And now circling back...




  Last post we entered the circle from the more formal front.  Lets show were the deliveries take place at the back entrance.

Definitely not formal and hopefully Funky!  This is the utility area,  grocery unloading dock, main path to hubby's shop and pet feeding centre.  A wood trellis and gate is on this month's to-do list which  gives a bit of privacy/mystery to this side of the house and should also help with snow dispersal.


New building protocols put sheets of styrofoam around foundations which messes up root development.  Another priority is yard maintenance and my maintenance guy does not like trimming.  So...

We have installed boardwalks. First the one to the future clothesline and next the second boardwalk will be along the long side of the garage/shop.  We will add a few more pavers at the shop door to fill in that ninety degree corner.


I am all about subtle, greenery and low contrast.  Hence the inner circle.  The 'better half' of the gardening team likes BIG flowers, Bright colours and High contrast.  Since he is my Main man, I must co-operate and compromise!

This first section of the colour wheel ring is Brights, full saturation purples and reds on the cool side of the temperature guage.  Planning is in progress as hubby picks up his hammer and lays boards, figures posts for the trellis, drafts a gate and plans for the clothes line's tension.  I decorate the absolutes!   This winter we will choose plants for this L-shaped mixed bed.  I am thinking the coppery shrubs will be a good accent.


Dear to my gardener's heart is his veggies.  The board walk will end at the approach to the supplemental garden and hopefully help this messy arrangement of pavers.   A few raised beds for quick trips to collect salad makings was the general idea.   With all the construction in The Village the gardens have not be uppermost on his mind especially since he thought all was lost what with cold, frost, rain, hail and flooding in the larger inground garden and yard in general.

But the big garden has been making a comeback only to fall prey to predators.  He has,  what with one deer and another woodchuck, embraced raised beds.  We are learning this newer kind of gardening and will be expanding to even more beds.  Also to increase the season we are seriously thinking greenhouse along that end wall with a water tank to collect rain water.

I refer to this area as the Salad Bar and it is the prefect place for the oranges and maybe some orangey reds.  Think- nasturtiums, marigolds, sunflowers, squash blossoms, pumpkins!  Think edible colours!

Following the current hedge and past the grassy opening to the village is the Mayor's house. This is a bit shady for a yellow flowerbed but I will get creative here as well.  Luv a challenge.  As a young kid my parents rented a primitive cottage at Winnipeg beach for a week for several summers.  I want that feel for this area.  I have managed to get some dirt for the flower beds but I have to say that the mosquitoes are making garden work tortuous!!!


Greens are sectioned between yellow and blue.  I got green!  Further tweaking can wait but I'd like to add some cultivated greens to the wild plants.








Last but not least is the blue garden.  In Tauton's Fine Gardening magazine I found a small island bed vignette in lime green and blue and have coveted it since.  I even painted my chicken coop at the farm  to coordinate.  The path thru that secret shade garden was to be a playground for the faeries.  But green frogs just kind of naturally moved in and the faeries were never happy with the all night partying.

 So here I have separated them..  Frogs are welcomed in the new version and the more formal faeries can flit about over in the white garden where I do plan for faerie lights for their evening soirees!

The east end is the sunniest so blue morning glories climb my 'Narnia' lamppost.  This cascading pond is a work in progress and a huge learning curve.  I may have to enroll in pond school!
 

The centre of the island bed has a newly planted Amur Cherry which has copper coloured bark and is happy but needs some understory plantings.

The shadier end has the well cap which will be boxed in and a rustic pump mounted on top.  A single pond keeps the frogs happy, real ones as well as the ones who like to party all night.   


And that completes the middle colour wheel sections.   One more area for flowers is planned for the  outer sectionand  will be a dedicated butterfly garden which will be home to native plants and natures exuberant colourways
 Is this the only way to plan flower beds?  Goodness, NO!  The colour wheel is a tool for planning many different kinds of colour combos.  Absolutely fascinating!  I have chosen a simple basic order and a monochromatic plan because my motto is Keep It Simple, sweetie.  After all, one doesn't want a flat tire!!!

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