Ten years ago, we started our landscaping with a simple lawn and some boxwood shrubs.  The next year, we planted pink hydrangeas in the front yard.  The following year, rose trees.   Slowly through the years we’ve been adding perennial shrubs and flowers to our garden.   I think gardens, like interiors, are most appreciated when their beauty is arrived at over time, don’t you ?

I’ve planted evergreen shrubs to fill in the blank spots during the winter, and I love to supplement with annuals in pots in the summer, but time and again, my perennial shrubs fill the garden with gorgeous color and scent.  Here are some of my favorite perennials putting on a show this June !

  Erisimum ‘Bowles Mauve’

Raspberry hydrangea

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Happy Friday friends, are you excited about the long weekend ?  This week I was in the mood to decorate my porch with some red, white, and blue in honor of Memorial Day, and also in anticipation of our Fourth of July barbeque. 

I found some inexpensive fabrics and stitched up some festive pillow covers, then I filled my pots with annuals in patriotic colors.  This summer, I’m having some fun with punches of red on the front porch ! 

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It would be fair to describe me as a lavenderaholic, if there is such a label.  I can never get enough of this botanical that possesses most therapeutic scent in the universe. 

I have a dozen lavender plants scattered around my garden, but I still like to tour the commercial acres of lavender this time of year.  Last year I visited the Lavender Bee Farm – this weekend we decided to pop into Matanzas Creek Winery, famous for their gardens, lavender farm, and acclaimed chardonnay.  

I convinced the kids it was worth the half hour drive because they could go hunting for bunny rabbits, ala Elmer Fudd.  We didn’t spot any, but at least the idea kept them busy while Mr. CG and I strolled the grounds. 

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