Serenity in the Garden

Mexican Salvia - Vermilion Bluffs®   Do you want Hummngbirds to live in your garden next year?  Well, hummingbirds love red and they love salvia flowers. So next spring plant the hardy  Vermilion Bluffs® Mexican Sage ( Salvia darcyi 'Pscarl').   This 4 foot tall, easy to grow, perennial is a show stopper with its brilliant scarlet flowers that  are borne on 3 foot erect spires from July to October.  Not many garden perennials can boast this length of blooming season.   The foliage and stems are very aromatic.  After frost, the leaves die to the ground and then return in spring.  Vermillion Blluffs Mexican Sage from Plant Select - click here Place it in a sunny area or in containers in loamy s oil with  good drainage. When its starts blooming the red color and sweet nectar in the bright flowers will brin g hummingbirds to your yard. Its underground runners form a tough mat that blocks weeds. ...

  The ‘Garden of Cosmic Speculation’ in Dumfries, Scotland is a study in green sweeping earthworks and meandering waterways. Now who wouldn't be interested in a garden with a name such as this? Charles Jencks and his late wife, Maggie Keswick, created, what some call, ‘ the first true garden of the 21st century’ on the grounds of her mother’s 30 acre estate . Jencks wanted to celebrate the fundamental magic of nature via landscape design, so he used his property as a microcosm of a greater world. “What is a garden if not a miniaturization, and celebration, of the place we are in, the universe?” - Charles Jencks.   Jencks’ fascination with quantum science is evident in this verdant setting. The spiral shape is prominent and can seen in the tall, cone shaped grassed mound that rises several stories above - and reflected beautifully in - a body of curving, still water. Some say the spiraling paths of this mound is a template of the DNA molecu...

Serenity in the Garden is my way to gladden someone's day and to share my wonder at people' s creativity and Nature's beauty. photo by Jan Johnsen Nov. 11, 2012 - I worked in the gardens of Mohonk Mt. House (a hotel) decades ago. Still one of my favorite places! In New Paltz, NY. I took this photo of their unique rustic gazebos that border Mohonk Lake. Nov. 9, 2012 - "Much patience required. VERY steady hands, heartbeat, breathing, one’s entire being.. required." - Michael Grab (shown here with his creation). http://www.gravityglue.com/ Nov. 8, 2012 - Do you know what is missing in this Zen inspired sand garden? a leaf. lying haphazadly atop the sand. ah, so. Nov. 7, 2012 - W hy not a 'poetry wall' garden? this is in Brooklyn, NY. Design by Terrain.. http://www.terrain-nyc.net/ photo by Jan Johnsen Nov. 6, 2012 - Look carefully - this is a photo on a banner affixed to a plain wall - makes it look like a real...

Photo by Jan Johnsen all rights reserved   July 20, 2012 - Several years ago I planted small vining plants at the base of a black railing along some steps... I wanted to soften the look and add some green. I used Dutchmen's Pipe' (Aristolochia macrophylla Zones 5-8). It was named for a Greek named ... Aristolochos in the first century, who had learned from a dream that it was an antidote for snake bites. Aristolochia serpentaria (Virginia Snakeroot) is thus named because the root was used to treat snakebite, as "so offensive to these reptiles, that they not only avoid the places where it grows, but even flee from the traveler who carries a piece of it in his hand". Many species of Aristolochia are food for larvae of swallowtail butterflies as they become unpalatable to most predators by eating the plants. Plant Dutchmen's Pipe for a dense cover, to feed the butterflies and to keep the snakes away!             July 19, 2012 ...

photo by Jens Kolk 'Serenity in the Garden Blog' is the name of my Facebook Page. Each day I post a photo of something garden related...it is an eclectic assortment and I post whatever I think might appeal to other kindred spirits out there. You can click here to go to the site: Serenity in the Garden on Facebook. This is #2 of some photos from June 2012 on my FB page. I am trying to catch up and post them so they will be available to non-Facebook users.  I have a lot more to post! This is dew garden time! Photographer Jens Kolk captured this photo of a ladybug covered in beads of morning dew in his garden: "I went out into the garden with my camera on a cold Sunday morning. The very special light shining just the right way led to to dozens of little sunstars."       Pavers in the lawn create a great pattern - by Peter Walker and Associates, 311 West Broadway, NYC I am planting a mass of CIRCUS coralbells today in a garden...

Sunset website - photo by Andrea Gómez Romero . 'Serenity in the Garden Blog' is the name of my Facebook Page. Each day I post a photo of something that is garden related...it is an eclectic assortment indeed: Flowers, chairs,people,  gardens, artwork, planters.... I post whatever  I think might appeal to other kindred spirits out there. You can click here to go to the site: Serenity in the Garden on Facebook. I have decided to make a post of whatever I post on FB on a weekly basis here in my blog...that way it will be available to all the non-Facebook users out there. I will number the posts ( this is number 1) and will go back in the archive on some posts because I have alot to catch up on. I hope you enjoy these photos and ideas. If you do, please let me know - Thanks!   This flagstone walkway at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, California (a very special valley!) features a Bermuda grass double helix. To create the ...