficial beauties spread anywhere they’d like. Let us know in the comments what plants have free rein in your garden, or consider sharing photos with the blog! Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
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To submit, send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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