Day 10 of our advent prize draw gives entrants the opportunity to win a DNA’24 DB26 Bread Knife from Savernake worth £199. Please note you must be over 18 to enter this prize draw.
23.11.2023 - 08:43 / finegardening.com / GPOD Contributor
Kathy Schreurs in Sheldon, Iowa, is sharing her garden with us today. She wrote in right before the change from daylight savings time, and had this to say:
It’s that time again. This weekend we’ll be resetting our clocks, and we’ll be “resetting” this border too. Last week—after a long, slow, frost-free fall (unusual for our Zone 4b Iowa location)—a killing frost and snowfall pushed us toward fall cleanup. This week has been dedicated to removing annuals and cutting back perennials.
Next week we’ll be planting bulbs. I hope I’m not the only gardener who orders tulips in August with a clear mental picture of where each color and variety is going to be placed, and then when planting time arrives looks in puzzlement at the invoice, wondering, “What was I thinking?”
I looked to the photo below, taken last spring (May 12), in hopes that it would help me. (It didn’t. Apparently I’m going mostly with shades of purple for next season!)
But it did inspire me to submit photos of our “path garden,” all taken from the same vantage point, with a few details along the way.
This peony-flowering tulip (Tulipa ‘Charming Beauty’, Zones 3–7) showed up in my bulb order again for 2024. Behind it, to the left, our ‘Sun King’ aralia (Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’, Zones 4–8) is emerging. By midsummer it will be a monster, and impossible to ignore, even in the middle of vibrant annuals. They’re on the right toward the end of the path in the long view.
By June 19 the tulips were gone and the perennials were filling in. The penstemon (Penstemon digitalis, Zones 3–8) and phlox (Phlox‘Opening Act Pink-a-Dot’, Zones 4–8) on the left were playing nicely together, I thought. I deadheaded the phlox later, and it gave back some color on and off all
Day 10 of our advent prize draw gives entrants the opportunity to win a DNA’24 DB26 Bread Knife from Savernake worth £199. Please note you must be over 18 to enter this prize draw.
Our eleventh prize is a Gold Smokebox, worth £105 from Lambton & Jackson.
Day 9 of our Christmas advent prize draw gives you the chance to win WOLF-Garten’s Bypass Loppers worth £119.99.
Hidden behind the door for day 8 of our advent prize draw is a bundle of tools from gardening brand Wilkinson Sword, worth £114.97.
Enter our day 7 prize draw for your chance to win ‘his and hers’ Buckingham wellington boots worth £109.98 from Harbour Lifestyle.
Boasting some of Britain’s most beautiful countryside, the Lake District, in the north-west corner of England, is a draw for anyone with a love of the outdoors. Its hills and mountains, including England’s highest, Scafell Pike at 978m, attract walkers and climbers, while in the valley bottoms, vast lakes, such as Windermere and Ullswater, invite quiet contemplation.
Our sixth advent prize draw gives readers the chance to win a variety of seed mix grab bags from Seedball, worth £105.
In Deep Borders Let You Have It All, Hans Hansen writes, “When I moved to Michigan 13 years ago, I was excited by the endless plant possibilities afforded by my new Zone 6 location. Compared to the secluded 5-acre garden I had left behind in southern Minnesota, however, my newly purchased corner lot surrounded by houses and neighbors felt like a fishbowl.
Our fifth advent prize draw comes with your chance to win a Deluxe Hedgehog House XXL, worth £124.99 from CJ Wildlife.
From unassuming bulbs come some of the brightest and most colourful flowers of all. Sarah Pajwani’s two-acre country garden, St Timothee near Maidenhead in Berkshire, is skilfully planted to provide year-round interest. Bulbs play a key role in her beautiful colour-themed borders.