Circling around.

My morning walks are great for clarifying my ideas.  The idea of a colour wheel approach to my gardens has always intrigued me.  I need some kind of focus for my overactive imagination.

I now realize my colour wheel actually has inner, middle and an outer rings. This photo shows the property There is the closest inner circle which is the foundation plantings.  The middle ring is the house yard .  Then there is all the rest which has already changed as we evaluate drainage and best areas for orchard and garden. 

The inner ring has a goodly layer of mulch to keep weeds down.  Definitely does the job but the downside is they can blow into the grass where they make the lawn mower guy wince every time the blade chops them up!  I have them too close to stems/trunks and too thick.  So I am sending the excess over to the garden box paths.  Plantings in the beds are beginning to expand so hopefully I can keep up with the weeding until they fill in.

The first thing we did when we designed our house plantings was to establish the hardscape path.  The recycled pavers almost complete a circle around the house.  My long suffering bricklayer repositioned the pavers a few times for me but that was more tweaking the curves and I am still thinking about the curve between his shop and the back door but shh!  That will be our secret!

The inner circle begins at the front corner of the house.  Last years white and mauve pansies have self seeded all around the arbor area.  Truth be told,  my Labrador Violet has tinges of mauve in their white flowers.  A neighbour gave me a white and purple iris, a replacement for the ones I forgot to bring from the farm.  And since my white clematis is a no show I am considering looking for some paler lilac vines for that big arbor.  No sense fighting fate.  White and pale purple shall start things off.

But after emerging through the archway it is definitely a white shade garden!

The turn at the deck corner happens where the 'wishing well' will happen.  And I am wishing that it would move faster up my 'Gardener's' to-do list.  Under the deck will be all those ostrich ferns which I luv but they bully any plants in a flower bed so around the deck they will be where they are restricted.  I am not sure they qualify as native ferns but they are happy to live in Manitoba gardens.

 The deck gets lots of sun and faces southwest. My containers are not great this year as the weather has pretty much decimated them.  This clump of lilies is the only ones I brought from the farm as their pale apricot coloured flowers smell heavenly and seem to resist that dreaded lily beetle.  I am hoping...

 The nook under the bedroom windows is a fairly new planting.  My vision is a mixed bed of pastels.  Fragrance is certainly an influencing factor as I make my choices.  This is the last bit I have to pull the shavings from.

The south side of the house is my Apricot Forest.  I picked this tree because of it size and price point.  Tiny whips planted the first year and they don't grow too tall.  Apricots would be a bonus.  Once they get taller, like next year, I want to add the understories of low perennials.  I already have a coral bell that needs a home.  Hostas, a few native grasses and oh, boy, Ferns that play nicely!  The daffodils were planted last fall and struggled through the mulch. One bloom but I have raked a lot of the offending mulch away so next spring....

The unsightly cage at the end of the pavers is to keep my hollyhocks alive and to keep the dog from making her bed beside the back door.  I started them from seed and I've nursed them along through the spring rains, frosts and hail.  Now they are baking in the heat! VBsigh  My fern leaf peony will be moved to the red purple section in the next ring come spring.  To disguise the water hose and vents I am thinking a shrub (thorny) as that darn dog....

 The inner circle ends with this sunny side yard where things are much more casual.  The clothes line is slated for this area and the next project on my Handyman's to-do list is a wooden back yard trellis and back entrance gate.

I fell in luv with the coloured woodwork in the gardens at Versailles and first time the deck needs painting it will be this lovely blue green coloured wood as well!

Purple Clematis will climb that trellis and the two old cast iron urns at the front can be filled with purple and white annuals to tie both sides of the inner circle together.    The driveway is all across the front of the house so there is no front lawn per se, but there is still lots of grass to mow on both sides of the driveway.

hmm, maybe not a circle but a horseshoe.  How lucky is that!!!