Our Garden was part of the Mountain Garden Club Tour

We were very excited to be included on the Mountain Garden Club’s garden tour on July 21-22. We appreciate the Club’s warm welcome, as well as the very nice comments of members and guests who visited our garden.

As the event date approached, parts of our yard we had been ignoring suddenly seemed a mess. We planted the front and sides of of the driveway with more native plants.

Then, in the few days before the event, Kathy realized that people would be walking right past a rutted mess of sand and gravel by the side of the driveway that had been torn up by the snow plow. I had raked it a bit and concluded “good enough.” That rarely works for Kathy, who went into overdrive moving previously relocated gravel to create a more finished look along the driveway. It’s never looked this good. She’s now in charge of hardscape.

We made posters with “before” pictures so people could appreciate the transformation. We realized just how big a transformation it is. It’s easy to forget what it looked like in the beginning since we see it every day.

Butterfly Milkweed attracted more attention than any other plant in the garden.

This showy plant has flowers which range from red to orange to yellow, blooms for a very long time and attracts Monarch Butterflies and many other pollinators.

As is probably always the case, a week after the tour the garden has far more plants in bloom and looks spectacular.

Being on the Tour made us take a closer look at our property as a whole and we are planning a bit more planting – of course! Members suggested Daylillies to Kathy as hardy and vibrant plants for a bare area at the top of the driveway which is subjected to road salt and snow storage by the Town of Bartlett. We’ve now agreed this relatively small, neglected, beaten-up area can be a showy, non-native bed. According to Professor Tallamy, gardens with at least 70% native plants provide sufficient habitat for pollinators. Kathy quotes this often, whenever she comes across a striking, colorful, non-native plant she loves.